11175 traffic

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comsec1

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Lots of EAM traffic on 11175. 4:30 eastern

Soso 20 ?
Equalizer

various other stations calling "skymaster skymaster" "equalizer equalizer standing by for traffic"

These stations sound different than the usual broadcasts, They sound like they are originating from a plane.

Radio: TT omni 7
Antenna Wellbrook ala1530
 

brandon

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Thanks for heads up. Very busy indeed. Just heard Apache 11 wkg Skymaster on 11175 pass message of YTOT.
 

Tech792

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I got (2) EAMs over 311.0 (UHF) today which is unusual for my area. Missed the callsign both times. First one was at 1230 hours and again just now at 1749 hours. Sounded like an aircraft.
 

R1VINCE

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Heard the "Skymaster" earlier.

Picking up on a new format/callsign right now.

"OVERDRAFT" calling "MAINSAIL"
giving out 30-40 character messages, then "standing by for traffic" as if "OVERDRAFT" were like a base(i.e. ANDREWS or OFFUT)

Also picking up what sounds like "EQUALIZE" responding to "OVERDRAFT".

Immediately followed by another base with 21 character message in the distance.

Someone also trying to contact "MAINSAIL" inbetween.

Happening now 2300Z
 

DPD1

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Heard Overdraft out here in the west... Sounded like a local airborne. 8992 is a little better than triple 1 right now.
 

Hooligan

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Still heavy actvity at 2350. I don't know jack about this stuff (where's Hooligan?)

NEVER FEAR, HOOLIGAN IS HERE!! :)

It's a major US Strategic Command nuclear command & control exercise called GLOBAL THUNDER, dealing mostly with strategic nuclear forces like bombers & tankers ICBMs, SSBNs, etc, but also command posts, security forces, etc. It should last about a week.

Some of the EAM/FDMs coming from the airborne, ground-mobile & 'secret' bunkers are giving alert & airborne force generation orders to individual bases & wings, so it's a test of how long it takes for the 'scramble' order generated by battlestaff to be converted into a coded Force Direction Message (sounds like an EAM, but slightly different formatting), broadcast out, received/decoded/authenticated by the individual Wing it's meant for, and then for them to set off the klaxon & get the required aircraft airborne. There should be at least one Simulated Electronic Launch Minuteman, or a real ICBM launch from Vandenberg AFB (known as a 'Glory Trip' for the missile combat crew that gets to do it). The planners deliberately try to overload comm circuits & crews to stress them out & see how things actually work.


Back in the early 1980s, these exercises, then run by SAC, were called GLOBAL SHIELD & were really fun to monitor. A 'red force' team would even try to disrupt some communications by jamming (playing 10 second bursts of music -- I remember one time it was CSNY's 'Woodstock').

Anyway, short of an actual nuclear war, this is a great time to stay up late, play hooky from school or work, etc. & play on HF as well as UHF.
 

ridgescan

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Well there it is thank you Hooligan for putting a face on this:) this was cool to monitor-glad to know now. I think I witnessed some of the intentional confusing when a young fellow was reading off a message then I heard a CO in the background say "cancell that" then the radio kid announced "cancell cancell" then started a new message.
 

mancow

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They should ask the "citizenry" to get RF involved. Imagine the hell that would play on the sytem. :eek: Talk about a test!
 

mancow

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Yea man, imagine 20,000 modified FT-897s all out of band with OFs arguing on GHFS about how this would never have been possible if it weren't for those meddling no coder kids. Once the discussion settled down to medical problems they would have to give up and run the system on cell phones.
 
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W2RKJ

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I wonder if it was concerning this from MSNBC news:

NBC News and news services

A former Air Force Minuteman launch officer tells NBC News that 50 nuclear missiles affected by a communication interruption last weekend were "not launchable" during the disruption and that the back-up computer system could not have launched them either.

The assessment by Bruce Blair, who once served as a Minuteman intercontinental ballistic missiles launch control officer, contradicts earlier statement by the Air Force that the missiles were never totally "out of the control" of launch crews and were still launchable. There's no evidence of foul play.
Blair said Wednesday that the communication breakdown was the result of 5 computers going out of synch and needing to be re-synched, a rare occurrence that the Air Force is prepared to deal with using a standard checklist.

Blair said re-synching the computers involves everyone turning off their machines and re-booting, a process that takes about 45 minutes.

"It's kind of hair-raising and delicate but always works," Blair said, calling the computers there "50s'-era-technology."

"So for this short period, the 50 ICBMs were not launchable," by those computers, Blair said, adding, "and the airborne back-up system was not in position to launch them."
 
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comsec1

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I was thinking the same thing with the 50 missiles. I wonder if they had the "CRM-114 discriminator" properly set. one of the voices broadcasting an EAM almost sounded like Slim Pickins.
 

Hooligan

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I heard some APACHE ## aircraft late last night -- they were B-2 bombers.

Bruce Blair was a missileer for a short period of time in I think the 1970s, yes, he's been a national security analyst since then & has written some good books which I have in my collection & have learned from, but I don't think he's an authority on what happened Saturday -- there have been way too many minor & major upgrades since his time in an LCC. The computers aren't 1950s technology. Maybe 1980s or 1990s technology, but not 1950s (do a Google search on "Rapid Execution and Combat Targeting"). You don't want 100% state of the art stuff anyways, because it doesn't have a proven reliability record. His statement that the airborne back-up system wasn't in-position to launch them is kind of a cheap-shot. If the problem had continued, it we were at a higher readiness condition, there could & would have been an E-6B with the Airborne Launch Control System, be it Looking Glass or another E-6B orbiting the area.


Regarding GLOBAL THUNDER (it's kickoff this week was planned months ago) & hundreds of patriotic hams volunteering to jam the EAMs on HF, the reality is that HF/SSB isn't as important in passing nuclear control orders as it used to be, thanks mostly to secure, anti-jam & "survivable" SATCOM systems and Survivable Low Frequency Communication System miniature receive terminals. Minuteman/Peacekeeper ICBM launch control centers used to have a series of hardened HF tx & rx antennas they could raise up -- if one got destroyed during a nuclear attack, they could raise up another. But all but the LCCs designated Squadron CPs got rid of their HF gear by the 1990s.

I used to hear Minuteman LCCs occasionally radio-check each other on 11494USB back in the early & mid-1980s.

Tim
 

ridgescan

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Just heard "Mainsail" calling-but compared to the other day it has been really quiet lately. Still monitoring a bit here-I set the R71 and go about business here but really nothing to report. A lot of times I hear an aircraft unsuccessfully trying to reach Offut or Andrews or right now "Mainsail" and I wish I could call them up and tell them "hey this guy's trying to get you on 11175 right now git your big ears on":D poor guy has been trying this whole text.
 
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