8146 USB-Mexican military logs-morning

[hfdxer]

Hey folks here are some more logs from down south of the border. All in the clear with nice strong signal reaching into the west coast, especially for the gamma designators. Many of the aircraft are audible also. Here are a few early morning logs as I parked myself on this frequency for a bit. All in Spanish. I cant believe how strong these station are. 90% both aircraft and base are readabel at this time of day. happy dxing

2250 calling "gamma 20" @ 1605 UTC. 2250 gave coordinates, indicated Zapopan base ETA 1700 UTC

Alpha Fox Alpha calling "Gamma 20" @ 16:13 UTC gave coordinates and fuel on board

"Gamma 10" calling "Gamma 20". "Gamma 10" indicating 4378 will depart TANGO @17:30 utc.

Alpha Lima Alpha calling "gamma 20" @ 16:30 utc. ALA indicating coordinates and speed

Lima Fox Alpha calling "Gamma 20" with position report @ 16:35 UTC. LFA indicated 15 miles NW of refueling point.

Lima Kilo Yankee with "Gamma 1" @ 16:44 LKY indicated just departed Sinaloa base.

India Alpha India with "Gamma 1" @ 16: 51 UTC. IAI with coordinates and mentioned of Irapuato to intercept low flying aircraft. IAI indicated will call on vhf guard(121.500).

India Kilo India with India Alpha India. IKI indicating to switch to secure channel BRAVO @ 16:56 UTC

"Gamma 20" calling "Gamma 10" @ 17:00. G 20 indicating Union Alpha India will depart @ 1800 UTC.

 

[SCPD]

Thank you for the logs. I added your freq to my rx320 and will let you know if im as lucky as you are with the receiving anything.

 

[hfdxer]

okay let me know if you hear anthing up there in New York. I have monitored most of the action from 1630 UTC and on. This frequency is used practically 24 hours. All comms are in Spanish and since I understand Spanish well I understand what they are saying. I do find it ineresting though that these comms are not secured giving the fact that there is tension in Mexico with drug dealers as you probably are aware. I'm trying to see how to record to upload. Maybe I'll upload a video on you tube.

 

[SCPD]

Take the line out of your eton e1 and run it to the line in of your pc. Setup the line to record and put it at about 50% then go and download the newest version of audacity from here then select your inputs in the program to line in and your good to go

Audacity: Free Audio Editor and Recorder

if you need more help let me know with the recording part

 

[SCPD]

So far nothing heard on my end. Will let know if i ever do catch the Mexican comms

 

[SCPD]

Actually still nothing on my end here in NY. Will keep trying

 

[hfdxer]

15:00-16:00 UTC
Date: 12/12/10
Gamma 10 with various aircraft checking in. Again same routine with coordinates and fuel on board. One aircraft mentions Altamirano base flight of reconnasance.

 

[hfdxer]

Time: 1800-1900 UTC
Gamma 20 and Gamma 10 checking in with various aircraft. Aircrafts give coordinates. Lots of activity on this frequency today. Signal much better than at 1600 utc time frame.

 

[hfdxer]

Time: 19:10 UTC
alpha lima alpha with Gamma 10. ALA indicating will land ETA in 35 minutes to Zapopan base. 35 pound of fuel on board.

 

[hfdxer]

Time: 2300-2320 UTC
date: 12/12/10
Gamma 20 with Zorro. Zorro gave coordinates and indicated eta is 35 minutes from base.
Gamma 10 working Alpha Fox Alpha. Alpha Fox Alpha indicated 30 miles north of Chihuahua VOR.
Lima India Lima working Gamma 10. Lima India Lima indicates beginning of reconnasance flight.
Gamma 10 working 4276. 4276 gave coordinates and indicated nothing out of ordinary. 4276 mentions 40 north of "Nayarit". Reports 40 lbs of fuel on board.

Gamma 20 working Gamma 10. Gamma 20 indicates 3832 will depart in 20 minutes.

 

[brandon]

I picked up some comms on this freq too.
Here is the audio if you wanted to listen. It might be same from your log
8146_Mexican_Military.mp3

 

[hfdxer]

Yes, thats exactly what I have been hearing!!!. Good to hear that someone else is catching this stuff. On the weekends this frequency is extremely active. Nice catch and recording!!!

 

[hfdxer]

Time: 20:19 UTC
Same format gamma 20 with various aircraft. Same routine with coordinates and fuel on board info
In this location Gamma 20 is strong as usual.

 

[Hooligan]

I do find it ineresting though that these comms are not secured giving the fact that there is tension in Mexico with drug dealers as you probably are aware.

Well, not all US military or Department of Homeland Security comms on HF, VHF/UHF are secured either.

Seems like the net is mostly just used for flight-following purposes, and any operational comms are taking place on other nets (which may or may not be secured). HFDX'er did log comms of a station switching to a "secure" channel.


Sometimes, a good operational security posture is better than just using encryption, as encryption gives a false sense of security unless you really have & enforce crypto/comsec procedures. In a place as corrupt & inept as Mexico, simply limiting the type of info passed over the radio can be safer than having & using encryption and thus passing classified traffic which is monitored on the net either by the bad guys directly, thanks to a stolen radio with crypto, or by a military member working for the cartel.

 

[hfdxer]

Very good point made by Hooligan. Yes it does seem to be a daily net with mostly aircraft coordinates and nothing really of high security. I really enjoy listening to the aircrafts transmission and at my location they really sound loud and clear. Happy dxing to all

 

[hfdxer]

Time: 1700-1800 UTC
date: 12/29/10
Freq: 8.146 USB
Gamma 20 and Gamma 10 checking in with various aircraft. Usual comms which involve coordinates of aircraft and fuel on board. Spanish used. Position reports given using phonetics. As usuall base station have a strong signal into the west coast. Many aircraft also readable during this time frame.

 

[Hooligan]

Time: 2300-2320 UTC
date: 12/12/10

Gamma 10 working 4276. 4276 gave coordinates and indicated nothing out of ordinary. 4276 mentions 40 north of "Nayarit". Reports 40 lbs of fuel on board.

I just noticed this info about the 40lbs of fuel aboard. Since the plane hadn't declared an IFE, 40lbs of fuel (are your sure it was 40lbs, and not 40 gallons??) aboard & ops-normal means it's a pretty small aircraft. Mexican military does have some small ones, like Cessna 182s, 210s, & Pilatus PC-7s. Some of the numeric IDs used by aircraft are probably tailcodes, so between determining aircraft type, patrol areas (inland implies Army or Air Force, coastal or off-shore implies Navy), and trying to check tail #s, this communications intelligence can be used to ID exactly which branch of the Mexican military is on 8146, and then future COMINT can help determine where the GAMMA ## bases are.


Nayarit is a small Mexican state located along the central west coast of Mexico. There's no city in that state called Nayarit, so saying they're "40 N of Nayarit" is a pretty poor flight-following report for them to pass.


Anyway, keep these great logs coming, and we should quickly figure out exactly who/what they are. I'll tune-in just to get a feel for what sort of signal strengths I get, but since I moved from Mexifornia I've been trying to forget Spanish.

 

[Hooligan]

Time: 19:10 UTC
alpha lima alpha with Gamma 10. ALA indicating will land ETA in 35 minutes to Zapopan base. 35 pound of fuel on board.

Zapopan is a Mexican Air Force Base that does operate several small fixed-wing (for utility/patrol & training use) models where 35lbs of fuel aboard wouldn't be unusual.

 

[hfdxer]

Gamma 20 with Gamma 10 and many aircraft checking in. Usual cordinates and fuel on board given. All with very strong signals into the west coast. Propagation must be good today at 16:19 UTC. One aircraft gave postion report of 31 46 North 115 West. Lots of activity on this frequency this early morning

 

[hfdxer]

Hoolingan has a great idea. Im sure we can figure it out giving it some time. It seems that these transmissions are being received in the west coast due to location and propagation. Today I monitored the following:
Lima Lima Sierra checking in with Gamma 21
LLS indicated coordinates of 30 47 North(pilot said "Nectar") 110 west(the pilot said "whiskey") Pilot mentioned that he is on reconosance flight

Lima Kilo Union checking in with Gamma 20. LKU gave coordinates as follows: 27 59 North 102 west.

Today I discovered that Gamma 20 is located in Caborca in the state of Sonora. Bravo Bravo Fox was calling Caborca when Gamma 20 responded confirming the Caborca location.

I forgot to mention that some of the transmission have a roger beep, but does not sound like a cb roger beep, it has a different tone

I believe the this is the FAM-Fuerza Aerea Mexicana(Mexican Air Force)
----more to come as the mistery unfolds------