What was it??

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ridgescan

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I was tuning the R-75 and came upon 6740KHZ-a female voice rambling phonetics with a few numbers at about 7:30 PDT, and after 3-4 mins she unkeyed . Close by was a military type voice synthesized weather outlook on USB. Spy station or military code stuff? Anyone hear that before? It sure was eerie-remember that dwarf lady in Poltergeist saying "go into the light-into the light..." This sounded just like her-
 

n4yek

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I have heard these stations for years on hf, best answer I can give you is it is probably coded transmissions for operatives in the field somewhere.
 

CharlesDom

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I hear this all of the time, it's out of Andrews AFB. I can only guess that it's some type of authentication system but not exactly sure. Maybe someone else knows the answer.
 

rdale

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My guess is that if they "KNOW" the answer - they won't be posting it here.
 

OpSec

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There is a thread or thirty on here about those numbers stations and coded one-way transmissions...search function is your friend, as I believe it's been a while since the last active thread.
 

ka3jjz

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The correct freq is 6739; this is a HF-GCS frequency, and is controlled out of (not necessarily always sent from) Andrews. These are Emergency Action Messages or EAMs. This article on the MT website, though dated, does give a brief description of these...

http://www.monitoringtimes.com/html/eam.html

73 Mike
 

ridgescan

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The Female voice is active on 6739 Khz now as I write.
Thats the one:) Intriguing!
The correct freq is 6739; this is a HF-GCS frequency, and is controlled out of (not necessarily always sent from) Andrews. These are Emergency Action Messages or EAMs. This article on the MT website, though dated, does give a brief description of these...

http://www.monitoringtimes.com/html/eam.html

73 Mike
Thank you Mike:) so they are doing drills I suppose. Neat stuff for sure! That link has great info to put to use! Much appreciated.

thanks for all the replies here guys:)
 

pathalogical

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I hear this all of the time, it's out of Andrews AFB. I can only guess that it's some type of authentication system but not exactly sure. Maybe someone else knows the answer.
I've heard a few as well, both on 8992 and 11175. The other night was addressing SKYKING. Are EAMs live transmissions or pre-recorded ?
 

nexus

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I've heard a few as well, both on 8992 and 11175. The other night was addressing SKYKING. Are EAMs live transmissions or pre-recorded ?


SKYKING is a codeword for a special order EAM. Usually for the deployment or launch orders for Nuclear weapons. The receiving stations are usually ICBM Launch Control Facilities across the U.S. and probably B-52 Standby Bombers. A little bit about GCHFS and EAMs.

Oh and those are not pre-recorded. That is a LIVE REAL-TIME human you're hearing broadcast that message, and on the other end of it are live real-time humans decoding the message and then going into a secure lockbox to authenticate the code and follow a set of launch instructions. PRAY that one day you don't hear an ACTUAL non-exercise message.

"The Global HF System (GHFS) was stated by the US Air Force in June of
1992. This system was created by consolidating several other USAF HF
networks, including the Strategic Air Command "Giant Talk" system. The
goal of the system was to develope a worldwide HF network for
providing Command & Control HF communictions to all authorized DOD
aircraft and ground stations.

When you hear an aircraft or any stations calling "MAINSAIL" on any of
the GHFS frequencies this is a "general" call for any ground station
to answer and provided the calling stations with what ever he needs.
Any GHFS ground station will respond to the call "MAINSAIL". Depending
on the service required, the station bay request the aircraft to
change to a discrete frequency for improved and extended service.

EAM's or Emergency Action Message. Another very important aspect of
the GHFS is the transmission of EAM's. EAM's are the coded military
orders or bulletins that have the highest priority. When EAM's are
broadcast, ALL other users of the system are to standby. If you hear a
voice giving a long series of letters phonically this is an EAM.

SKYKING messages are special EAM's. These presumably could be the
nuclear go/no-go codes. There was a higher than normal number of EAM's
and SKYKING messages being transmitted after the attackes of 9/11/01.
Urgent SKYKING messages are repeated three or four times instead of
the usual two. SKYKING is a group callsign, meaning "Any this net."
"Do not answer" is the standard procedure ofr self-authenticating
broadcasts, meaning that recipients don't need to give away their
positions or existence by challenging the orders. While tuned to any
of the GHFS frequncies and hear "SKYKING SKYKING Do not answer" you
can bet you're hearing a very important, highest priority, and heavily
encrypted message!"
http://www.scanaustralia.bigpondhosting.com/military/GHFS.htm
 

lanbergld

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Andrews AFB, 6739 kHz. They also give coded messages on 4724 kHz & 8992 kHz. The weather you heard was the Canadian Military on 6754 kHz. (Forgive me if someone's already answered. Didn't have time to read through all the replies here).

Larry Lanberg
Richmond VA
 

Hooligan

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Minuteman Missile Alert Facilities stopped *routine* monitoring of HF for EAMs well over a decade ago, thanks to numerous other robust/survivable comm systems to pass the Emergency War Orders via EAM. With the Minuteman program, only the MAF/LCF designated as the Squadron COmmand Post had a 'soft' HF antenna permanently installed. Other sites would raise one of their several hardened HF receive antennas during exercises or an enhanced state of alert, and only raising one of the separate hardened HF transmit antennas when necessary. "SILO" crews (Minuteman Launch Facilities) don't have HF. Crews are just there occasionally for maintenance/security, but the LFs do have hardened UHF antennas for the Airborne Launch Control System.

SKYKING is a general reference for any Strategic integrated Operational Plan asset, instructing them to stand-by to copy a message. The messages come in a very specific format, and are known as Emergency Action Messages. Most EAMs sent are completely routine (they've been sent out many times a day over many different comm systems for decades), but a properly decoded & authenticated EAM *could* end up being an Emergency War Order message which causes the SIOP forces to assume enhanced operational or wartime status. The only recorded voice EAM broadcasts I'm aware of are those that would have been a part of the Emergency Rocket Communication System, turning some Blue Scout & later Minuteman II payloads into an EAM (EWO) broadcasting facility in space.

It's true that Andrews is the HF-GCS Master Station, but the network is designed so that some high-priority facilities, just as the Strategic Command Underground Command Center, can do a 'ruthless pre-emption' & seize HF-GCS transmitter access, instead of the normal EAM broadcasts made by HF-GCS operators at Andrews, who receive the EAMs via Defense Message System terminals & other means.


Some of the coded broadcasts giving out sound similar to EAMs (same phonetic alphabet...), but are actually known as FDMs -- Force Direction Messages. They're not targetted towards the entire SIOP triad, and are of a lower precedence than EAMs. That great, but highly dated 'First Strike" video on Youtube gives an example of this when they mention a "positive control launch" of the B-52s & KC-135s.


Now that I've rambled on about all that, I'm still not clear whether the original poster heard an EAM/FDM on 6739USB, or if it was a 'numbers' broadcast on AM/DSB, as I think in the distant past I've heard those usually linked to the Mossad around that same freq.
 

ka3jjz

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While it's certainly possible it was a numbers station, I have yet to see one that is reported on a GCS frequency (no reason why it couldn't, however). If the original reporter had reported the preamble (usually the first part of the message) or the end of the message (GCS stations will usually say something like 'Andrews out' at the end) that would pretty much be the way to tell....73 Mike
 

ridgescan

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While it's certainly possible it was a numbers station, I have yet to see one that is reported on a GCS frequency (no reason why it couldn't, however). If the original reporter had reported the preamble (usually the first part of the message) or the end of the message (GCS stations will usually say something like 'Andrews out' at the end) that would pretty much be the way to tell....73 Mike
Hey Mike-I came upon it in progress, caught a few minutes of her announcing like "zulu..zulu..yankee..3..4..alpha..papa..1..9..foxtrot....." then the station unkeyed. No signoff.
 

poltergeisty

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Or this one right here... About 5 minutes into the video you see the SILO crew at a Launch Control Facility receive a SKYKING message over HF. And then about 7:55 min into the video it comes back to them receiving the message and preparing to launch.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlPEBROvR9w&feature=related


Now that's an oldie!

Used to live in ND myself. In fact, Minot was the grocery run once a week. :lol: My grandfather poured concrete for a lot of those silos. We lived no more than 5 miles from one. Out in the middle of no where you think as a kid you are immune to the "evil empire" of the nineteen eighties, but nope, as I learned, I was far from it. :lol:

I think of that scene in Terminator three with the missiles. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oWrmosittYk
 
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nexus

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Hooligan where do you get all of your knowledge from? heh heh..

the really cool thing about this place is that most of the time you'll find someone with the answer.
 
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