15 April 1999
Here is an up to the minute listing of active utility frequencies on H.F. which I have compiled from various sources earlier today. I have also included some stories of general interest relating to the Kosovo situation. Good listening!
Sheldon Harvey
prepared by Sheldon Harvey, President, Canadian Int. DX Club
TEL: +1-450-671-3773 FAX: +1-450-671-3773
E-mail: ve2shw@yahoo.com
IMPORTANT: None of this information is classified. It is public knowledge and has been in print for years. Anything sensitive on HF would be encrypted. It should be noted though that rebroadcast, retransmission or verbatim publication of the contents of communications on any of these frequencies is strictly prohibited.
All frequencies given are H.F.(high frequency shortwave, in kiloHertz) and all are USB (upper sideband mode). Some frequencies listed have been monitored with traffic; others are taken from published frequency lists as being allocated for use.
SOURCES: Sheldon Harvey, Greenfield Park, Quebec; Glenn Hauser, Enid, Oklahoma; Bob Thomas, Connecticut, USA; Simon Denneen, Sydney, Australia; Graham Tanner, London, UK; Thomas Sundstrom, Vineland, New Jersey; Larry Van Horn, of Monitoring Times magazine, Brasstown, North Carolina.
2962 - Operation Allied Force 3007 3178 - NATO - Bookshelf Network 3900 - NATO - E-3 AWACS Network 3930 4519 - U.S. Air Force EC-130s and Bookshelf Network 4542 4720 4724 - U.S.A.F. GHFS - Global High Frequency Service 4742 - Royal Air Force 4758 5218 - NATO - Bookshelf Network 5325 5691 5717 - CANFORCE - Canadian Forces 5763.5 - NATO - Bookshelf Network 6628 - Operation Allied Force 6683 6693 - U.S. Navy - Voice Co-ordination- Adriatic Task Force 6694 - CANFORCE - Canadian Forces 6695 6697 - Naval High Command 6700 6706 - CANFORCE - Canadian Forces 6712 - French Air Force - Callsign "Circus Vert" & USAF 6728 - U.S.A.F. AWACS 6739 - U.S.A.F. GHFS - Global High Frequency Service 6745 - CANFORCE - Canadian Forces 6754 6761 - U.S.A.F. - Primary Air Refueling channel 6762 6773 6865 - NATO - Bookshelf Network 6912 6932.5 - NATO - Bookshelf Network 6959 6993 6996 7831 8046 - NATO - Bookshelf Network 8087 - NATO - Bookshelf Network 8776 8825 - Operation Allied Force 8921 8968 - U.S.A.F. GHFS - Global High Frequency Service 8971 8979 8980 8982 - U.S. Navy - Adriatic Task Force 8989 - CANFORCE - Canadian Forces 8992 - U.S.A.F. GHFS - Global High Frequency Service 9007 - CANFORCE - Canadian Forces 9016 - U.S.A.F. 9023 - U.S.A.F. 9027 9031 - Royal Air Force 9037 - U.S.A.F. 9118.5 - NATO - Bookshelf Network 9120 9260 - NATO - Bookshelf Network 9269 10175 10204 - U.S.A.F. GHFS - Global High Frequency Service 10315 - NATO - Naval Command Network 10780 10915 - Task Force Hawk - Code Name JAGO (a) see below 11140 - Operation Allied Force 11173 - NATO - Bookshelf Network 11175 - U.S.A.F. GHFS - Global High Frequency Service 11220 11228 11232 - CANFORCE - Canadian Forces 11239 11243 - Flight Watch Weather 11244 11245 11267 - Naval High Command 11270 11271 11288 11300 - International Air Traffic Control (b) see below 11443 11460 13200 - U.S.A.F. GHFS - Global High Frequency Service 13204 13243 13257 - CANFORCE - Canadian Forces 13354 - Operation Allied Force 13458 - Raven Operations - (Frankfurt/Rhein-Main) Tanker aircraft 13907 15016 - U.S.A.F. GHFS - Global High Frequency Service 15031 - CANFORCE - Canadian Forces 15038 - U.S.A.F. 15048 - NATO - Bookshelf Network 15097 16442.4 - NATO - Naval Hotel Tracking Network 16444 17976 17996.5
Notes:
(a)*10915- HOT FREQUENCY! Air Lift for Task Force Hawk - C-17 planes carrying the first elements of support deployment of Army Apache helicopters to Albania. Task Force Hawk will place 2,000 soliders on the ground in Albania. They will support 24 AH-64 Apache attack helicopters, along with other support helicopters such as Blackhawks and Chinooks. Code name "JAGO" being used frequently.
(b)*11300- HOT FREQUENCY! Serbian fighters, excited Americans(?) in English. This is an international ATC (air traffic control) frequency.
VIA: Voice of America, BBC Monitoring and Agence France Press:
The United States Army's Commando Solo Hercules psychological warfare aircraft is in the air, and on the air, near Serbia. Similar aircraft were used in Kuwait, Haiti, Panama and Grenada. The aircraft is transmitting radio programmes on AM and FM, plus a service on television compatible with Yugoslavian TV sets, on Channel 21. The audio is that of the radio service, and the video consists of various visuals and slides, including the NATO insignia in the lower left-hand corner.
The airborne service, calling itself the Allied Voice Radio and Television, also announces radio frequencies of 1003 kHz AM and 87.9 MHzand 106.4 FM. Reports from Ivan Biuklija in eastern Croatia indicate the service is being heard reasonably well. The announcers are not native Serbian speakers.
BBC Monitoring Services cite Bosnian Serb news agency SRNA, saying that the United Voice of NATO TV service was observed. The agency reports that the news was presented in poor Serbian and that the cyrillic alphabet is used for the captions.
It was also reported that a NATO aircraft above the northern edge of Yugoslavia dropped 2.3 million leaflets, to be carried by the wind into Yugoslavia.
There are two new Serbian propaganda websites now active. They are from the Belgrade Academic Association for Equal Rights in the World. The sites are: www.aic.org.yu and www.barw.org.yu.
Anyone cruising the shortwave spectrum over the past 30 to 40 years has certainly come upon one of these mysterious transmissions. Among the shortwave listeners, they have come to be known as "the Spy Numbers Stations"; either a male or female voice, reading out long strings of numbers or alpha-numeric messages, usually in either English or Spanish, but occasionally other languages. It is believed that these are coded intelligence messages, transmitted from various locations around the world, to agents in the field, most likely CIA, Mossad, etc. Whenever conflicts arise, the number of these types of transmissions increases dramatically. This theory holds true with the Kosovo crisis. Spy number transmissions have been reported in recent days on the following frequencies:
8300, 9130, 9270, 9331, 10446, 11107, 11273, 11565, 12207, 13407, 14487, 14890 kiloHertz.
Finally, Radio Yugoslavia shortwave transmissions to North America in English continue to be heard at excellent levels at 8 PM Eastern and again at 12:30 AM Eastern, both on 9580 kHz. Each transmission is 30 minutes long.
If you have any questions on any of this information, or if you have other material to add, please contact me. Keep checking the Canadian International DX Club Website (www.anarc.org/cidx/)for updates, frequency lists, and other related information.
Good listening,
Sheldon Harvey
President, CIDX
Greenfield Park, Quebec
Webmaster's note:
For additional information, see also:
- the April issue of the Radio H.F. Internet Newsletter, (www.anarc.org/cidx/radiohf/V1n3Apr99.html), for lots of websites related to this crisis.
- the CIDX Special Feature #3, 29 March 1999, "Monitoring Activities in Yugoslavia" for frequencies of shortwave broadcasts by national broadcasters.
- Larry Van Horn and Monitoring Times magazine, who provided some of the information on this page, also have a page on the Balkan Crisis (www.grove-ent.com/balkanscrisis.html).
Copyright © 1999 Sheldon Harvey and Canadian International DX Club, all rights reserved.
Last modified, 1945 UTC, 16 April 1999.