$99$99$149

SAVE$50 on the

M1 & 30 00 A+

Mc o Test @QU,prnent inP" OMHZ _ l AG Hr-s es es 400 l' e' Pass tnrougn lechnology ' equ"es onlyone tom pori

$349 SAVESl00

e::.-....c:ic.......~ . -- - -

.....""''''''-~-.- . . ""

-

$299 mciueesSoftware

OPTOTRAKKER

-HIgh sceee triple conversion GAE eecewee. T' aCk MOlorola 0100 . 500, BOO. ana 900 MHI sys tems-n eeece CTeSS, DCS. LTR. OTMF, and Motorola talk group lOs-Scan I' unkl!'d a..a COOIIen!lona l l ,equenoes somullaneousJyRo:>.K I,on Tune ...,Itl Seoul F req ue ncy n eccecer Soll ....are Con t.OIIe

Vol. 17, No. 10 .. Odober 1998

CONTENTS

1IJe WYFR Story...... 12By Hans Johnson

Cover Story

Unlocking the Seaetson ShortwaveRadio

The largest private shortwave station in theUnited States. WYFR , is ce lebrating its 25th yearof broadcasting, but the station's prior history goesback several incarnations-as experimental sta-tion WIXAL; World Radio University for theListener (WRUL), which was taken over by the ..US government durin g WWII ; and as commercialstation WNYW.

Cryptography - Languageof Spies 18ByDan Veeneman

Cryptograph y is the science of secure communications in thepresence of adversaries, and it can be as simple or as complicatedas you want to make it. The author walks you through a simple, butvery effective example. Encryption is also a very hot issue forbusiness, law enforcement, and Internet users, andCongress is inthe middle of the controversy.

Reviews:

Now it Can be Told -and Toured 22

The reviews you 've been waiting for: Parnass credits the AORAR8200 with flexibility , operational complexity, and richness of fea-tures (p.87): Magne says the brand new Sa ngea n ATS 404 is flexible totune and has a nice roster of features (p,88). Ham Bands columnist

Kerschner is smitten with the Kenwood VC-Hlslow scan TV- small, self-contained, and reason-ably inexpensive (p.70). Elliott finds the KenwoodFreeTalk FRS radios great for beginners (p.7 1).Donnell gives the Radio Max scanner controlsoftware program a successful workout (p.S5), andCatalano does the hardware connections to test the new,external, PC-based WiNRADiO WR1SOOe (p.90).

ByJesse Finkelstein

"Project Greek Island" is a relic of the ColdWar - a giant complex hidden underneath thefive-star Greenbrier Resort and intended to housethe entire U.S. Congress in the event of a nuclearwar. Legislation is pending to tum it into a casino.

~ByLarry Va? Horn

Bleep, bleep, bleep ... bra-a-a-ap ... tweedle-deedle-deeet It'senough to scare off any beginner toshortwave listening, but most ofthese noises are anything but"spooky." I!'s thes ound of the ev-eryday work world using the effi-ciency of digital communicationsto carry out its business.

What kind of business is trans-acted on shortwave radio? Whatkinds of digital modes are these?Larry Van Horn helps to demystifymany of themostcommonmodes,andsuggestsfrequencieswhereyoucan tune them in and say "Oh-h, sothat' s what that sound is!" Startspage 8.

To represent our focu s on"spooks," encryption, and otherweird and wonderful signals to befound onyour radio,ourcoverwasspecially designed by Ron Brown ,PhotoGraphics, copyright: "

IEDITORIAL STAF F Correspondence to columnists mey be moiled c/o MonltoflngI TImes, ony request for 0 reply should include an SASE.

NOTE: The Grove Enterp rises inte rnet add ress ha s changed. To find all your favo rite pages fo llow thelinb from www.grove .ne tor try the new address www.q rc ve -e nt.cc rn 10 find the Mon ito ring Timesweb pages.

Frequency Manager . .... Gayle Von Horn gayle@grove.netFrequency Mon itors .... .... Da vid Da tko , Mark J. FineProg ram Manoger . .. Jim FrimmeJ.. . frimmeJ@sta r telegra m.comAme rica n Bandscon . . Do ug Smith, W 9WI w9wi @bellsouth.netAnd More! . . Jock Elliott KB2GOM Iigh tkeep er@sprintmai l.comAntenna Topics W. Clem Small, KR6A .. c1emsmal@bilterroot.netBeginner' s Corne r T.J. Are y, WB2GHA . tja rey @home .comBelow 500 kHz . .. Kevin Ca rey, WB2QMY Iowba nd@ga lewa y.ne tCompute rs an d Radio John Ca ta lono i- ca ta lano@conk ne l.comDigital Digest .. .. Bob Evans revan s@tel a1.netExpe rime nter's Wks hp Bill Cheek bcheek@san .rr .comFedera l File .. . .. John Fulford, WA 4VPY . .. JO HNF04 13@ao l.comK.I.S. Rad io Richard Arla nd , K7SZ k7sz @juno .ne tMegne Tests .. .. La wren ce MagneMilcom .. .. Lo rry Von Horn N5FPW Ior ry@grove .netO n the Hom Band s . . .. Ike Kersch ner , N3 lKO uter limits. . Geo rge Zeller Ge orge .Ze ller@acclink. comPCS Front line Don Veenemcn dan @decode.comPlane Talk .. .... Jean Baker , KI N9DDProgramm ing Spotlight John Figliozzi , KC2BPU jfiglio l @nycop.rr.comPropagation . . Ja cqu es d' Avig non mon itor@ra c .coQSL Corner .. .. Gayle Van Horn ga yle@grove .netSca nning Equipment .. .. Bob Pcmoss. AJ9SSca nning Report Richa rd Barne ll Sca nMas ter @aol.comSW Broadcasting G lenn Hau se r ghauser@hotma il.comSW Broadcast Logs Ga yle Von Hc m .. .. gayle@grove .ne tUtility World Hugh Stegmo n, NV6H driver B@nelcom.comWashington W hispers .... Fred Maio , W5Y I fma ia@internetMCI.com

On the Ha m Bands .."." ."""""".""" 70The Kenwaod VC-H1

And More! .... ..... ...... .... ........ ............ 71Kenwaod's Easy-to-Use FreeTalk

Antenna Tapics ..... ...... .. ..... ." .".".".. 72Same Hard-to-Spy Antennas

Experimenters Warkshop ""."""".""" 74Automafic NiCd CellDischarger

PeS Frant Line 76Cellular Cryptography and GSM

Federal File .... .......... ......" ..".." "."" 78FBI to Obtain New Radio System

Plane Talk " ....." ......."""""."_". ",,. 80Coming to Terms with Radar

What's New ..... ......... .........."" .""".. 82Review " ."" ."."" " " ."""" .""" ,_"." " " . B5

Future Scanning Systems' Radio MaxScanning Equipment 86

AORAR8200 ScannerMagne Tests " " ."" 88

Sangean ATS 404 Economy PortableCamputers & Radio .." 90

First look at WinRadio 's WR1500eLetters ."""."""" ".".",,,,, ,, 9 2Stack Exchange .." " .." 94Closing Comments ._ 96

legisla tors above the law?

I~EPARTMENTS

Washington Whispers .................." ."", 4In /he Data Stream

Communications .................................. 6Scanning Repa rt .... ........ ....... .......... .... 26

Random ScanningUtility World ..."""" .......... ..." .."".... 30

Spook Radio: Trick or Treat'Digital Digest " " " " " " ."",,, 33

w ho Uses Digital Modes?Global Forum ........ .... .... ........... .... .. ." 34

Two Views on Clean SignalsQSL Repart " " " ." ......... ................. .." . 38

An unbeatable OX seasonEnglish Lang SW Guide .""". 39Propaga tion Conditions " ....." ." ..._.. 60

Ionospheric ModificationProgramming Spadight ""...." ."" 6 1

Shortwave as a Learning ExperienceBeginner' s Corner "."."."."""""" 62

"Spooky" Radio listeningAskBab """ .." " " . 64

l isten and See your Infrared ControlBelow 500 kHz 66

Better BeginningsAmerican Bandscan .." ." "" " " 67

The Expanded-Band TimesOuter Limits "" 68

WREC Retires From Broadcasting

MONITORING TIMESIISSN, 08895341;( PC IPN Sa les Agree -ment # 12534921ispublished month y byGrove Enterprises , lnc.,Bra sstown, NorthCa rolina , USA.

P u b lis h e rBob Grove , W 8JHDbgrove@grove.ne t

Disclaimer:W hile Monitoring Times ma kes o n effort toe nsu re the info rma tio n it publ ishes is accu-rate, it ca nno t be held liable fo r the co nte nts.The reader assu mes a ny risk fo r perfo rmingmo difi ca tio n or constructio n p ro jects pub-lished in Monitoring Times. Opi nio n orco nclusio ns e xpresse d a re no t necessari lythe view of Monitoring Times or G roveEnterprises . Unsolicited ma nusc rip ts a reaccepted . SAS E ifma te ria l is to be return e d .

O w nersBob a nd Judy Grove

judy@grove.net

A ss ista n t Ed itorLor ry Von Horn, NSFPW

Subscription Roles: $23.95 in US; $3 6 .50Ca nada; and $55.45 foreign elsewhere, USfund s. lo bel indicates la st issue of subscription. Seepage 95 for subscription infonn ation.

Address' P.o. Box 98, 7540Highway 64 Wes l,8rosslown, NC28902-0098

Telephone: 1828) 837-9200Fax: 1828}837-2216 124 hours}Internel Address: web: www.grove-ent.com

or e-mcil: mt@grove.nefEditorial a-moil: mfedifor@grove.nefSubscriptions: order@grove.nef

Copyright 1998. Periodica ls postage paida t Brasstown , Ne, and a dditio na l moil ingoffices. short exce rpts may be reprintedwi th appropria te credi t. Complete articlesmay not be reproduce d witho ut permiss ion .

Art DirectorBelindo McDonald

Advertising Sv cs .Beth Leinbach

(8 28) 389-400 7belh@grove.nel

Pos tmaster:Send add res s cha nges to MoniforingTimes,P.O . Box 98, Bra sstown, NC 28902-0098 .

Man agin g Ed itorRache l Bau ghn , KE40PD

mted ito r@grove.net

2 MON ITORING TIMES Oclober ' 998

,.

CALL FOR MOREINFO & PR ICING

HS200RELM

200 Channels.10 Banks.

13 Bands From26-960MHz. includesCB and Airc raft

PUCTCSS andDPU DCS Include d.

$199.95UPS Included

~

~ ..,.. :; ~:~:, . 'If." 1:I1:1 P II l:! GI I ... e er e e c e

GPSJII

GPS12...$149.95 Street Pilot...$549.95GPS I I Plus...$249.95Ca ll For Accessorie s

~!!!!!!!'ll . 52040MHz "EW! AM. NFM, WFM.

1~1iiI SS8 . GW. Alph a-Num eric. Comp uter Programmable

$239.95 UPS IncludedBase/Mobile Scanner

200 Chan nels. 10 Banks 12 Bands From 29 960MHz

(Excluding Cellular) PUCTCSS and DPUDCS Alph anum eric Display Fast Scan (100 Ch. Per secon d)

MS200

GPSIII $369.95UPS Included

GPS11ICombines a GlobalPosition Systems(GPS) Receiver withan Electronic Map. ItNot Only Shows Youthe l ay of Land ButAlso Just Where You Stand

$199.00~ . ~" " ... , ".~ .: . '

.--

$219.95UPS

/ncluded

World 's SmalfestDuafBand

Amateur Handheld

Handheld"TrunkTracker "

Wide-Band Receive From76-999MHz. CTCS S/DCS

Alphanumeric, Display. 500mW Power Output

1 Watt w/External Power Call For More Info

VX1R

The Q7A is a 1Ie...,Wideband RX Scanner. ..!it ....30130 9.995 MHz(Less Cellular), withCTCSS and a DualbancHam Radio Allin OneI

Triple Conversion. CTCSS Tone Scan. 200 Memories. Superior Audio. 300Mw TX Power on 2M

and 70cm Ham Bands . Size: 2.3"(W) x

3.75"(H) X l1"(D).AM/FMiWFM MORE!

CommunicationsReceiver

Wideband. All ModeReceive From 0,1to 2000 MHz,

Many FeaturesSimi lar to IC-Rl 0

CALL.. CALL CALL

CALL

YAESU~---~.~..

Receive: 76200MHz.300-540MHz590-999MHzcellu lar blocked

Transrmt: 144-148MHz430450MHz

AM Airc raft ReceiveDigita l Code d SquelchHigh Speed Scan ning112 Memory Chann elsMuch, Much More'

ICFSCI(Not Computer Programmable,

No CDRom)259.95

Wideband, AllMode ReceiveCapability From100kHz to1300 MHz.

1000 MemoryChannels Witha-CharacterAlphanumericNames.Many Other

Features !

I O-Meter29502970 ..2990...Northstar

TEKK PRO-SPORTTF-461-FRS 74 Chann els ... Each $69.95

pa ir for $129.95Cherokee CBCBS-l 000 AMlSSB Base CALLCBS500 AM aasc.. CALLCMlO AM Mobile CALLAH-2i Walkie ,.. . CALLAH100 AM SSB Walkie CALLFR465 Family Radio CALL

CALL FOR ALL CB EQUIPMENT

$319.95

,

SONYICF2010 $349.95 + $7 UPSICFSWn .. ..$469,95 + $7 UPSICF-7600G $169.95 + $6 UPSICF-7600GS .$234.95 + $7 UPSICF-SW1000TS . ., $469.95 + $7 UPSICF-SW100S $369.95 . $7 UPSICFSW55... 534995 + $7 UPS

Drake Short wave RadiosRBA.. $999.95. $14 UPSRBB (new) .. $1159.95+$14 UPSSW8... $779,95 + $10 UPSSW2... .$489 95 . $7 UPSSWI . ..,,$199,95 . $7 UPS

CommunicationsReceiver For Computer Covers .0 1-1300MHz All Mode WFM . FM,

AM. SSB , CW Employs Band -Tracking

RF Filters Connects to Your PC

Externall

14 Chann el Digital CodedFRS Two-Way Radio.

No Licen se Required. Weather Resis tant. 500MW Output Powerzz Mile Range. DCS Digital Coded Squelch.

"..:.,,:,,:..:.=..,,': ' . ASRTS - AAU, to Ryang ewThransposnd, ,ystem erts au en a irm ar y -

Prog rammed VXF-1 is Out of Range Full line of Accessories Available.

each on ly or 2 for$99.95 $189.951' ''' I::,~a~e~:c~ UPS /ncluded

By Fred Maia, W5YIfmaia@;nlerneIMCI.com

In the Data Stream A mess age encoded by th e U.S .Government's 56-bit d ata encryption sta n-d ard has been b roken in a co mputer indu str ycontest in less than three days. A cus tom-builtcomp uter tested 88 bill ion diff erent combina-tion s each second for 56 hours until it fou ndthe co rrec t one . Pre vio us contes ts e nli stedcomputers linked together throu gh the Internet .hut took weeks or eve n months to comple te.Th ree da ys is a ne w record.

Th e co ntest wa s inte nded to alert the gov-ernment that the on ce -tho ug ht- secure stan-dard is in j eopardy of bei ng deciphered byenemy governme nts at wh im.

Th e answer, say computer expe rts: " I t 'stime for those 12X-, 192- and 25 6- bit keys..'

S pread Spectru m (SS) is a techniqu ewhe reby microscopi c hits of the trans mittedradi o signal arc dist ribu ted over a wide seg-men t o f spec tru m a nd rea ssembled accord ingto a formula. T he signal powe r den sity istyp ica lly very low and the durati on of a tran s-mission on any frequ ency in the seg ment ofthe spec tru m can be hut a frac tio n ofa second .T he big ad vantage of SS syste ms is that theyca n share spectrum desp ite a number of sta-tions already occupying the band. Spread Spe c-trum was or igi na lly de veloped for the U.S .military as a way of tra nsm itt ing undetectablecommunications unde r the no ise le vel.

Th e FCC sa id they we re workin g 0 11 aNotice of Pro posed Ru le mak ing to e liminaterules that rest rict amateur stations to transm it-ting only frequ ency hopping and di rect se-quencin g sp read ing techniques. Ado pt ion isa ntic ipated.

FlU say s it must st a y current with e volv -ing technology. The Justice De pt. h,IS aske dCongress to add lan gu age to an appropria tionsbill tha t wo uld provi de pol ice with the prec iselocati on of ce llular telephone use rs.

T he surve illance informatio n wo uld be pro-vided witho ut a co ur t orde r when there issusp ic ion o f a felony , pursu it of a fugi tive orwhe re human safety is in jeopardy.

A trian gula tion sche me currently beingdepl oyed by 9 11e merge ncy ce nters is used topinpoint users by measuring variances in sig-nal st reng th.Civi l- libert ies advocates are ca ll-

ing it a dan gerou s and uncon sti tuti onal inva-sion of pri vacy.

The FCC has entered into a n agreementwith A I)CO wh ich look s toward resolvi nginterfe ren ce complain ts plaguing po licc andpu bl ic safe ty rad io. APeO is the Associationo f Public Safety Communication s Offi cials .

Unde r the ag ree men t. A PCa wi ll followan FCC techn ica l and ad nuni strat ivc standardto co llec t a ll information relevant to process acom pliance or inter feren ce matter.

Th is is the second such I:CC/industry agree-me nt th at the Com miss ion has entered into . As im ila r Me mora ndum of Und crstandi ng(M OU I was recent ly signed wi th the Indu s-trial Te lecommunication s Ass ociation. Inc ..covering inter fere nce to busi ness band userscaused hy non -compl ian t andlor unli censedoperator s.

O n .luly 29th, the FCC approved the us cof stra tos pheric platforms as telecommuni-cat ions stations. They will operate in the47.2-4R.2 GHz hand whic h the FCC w ill auction.CO MSA T has bee n aw arded the contract 10provide the proprie tary high -speed Intern etand da ta sys te m aboard the Sky Station.

T he Sky Station sys tc m is a network oflighte r-than -air plat fo rms (each aboutt he sizeof a football fiel d ) which arc held in a geosta-tion ary position abo lit 70 .000 feet above theEarth. It is basically a repeater aboard a ze ro-pres sure ha lloon hovering over major metro -politan areas. Ult imately ut lea st 250 SkyStat ion plut fonns will he dep loyed worldwideo ver large c ities .

Each 1.000 kilom eter foot print is expec tedto provide service within three yea rs to mil -lio ns of subsc ribe rs. In ternet speeds arcplanned to be 2 Mb ps (up link) and 10 Mbps(down link )- more than 300 times faster tha nmo st o f toda y' .s d ial-up mode ms.

The IT U last ye ar designated 60() MHz ofspectrum wor ldwide for lise by high alt itudeStratosph eric Tel ecommunic ati on s Sys te m(STS ) pl atfor ms.

T he FCC has a dopted rul es that protectVe h iclc Radar Collis ion Avoidance Sys -tems from interference by amat eur stations in

the 76 -77 G Hz hand. A mateur operat ion isbei ng suspended - at least te mpora rily - inthis portion of the -t-milfimcrcr ban d.

To offset a ny potent ia l impact 0 11 amateu rse rvice ope rat ions resu lt ing from this suspen-s ion. the FCC has amended its rules to estab-lish a co-primary allocat ion in the 77.5- 78G Hz band for the A mat eur and Amateur-Satell ite Se rvices.

Th e Co mm ission stat ed its intention tore visit the issue of whethe r the 76-77 G Hzband can be shared with amateur sta tio ns orother users withi n five yea rs and that i fit wer eto become appa ren t that partic ular ty pes ofrad io se rvice s or devices will not interfe rewith vehicle radar sys te ms or if adeq uatesharing criteria can be es tablished. the restric-tion could be lifted.

T he futu r e of the multi bill ion-dolla rS02-ton Inte rna tional Space Sta ti on (ISS)is in doubt. T he five-year construction proje ctis o ff 10 a had sta rt and Co ngress wa nts so meanswers. W hile sixteen coun tries are invol ved.the primary co nt rac tors arc the United Stat esand Russia. It w ill lak e some 45 Am eri canshuttle Il ighrs a nd 15 Russ ian rocket launchesto build the ISS.

The first two [SS modules. the Func tionalCargo Block a nd the Unity Node mad e by theUn ited States are now du e to he lau nche d inNovembe r with the third element due for lift -off in Apri l. But completion of the c ritica lRussia n-funded and constructed Service Mo d-ulc is way behind schedule du e to chro nicfinancing pro blems.

Th e Ru ssia n Space Age ncy needs $ 100m illion no w. hut the Russian gov ernmen t hasye t to provide the money. To hail Russia out.NASA want s 10 "borrow" mo ney from itsfiscal 1999 appro priat ions to " lend" to Russiato get the proj ect bac k on trac k. NASA alsohas plans 0 11 the back burner to make a S170m illion subs titute model callcd the Inte rimContro l Mo dule if Russ ia re neges.

Space stat ion critics wa nt to kill the projectentirely. Meanwhile. the end is near fo r thetroubled l z-ycar o ld Russian Mil' space sta-tion . It will be retired - di tch ed in the ocean- in Jun e 1999. six mo nths ea rlier than ex -pected.

4 MONITORING TIMES October ' 998

BACK BY POPULAR DEMAND- AND IT'S FREE

ORDERReV 19only $77995

FrequencyRange: l OO kHz.iO MHz, ~-Ire, 118-Bi'MlIzKejpad Bntry: Yes, plus tuning dialTuning Steps: SOkllz FM ; 100HzAMUisplay: BacklitLCIlDimmer: On/off

Modes: AM,AM,~)ndl. , Wi''M, l

Monitoring Times ondSatellite Times to Merge

Satellite Times, our sister magazine.was intended to address space communi-cations. the emerging frontier. It was anoutstandin g vehicle for unique, high-qual-ity articles on space-related stories fromspy satellites to the space shuttle 10 as-tronomy.

Unfortunately. its sphere of influencewas more limited than we expected, andsubscriptions never met the level req uiredto sustain it. With an impending cos t in-crease inpaperandpostage, we were forced10 terminate the project. As Bob Grove, thepublisher. para phrased an old j oke wryly,"The operation was a success, but the pa-tient died!"

We did atte mpt to find an interestedparty 10 mai ntain the magazine' s momen-tum, but the businesses we contacted hadtheir ow n pressures and deadlines.

In the end. the " Monitoring Ti mes"sty le of magazine that treats techn ical top-ics in a read ab le, straightforward mannerseems to rem ain our own, unique vis ion.and it is a log ical so lution for the maga-zi nes to joi n forces.

Next mo nth you will begin to see theresults o f th is merger as we add more pagesand wide n the co verage of MT s alread ybroad spectru m. We we lcome Sat elliteTimes readers to the "new " MonitoringTimes. We invite all o ur readers to bask inthe wealth of information now available toyou in our pages, support our new ad vert is-ers, and to contact us about add ition altop ics yo u' d like to see in coming months.And if yo u hav e questions about any ofthese areas o f communications , plea se fecifree to wr ite to our edito rs for cl arifi ca-tions.

..MT is an education," one reader wroterece ntly - but we hope you' lI agre e thatir s also a heck of a lot of fun !

What Privacy?We've received numero us cl ipp ings from

ne wspapers and magazines that refute the no-tion that our lives are priva te. O ur e-mail. com -pu ters. pho nes. ba throoms. dressing rooms, andeven the company water cooler may he bugged .videotaped, viewe d or tape recor ded . Computerfiles and e- mail you tho ught you de leted ca n berecreated. And we all know about the vulner -ab ility o f cord less and ce llular phones.

As surve illance equipme nt ge ts sma ller andmore affordable (an d our soc iety gets morelitigiou s" ) more and more ord ina ry peopl e arespy ing o n each other. We have met Big Brother... and he is us!

COMMUNICATIONS

Octobe r 2-4: Hamilton, ONTh e O ntario DX Association invites radioenthusiasts of all interests and all levels toRadio Fest 98, themed "Comm unications IntoO ur Future." Spec ialguests will include LarryMagne, John Figliozz i, Kim Andrew Ellio ttand Bruce Elv ing. Locati on : Moha wk Co l-lege. Ex hib its, used equipment. seminars,Sa t. banquet (keynote speaker, Larry Ma gnc).Sun. breakfast (speake r. Dr. Elving) . $15 forthe entire co nve ntion, $5 for one-day atten-dance. Ta lk-in 44 2.800+. For furthe r info r-mat ion : wnw.durhamradio.caJodxal E-mail:7{).JOO.2660@compuserve.com.OntarioDX Associatio n, P.O. Box 161, Station A.Willowdale, Ontario M2N 558. Canada

October 4: Queens, NYHall of Science ARC hamfesrat the NY Hallof Sc ience parki ng lot. Fl ushing MeadowCorolla Park.47-01 11Ith St. Talk-ill444.200PL 136.5. Ad miss ion by donation, 9 am. Info(eve nings) Stephen G reenba um WB 2KDG(7 18) 898-5599, IVB2KDG @bigfoot.com

Oct ober 11: Walling ford, CT6th Annual Nutmeg Ham fest (CT state con-vention) is be ing held at Mountainside. afantas tic new speci al event facility located o nHigh Hill Road 2 miles from Exit 15off 1-95.General admissio n $6. VE testing (preregis-ter with Joel Cumeal (203) 235-6932) Forothe r inform ation co ntact Gordon Barker-K IBIY. 9 Edge Wood Rd. Portl and, CT06480, (860) 342 -3258 or www .q sl.net/nutmeghamlest, nu tmeghamf est@qsl.net

Hackers, Hackers EverywhereEvery yea r the re arc about 250.000 attempt s

to hack past the Pentagon' s sec uri ty, accord ingto congress ional rese arche rs. This past year '1Ilorgani zed e ffort successfully accessed unc las -sificd Pentagon payroll and personnel data. Itwas thou ghI to he the wo rk of youthful hackers:"Hac king today is a recognized spo rt: ' sa idStrassmann. the Pentagon ' s te rmer informationtechnology ch ie f.

Pagers have been a favor ite target of hackersof another kind . White House pagers have notonly been intercep ted in Washingto n. D.C.. butso appare ntly were page r messages fro m lawenforce me nt age nc ies protecting the Presiden t

\Vh~ 11 he visited Dallas th is past summer.

COMMUNICATIONS

. Includes UPSlo. &Stales

Neighborhood TormenterSentenced

In Virginia Beach. Virg inia. John A. Halstead.Jr. was co nvic ted of 21 offenses and sentence dto 40 mont hs in jai l for invading the privatephones and lives of his neighbo rs.

Using a scanne r, Halstead intercep ted ce llu-lar and co rd less phone calls, deciphered thei rtouch tone sec urity codes. and map ped out theneigh borhood. For two years he co ntro lled thete lephones and answer ing machines and d is-rup ted the lives of the ne ighborhood withharrassing. sometimes pornographic , and some-times threaten ing messages and co nstant ly ring-ing pho nes. He gai ned such expe rtise that , hadhe not bra gged about his ex plo its. he migh tnever have been caught. acc ording to the pro s-ec utor.

It was a s ituatio n that had no sen tenc ingguidel ines, said Ci rcu it Judge Frederick Lo we.A psychologist testified that Halstead (w ho inthe fina l mont hs before he was ca ught rarely lefthis bedroom) suffered from a schizo id-typeperso nality disorder.

the hottest sto ry in Washingto n fo r a time, andevery reporter wanted to ge t to her. In a phoneinterview with the Kansas City Star , Trip p ' slawyer Jim Mood y claimed tha t a trac king ch ipwas found in a bouq uet of flowe rs intende d forher . " I thin k it was j ust a report er trying to findo ut whe re Lind a was hiding: ' he said.

Mood y said he decid ed to have so me fun bytossing the chip into a luggage rack on a tra inbound for Florida.

" Communications" is com piled and ed-ited by Rachel Ba ug hn, wi th help from the sefine folks who sen t in cl ippings from their worldof rad io: Anonymous. NY; Bill from Kent: HarryBaughn. NC; Gracmc Browni ng. COT ; E.Hochstancr. \VA: Maryanne Kehoe . GA: GeraldKercher. CT: Kevin Klein. WI: Michael Lenanc,1'1.; Larry Magne. PA: Doug Robertson, CA: EdSavage, AR: Ed Schwartz, IL; Bob Scott. VA;Richard Sklar. \VA; Gayle and Larry VanHom, NC.

~ nmu:m:Il]]OUR "BUILT UKf R BRTILEBHIP"

Heavy dutycommercial recorder -NOT improvisedfromconsumer models

. 12, 14, and 16hour models also avai lable BUILT-IN voice activation (add $30)

Applicalions informationincluded Dimensions:11.5x 7.0 x2.75"

~~ 150 ExecutiveParkBlvd.#4600 San Francisco,CA 94134Factory Direct Phone: (415) 4682066 Fax: (415) 4682067 "Since 1971"

COO's OK. Calif. residenlS addlax SOlly.00Uedlt eatds Flee C3lalog USA only. OlhetWJ(l\lies 55

Monicu Lewinskys friend, Lind a Tripp. was

Globa l Positioni ng Sate llites have a new use.Th ey ca n enable correct ions officers to trac kvio lent fe lons or sex offenders wi thin five feetof thei r location. Wesley Way ne Mill er wasco nv icted of a particular ly gruesome murder ofa high-school classmate. Now. after s ixtee nyears in prison he ' s occas ionally allowed toleave his ce ll in T arra nt Co unty, Texas, but hewears an elec tronic monit or on one ank le and asatellite tracking device o n the other.

O hio has also j oined Texas. Nebraska. andNew Jersey in trying this sys tem which is alsobe ing used to keep tabs o n sus pects awaitingtrial and those serv ing sentences o utside o fprison . The sys tem req uires the wea rer to re-mai n within a fe w feel o f a transcei ver pack.Oh io says the cost of tracking via satel lite is lessexpensive than the $40-70 per day cost of a dayin j ai l.

Felons tracked bysatellite

Tracking Tripp

Bruce Sc hne ier, a cryptog raphe r and critic ofthe gove rn ment's insistence o n access to en-cryption, sa id the panel fa iled beca use of theimpossib ility of meeting the needs of both lawenforcers and industry, according to a Reu tersreport.

The batt le is shap ing up with law enforce-ment agencies (who fear stro ng encryption willbe used for criminal purposes) insisting on ga in-ing access , being pitted agai nst indu stry groups,Intern et users. and Co ngress ionalleaders push-ing for stro ng privacy prot ect ion .

Acc ording to the Reu ters article by AaronPressman , foreign governments are also co n-ce rne d that the poli cy will enable U.S. gove rn-men t age nc ies to read their e- ma il. ... (G uesswhat? Looks like they alrea dy do !)

For more discuss io n o n all these issues andpropo sed legislation , visit the Ce nter for De-mocra cy and T echnolog y web site atwww.cd t.orglcrypto

In June of 1997 the NationalSec urity Agency(NS A) demonstrated that they could hack intothe Pacitic Com mand 's battle-managementco m-puters and U.S . power grids. Now the NationalAeronautics and Space Administ ration (NAS A)has asked the NSA to try to penetrate its net-works (0 ex pose vulnerabi lities .

Th e study breaks new ground for the NSA.since it is barred fro m part icipating in domesticac tivi ties un less invited . John Pike of the Fed-eration of Amer ican Sc ient ists sa id, 'T his is thenext big step in NSA's ex panding role in dome s-tic information sec urity ... Th ere arc conce rnsabout the potential for ab use o f this type ofactiv ity:'

The NS A's usual act ivity is g loh al snooping .According to a European Commiss ion reportquo ted by The Weekly Telegraph. "W ithin Eu-rope all e-mail, telephone and fax co mmunica-tions are routinely inte rcep ted by the UnitedStates Nationa l Security Agency.....

Th e report, enti tled Axsessillg the Techno!o-gies oj Political Control, was the first so lidco nfi rma tion of a sa te llite network d ubbed Ech-clan . 'T he Eche lon sys tem works by indis-criminate ly intercept ing very large q uantities ofco mmunica tions and then sipho ning out wha t isvaluab le using art ificial intelligence aids ... tolin d key words."

The rep or t reco mmend s: "The EuropeanParl iament should reject proposa ls from theUnited S tates for making private messages viathe g loba l co mmunications network (Interne t)acc ess ible 10 US inte lligence age nc ies."

Under an agreement 0 11 shared securityinterests, Britain 's Menwith Hill serves as aremote monitoring post f or the NSA .

Wanting it Both Ways

Hacking with the NSA

Rel iab le sec urity and lim ited access may bemut ually excl usive. A US governmental paneltasked with design ing a federal com puter sys-tem [hat wou ld inclu de "bnckdoors" was unableto do so by the two-year deadline. The gro up(w hich referred to itself as " Hob" instead ofT ACD FIPSFKMI) said it "e nco untered somesignificant technical prob lems that, without reso -lut ion . prevent the developmen t of a usefu lFIPS" (Fede ral Info rma tion Processin g Stan-dard ).

October 1998 MONITORING TIMES 7

o. ~... ~ ..., .. ~ " ....., ~

By Larry Van HornMT Staff Writer

Think back 10 the first lime you eversal dow n in front of a shortwaveradio . As you turned that radio dialfor the fi rst time . a pletho ra of non -verbal rad iosignals could be heard co ming fromthe speaker.In fact. the one thing that impresses and sca resmost newcome rs is the large varie ty ofwhistles .ton es. gru nts. squeals and othe r audio rad iati ngfro m yo ur sho rtwave rad io speaker. While thesenoises can confound and confuse the new -comer. they also add a ce rtain amou nt of mys-tery and intrig ue 10 spanning the world viashortwave radio.

Where do these signals come from and wh atarc all those wei rd no ises that you hear on yo urshortwave radio? It' s time to unlock some ofthe mystery signals on shortwave radio.

A WORLD FULL OF DIGITAL SIGNALSAlthough there ' s plenty on shortwave to

kee p us guessing, most of the mystery signalsthat a newcomer encou nter s on shortwave arevery ei.lsy to expla in. They arc nothing morethan digita l transm ission modes. These digitalmodes ca rry text and graphic informat ion. andif you have a suitable decoder and rece iver. yo ucan usually read or sec the information beingtransmi tted . So let ' s take a quick tour of someof the easier to hear signal types and take someof the mystery out of listening to shortwave.

Hrg inner's fl int: When tun ing the short-wave bands for digital signals be sure to selectthe BFO (beat frequency oscillator) sideband or

upper/ lower sideband mode on your recei ver. Inormally tunc around the shortwave spectrumin the upper sideband mode to look for bothvoice and data signals.

There arc ce rtain types of signals that youwill never decode because they arc being sentby the U.S. military and arc encry pted (orcoded) . T hese arc usua lly radio teletype(RTTY) wh ich arc bei ng sent at 75 word s perminute (w pm} with X50Hertz (Hz) shift. Tuncaro und 12700 kHz during dayligh t hours and42 80 kHz during the overnig ht hours for ex-amplcs of this sort of transmission.

If you arc look ing for some U.S. militaryRTTY transmi ssion s in the clcarfuncncryptcd ).try tun ing in 3228 or 5904 kHz during eveninghours in North America for the U.S. Air Force

GOES WEFAX image courtesy of OFSweatherfa x

Air Weathe r Service broadcasts from Offu ttAir Force Base (AFR). You ca n also hea r otherRTTY AWS brondcnsts from U.S. Navy trans-miners in Key West. Florida. on 7784, 9830 .11118. 12835 and 19359 HI,..

Another co mmon signal the listener willencounter is the facsim ile (fax ) broadca st. Mostpeople arc familia r with the office fax machine.and the shortwa ve vers ion of th is type of tran s-mission docs pretty much the same thing. Faxbroadcasts on shortwave arc used primari ly tosend weathe r charts and satel lite photographs.

The easiest fax signal to hear on shortwaveis broadcast from the U.S. Navy station inNorfo lk. Virginia (NAM ). Loo k for the ir 120revolut ions per minute (rpm) signal (standardbased on the dru m rotatio n speed of oldermechanical fax machincs)on 3357. 8080 . 10865.15959 and 200 15 kllz.

Another dig ital mode that is still used in theshortwave spectrum is Morse cod e. Yes. Bunky.I said Morse code ! Morse code is the simples tof digital modes. since it is nothing more thanon/o ff keying of the uu nsrniucr used in varioussequences to form letters. numbers and punc-tua tion. Morse code or continuous wave (CW)transmissionscanhefound throu ghout the short-W;' \ Vc spec tru m. but they will be especia llyco ncentrated in the lower port ions of the highfrequency (HF) amateur rad io bands. CheckOUI the follow ing frequency ranges for CWsignals: 3500 -3750. 70lKl-7 150. 10 100- 10150.14000- 141 50. IK06K- IKI IO. 2 1000-2 1200.

8 MONITORING TIMES October 1998

HF-VHF-UHF Receiver Multicouplers & Preamplifiers

FREESAMPLE I!!(eCOpy! o ~o

ANTIQUE RADIO CLA]-SIFIEDAntique Radio 's Largest-CirCUlation

Monthly MagaZineArtlcjes - Classlfl ed s - Ads for Part s & Serv ices

Al so : Early TV, Ham Equip., Boo ks ,Telegr aph , 40's & 50's Radios & more...

Free 2fJ..word ad each month. Don 't miss out!- . 1-Year: S40.95 ($57.95 by 1st Class) U~ 6-Month Trial - $20.95. Foreign Write. \:" . '.JA.R.C., P.O. Box 802-P13, Carlis le, MA 01741Phone: (978) 371-0512; Fax: (978) 371-7129

Web: www.anti ueradio.com

Kiwa Electronics612 South 14th Ave., Yakima WA 98902@ 509-453-5492 or 1-800-398-1146 (orde rs)

~I kiwa @Wolfcn ct .com (Internet/ catalog)~ http:/ /www.kiwa.com

PACTOR is a sys tem designed to use theburst capab ility of packet with the error correc-tion techn iques of S ITOR .Thi s mode is used byamateur radio and m ilitary affi liate radio se r-vice (MARS) op erations, gov ernment age n-c ies. and age ncies such as the Uni ted Na tion sand the International Red Cross.

If you wa nt to hear what AMTOR andPACfOR modes sound like. try tu ning in theU.S. Navy MARS International Digita l Net-work (lDN). You will hear quite a bit of activityon the frequenci es noted in tab le one.

The Kiwa EArlh M om/or lsanElJ'-Extremely Low Frequ encyreceiver fOf' listening to thenatural radio signals fromplanet Earth . Hear wlUsliers ,eweeks, the d awn chorus withthis sensitive receiver. Tuningrange is from 50I lz to 15 kl lz ,Featuresincludea remote fieldprobe antenna, noise Ilher andvariable bandpass filt er.

;m~STRIDSBERG_ ~NGI~~E.'~ING~ INC; >;: ; Phone: (318) 86H1660P.o. Box 5040 ., . . . . ..: S hre ve port , LA 71135:5040;USA: : ": >" ..: -;-'. Fax:'(318) 861 ~7068

Arc you using several HF radiosor VHFjllHF scanners at your monitoring sile??.c.consider including a multicoupleror a preamplifier to your system.

Coastllnter ship : 2 177 kHzDistress and Safety: 2 187.5 . 4207.5 .63 12.84 14.5. 12577 and 16804 .5 kHzS hip St ations ' 2 189 .5 . 4208-4209.63 12.5-63 13.5 . 84 15-84 16. 12577. 5-12578 .5. 1680 5-1 6 80 6 . 1889 8 .5 -18899.5.22374.5-22375.5 and 25208.5-25209.5CoaSial Stat ions: 42 19.5-422 0.5 . 633 1-6332, 8436.5-8437 .5 , 12657- 1265 8.16903 - 16904. 19703 .5-19704.5.22444-22445 and 26 12 1-26 122 kHz

SWUScanning - Radio Surveillance - News RoomsBoth our Pass ive and Ac tive MulUcouple rs are commercial grade specially designed for demand-ing monitoring applications with multiple radios . Our 2 and 4 port co up le rs are 50 ohms units withbetter than 24 dB of pert-to-pert Isolation. Active couplers features wide-band l ow-Noise distribu-tion amphte rs with Hlgh-PassILow-Pa ss filtered inputs, BNC connectors stand ard.

Price rallge:$70 to $150depending 011 modelGive us a callfor data sheet, application and ordering infomration.

Distress and Safety: 2174.5,4177.5 .6268. 8376.5. 12520 and 16695 kHzMa rine Safety Informat ion :42 1O. 63 14.8465. 12579. 16806.5, 19680.5. 22376and 26100.5 kHz

Digita l Selective Calling (DSC) is a varia-tion of the S ITOR-B mode, bu t it uses a spec ialset of 127 sy mbols in addition to a IO-bit errorcorrection code. DSC signals are short, usuallylasting about 6-7 seconds. Thi s system is usedto establish initial contact between ships andshore stations. The se DSC tran smi ssio n arcpart of a bigger system known as the globalmar iti me distre ss and safety sys tem (GMDSS).For more information on GMDSS. sec the storySafetyat Sell Goes Hi-Tech by Jon Van Allen inthe August 1995 issue of Monitoring Times.

The fo llowing fre que nc ie s utilize theG MDSS/DSC mode:

slons such as mar ine traffic lists, weather. andnavigation bull etins. A great frequency to testyour SITOR -B tuning abi lity is the worldwideNA VTEX (navigat iona l and meteoro log ica lwarnings and urgent informatio n for ship s)freq ue ncy of 5 18 kl-lz, righ t be low the AMbroadcast band. Anot her NA VTEX frequencyto monitor using the SITOR-B mode is 4209.5kHz.

You will a lso find SITOR-B act ivity on thefollowing frequencies :

Amaleur radiooperators practicepacket commsduring Fie ld Dayill Carey, NC.(Pho to by HarryBaughn)

ERROR CORRECTION MODESSITORA . also known as ARQ, TORlARQ

or AMTOR-A, is a co mmon synchronous tran s-mission and automat ic repetition digital modeused by amateurs. mar ine servi ces and somediplomatic age ncies . You can find a large co n-centration of S ITORA or SITOR B (see be-low ) signals in the narrowband direct printi ngmar ine sub-bands. Search the following fre-quency ranges with your receiver and decod erfor coas tal stations using the SITOR modes:42 10.5-4 2 19. 63 14.5-6330, 84 16.5 -8 43 6.125 79 .5-1 2656.5 . 16807-1 6902.5 . 19681 -1970 3. 22376 .5-22443.5 and 26 101-26120.5kHz.

SITOR-II. also ca lled FE C. TOR/FEC,AMTOR-B and NA VTEX , is primari ly usedfor one -way broadcast informati on trunsrni s-

Another mode widely used by ama teur s andsome other utility stations is packet (Ax25). Ifyou wan t a taste of what packet signals soundlike. tunc through the fo llowing freq uencyranges: 3620-3 635, 7100-7105. 10140- 10150.14 1IXl.5-1411 2. 180 15- 18 110. 2 1090-2 1100.249 25-249 30 and 28120-28189 kHz .

Amateur operators also tra nsmit a form oftelevision signals called Slow Scan TV (SSTV)on shortwave freq uencies . If you wa nt to hearwhat those signals sou nd like , tunc your re-ccivcr to the followi ng freque ncies: 3845. 7 171,14230. 21340 and 28680 kHz.

24890-24930. and 28000-283 00 kHz.Computer enthusias ts arc fami liar w ith the

term ASCII (American Standard Cod e forInfur matlon Interchange) and this mode isused in the HF wo rld primarily on amateurradio frequencies. One consisten t ASCII broad-caster is the American Radio Re lay League(ARRL) in Newington. Co nnecticut. The offi-cia l League station W lAW se nds teleprinterbulletins several tim es a day on 3625. 7095,14095, 18 102.5. 2 1095, and 28095 kHz .WI AWbulletin s arc se nt aI45,45-baud RTIY (Baudot)and IOO-baud AMTOR . II O-baud FEC ModeB. and ASC II. The ASC II broadca sts arc se ntonly :.IS time allows. You ca n get a completesc hedule in the latest issue of QSTmagaz ine orat the League web site : http://www.a rrl.o rg.

Octooer 1998 MONITORING TIMES 9

,Table One: U.S. Navy MARS Interflational Digital Network

2850 -3025 . 34(XI-351XI.46 50 -47IXI. 5480-5680.6525-66 83 , 8815 -8960. IOIXl5- IOlOO. 11270-11400. 13260- 13360. I79lXl-17970. 2 1870 -22000. and 232(XI-23350 kl-lz.

US ArmyMARS stationmanager SgtJ ohn Nortonerects a"sleeping Vee"antenna atCamp Freedomin Kuwait Cit)',as the oil firesbum behindhim.

letters "A" and "B " would be sent simulta-neously for I second. follo wed . after a pa use of0 .2 seconds - by the simulta neous I seco ndtransmission of tones "C' and " D." Duplicat eletter s (tone s) arc not perm itted in either pai r.s ince simultaneous transmi ssion of two tones ofthe same frequ ency would not be disti nguish-able by the aircraft ' SELC AL decoder fro many other co mbination of ton es con taining thatfrequency. Also, the:same to ne is not per mitt edto be used in both the first and second pai r.

A comprehensive: SEI.CAL da taba se can befound on the Irish Aviat ion Intern et web site at:http://ireland.iol.ie/-mark zee/seJcaldb.htm

You can tunc throu gh the fo llow ing fre-quency ranges for civ ilian aircraft communica-tions:

TWO GREAT RESOURCESUnfort unately, space doesn 't permit us to

include more of the mysterious and digital sig-nals that can be heard on sho rtwa ve. But the reare a couple o f excel lent sources of infonnatio nif you wan t to continue explori ng the HF spec-trum . If you ha ve the Internet. hesure to stop bythe Worldwide Utility News we bsite maintainedby Jason Bern at http://www.gem.netl-berrilwun/, Here yo u will lind an e xcell ent resourceca lled the Digital Signals f i\ Q written by StanScalsky and f\1ike Chace.Th is FAQi sagoldmineof information on digital signa l types fou nd inthe radio spectrum.

An excel lent frequ ency guide that ough t tobe on your reference shelf is the Klinge nfuss199B Guide to Utility Radio Stations (availablefrom Grove) . Thi s by-frequ ency refe re nce willhelp the mo nito r identify a wide variety ofdigital signa ls and redu ce the amount of un-known signals that the radio mon itor has toco ntend with .

So. li re up that shortwave radio and give thedial a spin. It ' s time to take some of the mys teryout of shortw ave radio listcning.

level experienced on HF radio frequencies. a ircrew s usually prefe r (Q tu m 1.10\\'n the audiole vel of their HF rece iver unt il ale rted viaselective ca lling (SE LC AL)ofa message spe-cifically inte nded for their aircra ft.

Whc n an aeronautica lg round stat ion wishesto communicate with an ai rcraft. they e nte r intoa SELCAL encoder the -t-lcue r code of tha tai rcr aft. and tran smit that code over the as -signed HF radi o channel. All aircraft monit or -ing that channe l receive the SELC AL broad-cast, but only those that have been programmedwith that -l-lctter codc will respo nd by soundinga chime or otherwise ale rting the crew. Thec re w will then set thei r volume cont ro l higher tolisten to the voice tra ffic from the ground stu-lion .

Each code comprises two pairsof tones. thefirst pa ir being transmitted for approximately Isecond. and the seco nd pair bei ng tran smittedfor the same du rat ion following a 0.2 secondpause. T he individual tone frequ enc ies areknown by a lette r desi gnator A through M. plusP. Q. R and S. but no t incl udin g the letter I. Th isallows for a tota l of 10,920 SE LCAL codes.

A typ ica lSE LCALcode is " AB-CD:' whichindicates that the frequencies designated by

Digital systems enab le aircraft to leaveroutine reporting and messagin g tasks10 be done automatically without tyinglip valuab le air lim e.

.--;

Mailbox Assigned Dial~ ~ fruI Mm fruI I.wl!anNNNOMOA NMOA 13540.0 NP 13538.8 Edelman,PANNNOMOJ NMOJ 13540.0 NP 13536.8 San Diego, CA (SCA)

10259.5 NP 10256.3 ~A1ternate Frequency)NNNOMDE NMOE 147605 NP 14759.3 anAntonio, TX (STX)

11070.0 NP 11066.8 tltemate Frequency)NNNOMDI NMDI 14935.5 A 14932.3 anDiego, CA(SCA)NNNOMDL NMOL 14935.5 A 14932.3 NASWhidbey Island, WANNNOFLH NFLH 14935.5 NP 14934.3 Jacksonville, FLNNNOASL NASL 14935.5 NP 14934.3 Honolulu, HI

A=Amlor P=Pactor

10 MONITORING TIMES Oclobe, 1998

Aircraft band scanner enthusiasts are famil-iar with the ter m AC A RS(A irc raft Commu ni-ca tion and Reporting Sys tem ). but recen tlyAC ARS testing has been conducted in the HFspectrum . ACA RS relays Aircraft Operat iona lContro l (AO C ), Airline Adm inistrative Co n-trol (AI\C ). and Air T ra ffic Co ntro l (ATe )messages between ground-based organizationsand the ai rc raft coc kpit .

In add ition to the VHF (11 8-136 MH Z)ACARS frequencie s wh ich scanner e nthus i-asts arc familiar with. AC ARS coverage is alsoa vail a bl e worldwide thro ugh AR INC ' sG LOB ALi nk sate llite service ( lnmar sa t l andG LOBAl.inkfHF serv ice. It is e xpect ed thatG I.O BAI .inkfHP se rvice wi ll have worl dwidecoverage hy e nd of 1998. Th e prim ary Ire-qucncy bein g reponed with HF ACARS mcs-si.lging (or HF Datalink) is 13340 kHz.

If you tunc around the civi lian HF ai rcraftfreq uen cie s. yo u mig ht oc casio nally hearground stations sending ton es to various air-craft and receiving the answerback using voicecommunications. Due 10 the background noi se

CIVILIAN AIRCRAFT BAND DIGITALSIGNALS

November / 9, /997 - Anytime,Anywhere. USS George WashingtonICVN?3) is enroute to the Arabian Gulfill response 10 rising tens ions betweenthe United Nations and Iraq . (V.S. Navyphoto bJ' Photographer 's Mat e Seco ndClass Robert Catalano)

This computer -controlled receiver ami spectr um display appe ar 0" YOllr com -purer screen ]

ACCESSORIES

Tum yo ur PC into a po ten t. wide-co verage mo nitori ng station! User-friend ly so ftware allow s al l the usual receiver controls, plus much more.Rugged shieldi ng resists interfe rence from the hosrco mputcr. Enjoy co ntinu-ous 150 kHz through 1500 MHz (less cellular) frequency coverage: multi -mode reception o f A~1. wide ami narrow R-.1. and US R, I.S B, and CW : upto 16memory banks with a virtually limi tless number o f chan nels: disp layrecords in me mo ry by freq uency. cal lsign. OrC0I1\111e:nts field : scan by han k,grouping , or mod e: and automatica lly search for activ ity by enteri ng yo urcho ice o f freq uency limits.

Ca ll up a full-Fledged spectrum d isp lay and sec signal presence o n any100 MHz span! Do uble-dick the mo use on any signal spikeand the recei verimmedi ate ly tunes to that freq uency! Storage feature allows recall of signaltruces. BNC co nnec tor aIlows attac hment of yo ur antenna sys tem, while ami ni-j ack perm its connec tion of speaker or ea rphones . High se nsitivityassure s weak-signal pickup.

Easy ins ta lla tio n, fu ll instruction manu al inc luded . T his uni que recei v-ing labo ra tory un leashes its po wer wi th Wi ndows 95. requ iring 486 orPcmium.u Megs RA~1.

ANT 1ANT2ANT3ANT7ANT 9ANT 15CBL50CBL 100SFT 15

Grove Scanner BeamGrove SkywireGrove Mini -SkywireScantennaProfessional Wideband DisconeHBOOSkymatch Active Antenna50' RG6U cable100' RG-6U cab leWiNRADiQ Digital Suite

159.9539.9529 .9539.9587.9599.9514.95

519.95599 .95

WBR05-i (internal unit )Only $54995

WBR05-e (external un it)On ly $59995

1111l ~ $I t, l iS I'tin t ily :'o b il li tI :I'S 2ntl l" 'J Air Shilll' illl:

Expandthe Capability of your WiNRADiO with theWiNRAOiOOigita/ Suite

All .I.men/! of Ih. Oigilol50il'appeat asanewmenu enttyin'he MURADiOteceivet sohwoteaher instaJfation!

loaded with advanced tapabi/ities...1I C1 CS:S~. ..!!J

1J;I''!Hz ,olot: .:;0-0: RJoz'... r-=:::

plus ss.sul'S J'rillri l, ' Iail litl l'S 2nd HIIJ' Air Shl" I""1:

See weather fac ... imilc.read packet illld ACARSmcssag cs, decodeDD II' and CTC SStone s. lind specific ~ignal types while skip pingOWl" un want ed stations.ana ly ze au dio wav e-forms (0-20 kill), anddigit ally recordandplayback tra nsmi ssions! Re-qu ires So undb laster 16

or comp.uihlc sound ca rd. Wi ndows 9) or Nf 4.0 or later . Free on -lineupdates ;I ~ they are released! Aud io interconnect cable inclu ded .

ORDER SFT 15

The WYFR StoryBy Hans Johnson

.;

T1C Am er ica n shor twave sce ne is nostranger to excitement. Stations comeand go : some arc beset hy controversy.wh ile others strugg le simply 10 stay on the air.The largest priva te shor twave station in theUni ted Stale s. WYFR. s l.IYs o ut of the lime-ligh t :.HH.Iquiet ly nndcffcc tivc ly carries out itswor k. 1998 is a specia l year fo r this station asthey cele brate their 25th year of broadcastingChri stian programs on shorwavc.

On e ca nnot te ll the story of Your FamilyRadi o (YFR) without discussing the historyof the station's origi nal tran smitter si te inScituate.Massachuseus.The site's pre-\VYFRhistory spans half u century and some prettyintere sting things happened along the wa y.Unde rsta nding this histo ry is also the key tounde rstanding WYFR 's management and sub-seq uent clo sure of Scituate.

In Service of its CountryIn the Dep ression year of 1936. \V IXAL

moved from Boston to Sc itua te . Like the other30 so me odd shortwa ve station s in the UnitedStates. the station Wi.IS experi me nta l and no n-commercial. In 1939. the exper ime nta l desig-nati on ended for a ll stations . Run by the Uni-versi ty Cl ub of Boston. the station took thecull letters of W RU L or World Radio Unive r-sity for the Liste ner.

Dur ing thc early days o f World War II. itsbroadcasts warne d Norwcgian ships at sea

that Germany had uuuck cd Norway .Thi s gavel)OO merchant ships the wamiug they neededto avoid capture by the Nazis.

The United States gove rnment still d id nothave its own shor twave facilities when itentered Wor ld War II ill Dece mber 1941 . so itlook o vcr the private stat io ns in the UnitedSta tes. inc lud ing \VRUI..The statio n res umedso me of its ow n programming in 1947 andmoved its studios to New York Cit y a fewyears late r. The station promoted Americanproducts to Latin Am erica and was the fifthmost popul ar sta tio n in Latin Am erica.

A close -lip of the / 6 m eter antennaarrays .

W RU L' s best know n program was The VoiCl'of Freedom, beamed to the t\1iddl c East andEurop e. Th e VO A lease did not complete lyend until 1954.

Fami ly Radio sta rted its first station in1959. hut its invol vem ent with shortwave wasstill ove r ;;1 decade awa y. In the meantime.WR UL we nt through its most inte resting yearseve r. As part of it!'> campaign to overthrowCastro. the C IA used shortwave broadcasti ng.While most of the se efforts were over theinfamou s Radi o Swan. WR UL also played aru le. Con current with its e fforts in es tablish-ing Radio Swan in early 1960. the C IA usedP:'lI1 Am er ica n Bro adcastin g to make arrange-ment s for Cuban exile groups to purchasetim e over W RUL. ' The C IA may have alsoplayed a ro le in provid ing funding as well assome of the bro adcast materia l for these pro-gr;'lms.1

A division of the Mormon Church ac-quired the station in 1962 for less tha n twomilli on do llars. hu t only owned it for a fewmonth s when a new situation em erged. Dur-ing the height of the Cullan missile crisis. thegovernm ent took over the sta tion for threeweeks. using it for thc Spanish service ofVOA . T he station later received a ci tation forits se rvice.'1

An Uneasy BeginningFreed ut last from government service,

12 MONITORING TIMES October 1998

WR UL attempted to become a Irue co mmer-cia l stution. !n an attem pt to increase listeners.WRUL mad e arrangements with R. L. Dra keto have a simple-to-operate shortwa ve re-ceiver bui lt. IVRUL became IVNYIV. Radi oNew York Wor ldwide, in 1966 as part of thepromotion of its commercia l image.

The station fai led to draw listeners andult imate ly so ld the sta tion to WYFR in 1 973 :~

One of the things that killed WNYW wasfire. Not one fire. but several fires due toseveral causes. There was plenty of woodaround. both in the building and outside. Theopen-wire transmission lines arced because ofa marg inal design - and also from vanda lismby loc als who were upse t about interferenceon their T V sets and threw bits of metal intothe lines 10 cause arcing.

T he worst fire in 1967 dest royed all four ofth e s ta rio n '.s t rans mitt ers a nd caused$ 1.000 ,000 do llars in damage. Another largelire in 1972 was the final nair in WNYW ' scoffin. They so ld the station to WY FR thefo llowing year,

For almos t a year prior to the purchase.WYFR had been buyi ng 16 transmitter hoursa da y on W RUL. Theil on Oc tober 20, 1973,WYFR took over the station. havin g co m-pleted seve ral years of negotiations fo r itspurc hase. Th e site had four transmitters, two50 kIV and two 100 kIV co upled 10 ninerhombic anten nas. Transmi ssions co uld bebea med to Europe, and by reversing the anten-nas. 10 Lat in America . WYFR started withbroadcasts in English and Span ish.

The WN YlV transmitt er building illScituate, Mass. (plus IJXers MikeMackell and Bob Butterfield)

Se veral changes occ urred immed iately asthe sla tion changed hands. Th e form at wentback to non-co mmercial. W YFR was (and is)funded hy listenerd onations to Fami ly Radio' snetwork of AM and FM stations. Most of the

One of the Gates shortwave transmitters.former technical staff left as WY FR was notable to offer the same wages as WNYW . Thenew staff, however. was qu ite ded icated andone of thei r first projects was 10 cu t under-grow th around the station so as to faci litatemaintenance and improve sig nals. Stationengineers also personally dealt with interfer-en ce co mplaints fro m neighbors . HaroldCamping, President of Family Rad io, laid outWYFR's strategy :

"We have no long range goal that we wantto be so big or do so much . We try and makewise decisions. If some project ap pears to besound. then we proceed : '

Smart MovesIndeed. looking at any long range goals

was impossible as there was a major problemwith the Sci tuate site. When built. the rad iosite at Sci tuate was in a rural area. But by theI970s. the 40 acre leased site was surroundedby a res identia l area .

On such a sma ll site, thc antennas cxpcri-enced cross co upling . Th ey also providedinsufficient gai n because they were too sma ll.WY FR wanted to insta ll bette r antennas . butthe site simp ly did not have roo m to accom-modate them. Th ey d id add an addition al 100kW transmitt er shortly after purchasing thestatio n.

T he search for a new sitc started andOkeec hobee. Florida, was soo n chose n. Here,WYFR lensed 660 acres abo ut 20 miles northo f Lake Okeechobe e.Thi s area of Florida wassettled qui te late, with settlers arrivi ng hereonly in the 1930s. T hey clea red much of theland , but tracts of virgin swamp and forestremain eve n today on the site. WYFR sharesthe property with a local ranch er who grazeshis catt le here. Large citrus groves arc also inthis par t of Flor ida and sod grass is anot her b igcrop.

WYFR moved carefully to the new site.The first tran smitter, a 100 kW one. was

O

Pictures of the transmitter site in Okeechobeein 1988, showing some of the dedicated staffworking 011 the Contin ental and Gatestransmitters, and the wooden support poles,some of which were transported from theScituate site.

moved from Scituate to Okeechobee in late1977. The transmitter was co upled to a doubl erhombic anten na at the new site. broadcastingto Europe and South Ame rica . The transmit-tcrs were moved one by one down to Florida.so WYFR operated two sites for a few years .By late 1979. WYFR had moved all the trans-min ers to Oke ech obee, They also moved allthc antennas and towers. plus some of thewood support poles. A rather unusual incidentdid occur at Scituate before the move wascom plete. according 10 \VYFR doc uments:

"Possib ly WYFR is the only radio stationeve r to have an antenna taken outof service bya house.The station saton a low hill overlook-ing the Atlantic with one antenna very close tothe ocean . During a severe 1978 winter sto rm,enormous waves coming ove r the sea walltore a house off its foundations . The roguesmashed into a 90 fo ot tall rhombic suppo rtpole . snapping the pole in two ."

What became of Scitu ate. a site with ove r40 years of shortwave radio history?

At the reque st of the lease-holder. WYFRleft some of the wooden support poles. Ac-cordi ng to Chris Lobdell. a local Dxcr. thesite has been de veloped into a rather nice

14 MONITORING TIMES Odo ber 1998

se lection of up scale s ingle fami ly andtownhouse homes.

WYFR grew steadily througho ut the yea rs.adding more transmitters and target ing moreareas. An exa mpic would be the start of trans-missions to Western Ca nada in 198 1. T hegrow th was steady. planned. and very smar t.

A dram atic dem onstration of this smartgrowth occ urred on New Year ' s Day 1982.WYFR surprised everyone with the start ofwhat it calls its radio trade alliance with theVoice of Free China (now Radio Taipei Inter-national ) of Ta iwan. Using VOFC faci lities.Family Radio now had several hours of pro-gram ming a day to India (English and Hindi )and mainland Chin a (Ma ndarin). In exc hange.the rece ption of VOFC to the Western Hem i-sphere vastly improved as they were nowusing \VYFR faci lities for several hours.

After a trial pe riod of several months. thestations forma lized this arrangement that con -tinues to this day. It was a bri llian t move byboth sides. Ind ia and China are diffi cult arcasto reach . particul arly for a Christian broad-cas ter. In one quick mov e. \VYFR had broad-cas ts to both these areas. Ta iwan. because ofits politica l status. would have had difficulties

in sett ing up time exchange agreements withmost stations. Now it had an excellent site forcovering North America. and a much betterone for cove ring Europe. Neither station hadto invest in an addi tional transmitter site (thi swas before the time purchasing revo lution)and each ga ined many new listeners.

For reason s of con fidentiali ty. WYFRwon't di scuss the detail s of this arrange me nt.It is extensive. though. Rad io Ta ipei Interna-tional has 27 transmit ter hours daily fromWYFR , while WYFR has 24 " day via RTI. '

WYFR literature describes the arrange-ment as an exc hange of "co mparable combi-nation of transmitters and ante nnas."

WY FR pulled " similar co up with BBe in1996. Alth ough a much smaller exc hange.\VYFR programs in Arabic are transmittedfrom a site in the United Kingdom. while SSCprograms in Eng lish arc carr ied via Florida.

The Quiet Broadcasterwith a Big Voice

Today. WY FR is broadca sting in II lan-guages from three different co untries.

The heart of the Okeechobee operation is a80 1'1. by 200 fl. buildi ng that houses offices

SW-1

The Drake SW l sets the stage for worldwide shortwave listening with ease .simplicity and clarity. The SW-l offers superb sensitivity. selectivity and fullaudio. Coverage from 100 through 30000 kHz provides solid coverage oflongwave, med ium wave and shortwave in the AM mode (no SSB). Th is makesit an ideal broadcast receiver for the desk or bed-stand. Tuning is a snap via thekeypad. manual tuning knob . Up/Down butt ons or 32 programmable memories.The LED display is positively huge for easy accurate frequency readout to 1 kHz.Antenna input is via a 50 ohm terminal or 5 0239 jack . A 118" min i jack isprovided for use with earplug or headphones (not supplied) . Includes AC walladapter for operation from 120 VAC 60 Hz. 10.875x4.375x7.625 4.7 lbs.One year limited warranty. Proudly made in Ohio, U.S.A.! A limited time oHer.List '299.00 Order #1100 ~ Sale 5199.99 (+'7 UPS) In stock now!

- -- - ~

. .

Full Coverage LW{MW/SW Di91tal Readout Keypad Entry 32 Memories RF Gain

~_.

...... ---- ~ .J:- -

- -,

Made inAmerica

oICOM

Unive rsal Radio carries an excellent selection of new andused com munications receivers. The new Japan RadioNR[).545 DSP is shown above . Call for details!T he Am ericanmade Dr a keSW2 featuresSSB. Sync. Del..100 mems., andoptiona l remote(shown)' 489.95

ATS-606AP

Universal Radio Communications Catalog #98-06This new Universal catalog was pr inted In June and Is ourbiggest ever l With 116 pages , It features everything for theradio enthusiast. Please request your FREE copy today!

It's all here. You get continuous coverage of LW,MW and SW (153-30000 kHz) plus FM stereo.Enjoy 54 memories, scanning, dual clock timer, 1kHz LCD, dual conversion circuit, dial light, diallock, keypad entry and local OX switch. Includesmultivoltage AC adapter and wind-up antenna!Limited time oHer. One yea r limited wa rranty.Order#33 19 ' +19095 Sale S9999 (+'6 UPS)

Universal Radio. Inc.6830 Americana Pkwy.Reynoldsburg, Ohio43068-4113 U.S.A.... 800431-3939 Orders& Prices... 614 866-4267 InformationIl!l 614 866-2339 FAX UneQ dx@universal-radio .com

PORTABLESUniversa l has short-wave portab le sfrom Grundig, Sony,Sangean and Icom.The gorgeous newGru ndig YB-4 00PEw ith AC ad aptersuppl ied is shown.' 199.95 (+'8 UPS).

VISIT UNIVERSAL RADIO ON THE INTERNETwww.unlversal-radlo.com

Prices and specs. are subject to change. Returns subject to a 15% restocking fee. Used equipment list available on request.

Shortwave ReceiversPast & Present 3rd Edit.

This huge 473 page guidecove rs over 770 receiversfr om 98 manufac turer s ,made from 1942-1997. Entryinformat ion includes: re -ceiver type . date sold, photo -graph. size & weig ht, fea-tures, reviews, spe c ifica-tions. new & used values,var iants, value rating & avail-ability . With 120 new pages.Become an instant rece iver expert! Passport To World Band Rad ioGraphic presentation of all shortwave broadcast stations.Equipment reviews. too . 560 Pages! "'000 ' 19.95 (+'2) Pas sport To Web Rad io New Second Edition!Hear the wor1d a new way - on your PC! With gettingstarted info. and 1550 station listings. '2152 ' 19.95 (+'2) World Radio TV HandbookAll shortwave broadcast stations organized by country withschedules, addresses, powe r, etc. '2000 ' 24.95 (+'2) Pirate Rad io By A Yoder With audio CD!Here is the incredible saga of America's underground illegalbroadcasters (with audio CD). "3038 ' 29.95 (+'2) Worldwide Aeronau tica l Frequency Dlr . By R. EvansThe definitive guide to comme rcial and military , HF andVHF-UH F aeron autica l communica tions in c lud ingACARS. Second Edition. 260 Pages. "0042 ' 19.95 (+'2) Understanding ACARS. By E. Flynn Third EditionLearn the ACARS aeronautical format. '0012 'g.95 (+'2)

... Pleaseadd ' 2 per title for surface shipping.

ICF-SC1PCThe new Sony ICF-SC1PC scanner covers 25 to 1300 MHz(less cellular) in AM. FM-W and FM-N modes. It has a 300channel memory plus everything you need to command andcontrol the scanner from your Windows 95 computer. It has abi-direct ional PC interface with search and control capabili ties .A specia l RS-232 serial cab le (069) is completely assembledand ready to plug into your PC and scann er. A clamp fill er tominimize RFI is thoughtfully supplied. The sophisticatedWindows 95 program on CD puts you in complete control of thescanne r. All major con trol func tions are supported including:scanning options ,direct tunin g. skip function, unlimited memo-ries. unlimited skip prefe rence files and import/export capabil-ity. You can even search the nat ionwide frequency databaseof 3 mill ion records supplied on the included CD-ROM . A verycool radial Order #1574 ' 319_95 (+'7 UPS)Universal is also your authorized dealer for the exciting line ofSony worldband radios. Our extensive new catalog #98-06includes ten pages covering all Sony shortwave radios!

SONY

and transmitte rs. This building lies in thecenter of the site. transmission lines runningout in many directions to the antennas erectedalong the borders of the site. A combination ofantennas is used. including a dipole curtain.log periodi cs, and doublc-rhombics. A total offourteen 50 and 100 kW Continental andHarris transmitters are used. including theli ve Sci tuate transmitters. Although many ofthese transmi tters are on for lip to 14 hours aday. WYFR is able to maintain and repairthem so that the station call broadcast itsex tensive lineup.

Keep in mind tha t Okeechobee is WY FR' stransmitter facil ity only. T he station' s Chris-tian programs are produced in Oakland. Cali-fornia. ami then sent to Florida .

There arc some interest ing aspects to trans-mitti ng fro m South Florida. Power drop-outscan be

WYFR Broadcasting Schedule

GORDON WESTHAM TEST PREP TAPES

BOOKS'SOFTWARE'VIDEOS

For English see English l.onguoge5horlwove Guide, p. 39

Source: WYFRwebsite http://www.framilrodioocomTimes a nd frequencies con be expected to va ry for winter season.

... PALOMAR'

.....

BOX 462222, ESCONDIDO. CA 92046TEL: 760-747-3343 FAX : 760747-3346

e-mail : palomaro ccmpuserve .com

Prepare for your ham lest with -GordoW86NOA as your personal instructor.THE THEQRY on audio cassettesNo- Code Technician (4 tapes) $19.95General Class (2 tapes) $ 9.95Advanced Class (4 tapes) $19.95Amateur Extra Class (4 tapes) $19.95THE CODE on audio cassettesLeaming CW (6 tapes) $29.95General Class CW (6 tapes) $29.95Extra Class CW (6 tapes) $29.95STUDY MANUALS by "Gordo"No-Code Technician (2&3A) $12.9General Class (3B) $ 9.9Advanced Class (4A) $11.Extra Class (4B) __ $11.9IBM SOFTWARE with manualNo-Code Technician (2&3A) $29.95Generat Class (3B) Code $29.95Advanced Class (4A) Code $29.95Extra Class (46 ) + Code $29.95Morse Software Only $ 9.95!lJ..D..EJ2 with manualNo-Code Tech Video Course ..... $29.95

Add $3.00 shipping charge 3 Day ServiceVISA, MasterCard , Discove r & AMEX Accepted

Improves shortwave recepllon. Cuts over1oad & crossmod from local AM

and TV/FM stations. 20 dB gain or attenuator. Low /Hlghpass

filt ers.Mod el PA-360 (lor 12v DC) .... S89.95

+ $6 S&H. Tax in Calif.Mod el PS-90 AC Adapter $9.95

~ [ VISA)~ Send for FREE c.N1og

The W5YI Group, Inc.P.O. Box 565101' Dallas ,TX 75356

ca. To41 "'.. 1-800-669-9594

Mod el ML6-1 $49.95+ $6 S&H. Tax in Calif.

Use coa xial cab le froman tenna to receiverfor less no ise.

Matches ante nna to coa xfor more signal strength.

Stat ic charges go 10ground , not through the radio.

For 500 KHz to 30 MHz.

11 55011 550

13695,1 5170156652152513710

9625, 1197015255

1000-11002300-0100

Hindi to IndiaOO0 1 001510-1610

Arabic0500-06001600-17001700-1 8001800-1900

French to Europe ond Africo060Qe07oo 9355, 13695, 151701800-1 900 15600, 17750, 2152520002100 17750, 21725

Chinese language to China2100-OO 6300,928011 02-1602 6300, 9280

French to lesser Antilles

French to CanadaUK Freqs kHz11 00-1 200 95051200-1 300 136952300-OO 608510001100 9625, 119702300-0100 15255

Portuguese to Africa0400-0500 151701900-2000 21525

Portuguese to Brazil0800-0900 9605, 117700900-1000 6175,9605,9625, 11 7702200-2300 15130

2300-OO 17725OO-0100 15130, 17725, 178050100-0200 17725

Italian to Europeand N. Africa06000700 7520, 115800700-0800 93551800-1 900 157152100-2200 15715, 17555

Spanish to South America0800 1000 9550, 11 8551000-1100 6175,9500, 118551100 1200 9370, 136952300-0100 15215,17750,178450100-0200 17750

Russia n to Europe and AfricaUK Freqs kHz0300-0400 7355, 93550400-0500 93551505 1705 995517001800 15600,177502200-2300 15695-1 5715

Spanish to Europe22002300 15695, 15715

German to Europe a nd Africa0300-0400 99850400-0500 7355, 1158005000600 7355, 93551700-1800 156651900-2000 7555,157150600-0700 9355, 13695,151701800-1 900 15600, 17750,215252000-2100 17750, 21725

Spa nish to Caribbean1000-11 00 60851100-1300 6085, 119701300-1400 60852200-0100 598501000300 5985, 152550300-0500 5985

Spanish to Mexico and Central America1100-1200 9605, 117251200-1400 11725, 15130,151 451400 1500 151302200-OO 11740oooo-rsoo 9715,11815OSOO-06OO 9705, 118151000-1100 608511 00-1300 6085, 1197013001400 60852200-0100 59850100-0300 5985, 1525503000500 5985

October 1998 MONITORING TIMES 17

CryptographyTheSecret Language 01 Spies

By Dan Veeneman

"2 3 18 7 46 982 ... 6 9335 ...15 948

If you' ve listened to shortwave for anylength of time you've probably run acrossthem. A mysterious voice announcing along series of numbers, perhaps destined forsome unknown spy in a foreign land. AI~though shrouded in secrecy. these numbersare assumed to be some kind of encryptedmessage, making sense only after being de-coded by some clandestine listener.

Cryptography is thescienceof securecom-munication in the presence of adversaries. Inany encryption system, the message to besent,called the plaintext. is encrypted in someway to produce cipher/ext. which is thentransmitted. Encryption systems typically re-quire a secret piece of information, called akey. in order to scramble the message. On thereceiving end, the key is used to decrypt theciphertext and produce the original plaintext.Should the ciphertextbe intercepled.aneaves-dropper would be unable to decrypt it withoutthe proper key, even if the encryption methodwas know n.

Despite the lack of concrete details abo utthese mysterious numbers stations. over theyears it has been assumed that the numbersare really messages encrypted using a one-lime pad .

One-Time Pad

The only provably secure cry ptographicsystem was created by Gilbert Vem am in1917, who originally developed it to protectelectronically transmitted messages. His in-vention automatically enciphered individualcharacters as they were entered into a tele-typewriter as well as automatically decipher-ing them at the receiving end. This kind ofcharacter-by-character encryption is called astream cipher, and Vemarn' s particular

Plaintext1

Key- I Encryption IProcess1 1

Ciphertext

1Key- D ecr y p tio n :,'Pr ocess

1Plaintext

method is unbreakable if used correc tly. Hisinvention is now referred to as the one-timepad cryptosystem, and has been exte nded 10both manual and computerized operations.

TIle key in a one-time pad system is a seriesof random numbers. Vernam' s invention usedlong strips of paper tape, but in the manualversion of the system numbers are printed onsmall pads of paper that are easily concealed.Each sheet of paper in Ihe pad is used onlyonce , then discarded and permanently de-stroyed. (It has been reported that the CentralIntelligence Agency has a special type ofpaper that turns into chewing gum when itcontacts salivu.) There are two cop ies of theone time pad: the person wishing to send amessage and the intended recipient both haveident ical pads.

. An ExampleWith all that in mind. let ' s take a look at a

contrived example.

Spy headquarters is preparing 10 send anoperative out into the field . During trainingthe op"erative learned that most cryptographicsystems involve mathematical ope rations,where it' s much easier to deal with numbersthan letters. Spy HQ has established a simplecodi ng scheme where each letter of'thd alpha-bet is assigned a number. The letter -A has avalue of I, the leller B has a value of 2, and soon up toZ, which has a value of 26 (see TableI ).

Table I: Letter-number pairings,!&!m!: ValueA 1B 2C 3Z 26

In addition to a false passport and somelocal currency, the opera tive is issued a smallpad of pape r with a series of random lettersprinted on each page. Thi s one-time pad con-tains the keys for the operative to decryptmessages that will be seru in the future, SpyHQ keeps an identical copy of the pad. Sometime passes and the operative becomes activein the target country. occas ionally listening toshortwave radio for any messages that may bedestined for him.

At some point Spy HQ wishes to send amessage instructing him to purchase a par-ticular magazine. Using the letter-to-numbercon version table, Spy HQ converts the phraseMONITORING TIMES into the numbers 131514 09 2015 18 09 14072009130519(ski pping the space). Th is is the plaintextmessage.

To encrypt the message Spy HQ will use apage from the one-time pad. For this examplewe'll say the next page of the pad has the keySEC RET LIST ENERS written on it, although

in practi ce the key would be a ra ndom stringo f numbers . Again ignoring spa ces, SECRETLISTENERS is enco ded as 19 05 03 1805 20120919 20 05 1405 18 19.

The sim ples t encryption method is to addthe plaintext number to the corres pondi ng keynumber for each le iter in the messag e (seeFigurc 1,1.

13 15 1409 20 15 18 09 14072009 13 05 19MONITORI NG TIMES19 05 03 18 0520 12 09 19 2005 14 05 18 19SECRET LISTENERS

32 20 17 27 25 35 30 18 332725 23 1823 38

FIGURE 1: Adding each plaintext /lI1I1/-ber to the corresponding key number.

Sin ce the le tter encoding sc he me only goesup to 26, Spy HQ "w raps around" the sumsthat exc eed 26 by subtracting 26 and using thedifference (see Figure 2 ). This ope ration isca lled taki ng the modulus and is done in manysituations invol ving co unting. (For instance,the re arc twelve hours on the face of a normaldock, and afte r reachi ng 12we "wrap around"and continue counting at I . T his is ca lledtak ing the hour "modulo 12." )

32 20 1727 25 3530 18 33 272523 18 23 38-~_-:12 -,22:12 _ .:12-:12 -:1206 20 1701 250904 18 07 01 2523 18 23 12

FIGURE 2: Takil/g the addition resultmodulo 26.

13 15 14-17 20-1108 09- 12-19 20 b9 13 05 -07+26 " _+2Q_+2Q+~_+22+~":" +2213 15 14 09 20 15'18 09 1407 20 09 13 05 12

FIGURE 4: Taking the diff erence modulo26.

Thi s gives th e operat ive thc originalplaintex t message of MO NITOR ING TIMES.

An eavcsdroppcr listen ing to the same short-wav e statio n would have just the number s 0620 17 0 I 25 09 04 18 07 0 1 25 23 18 23 12.spelling FrQ AYJDRG AYWRWL. lf Sp y HQand the operat ive arc fo llowing all the ru les tomai ntain sec ur ity, the best the eavesdroppe rcan do is tryout every po ssib le key. Thi smethod is callcdb ruteforce decryption, but inacne-time pad sys tem wh ere the key is as lo ngas the message , even that drastic step wo n'thelp . Th e eavesdropper. in fact. will en d upwith all possibl e so lutions.

For example, decrypting FTQA YIDRG AYWRWL us ing the key NSN VVHLYTLKCJKM produce s th e resuli RAC ECA RS MO NTHLY and the ke yRSWRJUC FMZECFRT will produce NA-TIONAL TATILER. both of which makese nse but neither of which are correct. Sinceany key in a secure one-time pad is equallylikely, the ea vesdropper has no hope of deter-mi nin g the tru e plaintext using bru te for ce.

Keeping it SecureIn order for a on e-time pad system to

remain sec ure, seve ral rules mu st be fol low ed :

Example One-TIme Pad481 73 1 98 3 9 90 183518 3 4 00 182 478650 1 98 3 4 73 6260120 98754

First , the contents 01" the one- lime pad smust be kept secre t. Thi s is fairl y ob vious. butimportant. Anyone di scoveri ng the pad s. ifthey didn ' t shoot the owner on sight for beinga spy, could make a copy of the pad anddecr yp t the messag es themsc lves.lntclligenceand law en force ment age nc ies routin ely per -form " blac k bag job s" to cove rtly break in andsteal keys used by embassies, corporations,and eve n private individuals. This is probablythe mo st damagin g situatio n fo r the one- timepad user, since the only thing worse than nosec uri ty is a false se nse of sec urity.

Second, the pad s mu st not be re used. T wo-lime pad s arc not math em at ica lly secure, andin fact the reuse of pad s a llowed the Nat ionalSec ur ity Agency (NSA ) to hreak tho usands ofSoviet KGB andGRU messag es in the 1940' s.

Third. the co nte nts o f the pad s mu st beunpred ictab le . Regard less of whet her the spykeep s the pad s a sec ret and doesn ' t re usethem. if the number s a rc somehow predictableit would be the eq uiva lent of the adve rsaryhaving their ow n copy of the pad. Nu me rousmodern software program s that offer "on e-tim e pad s" ha ve this weakne ss - thc ir methodo f creating " ra ndom" number s is etten pre-

So Spy HQ 's encoded message is 06 20 170 1 250904 1807 0 1 2523 18 2312 (theno nse nsi ca l FTQ A Y IDRGA YWRWL).which is tran smitted over the air at a timewhen the operative is sc heduled to be listen -ing.

On the rece iving end the operati ve uses theide nt ica l key from his one-time pad to recoverthe message . Each key va lue is subtrac tedfrom the corres ponding c iphe rtex t kiter toproduce the plaintext (sce Figure 3) .

06 20 17 01 2509 04 1807 01 2523 18 23 1212Q>!l:ll.l!Q.l2QUQ2122!lQ2HQ.ll.l! .l2 13 15 14-17 20-11-0809-12-192009 1305 -07

FIGURE 3: Decoding the received mes-sage by subtraction.

'l-..t.~~~ UNIVERSAL SC50:+.~ SUBCARRIER-FM2 AUDIO RECEIVER

RECEIVE ALL FM2 AND AUDIOSUBCARRIERS-100 kHz to 9 MHz

Full featured audio services, music, all sports, talk shows. news, religious prog ramming, majorradio stations, variety, public radio plus many other services , no lees. The SC-50 audio scbcamerreceiver will wo rk with all home sateune systems, a-minute hookup, simple and quick 10tune , 16charac ter display, 50-channel memory ban k, dtrecttrequency readout, covers all FM2 and audiosubcamer channels, hundreds 01 tree programmin g channels.

FOR INTRODUCTORY PRICE CALL: 1 - 614 - 866-4605Th e va lues that fall be low I arc " wra ppedaround.. to :.J posi tive va lue by addi ng 26

dictablc. allowing a snoop to reproduce thekey and decode messages.

Randomness

Digital Signatures vvithPublic K e y C ryptography

Alice BobDo these numbers seem random and un-

predictable: 2 12. 198. 216. 32. 175. IOO? Ifyou think so. you don't com mute on Interstate95 north of Washington. D.C. These are theMaryland route numbe rs. in order. of the exitsoff nortbbound 1-95 after leaving the D.C.beltway. They may look random . but they arevery predictable once you know the pattern.

It' s surp rising ly difficu lt to generate rea llyunpredictable numbers . For those of you whomay be planning to use the random numberfunction availab le in most programming lan-guages for cryptography, please think again.Just like the Maryland route num bers. theoutput from these functions look random butare predictable and repeatable.In fact.a coupleof years agoa serious weakness in Nctscapc ' sweb browser was revea led after researchersdiscovered the random number generator usedin the browser was very weak . Th is weakn esswould have allowed eavesdroppers to easilydecode protected web connections, includingthe details of any financial transactions.

Key LengthIn a secure one-time pad sys tem the key

must be as long as the message. If you want tosend a messagecon taining two thousand char-acters. you need a key that is also 2,000characters long. If you want to encrypt acomput er file that is two megabytes (2 millioncharacters )with a one-time pad. you will needa key that is also two megabytes. If you wantto protect a digital video signal that carrieshund reds of thousands ofcharacters eac h sec-ond. you probably won't use a one-time pad.Creating. delivering . and secu ring large keysis a very di fficu lt problem. limiting true one-time pad systems to very specific uses , such asclandestine operatives in foreign countries.

For the rest of us. practical limits on theamount of key infonnation we ca n handlenecessitate the use of other encryption sys-tems. In block: ciphers the key length is muchless than the length of the message. and is usedin a different way . The plaintext message isbroken up into small pieces called blocks. andeach block is encrypted hy the key. There area wide variety of bloc k ciph ers that operat e indifferent ways . but as a general rule the smallerthe key the less secure :'IIlYmessage encry ptedwith that key will be.

Keys in modern cryptographic systems aremeasured hy the number of bits they cont ain.A bit is the smallest unit of informat ion. either

20 MONITORING TIMES October ' 998

Pl a i n tex t

Digest

AliCl!! 'sPrivate Message

Kl!!y Digest

I IIEncryption I

:;.~;c ~IEncryption I

ICiPhelrtext

a 0 or a I. The Data Encryption Standa rd(DES). a popular cipher. uses keys that are 56bits long, allowing approximately 72 quadril -lion (72.057,594.037.927.936) possible keys.As we' II sec. this isn 't nearly enough. Skip-jac k, a cipher invented inside the NSA andclassifi ed secret until very recently, uses 80bit keys . The International Data EncryptionAlgoritbm (IDEA) uses keys that are 128 bitslong. Other ciphers of varyi ng streng th andco mplex ity exist as well, each with their ownkey lengths. All other things being equal, oneadd itional bit doubles the amount of worknecessary to brute force a solution.

The United States gove rnment considerscryp togra phy to bean implement of war. andclosely controls the export of strong cry ptog-raphy , Until recently, ciphers using more than40 bits of key were usually den ied exportpennits with the j ustifica tion that such sys-tems were too difficult for the gove rnment tocrack and would therefore jeopardize nationa lsecuri ty. Even 56-bi t DES has been deniedexpo rt in manycircumstances. despite its avail-abi lity ove rseas. In addition. domestic lawenforce mentrepresen tatives have been wring-ing their hands in public. fretting that thewides pread use of strong cryptography wouldrender their wiretaps useless and frustratethe ir investigative efforts. In an effort to con -vince law makers of the dan gers of strongcryptography. the Federal Bureau of lnvesti-gation (FBI) has testified before Congressnumerous times about the imposs ibility ofcracking encry pted messages protected bycipher systems such as DES.

Digest

DES Cracking

The Data Encryption Standa rd (DES) is aFederal Information Processing Sta ndar d(FiPS) approved by the Natio nal Bureau ofStan dards (now the National lnsritutc of'Stan-dards and Technology. NIST) in 1977. In theintervening decades it has been scrutinized bynumerou s expe rts in cryptogra phy, none ofwhom have found a sig nificant weakness inits fundamental design. What is weak is theinadequate size of the key.

As mentioned above . brute force crackingis the proces s of decrypting a message usingevery poss ible key to find the one that works.To motivate practical research. in 1997 acompany named RSA Data Security offered aprize for cracking a message encryp ted usingDES. Hundreds of volunteers ran customizedkey search software in their spare time onava ilable computers. exchanging results andpassing key inform ation over the Internet.The message was broken afte r five mon ths ofeffort across several thousand computers. Atthe beginning of this yea r the prize was of-fered again with a different message. and animproved searc h method yielded the key inonly 39 days. aga in broken by a group effortof thousands of co mputers coordinated overthe Internet.

A third challenge was broken in July by theElectronic Frontier Fou ndation (EFF), whoused a single custom-bui lt machine to crackthe code in less than three day s. For wel l under$250.000 the EFF had buill a "DES Crac ker"from a personal compu ter and an array of

Listening Post- The Advanced Scanning SolutionListening Post 1.5 - Scanner Control Software~~~~"~\!tI"0 1 Features:n I , Easy to use Explorer-type0 0 " - ' . , ,, ..., , ,"" t. ...... , ... .... ,. '" .... t._ .....

. ""::::::,:::... .. , , ,......" ". '''''' Jl;i inlerface, , ...,.. ... WSlrn~ ...." LJ" ...~< 0 . ~~'.::~~.. Full featured scheduler.. .","',....., ,,:".. "''' ''''.''' 0

Advanced reporting engine " ' "" , ..." D ." "" d '-"""",,, " ~ .....,.. ~,, ~

",!j " .. . . . " ....,_. ". ~ ..._ _ ,,,,,h ~ , database. .....'~ '''. or " " " '.Il :,. . , ,, ... ...... c t.. .. ~ -..-",,'",,""'" "" .. 1.'. 1T.t; - '....,- ~ '~_ r.,..... ~" ,.- "".. ," , I Full 32-biI multitasking for high. 11",. '. " ' " '''' ~ ",,,. "To

Now u csBe Told-

and TouredA Look Inside the SecretCongressional Cold War

Hideout

By Jesse A. FinkelsteinThe five-star Greenbrier Resort proved Gil effective cover for a retreat ofa muclidifferent sort.

Entry from the hotel to the "Exhibition Hall." Note tile mu lti-layered cons tructionof the doorway, which allowed the facility to be secured by a massive multi-toil steeldoor.

White Sulphu r Springs. West Vir-g inia. has long been the home ofthe 6500 acre Greenbrier Resort. alive star resort known for its golf courses.tennis courts. exe rcise faciliti es and fine food.However . until only a few years ago. on ly asmall number o f security-cleared indi vid ua lswere aware that the hotel also served as asupport facil ity for a giant sec ret undergroundcomplex intended to house the entire U. S.Con gre ss in the event of nuclear. biological or

chemi cal war. Follo win g the 1995 decommi s-sioning of the facility. code named " ProjectGreek Island: " it is now possible to tour thisimp ortant piece of co lt! war history an rJ under-stand the critical comm unic ations functi onthat it \'\ '; \S intended to pro vide .

Projec t Greek Island begun as the idea ofPre-ern Eisenh ower. a frequent visitor to theGreenb rier. The ICJ5 X federa l budge t co n-rained a $ 15 millio n entry for "Projec t GreekIsland " without further ide ntifi cation. Con-

xtruction of the sec re t faci lity. whic h is thesize of two football fields distri buted amongthree levels. took place over a three yearperiod beginning in 1958. The building act iv-ity was disgui sed as construc tio n o f a largeexh ihition hall and underground storage fac il-ity for the ho tel.

A portion of the completed structure was infact used for cor porate exh ibition activitiesfor a number of years. This area . whic h had a20 fool high ceiling. would ha ve been filledwith desks and offi ce eq uipment for cong res-sional staffers in the event of all emergency .Co nstruc tion was deliberately stretched outove r a period of time. using do zens o f workersin discrete team s to co mplete small port ion sof the project in ord er to limi t the num ber ofpeop le \1/110 were awa re of the entire facility.

Project Greek lslund was built under-moun-tainous te rrai n. with all porti on s between 53anll 9:? feet underground. Desp ite the effo rtsto make the she lter as bombproof as possible.it is unlik ely it woul d have survived a blastc lose r than seven mile s aw ay.

When secured in " lockdown " mode. Projec tGreek Island could hold 1.100 peo ple. includ-ing the entire membership of the U.S. Co n-gress and their senior support staffs. Supplieson hand cou ld sustain this gro up for a period01' 30 to 60days. To protect against attack. the\".'a lls consisted of six foot pour ed concrete.with three foo t thick concrete fl oors and ceil-ings. Four large door s protected access , thelargest of them weighing 25 tons. with 18 tonhinges. Despi te its weight, this door was ba l-anced so as to req uire on ly two pound s of

22 MONITORING TIMES October ' 998

Dralce R88verl

The shortwave industry's most popu lar rece ive r has beenupgrad ed to includ e selectable-sideband synchronou s detect ion .

increased scanning speed, and 1000 mem ory channe ls ! Th e DrakeR8B additionally offers excellent audio. frequency agility ( 100

kHz-3D MHz. expandable 10 33- 55 and 108- 174 MH z withoptional co nvener) . friendly co ntro l panel . noise

b lanker, passband tuning. preamp/att enuatorselect ion. universa l power supply. dua l clock

time rs. giant d isp lay . five filter band width s.six receivi ng modes. single-keypress mode

and band wid th se lectio n. alpha- nume ricdisplay of station ide ntification. o verloa d

immunity. tone co ntrol. tight frequencystability. RS 232 co mputer con tro l. and more !

01'.. .

The R8B is internationallyrespected (IS the bestreceiver in its class.

onDER Rev j (DrakeRSB)$1 15995* Pleaseadd $202ndDay UPSor USPriorityMall.,

Luxury listeningon abur/get

ACCESSORIES:PWA04 12 VDC/800 rnA Power Supply $14.95

ORDER SPK 13 (SP-200B Sound Enhancer)$19995 PleaseaddS1 0 2nd Day UPSor US Priority Mall.

Aud io activated squelch

Noise limiter

ohms)Aodio am plifier