The Red Cross's Telecommunications

Television DXing MT Interviews Espionage Author James Bamford

Review of the Sony SWI

- SATELLIT 650 INTERNATIONAL - THE EAR TO THE WORLD ..

Exclusive Licensee & Distributor of Gruncl1g AG in USA Lextronix. Inc. PO. Box 2307 tvlenlo Park, CA 94026 Tel. (415) 361- 1611 Toll free No. 1 (800) 872-2228

Top Class World Receivers with German Technology Microconputer controlled PLL-frequenc;-synthesizer luring fo r AM and FM. Direct fre-q uency key-in for all wove bo nds wth automatic follow-up preselectorond three-stage fading control for AM. Short W o ve covering 1.6- 30.0MHz. Dooble superhet for exception -a l selectivity and image rejec-tion, switchable SSB/BFO sec-tion !adoptable to USB/LSBI. AC 11 0-240V, 50/60 Hz, DC-opera tion 9V w ith batteries or externol power supply.

6RUnDl6

Inside this Issue

Published by: Grove Enterprises

Publisher: Bob Grove. WA4PYO

Editor: Larry Miller

Technical Editor: Ike Kerschner

Deslgn and Producllon: Rachel Baughn

Subscriber Services: Linda Newton

Advertising and Dealerships: Judy Grove

Boadcasting Down Under by Dave Rosenthal 6 G'day, mate. First it was Paul Hogan pitching vacations and "shrimp on the barbie." Then it was Crocodile Dundee and the bicentennial celebrations "Down Under." Everything about Australia is up-beat. Except their international shortwave station. It's struggling. Dave Rosenthal reports from Radio Australia.

Live and Let Live by Jack Buzby 12 Most SW listeners are aware of the broadcasts of the International Committee of the Red Cross, but not so many hobbyists are aware of their extensive two-way communications network. And the Red Cross would pefer it stayed that way!

TV DX Season is Here! by John F_ Combs 14 You're watching TV. Sudenly, a strange herringbone pattern fills the screen. And your local station disappears, replaced by the crystal clear image of a TV station halfway across the count1y. That's right. It's TV DX time again and John Combs shares the excitement.

Whizbang and Wireless! by Don Jensen 18 There was a time, long ago and seemingly far away, when radio was something truly wonderous. Boys with the right knowledge and a few cents for parts could construct working radios and end up saving sinking ships, warning towns about impending floods and generally making the world a better place. It 's all in a day's work for The Radjo Boys.

Code Name: Esquire an interview with James Bamford by Jock Elliott 20 Numbers stations. Their purpose and origin have been a puzzle to shortwave listeners for over 25 years. Monjtorjng Times continues to unravel this enigma with an exclusive interview with James Bamford, the author of the best-selling espionage expose, The Puzzle Palace.

Flying with MAMA by Rachel Baughn 22 MT's production manager takes a once-in -a -lifetime flight!

DEPARTMENTS Letters Communications International DX Report - Glenn Hauser Uroaclcast Loggings - Gayle van Horn Scanning the Nation . Bob Kay Utility World - Larry Van Horn The Federal File - Dave Jones Domestic Broadcasting - Paul Swearingen High Seas - James R. Hay On the Ham Bands - Ike Kerschner Outer Li mits - John Santosuosso

3 F requency Section 4 Day to Day Shortwave

24 "Ask Uou" 26 Magne Tests ... the Sony ICF-SW1 - Larry Magne 28 Equipment: Metrowest Scanner Charger 30 What's New 36 Helpful Hints 38 Antenna Topics -Clem Small 40 Technical Top ics - Terry Staudt 42 Experimenters \Vorkshop: Nondlrectlonal Antenna 44 Stock Exchange

47 70 76 78 80 82 84 86 88 90 94

COMING IN JUNE: Take a first-hand trip with Don Moore (originally promised for this issue) to a station deep inside Guatemala. Get that scanner ready for a little fine-tuning as Bob Kay tells you how to develop a professional monitoring style. And MI. reveals, for the firs t time, the actual location of yet another spy numbers station! It 's in the US!

MONITORING TIMES (ISSN 0889-5341) is published monthly for $16 per year by Grove Enterprises. Inc .. PO Box 98, Brasstown. NC 28902 (ph.1-704-837-9200). Second class postage paid at Brasstown. NC, and additional malling offices. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Monitoring Times, PO Box 98, Brasstown, NC 28902.

ON THE COVER: Picture Auslralla: Superimposed on the Australian grasslands are (clockwise from upper left) Sydney Harbor reaturlng the Opera House: the Greal Seal of Australia In bronze and marble; Solar Spectrohellograph antenna at Culgoora Radio Observatory: close-up of an emu In the wild; 85' diameter radio telescope on rails at Culgoora. Photos by Dave Rosenthal.

d *** Uniden CB Radios *** U n I e n @ The Un/den line of Citizens Band Radio transceivers is styled to compliment other mobile audio equipment. Uniden CB radios are so reliable that they have a two year limited warranty. From the feature packed PRO 8 lOE to the 3 1 OE handheld, there is no better Citizens $12,000,000 Scanner Sale

U nid en Corporation of America has pur chased the consu mer products line o f R~ g e n cy Electronics Inc. for abou t $12,000,000. T o cele bra te t his purchase, we' re having o ur la rgest scanner sale in history! Use the coupo n in th is ad for big savings. Hurry ... otter e nds July 3 1 , 1988.

***llONEYSAVING COUPON*** Get special savings on the scanners listed In this coupon. This coupon must be included with your prepaid order. Credit cards, personal checks and quan tity discounts are excluded from this offer. Oller valid only on prepaid orders malled directly to Communications Elec-tronics Inc. P.O. Box 1045 -Dept. UN/2, Ann Arbor, Michigan481061045 U.S.A. Hurry ... coupon expires July 31, 1988. Coupon may not be used in conjunction with any other ofter from CE/. Limit one coupon per scanner. Add S 7.00 /or ship-ping in the continental U.S.A. Regency T S2 SA2 . .. $269.95 Regency T S1SA2 ...... $ 199.95 Regency INF1 -SA2 ..... $ 139.95 Regen cy INF2SA2 ..... $159.95 Regency INF3SA2 ..... $ 11 9.95 Rege ncy I NF5SA2 ..... $109.95 Bearcat 200XL TSA2 ... $262 .95 Bearcet 1 OOXL TSA2 . .. $1 B9 .95 Beercat BOO X L TSA2 . $249 .95 Bearcat 21 OXL TSA2 . . $177 .95 Beercet 70XL TSA2 .. $ 154.95

****VALUABLE COUPON****

NEW! Bearcatt 760XL TSA3 List price $499.95/CE price $279 .95/SPECI AL 12-S.nd, 100 Channel CrystallH AC/ DC Frequency range: 2954, 118 174, 406512, 806956 MHz. Excludes 823.9875849.0 I 25 and 868.9875-894.0125 MHz. The Bearcaf 760XLT has 100 programmable chan-nels organized as five c hannel banks for easy use, and 12 bands of coverage including the 800 MHz. band. The Bearcaf 760XL T mounts neatly under the dash and connects directly to fuse block or battery. The unit also has an AC adaptor, flip down stand and telescopic antenna for desk top use. 6 5 /1 6" W x 1'19" H x7'1ii" D. Model BC580XLTSAis a similar version without the 800 MHz. band for only $219.95.

SALE! Regency TS2-SA List price $499.95/CE pri ce $309.95/SPECIA L 12-Band, 75 Channel Crystalless AC/DC Frequency range: 2954, 118 175, 406512, 806950 MHz. The Regency TS2 scanner lets you monitor Military, Space Satellites, Government, Railroad, J ustice Department, State Department, Fish & Game, Immigration. Marine, Police and Fire Depart ments, Aeronautical AM band, Paramedics, Am ateur Radio, plus thousands of other radio fre-quencies most scanners can't pick up. The Regency TS2 features new 40 channel per second Turbo Scan so you wont miss any of the action. Model T S1 SA is a 35 channel version of this radio without the BOO MHz. band and costs only $239.95. Regency RH256B-SA List price $799.95/CE price $329.95/SPECIA L 15 Channel 25 Watt Transcellfer Priority The Regency RH256B is a sixteen-channel VHF land mobile transceiver designed to cover any frequency between 150 to 162 MHz. Since this radio is synthesized, no expensive crystals are needed to store up to 16 frequencies without battery backup. All radios come w ith CTCSS tone and scanning capabilities. A monitor and nighVday switch is also standard. This transceiver even has a priority lune ti on. The RH256 makes an ideal radio for any police or fire department volunteer because of its low cost and high performance. A 60 Watt VHF 150-162 MHz. version called the RH606BSA is available for $429.95. A UHF 15 watt, 1 O c hannel version o f t his radio called the RU150 BSA is also available and covers 450482 MHz. but the cost is $419.95.

Band radio on the market today. PR031 OESA Unidon 40 Ch. Ponable/ Mobile CB ... $85.95 PR0330ESA Un1don 40 Ch. Remote mount CB . . . $109.95 NINJA SA PR0310E wi1h rechargeable battery pack.S99.95 B10-SA 1.2V AA Nicad balleryfor Nin1a(se1of10) .. . S20.95 KARATE SA Un.don 40 channel rescue radio ..... S69.95 PR0510XLSA Un.don 40 channel CB Mobile ..... $49.95 PR0520XLSA Unldon 40 channel CB Mobile ..... $59.95 PR0540ESA Un.den 40 channel CB Mobile . . ... S 119.95 PR0640ESA Unidon 40 channel SSBCB Mobile ... S 159.95 PR0710ESA Uniden 40 channel CB Base ....... $119.95 PR081 OESA Un.don 40 channel SSBCB Base ... $179.95 *** Uniden Radar Detectors*** Buy the finest Uniden radar detectors from CEI today. RD7SA Unidon visor mount radar detector ...... $109.95 RD9SA Un/don "Passpon" size radar detector ... $129.95 RD9XLSA Unidon "micro" size radar de1ecto1 . $159.95 RD25SA Unidon visor mount radar detector . ... . . $59.95 RD500SA Unlden visor mount radar detector .. . .. $79.95

NEW! Bearcat 200XL TSA List price $509.95/CE price $299.95 12-Bend, 200 Channel BOO MH1t. Hendheld S.erch Limit Hold Pri ority Lockout Frequency range: 2954, 7f8174, 4065 7 2, 806956 MHz. Excludes 823.98 75849.0 725 and 868.9875-894.0125 MHz. The Bearcaf 200XL T sets a new standard for hand held scanners in performance and dependability. This full featured unit has 200 programmable channels w ith 20 scanning banks and 12 band coverage. If you want a very similar model without the 800 MHz. band and 100 c hannels, order the BC 1 OOXL TSA3 for only $199.95. Includes antenna, carrying case with bell loop, ni-cad battery pack, AC adapter and earphone. Order your scanner now.

Bearcat BOO XL TSA List price $549.95/CE prlc e$259. 95/SPECIAL 12-Band, 40 Channel No-crystal scanner Priority control Search/Sca n AC/ DC Bands: 2954, 118 174, 406512, 806912 MHz. The Uniden 800XL T receives 40 channels in two banks. Scans 15 channels per second. Size 91'

Touching on a Touchy Subject The proliferation of religious

broadcasters on the shortwave bands has always been a topic that can easily create an all-night discussion among DXers. On one hand, they have the same right to be on shortwave as anyone else. On the other hand, being well-funded, they inevitably are pow-erful, band-blanketing operations that wipe out more challenging DX catches.

And who, we often ask, has ever truly been "saved" by listening to DX Party Line on HCJB? Or after listen-ing to one of Harold Camping's end-less Biblical monologues on WYFR? We'll probably never know the answer to those questions. What we did learn was that Monitoring Times has now matured to the point where it can handle such delicate questions in a fair, unbiased way.

Robert Molloy Washington, DC

Ken MacHarg's article [on Voices of Faith] was darned interesting. From the cover, I thought it might be a "hatchet job," yet another mindless attack on religious stations. Then when I read the author's name, -- Rev-erend Ken MacHarg -- l thought it might be biased the other way. I was please to find it quite objective and very interesting.

[Withheld by request] Johnson, Texas

I was rather happy to see that the lead article in your March issue was on religious stations. For sometime I had seen Monitoring Times as a rather soul-less publication, content to simply ignore those broadcasters that preached the word of God. It was refreshing to see that you had changed your course! Your souls will thank you when you meet your maker.

Robert Kimes Coatesville, Pennsylvania

There is a word of warning worth mentioning about religious stations. That warning is that there will come a time when religious stations wi ll dominate the bands, leaving little else

LETTERS

to listen to. And what do you expect will be the future of short-wave when all people can hear on their dandy new hi-tech portables, is preaching? US electronic evangelists, from Baker to Swaggart, have shown themselves for what they are. Let's not give them a shortwave rope by which they can hang themselves in front of the whole world -- enjoyable as the scenario might be.

Peter Dillingham Los Angeles, Californ ia

To support with publicity the aims of border-blasting stations such as WYFR and its up-and-coming US colleagues such as KVOH, WMLK, KUSW and WCSN is to condone this useless waste of valuable band space. You need to be supporting stations that people listen to, not organizations that want to con-quer the world with religion.

[Withheld by request] You're way off base. First, WCSN,

while run by a religious organization, devotes the maj01ity of their airtime to some of the best, most accurate and unbiased news to be found anywhere. The news is news and religion is religion and never the two do mix. The same philosophy is used in their publishing arm, the Christian Science Monitor. And it has been awarded several Pulitzer Prizes.

Second, KUSW is a privately owned rock music station that has, to the best of my knowledge, only one religious pro-gram on the air. Third, as vi11ually every survey of shortwave stations has show11, people do clearly listen to religious sta-tions. HCJB, for example, is consistently rated in the top ten most popular sta-tions from Fort Lauderdale to Frankfort. --ed.

A Stunned Ute DXer I was literally stunned when r

opened my Monitoring Times this month. There. right up front was .. a utility column. And what a column it is! From frequencies for the Iranian navy I've never, ever seen anywhere

MONITO RI NG Tl l\IES

;

J

Radio Vatican else before to African aero channels and tons of really great loggings, author Larry Van Horn has it cov-ered. This is truly exciting. At last, someone who understands what I want to hear -- and who tells me how to hear it! Keep it coming.

Rod Pearson St. Augustine,. Florida

I'd like to take a moment to con-gratulate Mo11itoring Times on its new utility column. The information is top-notch. Just one question. What took you so long?

Ed Harrington Berea, Ohio

Above the Brown Water Your article on the "Brown

Water" Coast Guard was especially interesting. l'm at work right now and from the window down the hall, I can see riverboats passing on the Mississippi. lt's a subject for me that's close to home in a very literal sense.

[Withheld by request] Jackson, Louisiana

[More "Letters" on page 92)

May 1988 3

4

Code-Free Ham License Coming to Canada?

Those of you who would like to get a ham license but couldn't be bothered with learning Morse Code might now consider moving to Canada. In order to counter amateur radio's image as "an old man's hobby," the Canadian Department of Communications (DOC) has recently announced that it is committed to an entry level, no-code amateur radio license. Under the proposal, in exchange for 40 hours of study, the new licensee would obtain lifetime privileges on all amateur modes above 30 MHz, including 2 meters. There would be a 100 watt power limitation.

COMMUNICATIONS

Meanwhile, in the US, officials at t~ Ameri~n R~io Rel~ ~~ue ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~-are carefully studying the Canadian On May 7th, shortwave listeners around the world will have a chance proposal. Says ARRL West Gulf to listen in on special events station KA4KVI!AM aboard the Director Jint Haynie, WB5JBP, "If it Goodyear blimp. passes in Canada, we would have to take a hard look at it here [in the US]. We now realize that the 'Novice enhancement' is not the 'foe' we once thought it would be. According to Haynie, the average age of a US amateur is 47.8 years old; in Canada, only a miniscule 4.6 percent of Cana-dian hams are under 30 years old; sixty percent are over 50. (W5YI Report)

The Blimp: Coming to a Radio Near You

The Goodyear company will once again be supporting the 1988 Amateur Radio Graf-2 Communications Demonstration. Weather permitting, shortwave listeners around the world will be able to listen to and/or commu-nicate with the blimp Enterprise starting at noon [EDTJ on May 7th. Chuck Bachus will operate a special event station on board the airship with the temporary call letters, KA4KVI/AM.

The object of the event, which will focus on simulated emergency com-munications, is to "exh ibit the full pote ntial of amateur radio communi-cations that would take place in event of disaster. Standard voice commu nications will be used, along with first

May 1988

amateur radio television signal downlinked to a ground tracking sta tion and packet data communications by radio.

The frequency plan is as follows: 28.450, 145.51 (secondary: 146.25), 144.50 (side band) and 432.100 (sec-ondary: 432.185). All frequencies may not be active at all rimes. The 1988 Amateur Radio Graf-2 Communica-tions Demonstration is sponsored by Kenwood Communications, JCOM Communications, Kantronics Data Communications and Hustler Antenna Corporation.

Radio Storms Coming Solar Cycle 22 -- just under way --

is already getting rave reviews. How-ever, according to the experts, there has been a "steep and surprisingly early" increase in magnetic distur-bances on the sun. Accord ing to a recent article in the New York Times, this could be the beginning of "a cycle of exceptionally intense solar radia-tion," perhaps the most intense "since the advent of reliable record keeping in the 19th century."

Dr. Patrick Mcintosh, director of solar physics research at the Space

MONITORING TIMES

Environmental Laboratory of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, says that the high peak of the cycle may be reached as early as this summer. If this is true, rad io monitors can expect more fre-quent and more severe disruptions of high frequency communications. Even orbiting satellites may be in danger.

Shornvave: Tool for Educators

The International Monitoring Association for Students and Teach-ers (!MAST) is a newly formed group designed to promote the educational qualities of shortwave radio listening. According to director Myles Mustoe, JMASTs main goals are to "provide and international forum of ideas on the application of shortwave rad io and its related technologies in the class-room, to encourage the study of geography, social science, history and language, and to provide a resource fo r teachers in all areas of the curricu-lum."

The group will also publish a bi monthly newsletter, The Great Circle, containing papers and letters from

students and teachers, as well as "some information on the bands." In addition, members will be encouraged to vote on outstanding programs.

You can obtain a membership application for IMAST by sending a self-addressed, stamped envelope to 2524 Sunset Highway, East Wenatchee, Washington 98802. Dues are a modest $5.00 for students and $10.00 for teachers.

ANARCON '88 Schedule Released

ANARCON, the annual con-vention of the Association of North American Radio Clubs, will be held this year in Los Angeles, California from July 13 through the 17th. Spon-sored by the American Shortwave Lis-tener's Club, the event is expected to attract over 300 people. According to ASWLC head Stewart MacKenzie, two broadcasters have registered to attend: Ian McFarland of Radio Canada International and Brent Allred of HOB. The keynote speaker will be California-based radio talk show host Ray Briem.

Uniden Acquires Regency's Consumer Products Division

After Regency's suprise announce-ment that it was quitting the consumer electronics business (see February MT), it comes as less of a surprise that none other than Uniden, manufac-turer of the Bearcat scanners, has picked up the tab for $12 million.

Uniden has acquired all inventory and rights, including the Informant series of scanners and Polaris marine radios, parts, patents and trademarks. The acquisition did not include real property or personnel who expect to be retained by Regency for their remaining commercial operations.

UPS Plans 220-222 MHz Digital System

Concerned by the strides made by competing Federal Express, United Parcel Service has announced plans to

COMMUNICATIONS

design and implement a nationwide private land mobile network to improve the efficiency of their package delivery service. UPS has already con-tracted with SEA Inc for rights to the necessary technology and has created a UPS subsidiary, called H Morrow, Inc., to produce their own trans-ceivers.

Radio*Philes Reappears Radio*Philes, a monthly journal of

"We're back and we're ready to take on the ever more challenging task of keeping you up to elate with changes in the radio business and bringing you fresh, provocative perspectives on those changes."

Subscriptions to Radio *Phi/es are available for $22.00 from Box 3568, Alexandria, Virginia 22302.

RADIOjPHILES information and opinion for radio -----------------professionals, students, archivists and others interested in modern radio ~---------. broadcasting has begun publishing again after an absence of several months, according to editor W.T.

t IJ rnDtNG nmR Poucc,J OF A FAIRNcSS

DOCTRIN,

Koltek. Radio*Philes stresses AM and FM

broadcasting and contains exhaustive information on station format and call letter changes, applications for new stations, individual market reports, FCC actions, and articles. Sa s Koltek,

Turn those hours of searching for secret frequencies over to the Remote Computer Scanning System . T he l~CSS runs un any Macint osh. and gi\e~ you l'Om plete monitoring and automatic logging of a ll signa l act iv i ty found by ~1our H-7000 . You're no longer l imit t'cl by Lhe b11il t -i11 fr tquency storage. search. and select ions provided by ICOM '. Why waste time spinning dials when the HCSS can do it for you?

Discover new frequen!'it's a11cl record their act ivi ty Sran unlimilrd banks or freqttPncies Search cll'signatcd frequcn

Broadcasting c

Down by Dave Rosenthal

Probably no other country on this planet possesses the mystique held by Australia. This island continent, with some of the most unique flora and fau na in the world, holds a special fascination for just about everybody. Actually, the more you know about this p lace, the more you seem to want to go there.

T his is especially true right now with Australia celebrating its 200th birthday. Throughout the rest of the year there will be festivities all over the continent as Australia and "Australiana" moves to the forefront of world attention.

For most people, their only exposure to th is interesting part of the world is what's ava il-able in print or on an occasional TV show -precious little of it in real-t ime. But for the shortwave listener, there is Radio Australia. We tune in to this, the only true b roadcast export of this culture, and get our own vicar-ious feel fo r what it is like "down under."

Actually, most shortwave liste ners who have been at the dials for any amount of time have likely come across R adio A ustralia's signal at one time or another. M any more are regular listeners. In the last few years, however, Radio Aust ralia has become an increasingly di fficult catch DX-wise for listene rs in North America and Europe and, unfortunate ly, it looks like things may indeed become yet more difficul t.

While worldwide interest in Australia seems to be on the rise, indications arc that its over-seas radio service is developing horizons fa r nearer to its own shores than ever before.

Why a!J this is happening seems to be tied to a

6 May 1988

number of international factors - all working on the e nt ire country but catching Radio Australia's 230 or so employees right in the middle.

When the Money Runs Out As you might imagine, the biggest problem is money. For quite a few years, Australia enjoyed an existence seemingly far removed from all the inflationary fo rces we've experi-enced on our part of the pla net. Australia was known as the "luck)' country," export ing large amounts of high-value goods like mi nerals, wool, and gra in to rich countries nearby. Recently however, the lu re of the import seems to have caught up wit h the Australian balance of payments and suddenly they've fou nd themselves driving Toyotas they can't afford to buy parts for.

The Australian dollar has actually become weaker than the American do llar in that part of the world. In an economy only a fract ion the size of that of the U.S., currency flu ctua-tions and the recent stock ma rket convulsions have had quite an impact.

Such has been the case with a relat ively small operat ion like Radio Australia. Inside the country, very few people arc even aware Radio Australia exists since domest ic broad-casting is dominated by the Aust ralia n Broad-casting Corporation- ABC or "auntie" as it's commonly known. To the public, the ABC is big-time and self-sufficient while Radio A ust ralia appears as a wasteful sink hole into which otherwise-useful governme nt money is seemingly thrown. In the face of budget-cutt ing realities, it's certai nly easier Lo take yet

MON ITORING T IMES

C Carnarvon 11 3 43'/24 s~s D O

Most recently, the left-wing insurgencies in the Philippines and New Caledonia plus instability in Papua New Guinea have the Australian government thinking far more defense- (or de fence-) related thoughts.

One F-18 Airplane = 3 X Radio Australia's Budget Because military hardware is necessarily expensive, more Australian government plan-ners are turning to the much cheaper "hearts and minds" approach making Radio Aust ralia suddenly more cost-effective. Emphasis now seems to be shifting to increasing the strength and presence of Radio Australia's voice in the immediate region rather than farther afield. After all, the cost of one combat-equipped F-18 can easily come to several times the entire Radio Australia budget for a whole yea r.

--~!d'Cluslered around 1/ie Jnlemational Desk in 1/ie newsmom (counlerc/ockwise from upper iigh1): Mike Bird in the s/udio loping his daily HF propagalion repo11 (he also produces Ifie DX show, "Communica/or"); Gmy Jones sits al 1/ie Mas/er Control console, the hub of R . A us/ralia 's technical operation; Dick Paterson doing ''.Al Your Requesl"--dia/ 61 3 235 2360 (no collect calls) for live requests; Denis Gibbons of the popular 'You Asked for II'' and "Country Australia"; Brendon Telfer is Spo11s Coordinalor and producer of "Monitor."

This brings us to why we're hearing - or not hearing - Radio Australia these days. T he simple reality is that there is little public sup-port for what appears a costly government operation in light of Australia's recent economic woes. At the same time, the only support for Radio Australia seems to be coming from political pragmatists mandating a stronger A ustralian voice in the region to minimize potent ial defense spending. To North American and European SWLs, this means luck will play an increasing role in monitoring Radio Australia for the forseeable future.

A ll this doesn't mean Radio Australia isn't trying. To accomplish what they do on their annual budget defines the concept of "making the most of what you've got."

MONITORING TIM ES

Good Programs Despite Low Funding A close look at their program lineup will show you a broad spectrum of programming which is still being distributed widely throughout the world. Their frequency and antenna manage-ment has been recently revamped to optimize coverage and take advantage of the increased propagation quality accompanying the rising solar activity cycle.

On the entrepreneurial side, Radio Australia now feeds its internat ional product to Radio National, a domestic radio network. Coming on at 1 a.m., their feed is called "Radio Australia Overnight" a nd is intended to reintroduce their programming to a public which, only a few years ago, had very little choice in what to hear on the radio.

1\fay 1988 7

international shortwa~

BROADCAST REGIONS - ::00;:. .:;~1 ~ ::t"" c,~.: e:: ~- .. - J\ '1:1 QIO ,...:'.:": ~I ( ~ . J"'1" OJ ---:-. ::..:. . - ~ ,.. _...,( . .- . ''t.~ : : I . t ._, . ,-:- _:.: A :-0::.- .... .:J !.{:,\. -=Ul' e-:i B ro::,.J.:J r.,.e ... .:;...,1rea J:JGO ~ 1r 1e

Pf' .. 1pp1na. l nt- Se; chelle s l .,:--> !led S'a'e~ ca~aoc M .......... 1e:::J 1-.1 .... ga?f'T" :"ope

NORTH AMERICA Some c1010eas:s un ce nu1c 1n ,.,t Urn't

At the same t ime, R adio Australia is packag-ing a daily 60-minute news and information product to be relayed via satellite to a Public 13roadcasting radio network of 28 stations in California. The idea here is to present regular news of the Pacific Rim to listeners interested in an Australian perspective.

One of the most important changes to come about recently is Radio Australia's joining the well-known international broadcasting organi-zation, the "Group of Four," making it now the "Club of Five." They're combining forces with Radios Netherlands, Sweden, Canada, and Swiss Radio International to complement the group with a view from the Southern Hemisphere.

T his just happened recently and not much beyond the most general concepts o f resource-sharing and inter-broadcaster coop-erat ion have surfaced as of yet. The only con-crete development thus far is Radio Australia's accessing data from a listener survey in the region currently being conducted by Radio Netherlands.

But as far as a better or more convenient Radio Aust ralia broadcast schedule to Europe or North America, don't look for anyt hing soon. These two regions a re referred to only as "targets of opportunity" by Radio Aust ral ia's director, Peter Barnett.

Despite a tremendous worldwide interest in Aust ralia, the impacts of simple but nonethe-less tough economic realities arc just begin-ning to be felt there. The only certainty appea rs to be the fact that the dedicated folks at Radio Aust ralia will continue to produce a quality product regardless of what happens. If you're a hard core Radio A ust ralia fan, the best advice at this point would be to cut out this up-to-date coverage and frequency schedule, set your a larm clock, and hope for good propagation.

My Australian Reception I suppose I've been luckier than most people throughout my life in that I've been able to travel a fair amount. As an inveterate DXer, this might be considered the pinnacle of suc-cess since, actua!Jy going to the places you monitor gives you the ultimate opportunity to see fo r yourself whether your perceptions arc valid. Besides, you get to DX from there and thus get treated to a whole new radio picture. Arguably, this in itself can be its own reward.

Spending time in Australia was rewarding from not only a DXING point of view but a lso from having an excellent opportunity to expe-rience somewhere where it seems everybody wants to go. This place is specia l to be sure.

My wife Sharon and I spent a total of 23 days there and, during tha t time, we visited four of

Peter Barnett, Director of Radio Australia, speaks with Dave Rosenthal about the evolving role of his organization in the Pacific Region.

Australia's HF Inland Service Call Frequencies Loca tion Area Served Power Sign (kHz) Lntitude Longitude (wntts)

Deg Min Dei.:

VL8A 2310 -23 49.0 133 4835

VL8K 2485 -14 24.0 132 5025

VL8T 2325 -19 40.0 134 4910

VLH 9680 -38 3.0 145 11800 15230

VLM 4920 -27 18.5 153 VLQ 9660 -27 18.5 153 VLR 6150 -38 3.0 145

9680 VLW 6140 -31 51.5 115

9610 15425

Australia's seven states plus the equivalent of the District of Columbia in the U.S., the Aus-tralian Capital Territory at Canberra . As hectic as a trip like this might sound, this was dist inctly not the case. The emphasis was on having a personal encounter with the country rather than some organized expedition tied to a rigid, rapid-fire itinerary.

We drove over 2,000 miles - mostly through the outback on dirt roads. There is little better way to lea rn about Australia. Major cities were on the schedu le, too , as a consequence

MONITORING TIMES

Min

50.5 Northern Terr. 50,000 south

10.5 Northern Terr. 50,000 north

15.5 Northern Terr. 50,000 cent ral

15.5 Northern 10,000 Australia

36.0 Queensland 10,o

In the radio world, medium wave dominates with 256 stations - more than twice the number of FM stations which, according to the latest count, come in at 109. Australia n AM slation channel spacing is 9 kHz as opposed to the JO kHz found in North America so keep this in mind if you plan to take your channelized radio there.

Australia has gone in fo r AM stereo in a big way with more than 50 stations using it. A lso, medium wave is where commercial stations dominate - 149 o f them in a ll.

Now, when say commercial I mean commercial. If you've ever been irritated by lots and lots of commercials on A!vl radio, Australia is definitely 1101 the place for you to monitor MW. I spent several hours listening to (and recording) Austral ian radio com-mercials and, let me tell you, it was easy! Most commercial MW stations feature pop music programming where you get a song or two followed by from eight to twelve commercials right on top of one another. 1l1is process seems to go on indefinitely.

In the FM world, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and Public Broadcasting domi-nate wit h only eight commercially-owned sta-1ions. FM is almost entirely in stereo with only 21 of 1hc 109 stations still broadcasting monaural signa ls.

Everywhere I went, I asked people about shortwave and the consistent answer was, "What 's that , Mate?" There certainly arc SWLs in Austra lia but, like in most parts of North America, they're rare. Most people are conlcnt wi1h !heir fai rly wide choice of radio and TV and thus aren't much concerned about shortwave. The furl her into the outback we gol, however, 1hc greater the shortwave awareness.

Domestic Services Aust ralia in fact operates a domest ic short-wave serv ice. It's what they call their "HF Inland Service" to provide the more isolated regions with relays of ABC domestic broad-casts. There arc a total of eight stat ions located around the country with 10 and 50 1-.."W transmitters beamed toward reception areas in the inte rior. Given decent propagation con-dit ions, these arc qui1c monitorablc outside the country and you might want to try for the m. Sec the table for ca ll s igns and frequen-cies.

Television is a lso jus1 aboul everywhere in A ustralia. Al the moment there arc 351 te le-vision stations with 50 of these being commer-cial operations. To these 50 commercial sta-t ions, add ano1her 143 commercial T V 1ranslators, i.e., TV equipment receiving the signal on one frequency and retransmitting it on another, and you have a total of 193 com-

10 May 1988

mercial TV outlets distributing programming to an astonishingly huge area.

There arc even more outlets if you include the 47 translators licensed under what the Aust ralian Department of Communicat ions (their FCC equivalent) calls the "Self-help Broadcasling Rcccp1ion Scheme." This is whe re people in outlying areas can get gov-ernment assistance bringing in TV or radio reception and dist ributing it via transla1or or cable systems.

Actually, when you're in the Oat, Oat outback regions, one way to spot a town in the dis-tance is to climb on top of the car and scan the distanl horizon for a tower st icking up. With binoculars you'll generally see some big UHF antennas on top with a couple of others for local signal distribution.

Of course, then there's Aussat, the ABC geosta1ionary communications relay satellite with five separate beams covering different par1s of 1he conlinent. This has been a very successful venlure as far as Austral ia is con-cerned a nd I here's talk of more satell ite activ-ity in the works now.

Now a ll this conventional broadcasting avai l-abil ity cer1ainly didn't deter me from getting out the old receiver and doing some serious DXing. Using everything from a SO-foot long-wire dangling from my ho1el room balcony in Sydney to an I-don't-know-how-long Bever-age antenna made from a fence line in the outbnck, I monitored a total of 37 countries on my I rusty Sony 2010. The ham bands were particularly interesting with Australinn amateurs talking to one another as well as having QSOs with stations in North America, the Middle East, a nd Europe.

All in all. Ausl ralia is a fairly good place fo r DX wi1h a varie1y of signals d rifting in from every direction. The only real difference I no1ed was that the majori1y of short wave pro-gramming I monilored was in1ended fo r that part of 1hc world with very few signals reach-ing me via a long path from somewhere else. In my California QTH, I see this far more often. Of course, lhis may be due in part to Aus1ralia's t ime zones (UTC+8,9,&10) where their DX prime-time doesn't corre-spond to elsewhere.

I noted throughout domestic broadcasting the growing frequency of "Australian Bicenlcnnial" references. To A ustralians, this is somc1h ing new. When I spoke with Roger Broadbcnl , Execut ive Producer of Radio Austra lia's English Service, he a lso remarked that "Bicenlennial-this" and "Bicentcnnial-lhat" seemed to be everywhere suddenly. Unfortunaicly. since Roger is also Radio Australia's Dicentcnnial Coordinalor, I couldn't offer him much hope.

I

MONITORING TIMES

Facts About Australia's Domestic

Medium Wave Service Australia's Medium Wave stations are located throughout the continent a nd con-sist of a m ixture of omnidirectional and di-rect ional radiation patterns. Output power ranges from 50 to 50,000 walls wil h the average being about 2000. Also, !heir frequency spacing is 9 kHz rather than the 10 kHz found in North America; keep this in mind when Medium Wave DXing. All of Aust ralia's Medium Wave sla tions have a three-character call sign coded to !he state in which they're located. The first character in the call sign is a s1atc-codcd numeral followed by rwo tellers. The states arc coded as follows: Numeric code

2 3 4 5 6 7 8

State New South Wales Victoria Queensland South Australia Western Aus1ralia Tasmania Northern Territory

NOTE: FM radio s1mio11s are m1111e1ically coded in the same way but !rave three lellers following instead of flllO, e.g., 011e MW sta-tion se1vi11g Sydney is 2BL and an FM station there is 2CBA. Jlze only exceptions arc VKW 011 Cocos Island (1404 kllz, JOO walls), VLU2 011 Clzristmas Island (1422 kllz, 500 walls), and VL2NI, an FM station 011 NO!folk Island (93.9 mllz, 100 walls /good luck, FM DXm!j).

Dave Rosentlral is an i11te111atio11al bmad-caster and wn'ter specializing in science jo11ma/-is111. I fr produced Skyline, a weekly science and as11v110111y pmgram for several years and has recently become a science co11r:spo11de111 for l?adio Netlrerlands. llis 1v1it1c11 11wtc1i11l co111i1111cs to appear in several 11a1io11al and i11tcmatio11al publicntions.

Dave 's ed11cn1io11al background is in Physics and, in addition to broadcast joumalism, his ongoing expc1ie11cc includes e11gi11ce1i11g, avia-tion , and plrotograplry.

National Tower ComPan3' P.O.Box 15417 Shawnee Mission, KS. 66215

Hours 8:305:00 MF Price Sub ec1 10 Chan e W11hou1 Nolice

R 0 H N FREE BASE STUBS WITH EACH BX SERIES TOWER 25G 25AG2 & 3 25AG4 45G 45AG3 & 4 55G TB3 M200 8X40 BX48 BX56 BX6 HBX40 HBX48 H8X56 HDBX40 HDBX48

10 section model 2 or 3 top section . model 4 top section .. 10 section . . .. .... .. model 3 or 4 top seclion 10 sec tion .. .. lhrusl bearing . 1 o mast. 2"o a ... ... 40'self supporling 16 sq.It., 48'self suppor11ng 6 sq It

56'~11 supporling 6 sq.fl. 64 self supporting 16 sq.It. 40'self suppor1ing 10 sq It I 48 'self supporting 10 sq .It 56'self supporting 110 SQ It 40'self suporting 18 sq It 48'self suport1ng ( 18 SQ ft

* GUY WIRE SPECIAL * 3116EHS ~- galvan zed 7 strano 114EHS ~- galvan zed 7 s1rand HYOAINITELEX ANTENNAS

HF ANTHNAS Tribands TH3JRS 3 element ' Junior Thunderbrrd ' rH5MK2S 5 element 'Thunderbird '. .. THW K3S 2 element Thunderbird . TH70XS 7 element 'Thunderbird' . TH60XX conversion k11 10 TH70XS EXP t4 Expk>rer t4 toband beam .. OK7 10 30/40 M conv. Exp t4 ....

t03BA5 t05BAS 155BAS 204BAS 205BAS 71S 7-2S 7-3S

18HTS tRWO

18VS 12AVOS t4AVOIWBS t8AVT I V/BS

Mono band Long John 3 element 1 O mlr . ' Long John' 5 elemenl 10 mtr ' long John' 5 element 15 mtr. 4 elemenl 20 meler $299.00 'Long John' 5 element 20 mlr ' Discoverer' rotary dipole 30140mtr Discoverer' 2 elem. 40 meter beam convens 125 to 3 elem beam

MuHib.ind Ve~icals 'Hy Tower' 10 thru 80 meters roof mt kit lor 12 AV0.14AVO and t8ATV/W8 base loaded. 10 thru 80 meters trap vertical t O thru 20 meters trap vert ical t O lhru 40 meters trap verflcal tO thru 80 me1ers

MuHlband Ooublels t8TO portable tape dipole 1080 meters 2800S trap double! 40 and 80 melers 58DOS trap double! 10 lhru 80 me1ers

VHF ANTENNAS Bums & Ve~lcals 23BS 2585 2885 2t485 64BS V2S V3S V-4S GPG2A

HRt44GRI H8144GRI H8144MAG BNB6

2 me1er 3 element beam .. 2 meler 5 element beam ... 2 meler 8 elemenl beam .. 2 meter t 4 elemenl beam 4 elemenl 6 meter beam cotinear gain verlical t38174 MHz cohnear ga" vertical 220 MHz colinear gain vertical 430470 MHz base. 2 mtr ground plane 3 dB

VHF & UHF Mobiles l1gerglass 2 mtr 6dB gain 31824 m1 HyBander 2mtr 6d8 gain 3/ 824 m1 Hy Bander 2 meter.. Jemie balun for t080 meters

OSCAR LINK ANTENNA 2t5S 70cm. 435 MHz ...... .. . 2 t 8S Compleie Oscar link sys1em CUSHCRAFT ANTENNAS AP8 8band 'I wave vertica l A3 3 element Jr.band beam .. . A743 7 & 10 MHz add on kit lor A3 A744 7 & 10 MHz add on kit lor A4 42t8XL t8 element 2 mir. 28.8' boomer A4S 4 elemen1 triband slainless stee l AV4 40 t0 mtr. verl ical ... . ........... ... . AV5 8010 m1r. vertical .... . ARX28 2 mlr. 'Ringo Ranw; ..... :~::.5,~B ~~~ ~~~ 1~i~~: vH?e" At4711 It elemen1 146148 MHz beam Al4722 22 element ' Power Packer' Al4410T 10 elemenl 2 mtr 'Oscar' . Al4420T 20 elemen1 2 mtr. oscar' 2 I 5VIB 15 element 2 ml r. Boomer' 2208 t 7 element FM 'Boomer' 2301'18 144 t48MHz. 30 elemenl . 32t9 19 e1emen1 2 mtr aoomer 4248 24 elemenl 'Boomer' ... 104CO 4 elemenl 10 mtr skywalker' 154CO 4 elemen1 15 rnir 'Skywalker' 204CO 4 element t 4 MHz skywalker' HUSTLER ANTENNAS 48TV 4010 mtr ver11cal 5BTV 8010 mtr vertical 6BIV 6 band trap ver11cal . ROTORS Alliance HD73 jlO 7 sq.It J .... Alliance u Ito .. ... .. ... . .. . TELEX AR40 TV. 3 sq 11. .. TELEX CD4511 (8.5 sq.It J TELEX HAM IV (15 sq lt.J TELEX T2X 120 SC It J ROTOR CABLE

12 18 & 6221 4080 per IOOI 216 & 620 4090 per loot ..... .

1108 RG8U Mini 8 low loss loam per loot 500' roll . RG8U Columbia superllex S311100 01 mror ....... . .

1198

$56 50 $66 00 S73 50

St33 00 St36 00 $t66 50

S56 2o $13 oO

$19600 S250 00 S334 50 S43t 50 S226 50 $308 00 $392 50 S284 50 $38 50 $40 00 $50 00

en Ill CJ -a: A. a: 0 II. ....

....

c CJ

$1 52 00 $246 00 S8t 00 $81 00

$125 00 $334.00 $94 50

SI 11 00 $39 25 $39 25 $50 50 S50 50

$141 75 $54 00 $77 50 S81 00

s101 25 $216 00 $101 25

$81 00 s 124 75 $145 00 $310 50

S79 00 St05 00 $124 00 $104.00 $47.00

CALL CALL CALL CALL $0 18 so 35 so 17

S79 00 SI 39 90

TS2 ... $319.90 75 Ch 12 band. 800MHz. air cral1 & weather. Turoo5can . bank scanning , instant weather. programmable. accu ~ . permanenl backup. direct access w/ AC adaptor. DC cord & rrob1le ml brackel TS1 ...... .. .. S229.95 Sarre except 35 channels 1 t band

RANGER

INF1 .. . $219.90 Turbo Scan" . comple1e1y pre programed by state to receive any type ol police transmission plus instant weather Pro

~~~~m~~a~~r :~~n~al s~i1th per second OC power IHF2 ....... . .. ... S259.90 Plus road & medical services & amateur radio bands.

tO neter TRANSCEIVER. 25 watt. -~ l i.s s s.c can be programmed to spit! ...,. '.'J :::'\ ,..., / 6 o.'?: transceive. SSB, CW. AM. FM. O .f).f' "'" 0 ,,,,, o o programmable scanning. !ully " - ""'' automatic. noise blanker. 2 3/8H. . ~ 7'/W. t 10 AR3500 . . . $334.00

~IDLAND,,,

-~ 77-2028 . $79.90 77-250 . . $99.90 EleClronic luning, Loe / OX ' POWER MAX ' ETR luning sw11ch. SWR. variable m1c gain. w/ 40% more sens11iv1 ly. LEO High/low tone. ANL. PA. 11 bar meter. SWR. variable RF luminaled S/RF/SWR meler. gain. mic gain. ins1an1 Ch 9 & 1ns1ant Ch 9. screw-in mic. 19, ANL. PA

PR0540E . $99.90 Euroslyled. tone control & Hi cut NB. ANL. m1c & RF gain, SI RF & SWR meier. instant Ch 9 & t9. backhl fron1 panel. PA mode

PR0640E~139.90 Mobile AM1ssl AN & NB. dim switch. RF An swi1cn. H1 cut.

~~~~i~.x~~~' i ~i~er~6~sD clarifier control

ASTA TIC 0104 SILVER EAGLE .......... . $79.90 Chrome plated base Slalion amateur microphone. Fac1ory wired to be easily converled lo eteclronic or ~~duia~r;;ation . Adjus1able gain lor opllmum ETS 0104 SE .... ........... .. $99.90 NEW. same as above with end or uansm1s10n 'Roger Beep

TENNA PHASE 111 POWER SUPPLIES PS3 ....... ..... .. S15.90. Output 13 8V DC 3 amp cons1an1 5 amp surge. electronic overload proledt0n w/ln stant au10 reset . luse protecled -PS4 . ..... . . .... ..... . . . .. S19.90 Fully regulated . 13 8 VDC 4 amps con stai1 with surge protec!IOn. overload pro techon w/ins1an1 auto reset. PS7 . .. . . . .. .. .. . .. . . . . .. .. .. . .. .. .. . . S24.90 Fully regulaled. 7 amp conslant.10 amp surge capacity PS12 ..... . .. . . . ...... ... ...... . ............ S34.90 Fully regulateu. 10 amp cons1an1 13 amp surge. electronic overload prci1ection w/mstanl au to resel. PS20 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ... .. .. .. S64.90 Fully regulaled. 25 amp surge capacily. 13 8 voe. 20 amp cons 1ant. with meter PS25 . . . .. . . . . .. .. . . ........ .... . S79.90 Reyu1a1ed 4 5 I 5VDC25 Amp cons1an1 27 amp surge. instanl au10 reset. aua! meter tor currenl & voltage PS35 .. . . . . ...... ... . ... .. ... . ............... $99.90 Same as above excepl. 35 amp constant. 37 amp surge. adjustable 1ro11 10 to t 5 vons

913-888-8864

BC100XL

$149.90 hand Held t6 CH 9 band . aircraft. piroity, keyboard lock. lighted LCD. d1spaly. track tuning. auto searcn. scan delay. en lockou1. direcl Ch access. IV I AC adapter I charger. ear-phone & carry case

SPECIAL PACKAGE PRICE BCSOXL PLUS

BATIERY PACK & CHARGER FOR

$124.90 10 ch 10 band. hand held. 2 digit LCD. keyboard k>ck. Ch lockoul. battery-low light. memory backup. built in cietay . direcl Ch access. track 1un1ng

BC145XL . .. .. $92.90 BC760XL T $279.90 16 Ch 10 band. proqrammable. 2 digil LED. priorily, review. direcl Ch access. track luning. buill-ln delay. memory backup , Ch lockoul. wealher. AC/DC .

100 Ch 12 band wl BOOMHz, weather & aircralt . base/ mobile. prior ity. Ch lockoul. aulo search. delay. program mabie. memory lock. DC

8C70XLT BC100XLT BC200XLT BC 175XL 8C210XLT 8C800XLT 8C560XLT BC580XLT

20 chan. 10 band. HAllO HELO I 00 Ch It band hand held wlballery 200 Ch t 2 band. 800MHz. hand held t6 en. 11 band aircralt . . . . 40 Ch. It band. aircralt & wealher ACIDC 40 Ch 12 band 800MHz. aircralt & weather 16 Ch tO band mobile tOO Ch 1 t band mobile .. programmable

MAXON .... $26.95 Model 49SA 49 MHz, FM 2WAY RADIO nands tree operation. voice activa ted transmi1 up 10 '/1 mile Balleries oplional model 498 .............. $34.95 same features as 49SA except uses AA' nicad balleries and comes w11h ballery charger

RADAR DETECTORS UIHDEll

$159 90 $199 90 $299 90 St59.00 $179.90 $239 90

S99 90 $219 90

RD25 ............ ... .. . . ...... . $59.90 Compac1 SUPERHET. c11y/h1ghway. audible & visual alarm. dash/

--+--Live and Let Live

The Story of the Red Cross Telecommunications Network by Jack Buzby

M ost shortwave listeners arc aware of the twice monthly broadcasts of the In tern ational Committee of the Red Cross (lCRC). They're aired from ICRC head-quarters in Geneva, Switzerland, over the facilities of the Swiss PTT (the same folk that broadcast Swiss R adio I nternat ional). But not so many monit ors are aware that the ICRC maintains an extensive, world-wide, 11110-way co mmunications network on shortwave as well.

If such a network d id not already exist, it would soo n have 10 be put in place. Con-sider some of th e ICRC's 1986 activities: Red Cross representatives visited prisoners in a tota l of 719 dete nt ion centers in 37 count ries. T hirty coun tries received a total of 82,000 ton s of relie f supplies. Over two mill ion messages were exchanged between separated fami lies. Nearly 55,000 investiga-tions we re ini tiated to trace missing per-sons.

The Red Cross was active ly e ngaged in such trouble spots as Ethiopia, Eritrca/Tigrc, the Sudan, Uganda, Angola, Namibia, Chad, E l Salvador, Nicaragua, A fghani-stan / Pakista n, Kampuchea, ]ran, Iraq, Lebanon, th e Western Sahara and several other countries. W it hout the network, says a Red Cross representat ive, the organiza-tion's activities wou ld be "considerably reduced o r brought to a standstil l."

Interest ingly e nough, the World Adminis-trative Radio Conference (WARC) of 1959 played a fat he ring role in the establishment of the IC RC's network. The conference adopted a recommendation which placed exclusive use of certain frequencies at the disposal of the Red C ross. Four years later, the Swiss government granted the Red Cross a license t o set up and administer an independent radio network .

HBCBB Goes On the Air The Geneva HQ statio n, HI3C88, is limited to communications o f a st rictly humanitar-ian nature. Regu lations forb id transmission of private or po litical news o r info rmation.

12 May 1988

In actua l practice, the radio communica-tions links, while used extensively, are still called upon only when commercial lines of communications arc ou t of service or do not exist at al l.

The first two-way link between Geneva and another station was in December, 1963, when a fie ld hospital at Udq, in the Yemeni desert , was equipped with a two-way radio.

By the end of 1981, there were 14 stations in direct link with the Swiss headquarters. That year alone, 8,620 messages were sent. The year also saw the number of stations in the net increase from 4 to 14.

T he 1982 Polish situat io n caused an exten-sive radio netwo rk to be created, linking headquarters in Warsaw to the main pro-vincial Red C ross distribution points. This provided mu ch greater coordination of relief efforts during a period when no internal communications links were avail-able in Poland .

New Station Opened in Versoix The original ICRC headquarters station in Geneva has assumed a less important role since a newer headquarters station was opened at Versoix, just outside of Geneva. The Versoix stat ion conta in s three auto-matic transmitter-receivers and can operate on any freque ncy between 2 and 30 MHz. There are four directi onal a ntennas in use, as well as a pair of omni-directional anten-nas. The newer stat ion now ha ndles all ordi-nary traffic between fie ld operations. Daily t raffic runs between fou r and eight thou-sand words.

The original headquarte rs sta tion still gets used on a fairly regular basis a nd is now employed during emergencies and special operations. The planning, development and installa tion of the new station was a fou r year project fo r the ICRC's telecommunica-tions staff.

There are eleven people on this staff. All, incident ally, are capable of not on ly doing t he technical work but of operating on all

MONITORING TIM ES

modes.

T he network it se lf is a complicated arrangement which invo lves various high frequency links within a particular country which feed a larger station, which, in turn , may link to Geneva. There arc telex lines, HF and AMTOR communicat ions, internal a nd direct radio links on HF, internal VHF links a nd crypto links on both radio and phone lines.

Since 1971, the ICRC and its associated league of National Societies (the American Red Cross and so on) have promoted the development of further radio communica-tions in addit ional areas by convincing gov-ernment telecommunications au thorit ies to grant Nat ional R ed C ross permission to communicate with the ICRC in Geneva. Some 40 additional countries have now granted this permissio n since the effo rt began.

Don't Even Usten The ICRC is, like many governments and institutions, quite touchy about radio mon-itors tuning in on its communications. The ICRC takes pains to inform those asking about the service that such monitoring is not welcome. Indeed, it quotes appropriate international agreements which state that "the interception by non-licensed third par-ties, of radio communications located within the internat io nal fixed bands, is pro-hibited by international agreem ent."

T he "interception" aspect of these ru les is pretty well ignored by utility DXe rs, at least in the US, since FCC ru les a re more con-cerned with a third party disclosing or divulging the content of what has been monitored. Most literature for the utility monitor makes this "disclosure" aspect clear.

Still , it is probably safe to say that the ICRC would not we lcome reception reports on its network communicat ions.

Considering t he alt it ude of the ICRC in this regard (which fo llows the approach

taken by t he Swiss Telecommunications authorit ies as well) , it isn't surprising that lCRC communicat ions personne l wi ll not release the operating schedules of HBC88, nor the field stat ions in the ICRC ne twork. We arc asked to understand their agree-me nt and, in effect, to please leave well e nough a lone.

Frequencies are Available Fortunately, the newly released fourt h edi-t ion of Th e Shom vave Directo1y lists severa l freque ncies for the Red Cross network. T ransmissions are noted in single side band or Morse code from "fie ld portables" running l SO watts. Frequ encies include\): mea ns most active): 3801.5*, 6998.5, 13915, 13965, 13973, 13998.5*, 20735, 20753*, 20815, 20942, 20993.5*, 27998, and 29701.5*.

The Direct01y lists the foll owing stations as part of the ne twork:

APR88 CER88 CICR5 CPC R88 C PR88 CRC88 CX8CRU DKR82 dug88 EA R88 HilC88 HBC88A HC R88 HHR88 HICR88

HJC88 H RC8 HSRS9 IC RC l JYL88 OAR88 O DR88 OER88 PGA88 SAR88 SUR88 S2C88 TICR88 TDR88 VPR88 WA510 XUR88

XWR88

Islamabad, Pakistan Santiago, Chile Luang Prabang, Laos Asuncion, Paraguay La Paz, Bolivia Lome, Togo Montevideo, Uruguay Bonn, West Germany Man il la, Philippines Madrid, Spain Versoix, Switzerland Geneva, Switzerland Quito, Ecuador Port-au-Prince, Haiti Santo D omingo, Dominican R epublic Bogota, Colombia Tegucigalpa, Honduras Bangkok, Thailand Dacca, Bangladesh Amman, J ordan Lima, Peru Beirut, Lebanon Vienna, Austria T he Hague, Netherlands Stockholm, Sweden Cairo, Egypt Dacca, Bangladesh San J ose, Costa Rica Guatemala Nassau, Bahamas New Delhi, India Phnom Penh, Khme re Republ ic Vient iane, Laos

:i!lPS

YKR88 YNCR88 YVPR88 YSCR88

ICRC Telecommunications Network

Situation December 1987

OCG:Jr;. HJC- 88

I I t~~ ~ x-

;..- -

Damascus, Syria Managua, Nicaragua Caracas, Venezuela San Salvador, E l Salvador

MONITORING TIMES

--__ , __

-1-

--CI- -- CT -- TT-

4XR44 4WA2 8PRC88 9JR88

cmB!IBo

r--~ IBCW'?S , ~ --1 VIII' MOBIL!: I

r= l r~=: .lJWI --t l LlO I D.U'C I

--CR

H m I ~~ TV KOI ILEf '- -1 unao

llTE2LU. llJ' il1l '111' IW>I O LIJll3 AJrfOll DIUC'T ~ .umll JW)IO l.IUS llJ' DIDX:f l!ll>ll'UD?.r. JW)!O LIJll3 Vn9 Oln't'i. Dil!CT = l.llll:S VITB emu InED.IJ. JW)!O LIUll 1111' Ill'UUiL !Wl!O LIUll ID' DIRECT INDE:PDfD!lr'i CRTP?'O IU.bIO LIDS

DIXECT CRTl'?O !.lJICI OM Tl!UPBO>IJ: Lilll:S Dll!:C'7 ':'EU:PBCJtt Lilll:S ":'O PC IUll. BOX

J erusa lem, Israel San'a, Yemen Arab Republic Bridgetown, Barbados Lusaka, Zambia

May 1988 13

TU UX S~M ~ fferwf Ccdclt Tl

possib le. Spring and fall are the best t imes Antennas for tropo, but, like E-ski p, it can happen at any time.

Me1eor scatter is the most challenging form of TV-DX. As meteors pass through the ionosphere, they can leave ionized trails that rcOect VHF signals in much the same way as E-skip, but only fo r a very short time. A met eor "burst" can last from a frac-tion of a second to severa l seconds long . The meteor scatter DXcr mu st hope that a burst will coincide with a test patte rn, ID slide, local ad, o r other means of identi-fying the station being received.

Most TV-DXcrs use separate V HF a nd UHF antennas. On VHF, a large all-channcl log-periodic is good, and separate yagi antennas for Io-band ( chs. 2-6) and hi-band (7-13) will perform even bette r. The most popular antenna for UHF-TV DXing is the 5- or 7-foot parabolic dish, t hough others favo r corncr-refl ector/yagi types or 4- and 8-bay antennas. There a rc probably

and stations in Latin Ameriaca se ldom use call lcucrs a t a ll. The TV-DXc r often has to piece togethe r var ious bits of evidence to iden ti fy a dista nt signal.

Some of the factors that can help nar row the possib ilities of what you' re see ing a rc: network affili ation, direct io n (if you have a rotatable antenna) , local ads that contain addresses or p hone numbers that can be t racked down, and place na mes mentioned

in local newscasts. A good, accurate listing of TV sta tions is a mu st. The best current ly available is the No11h A111e1ica11 Tele-vision Da1a Base, edited by William B. Fahbcr and avai lable from the World-wide TV-FM DX Asso-cia tion ( more about the WTFDA late r).

During major meteor showers, rates can be as high as several bursts per minute. Meteor scatter affects primarily the same channels as E-skip, but distances tend to be somewhat shorter, on the order of 400-1200 miles. A good, high gain ou t-door an tenna and a vacant (or nearly so) channel a rc essential fer successful meteor DX.

Meteor sca tter ca n be observed year-round,

intense tropo received across the Gulf of Mexico: KHTV, channel 39, Houston, TX (857 miles) .

O ut-of-state editions of TV Guide can be very useful in resea rching unide ntifi ed TV-DX. Off-sa le copies of various TV Guide editions were once available from many regional offices of that publication, though they have not been as coopcra-t ivc in recent years. Cop ies can be purchased on vacations, o btained

but the best D X can be had during the major meteor showers. The best Lime to look for MS is the wee hours of the morn-ing, whe n local or nearby stations may be off-the-air.

There are other, rarer forms of propagation affect ing TV-DX. During peaks of the solar cycle, fo r example, the M aximum Useablc Freque ncy (MUF) for F2 skip can at times rise as high as 60 mHz -- high enough t o affect the lowest TV channels and bring DX from 2000-3000 miles awaJ or more. And DXcrs who live within 15 of the equ ator may experience t rans-equa torial skip (TE) which can bring fluttery VHF-TV signals from thousands of miles distant on a n on h-south path.

as many opinions on ant ennas as the re arc T V-DXcrs, so it is good t o talk to several before you buy.

A rotor is a must for outdoor antennas, in order t o pinpoint the direction of the DX and maximize the signal strength. 75-ohm coaxial cable is the most popula r fcedline, primarily due to the ease with which it can be handled. Prcamplificrs a rc useful and popula r, especially for UHF, but may over-load in areas with many strong, local TV stations.

Identifying N-DX

U.S. TV stati ons a re on ly required to identify themselves once per hour. Many Canadian stations a ir more infrequen t IDs

MONITORING TI MES

from relatives in di stan t sta tes, or traded with other TV-DXers.

A Multi-Faceted Hobby

Besides merely seeing TV-D X and logging it, there arc oth er aspects of the hobby that appeal to its various propo nents . Some TV-DXcrs photograp h the stations they rece ive. Bes! results a re obtained with an adjustable 35mm SLR set at a l /30 second shutter speed. U sing ASA 400 fi lm , the apertu re should be set be tween f/4 and f/8, depending on th e brightness of the screen. (It 's a good idea t o shoot a few exper-imental, non-DX rol ls first.

VCRs arc commonplace these days, and ma ny TV-DXers like to video-tape thei r

May 1988 15

DX, both for themselves and for sharing with other DXcrs. Additionally, slow-motion and freeze-frame effects can be used to get a better look at that ID slide that went by too qu ickly to read. Many VCRs, however, have tuners that arc not sensitive enough for DXing. A few DXcrs have obtained better results by simply aiming a video camera at the screen!

the beautiful mountain setting o f Waleska, Georgia, north of Atlanta) . A nnu al dues are a modest $15.00 per yea r.

It's a/most time!

Yes, it is just about time fo r that summertime E-skip to begin rol ling in! So keep an eye on those lower channels, a nd you might be surprised by what you see!

John F. Combs has been TV-DXi11g for Ol'er I 5 years, and edits tivo col1111111s i11 the 111 011 t!tly Vl/P-UUF Digest.

See this 111 011 th 's "Domestic Broad-casting" co/1111111 for 111ore 011 TV DXi11g.

QSLs are also part of the TV-DX hobby, just like in shortwave. Many TV sta-tions, particularly those on channels 2-6 that are frequently seen by E-skip , have their own distinctive QSL cards. Most stations will verify, and many are tickled to receive reports from DXers. (One distant UHF station was thrilled by my report since their competition claimed their signal didn't even reach the city limits!!)

Meteor scatter QQ.D. be photographed if you're quick on the trigger! This is the test pattern of WRC, channel 4, Washington, DC (760 miles). (Below) TV-DXers in the south can log stations from many Latin American countries. This is Radio-TV Dominicana on channel 4 from the Dominican Republic via -skip (1005 miles).

.

...

-

-~::'--~-~

.

-~ .... """' -- ,.. .:"

A few stations will even send along bumper stick-ers, mugs, or even t-shirts with the station logo to particularly distant reporters. There are a few "party pooper" stations that consistently refuse to verify, but that's true of shortwave and AM sta-

,. -~~ih

tions, too! Reports should generally be sent to either the chief engineer or the program director.

Not for Loners!

No hobby is truly enjoyable unless it is shared with others with common interests. The only DX club catering exclusively to TV and FM DXers is the Worldwide TY-FM DX Association , P.O. Box 514, Buffalo, NY 14210. Their monthly bulletin, VHF-UHF Digest, features members' DX loggings, DX photos, technica l articles, and columns to help with unidentified loggings.

The WTFDA sponsors an annual conven-tion every August (this year's will be held in

16 May 1988 MONITORING TIMES

"The Largest Dealer of Scanners in the World"

SCANNER WORLD, USA~ 10 New Scotland Ave., Albany, NY 12208 518/436-9606

- 5pClfr . . 139.99 I 7 00) Mobile Mounllng Bracket tor Z scanners . . 5.99 I I REGENCY ACTR1 ACIOC Crvs. Sinole Channel . . 75.99 ( 4.00) REGENCY RH256B High Band Transceiver _ 359.99 ( 7.751 REGENCY UC 102 Hi-VHF Hand Transceiver . 119.99 i 5 .50) REGENCY RH-600B Hrgh Band Transceiver 429.99 I 7 751 REGENCY R806 ACIOC Crystal Scanner . 79.99 I 5 .001 REGENCY INF t lnt0tman1 AeCe1vcr 249.99( 7 OOt REGENCY INF2 kl lormant Receiver 324.99( 7 00) REGENCY INFJ AC Informant Receiver 249.99/ 7 001 REGENCY INFS AC lntorman1 Receover 199.99/ 7 001 REGENCY R1090 D>golal AC Scanner 147.99< 7 001 COBRA SR12 Org ltal HandHekl Scanner 189.99 ( 6.50) COBRA SR10 Digital HandHeld Scanner . . . 129.99 ( 6.00) COBRASR900 ACIOC DlgltalScannor ......... . . 104.99 I 5.001 COBRA SR295 AC/DC Dtg itatScanner 109.99 ( 7.00) Book .. TopSec ret ReQrstryofGovtFrequency .. 6th lJ.99 i 3 001 Book .. Coven tntelhgence Electronic Eavesdropping.. a,95 c ) Book .. Belly Bearcat F1equency Directory" . . 14.95 I 1 Book .. Rail Scan Directory. 7.95 ( 1 Book .. A., Scan Directory.. 12.95 i )

BC-600 XLT

S249.99 1S700 >n1>Ping Digital Program m a ble 100 C ha n nel Scanner

BC 600 XL T

In this time of sterile, predictable and, more often than not, "ho-hum" programs, it's hard to believe that radio once was at the cutting edge of technological and entertainment frontiers. If you take the time this summer, however, and browse through some of those yellow, musty-smelling books over in the corner at your next garage sale, you may be able to pull back the shroud of time and take a look at a time when radio was .. .

adio was all the rage! The '20s were roarin' and grandpop was st ill just an

p essionable youth, barely in his teens. Radio was the stuff of daydreams. Well maybe it wasn't as exciting as the No. 1 interest in a young man's life, but it was a whole lot easier to turn on! Besides, when it came to wire-less, he could learn all about it just by reading his Radio Boys novels. 'There's absolutely no limit," declared Bob enthusiastically. 'That's what makes radio so fascinating. There's always something more to learn."

That was the sort of gecwhiz prose that con-verted millions of kids in the 1920s. After all, what redblooded American boy wouldn't want to share wireless adventures with Bob and his gang?

Bob Layton was one of the Radio Boys, a fict ional quartet in a popular series of juvenile books cranked out some 60 years ago by publisher Grosset & Dunlap. With his teenage pals Joe Atwood, Herb Fennington and Jimmy "Doughnuts" Plummer, 16-year-old Bob led the group from one radio-related adventure to another.

Technically outdated and hopelessly square today, the Radio Boys books - which you can often find in flea market bins a nd at back')'ard rummage sales -- offer a campy bit of nostalgia for an era that most of us never knew. Each book in the series never failed to point out what young readers would miss if they did not rush out to buy the other Radio Boys t itles.

~trm1~v uub U::l1rilli11g ,...~buruturrs! Radio led the boys into many strange and thrill ing adventures. While on a vacation stay in a seaside resort, they were able, by wireless, to aid a crippled ship. They grew so expert in science that they were placed on the program of a broadcasting station with unlooked-for results. By a curious combination of circum-stances, they made a t rip with the forest rang-ers and were nearly trapped in a woodland fire! Later on, they found themselves involved in a frightful flood caused by the bursting of a dam, in which their courage a nd knowledge of radio put them in good stead.

18 May 1988

by Don Jensen

Even the titles were grabbers: The Radio Boys First Wireless, Or: Winning the Ferbe11011 P1izc; The Radio Boys at Mo1111tain Pass, Or: The Midnight Call for Assistance; The Radio Boys with the Iceberg Pat1vl, Or: Making Safe the Ocean Lanes; The Radio Boys Aiding the Snowbound, Or: Stanation Days at Lumber Run, and others of like ilk.

Grandpa had liLLle trouble identifying with our heroes and the way they got started in radio:

'The boys had received their wireless appara-tus as C hristmas presents a little more than a year before and immediately set them up. They learned the radio alphabet and soon were laboriously spelling out words to each other. In a few months, they had acquired a considerable addition to their vocabulary, and spoke of spark gaps, condensers and detectors with something of the ready familiarity of old timers."

Grosset & Dunlap had a real moneymaker in Bob, Joe, Herb, and Jimmy. But inexplicably, they fa iled to legally register the Radio Boys name. And soon, two other publishers cut in on their act with their own compet ing Radio Boys juvenile novels with totally different authors and characters.

Confusing? You bet! But as Bob Layton him-self might have said, "M ore about that later, chaps!"

Try as they might , the other publishers really made liLLle dent in G rosset & Dunlap's Radio Boys sales.

Most young readers of the day could have told you that the author of the series was Allen Chapman. Actually, though, Chapman was as phony as his characters, exist ing only in the fertile mind of a rather amazing fellow na med Edward Stratemeyer.

Stratemeyer, in just over 30 years, cranked out more juvenile fiction books than anyone else, before or since. By 1906, after writing some 50 volumes himself, he fou nd it impossible to keep up with the demand.

So he set up a syndicate, a son of assembly line writ ing factory, that would make him a

MONITORING TIMES

millionaire by the time of his death in 1930. He wrote the plots, chapter titles, character names, descript ions and backgrounds. These "starter kits" for 800 novels were, over the yea rs, turned over to contract writers, usually out-of-work newspaper reporters, to com-plete.

Though he didn't actually write more than the outlines, Stratemeyer created the characters and set the scenes for the Radio Boys tales.

,..:\ 11-'i ur ;iplrimm of 1""~111lrirn11 JLlol!l!oob Bob Layton, as Stratemeyer created him, was the son of a prominent pharmacist in C lintonia, a fictional city of about 10,000, not fa r from New York. He was described as "a fi ne specimen of American boyhood," whose "mental and moral qualities were on a par wit h his physical gifts," making him a favorite wit h "the best people in town."

Joe A twood, his best friend, was equally preppy, "apt to go off like a nash of powder when he detected something that was mean or sneaking."

Mean and sneaking, that meant the cast of teenage villains that tried to thwart the Radio Boys in each novel. They were Buck Looker, the big hulking bully, son of the richest man in town, and Buck's two toadies, Carl Lutz and Tere nce Mooney, tale-bearers and sneaks, the both of them.

The ot her two Radio Boys were second stringers, comic relief. Herb Fennington was notoriously lazy and a practical joker; "Dough nuts" Plummer was the traditional fat boy with a ready reserve of snacks in his pockets.

Bob was quick to fill in his pals on the latest radio development he had read about, such as a fellow who had "thought up the wonderful idea of using his bed springs for a n aerial."

1!.lub -~m11us l iis 1fril'ltbs "How does he make his ground connection, then''" asked Joe, still incredulous, while Herb and Jimmy regarded Bob with interest. "Tell me that, then." "Easiest thing in the

world," retorted Bob. "He makes the ground connection by means of a water pipe and a radiator in his own quarters." Herb whistled. "Pretty slick, that," he said admiringly. "Has music to sing him to sleep a nd everything!" Stratemeyer produced many juvenile series besides the Radio Boys -- Tom Swift and the Bobbsey Twins among them -- and provided copyrighted literary pseudonyms for his no-name stable of writers. They got no royalties, merely a lump sum cash payment, usually $100 to $125 a book. Most were mere hacks who cranked out kid books by the score. Howard Garris, the real au thor of the Radio Boys, was the exception.

A Newark, New Jersey, newspa-per reporter and freelance author, Garris was Strate-meyer's busiest ghostwriter, turning out more than 700 juvenile novels under various pen names. And, under his own name, he became famous as the creator of some 15,000 Uncle Wiggily stories for young chil-dren.

Garris could turn out a 35,000 word book in a week. He knew almost nothing about radio, but learned to handle the technical jargon. Here is a Radio Boys 1924 description of a then-experimental new receiver:

"Selectivity must go to the theoretical limits of science . . . giving volume from distant stations as well as selectivity .... He was trying to improve the complicated super-heterodyne in sensitiveness and selectivity, so that anybody could have access to its wonders, regardless of whether he possessed any engineering skill.

And there was always Jack Binns--"the well-known radio expert of the New York T1ibu11e," who wrote a foreword in every Radio Boys book--to watch for electronic glitches in Garris' writings.

adventures ran along the same lines as Bob Layton's crew.

But anothe r Donohue au thor, Wayne Whipple, had yet a different cast of Radio Boys, headed by a certain Bill Brown.

The Donohue versions of the Radio Boys had more than a few problems with the elec-tronics, their technology sounding more like a snakeoil salesman's pitch. Herc, for instance, is Guy Burton's explanation of his new cure for rheumatism, "wireless shoes'"

against two electrodes on the inner side of. .. each shoe, so that each foot gets the bene-fit of the wireless waves and the electric reaction.

If you buy that explanation, I've got some nice swampla nd in Louisiana for sale!

Now if there weren't already enough Radio lloys around, another New York publisher, A. L. Burt Co. had its own author, one Gerald Breckenridge, pump out another line of Radio lloys books for a somewhat older

reading audience.

In Breckenridge's books, the heroes are Jack Hampton, Bob Temple, and Frank Merrick, recent college grads. In the 1924 novel, The Radio Boys with the Border Patrol, Jack, an Army flyer who doubles as an engineer-experimenter for "the radio trust," is joined by his friends in southwestern Texas.

Though his younger counter-parts in the competing series seem oblivious to the fairer sex, Jack is "a manly fellow" who is attracted to a dark-eyed Latin beauty, the lovely Senorita Rafaela.

Alas, there's not the slightest hanky pan\...y Radio lloys don't fool around!

The Stratemeyer Syndicate sur-vived its founder, with his daughter, Harriet Stratemcycr Adams continuing with a stable of authors who turned out juvenile books including the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew mysteries.

When she died in 1982, the whole Stratemeyer line was acquired by Simon and Schuster publishing house, which has since brought out 1980's updated versions of Nancy Drew and may do the same for Frank and Joe Hardy.

,.._;ccrpt f{u .~ubstitutcs .\ BLCI: :-T l~E.\K CICIC Kl.ED BET\\' Et::\ Till

A Monitoring Times Exclusive

CODENAME: ESQUIRE An Interview with James Bamford

James Bamford is author of The Puzzle /'a/ace, one of the most significant books on signal monitoring ever to be printed. Published in 1982 by Houghton Mifflin, The P11zzle Palace describes, in detai l, the workings of the National Secu ri ty Agency, the United State's foremost and most sophist icated age ncy for gathering signal intelligence. Bamford spent severa l years researching t he NSA, which was created secretly by President Truman in 1952 and which, until the publication of Bamford's work, was virtually unknown to anyone outside government. For anyone who is interested in how governments gat her intelligence by s natching signals out of the airwaves, The P11zzle Palace is must rea di ng.

MT: In your book, you mention several attempts to suppress the publicat ion of books relating to the field of signal intelli-gence. Diel NSA try to suppress The Puzzle Palace?

Bamford: The NSA twice t ried to have me thrown in jail. In 1979, when I bega n research ing the book, I obtained a doc-ument from the Justice Department under the Freedom of Information Act. It was a 250 page report on an investigation the Justice Department had done on the NSA. Originally, the document had been classi-fied "Top Secret Umbra" --which is the most sensitive s ignal intelligence informa-tion -- but after nine months of review, Justice released it lo m e with a lot of delet ions. This was under the Carter a dmin-istration.

In 198 1, when the Reagan admin istration came in, suddenly NSA wanted to get the document back and persuaded the Justice Department to pressure me to do so. I met twice with people from Ju stice and NSA. At the second meeting, in Boston, they began ask ing me a whole series of questions about who had seen the document, how many copies I had made, and so forth. When I indicated that I wasn't prepared to answer those questions, they implied that the Espi-onage Act might be used against me. I ca lled my lawyer in Washington . After phone d iscuss io ns wit h the Justice people,

20 May 1988

by Jock Elliott

he said, "I'm not sure of thei r intentions. They could have anything in their pocket, including a warrant for your a rrest. Get them to get o n the phone with me, and when they do, leave." T hat is exactly what I did.

A ft er that, they began writing le tters that th rea te ned me with t he Espio nage Act. I n every case, o ur reply was simple: this doc-ument was declassified by the Carte r administration, and the Presidentia l Executive O rder specifically states t hat, once a document has been declassified, it cannot be reclassified. Eventually, the Reagan administ ration cha nged the Execut ive Order to read that documents can be reclassi fied.

MT: What was the second t ime NSA t ri ed to have you jailed? Bamford: When t he book was about to come out, NSA tried a ll kinds of subte rfuges to obta in an advance copy but the publ isher wouldn't give them o ne. Once they got a copy, t hey sent a memo to the Justice Department to try to get the m to prosecute me for espionage. But they didn 'd pursue it fo r two simple reasons: I never worked fo r NSA and never signed a pre-publ icat ion agreement with them, and two, a ll the information I obtained was th ro ugh interviews or publicly available documents. I didn't obtain anything through clandestine o r devious means. Th ere wasn't a nything to prosecute.

MT: You probably started looking over your shou lder a lot more often after that.

Bamford: Actually, I'm not a very para-noid person . I don't think you could be and do investigative reporting. I don't think I've been under survei lla nce or tha t my phone has been bugged. But I did fin d out a kind of curious thing.

MT: What was t hat?

Bamford: About a year after the book came out, I was doing a story for the Washington Post, and I decided to ask, unde r the Privacy Act, if the NSA had a file o n James Bamford. When the NSA said

MON ITORING TIMES

"No," I couldn't believe it. So I decided to ask them, under the Freedom of Informat ion Act, to search their files for anything pertaining to James Bamford. It turned out they had given me a code name, Esqui re, and everything was filed under that, not under my name. It filled about three-fourths of a legal file drawer. It even contained transcripts of my appearance on Ted Koppel's Night Line.

MT: What has been some oft he ot her fall-out of the book?

Bamford: Lots of things. The Puzzle Palace has been well received by other parts of the federal government. I understa nd it is now a standard text at the Defense Intelligence College. I was even invited to lecture at the State Department, after which I lunched in the secretarv's dining room. "Palace" is now out in Japanese , German, and availab le in most of the English speaking wor ld.

MT: What's new in t he fie ld of pliltfonns

for gathering signal intelligence?

Bamford: The trend now is more and more into satellites for signal interception. In the Soviet Union, much of t he commu-nication is by microwave, so we have been moving toward more and more sophist i-cated satellites that can intercept those microwaves in space. The newest is the Magnum satellite, which replaces the Rhyolite. I believe the Magnum was put into orbit on the first secret space shu ttle mission.

MT: What about HF interception?

Bamford: There's still a lot of that going on, but, as you know, it is risky to put mon-itoring posts into some of the countries sur-rounding the Soviet Union. We lost two important posts in Iran, but now we have a sophisticated monito ring station in the People's Republic of China.

We still have a number of listening stations throughout Europe equipped with Wulle n-weber antenna systems, o r so-called "elephant cages." At the heart of these cir-cular antenna arrays is a gadget called a "goniometer" which makes it possible to instantly detect the direction a signal is coming from. When two or more of these stations intercept a signal, a net control sta-tion can use the direction headings from the two stations to pinpoint the source of the signal, whether it is a submarine, aircraft, or ground station.

Sometimes, where a signal comes from is as importa nt as what it says, particularly when you are tracking a submarine that may have surfaced for the first time in two weeks to make a 45-second burst transmission.

MT: Is the U .S. still doing monitoring from ships?

Bamford: We are, but differen tly. The Pueblo was captured by North Korea, and the Libe11y was intentionally destroyed by the Israelis during the Six Day War. After those two disasters, we got out of the business of using what appeared to be private vessels for monitoring. Now we have outfitted U.S. Navy Destroyer Escorts, like the U.S.S. Caron to do the same work. Since these arc our wa rships, they are much less likely to be attacked, but neither can they cruise innocently down a foreign coastline at three knots. In short , they are better protected, but without "stealth."

MT: Speaking of stealth, what' s new in the way of aircraft?

Bamford: The SR-71 "Blackbird" is get-ting pretty old. There appears t o be a stealth replacement for it.

I think the next big deal will be the TA V--trans-atmosphcri c vehicle--a space plane that we're trying to develop. Right now, t here is a kind of "no man's land" between 20 and 70 miles up. Twenty miles is about the maximum altitude of the SR-71, and the Soviet Union will not tolerate us overflying thei r country at that height. Seventy miles is about the lowest alt itude for a satell ite, but the Soviets put up with that because a satel-lite at that a ltitude is in earth orbit a nd can't go any lower. But nobody knows what will happen when you have a space plane that can fly into orbit and then dip down, out of orbit, into that 20-70 zone above another count ry. It cou ld become an inter-est ing legal and diplomatic question.

MT: What about signal intelligence tar-gets? Is there anything new there?

Bamford: Certainly terrorist communica-tions must be getting a lot of attent ion, and, as part of that, I wou ld think that foreign nationals within the U.S. would be getting attention under the Foreign Intelligence Survei llance Act. Another big area of inte r-est would be economic information. What is the bank of Japan do ing? Where arc the Swiss moving their currencies. And so forth .

MT: How would one prepare for a career with the NSA?

Bamford: NSA seems to be in terested in four key areas: engineering, languages, mathematics, and computer sciences, so if you want to make a career out of eavesdropping, you might want to get a degree in one of those disciplines. Second, t he re is a standard test for NSA that is given at regular intervals, and you would want to take that.

MT: What's it like?

Bamford: It's really different. For exam-ple, one question says you are an anthropologist sit ting on a mountain peak among a chain of islands. From there you can sec smoke signals and canoe traffic be tween islands, a nd it goes on for about ha lf a page detailing the smoke signals and canoes that can be seen going back a nd fort h. Then you arc asked a bunch of quest ions like, "which island does the chief live on?" It 's designed to test your innate ability to do signal t raffic analysis. Accord-ing to NSA, it's designed to test your cypher brain."

MON ITORING T IMES

MT: How about these numbers stations on shortwave?

Bamford: Throughout the shortwave spec-trum , there arc stations that regularly transmit four or five digit groups of numbers by voice or in code. It is obvious that these arc control stations for clandes-tine work -- anything from drugs to espio-nage.

MT: There has been a lot of speculation about the numbers stations. Have you had any confirmation th at they are used to con-tro l spies?

Bamford: Y cs. The last chapter of the paperback edition of The Puzzle Palace dea ls largely with the penetration of GCHQ, the British equiva len t of the National Security Agency, by Geoffrey Prime, a Britisher turned Soviet spy.

When the tru th came to light, he was found to have a false-bottom briefcase, a n old reel-to-reel tape recorder, a German short-wave receiver, a sma ll packet of single-use code sheets a nd invisible writing paper. At his trial, they looked like the props from a spy thriller, which they were.

MT: What was the connection with the numbers stat ions?

Bamford: Prime would meet occasiona lly with his control agent , who would give him a schedule of times and frequencies when he should listen to broadcasts from an East German numbers stat ion . Prime would tape record the transmission and then use the o ne -time cipher pads to decode the instructions to him. It was all very simple, and really quite secure since you must have the one-time pads to decode the message. It is evident that a number of countries, including the U.S., are using numbers sta-tions for similar purposes.

MT: So it appears that the story of the numbers stat ions is not over.

Bamford: Hardly. If I might quote from the last pa ragraph of the book -- "Fina lly, there was the strange coded message picked up by a radio operator in England on the evening of July 22, 1982, weeks after Prime had bee n arrested ... Coming from an East German stat ion was the monotonous sound of a woman's voice reading in English five-number code groups: '04376 74989 30300 70901 82266 68375 81377 80734 61156 .. . " The question is, who else was listening?'

I For more on numbers stations see MT's "Utility World" on page 30.

Mnv 1988 21

Flying With MAMA by Rachel Baughn

That radio is an integral part of modern life is a fact none of us would dispute, but occasionally we encounter its use in ways wh ich, though fascinat ing in themselves, we would never care to repea t -- ever.

S uch was the case on Sunday evening, February 28, when after experiencing an unusual headache the majority of the day, I suffered a paralysis on my left s ide. Our local hospital is quite small and has on ly lim ited facilities . The doctor on duty felt it was urgent that a CAT sca n be done as soon as possib le to rule out a tumor or major hemorrhaging. And so MAMA (Mission A ir Medical A mbulance) was called.

A Memorable Ride In mou ntainous areas such as ours, the medica l airlift is literally a lifesaver. Once airborne, the helicopter arrived fro m Asheville in 35 minutes (a t rip of 2-1/2 hours on the ground). The three-man team was considerate and effi cient , but I felt bundled up like a mummy as they pushed me head-first into the coffin-sized open ing

in the tail fo r my very first helicopter r ide.

My husband, meanwhile, had been busy making the necessary phone calls an d arrangements, including a ca ll to my employers, Bob and .Judy Grove. Frus-trated and anxious at the few detai ls H arry had given the m, Bob punched up the fre-quency used by the MAMA team (see sidebar) and tuned in the report radioed to Memorial Mission Hospita l in Asheville .. . Sire's regained use of speech and panial use of left side ... condition stabilized ...

I hea rd t he report , too. With an oxygen mask on, I couldn't talk and over the noise of the helicopter it would have been difficult to hear, so I received a pair of earphones as well. I not only hear