[MilCom] 11175.0 - RED RIVER and MARIO 11, 12 and 13 plus HFGCS exercise activity

[Jeff Haverlah]

0309z 21 Jul 24

11175.0:

18 Jul 24
2243z RED RIVER (weak) calling possibly a MARIO ##.

19 Jul 24
0002z RED RIVER working MARIO 12.
0005z TERRITORY (HFGC) standing by for traffic. (Later with SBFT at least
at 0530z and 0600z.)
0010z MARIO 11 calling ANY STATION & MAINSAIL, raising MAINSAIL for a radio
check.
0115z MARIO 11 (weak) calling (unk) "on 11175."
0131z RED RIVER calling MARIO 11 "on HF."

20 Jul 24
1815z RED RIVER calling and working MARIO 12 for radio check.
2234z RED RIVER calling and working MARIO 11.
2339z MARIO 11 (fair levels) calling and working RED RIVER.
2340z RED RIVER and MARIO 11 appear to discuss operation status. MARIO 11:
relayed something about MARIO 11 "at ten one thousand" and MARIO 12 at what
sounded like "ten 2 thousand"; and, confirmed as "101k" for 11 and "102k"
for 12 (I suspect there's a "point" in there); and ending as "continuing on
mission profile."
2346z MARIO 13 working RED RIVER and advising ETA BARKSDALE 0245z.

21 Jul 24
0022z MARIO 11 called RED RIVER and then MAINSAIL with no known response.
0149z MARIO 11 called RED RIVER and raised.  Weak mostly unreadable.

     Coincident to the above the NC3 world possibly went through an
extended training period over Friday and Saturday UTC [or possibly over the
past week and perhaps extending to the earlier week based on an obvious
similarity of EAM strings sent at 1300-1400z at 10 minute intervals (at the
3rd+/- minute of each 10 minute window) on Wednesdays 07/10 (one hour
window) and 07/17 (30 minute window).] It built to a major crescendo on
Friday 07/19 UTC and maybe bled over to today (Saturday UTC).

     On Thursday the strings in the CONUS morning were a mixture of the
most common 5F 30 character strings, and the current TQ series (mostly 30
characters) often associated with E6 activity (but apparently not part of
the repeat restoral transmissions.) the HFGCS station (SHOULDER) was into
h+00/h+30 "restoral" repeat transmissions (5F strings) by 2100z and
"standing by for traffic" transmissions by 2218z.

      On Thursday per the adsb sites there was also an E4B who visited
southeast Texas up to the northern boundary of a summer thunderstorm system
mostly north of Houston. During that visit (1523z+/-) a RACECARD and FINNEY
(sounds like; 6-characters if accurate) were active on 11175.0 and moved to
11229.0 USB  with voice connectivity checks in the clear and then "rolling
to secure" and into ANDVT transmissions.  I suspect one of them was the
NAOC (could be wrong but the signal strength on mid continent sdrs suggeste
d that could be case. IMO the E4s are very rare now on HF.)

     On Friday (19 Jul) the HFGCS (TERRITORY) was into "standing by for
traffic" calls beginning at 0005z, and into them again at 0530z and at
least 0600z. Unless I missed them prior to 1400z (very possible) Friday was
devoid of the TQ series and the variable series; but, was busy with the
30-character 5F strings. Based on adsb sites there were often 5 E6s
airborne at the same time; and, the TACAMO LANT (h+10/h+40 LOST DIME);
TACAMO PAC (H+20/H+50 ROLL PACK or BACK); and ABNCP (H+00/H+30 TERTIARY)
restoral windows were active with repeat EAM transmissions through 1910z
(LOST DIME) but quite from PAC and ABNCP from 1830z. Then from 1900z
TERRITORY (HFGCS) was the h+00/30 restoral repeat station; and, he went
through a series of multiple 5F strings that would expire in the queue to
be replaced by others.  After the 2102z restoral broadcast of the three
remaining string in their queue a 2112z transmission of a new string 5FAOOX
appeared to end the event which went silent for the rest of the UTC day.

     On Saturday (20 Jul) it was much quieter with message traffic but 4
E6Bs launched from TINKER and deployed to the upper Midwest for a racetrack
orbit (AUXILLARY; believed not to be active on HF maybe); Pacific ocean
(EVERGLADE; TACAMO PAC H+20/50); Gulf of Mexico at the southern border of
the ADIZ (DICTATION; ABNCP H+00/30); and, the Atlantic ocean off of
Georgia/northern Florida (too weak to understand ID on Gulf Coast sdr;
TACAMO LANT H+10/40).

     There was only one string sent after 1700z on 20 Jun 24:  5FXT2S
possibly at 1723z from a very weak/unreadable station on Ohio Valley sdr.
That string was restored (repeated) by TACAMO PAC; TACAMO LANT; and the
ABNCP from at least 1750z through 1920z, a "normal" 2 hour queue life of
most of these strings.  You can follow the E6 activity over the past two
days on the playback functions of ADSBEXCHANGE and Flight Radar24.

     And then the HFGCS went quiet except for the RED RIVER/MARIO activity
(which is continuing as I type).

     All monitoring was on primary 11175 USB with occasional signal level
checks on 15016 and 8992 using Ohio Valley, Gulf Coast, and coastal
California sdrs.

Jeff Haverlah

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Jeff Haverlah               Coastal Texas