[MilCom] MIL: 8992.0/11175.0 USB - SPRING; INCUBATE; LORDSHIP; SURF SUDS; ALLIGATOR; IRON LUNG; CAMERAMAN; and ROAD DUST

[Jeff Haverlah]

0550z 17 Apr 25

UTC 16 Apr 25

A broad overview of a very dense UTC day between 1200z and 2300z.

The Atlantic; Gulf; Pacific; and Great Lakes had NOTAM reservations from
1100z through 2300z on 16 Apr 25 UTC.

1109z: PEPSI 61 (E6B; AF3FE9) launched from TRAVIS and flew directly to the
Pacific.

     11175.0 was active at 1125z with CAMERAMAN (suspected PEPSI 61; TACAMO
PAC) calling ANY STATION, raising a ground station and entering the net at
1131z.

     11175.0 was active at 1134z with CAMERAMAN calling INCUBATE. At 1135z
and 1143z CAMERAMAN called LORDSHIP.  At 1144z CAMERAMAN called LORDSHIP
and passed his message traffic of 3 groups: AAW DBC MCG; time 1144;
authentication; repeats in full; CAMERAMAN out.

HFGCS on its various frequencies, primarily 11175.0:

1200z was apparently the start of today's activity.

1202z" "33" calling "31 and 32".
1203z: PERDON (sounds like) 33 calling and working CAMERAMAN (weak) for a
friendly signal check.

1205z SKYMASTER calls were reported for east coast SDRs.
1213z: Something 13 heard calling SKYMASTER on 11175. Busy SKYMASTER
activity ("groups of 4 items") on frequency.

1245z: SURF SUDS broadcast the 30 character EAM KOVWQS.  That was the first
and last message traffic heard from SURF SUDS. SURF SUDS was mostly quiet
from that point on and presumed to be exercise destroyed.

No E6B HF restoral broadcasts were reported after that broadcast; but, 22.7
KHz  (Pacific) was reported active with the string at 1258z. No known E6B
HF message traffic broadcasts were reported until 1820z.

As in most "SKYMASTER" events the calls to SKYMASTER subsided to "quiet"
within an hour or so of the initial activity.

1325z: IRON LUNG was active on 11175.0 calling "TO SPRING; TO SPRING; TO
SPRING" (sounds; like; 6 characters) and passed his message traffic of 3
groups: NGA CGU YRQ; I say again; NGA CGU YRQ; authentication NN; IRON LUNG
out. No time/authentication heard during first reading; no time stamp heard
during second (may have been technical issue.) IRON LUNG actually
exited the net through "real world MAINSAIL" midway through the exercise.
IRON LUNG's role was unclear during this event.

1328z: ALLIGATOR (unknown) was active with 40-character EAM KOZ7JS on the
HFGCS.

The HFGCS became noticeably quiet while the USN activity became steady for
the rest of the exercise:

Many USN frequencies were reported active after 1300z. The message traffic
from the trigraphs and codewords (vessel nicknames etc) was heard with the
following strings:

KOVWQS (the SURF SUDS string)
AONMPM 30 characters
5WAJN3 27 characters (the first reported instance of this series being
heard in a restoral chain.)

As the local afternoon progressed other strings entered the message queues:
AOXFIK
AOBSPW
KOA7JS may have been in the mix as well.

The only string heard from the NCS was KOVWQS. The only other string
broadcast initially on the HFGCS was ALLIGATOR's 1328z KOZ7J6.  All the AO
and 5W strings were initially heard on the USN restoral broadcasts.

A noticeable change at 1800z.

SKYMASTER activity resumed with heavy intensity through the end of the
event.

The E6Bs became active/heard on the HFGCS with their restoral rebroadcasts.
The strings used were the strings being rebroadcast on the USN frequencies
since early in the exercise. It was the only message traffic heard on the
HFGCS.

CAMERAMAN: TACAMO PAC; h+20/h+30.
ROAD DUST: TACAMO LANT; h+10/h+40
The USN trigraphs, as has been normal for many years, used the h+00/h+30;
h+10/h+40; and h+20/h+50 restoral rebroadcast windows for their
transmissions.

Players and callword heard on HFGCS:
SURF SUDS
CAMERAMAN
ROAD DUST
LONE EIGHT (during event but not heard by me)
GAS HOUSE (not heard by me)
IRON LUNG
ALLIGATOR
LORDSHIP

The end of the event was clearly 2300z. Quiet afterwards.
The above does not reflect the "density" of the activity in today's event.

Jeff
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Jeff Haverlah               Coastal Texas
     Airspy HF+ Discovery   W6LVP loop  Various web SDRs
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