BREAKING: Does increased traffic mean that TS is about to HTF?

reply to post by grantbeed


I have been monitoring this net for about a month on a daily basis (usually from about 8:00AM till 6:00PM while working at my computer.

From my location, Andrews, Offut and McClellan are the loudest ground stations. Normal traffic on the net consists of aircraft in the air requesting radio checks or phone patches back to their command posts. These seem to be ANG refueling tankers for the most part.

EAM's are broadcast over the net as a backup to other (more modern) methods of communications.

The usual format of one of these messages consists of a 6 character "address" repeated 3 times followed by the message body itself. These are phonetic alphanumeric characters read aloud. The messages are usually about 40-50 characters in length. SOmetimes, after the address has been read, the operator will say "Message of 36 characters follows" (or whatever number is appropriate), Most times this is omitted. and the message immediately follows the address. This is followed by the phrase "I SAY AGAIN" followed by a repeat of the message body.

Kinda interesting to listen to, even without a prayer of knowing what the messages contain.

EDIT to add: I assumed the messages prefixed with the "FOR ACRYLIC ACID" were some sort of exercise messages and included that line to set them apart from "operational" messages.


[edit on 4-6-2010 by Tholidor]

The freq you found is supposed to be the broad "alert" freq for everyone and then individual units are supposed to move to "discrete freqs" for more info.

HF-GCS stations operate on “core” frequencies to provide increased "Global" coverage. The published frequency listing does not reflect complete system frequency authorizations. These published frequencies will be used for initial contact, EAM broadcasts, and short term C2 phone patch and message delivery. Other extended or special services will be moved to each station’s available "discrete" frequencies.

Primary HF-GCS Frequencies - 24 hours 8992 11175
Back up HF-GCS Frequencies - DAY 13200 15016
Back up HF-GCS Frequencies - NIGHT 4724 6739

The Air Force Eastern Test Range (AFETR) HF Network may be used as a backup to GLOBAL. They may be contacted on USB 10780 (primary) and 20390 (secondary). Call sign is CAPE RADIO.

From the DOD Flight Information Handbook January, 2004

My be worth jumping around the provided frequency charts to see if pick up any traffic at specific stations?
Summer Freq Chart
Winter Freq Chart
ALE Address and Freq Chart

There are also some sample EAM's in MP3 format you can listen to the original link source....

May be able to see if it's a nation wide thing or just a specific base..

reply to post by gncnew


The EAMs themselves are (theoretically) world wide. In practical terms, the alternate freqs. (Offut seems to like 15.010MHz) are used when a station comes up calling "MAINSAIL" (basically "does anybody copy me") and then asks for a phone patch. The station which hears him best, moves him to an alternate freq. and runs the patch traffic there. These are usually very routine, plain voice messages including such things as departure time, ETA etc. and usually the phone patch is to the aircrafts home base operations branch.

The vast majority of messages on the primary freqs. usually go something like this:

MAINSAIL, MAINSAIL this is SHAMU24 radio check. How copy? Over.

SHAMU24 this is OFFUT, OFFUT You are loud and clear. How me? Over.

OFFUT OFFUT this is SHAMU24, you are also loud and clear. SHAMU24 OUT

These are NOT the EAM messages, but they are the majority of what is heard on the frequency.

I won't publish the actual contents of an EAM message here (or anywhere for that matter) because, even though they are encrypted and I haven't a clue as to the contents, there are actually laws against recounting or forwarding the contents of a radio message even though it is transmitted over the airwaves and my wife has expressed her objection to having a bunch of armed and armored men tramping through her house.

That last was a joke fellas...honest! Really! I mean it!!

Edit to add: As far as scanning around the freqs. goes, I just plugged all the freqs. in the source document into my radios' memory slots and run it in "scan" mode while I'm doing other things at my desk.

[edit on 4-6-2010 by Tholidor]

reply to post by endtimer


Heh. Now way off topic here, just for a bit.

I was given a 2500 dollar bonus to learn morse code upon entry into AIT. After that I insisted all of my soldiers learn it and use it and become proficient with it, without any bonus.

Listening to dits and dahs is a lot easier than trying to distinguish voice messages or distorted data messages when crap starts around a radio operator.

OK. Back to the topic. Military exercises often cause an increase in traffic. And more info is put out over the airwaves in messages at such times, too.

But, consider the increased activity near the Koreas, the increase of Special Forces operations around the world, could be something to these increases in traffic that is beyond just training events.

Also, when I was NCOIC of a HF radio station at Ft. Bliss years ago, whenever the POTUS was out and about, certain frequencies were off limits for use. And I would amuse myself by listening in on the various transmissions. Never did figure out what the messages were, though.
Notice, we were not allowed to transmit on those frequencies at that time, but we were not forbidden to listen in. Just saying..........I was and still am not a security risk to the U.S. government.


Gonna keep an eye on this, though.

And good work, OP.

According to a friend who does alot of military contract work, the "gereral rule" with regard to project and operational names is that the more "omnious" the name sounds, the less significant it is.

So "Project SITE ANNIHILATION" might be nothing more than a cost/benefits study of cleaning the bathrooms.


Conversely, he lives in constant dread of of seeing or hearing of any official operation running under a name anything like "OPERATION WARM FUZZY KITTENS AND PUPPIES".


To his thinking, that would be the "GO" code for the End Of The World.



Something as benign as "ACRYLIC ACID" does not bode well if he is on to something. (OR maybe just on "something")

reply to post by Tholidor


Heh. That last part was a joke. Your wife really doesn't mind those guys showing up?



Just kidding, my friend.

Ut oh, I guess I just got off topic.

Yeah, my wife doesn't like those guys showing up either, so I keep my HF stuff to myself and don't mess with the PTB, cuz, well, I might be interfering with some fantastic stuff that is going on and longer messages don't mean a damn thing. Heh,

Did I save myself? Not hardly.

I think you need to do a little more research on the subject

I know little of what Skyking is, so I surfed this up.
You now have my attention. Thanks for the heads up.

EAM's or Emergency Action Message. Another very important aspect of the GHFS is the transmission of EAM's. EAM's are the coded military orders or bulletins that have the highest priority. When EAM's are broadcast, ALL other users of the system are to standby. If you hear a voice giving a long series of letters phonically this is an EAM.

SKYKING messages are special EAM's. These presumably could be the nuclear go/no-go codes. There was a higher than normal number of EAM's and SKYKING messages being transmitted after the attackes of 9/11/01. Urgent SKYKING messages are repeated three or four times instead of the usual two. SKYKING is a group callsign, meaning "Any this net." "Do not answer" is the standard procedure of self-authenticating broadcasts, meaning that recipients don't need to give away their positions or existence by challenging the orders. While tuned to any of the GHFS frequncies and hear "SKYKING SKYKING Do not answer" you can bet you're hearing a very important, highest priority, and heavily encrypted message!

Mil Comm and more

reply to post by Bhadhidar


I'm still wiping away tears of laughter after "OPERATION WARM FUZZY KITTENS AND PUPPIES"!!

It didn't escape my notice that all this is coincident to the Korean rumbles as well as the Irish ships nearing Gaza (and its apparent loss of communications), but it also comes as SpaceX launches its first orbital rocket. The Eastern Test Range is also on this net so the "ACID" message could very well have been the "don't shoot, it's one of ours" message to any unit seeing a missile launch on their sensors. Just a thought....

[edit on 4-6-2010 by Tholidor]

There was plenty of military helicopter traffic here on the East coast (VA) today. Groups of Sea stallions in 2's and 3's headed south, 10 or 11 groups total. Normal air traffic is about 2 or 3 for this area.

couldn't resist some thing obvious

ACRYLIC ACID

A CRY LIC ACID

a cry like Acid

a cry => tears => rain.

A rain like acid.

Probably isn't anything usefull,
but eey you can't blame a dumbass

Hi boys and girls.... I don't know for sure, but I may have an answer to our suspicions.

My wife is part of a volunteer Emergency Medical Response Team at a major university here in NC. The purpose of the group is to have groups of medical resources around the country and regions in the event of a natural/man-made disaster...part of her group has been to Haiti and she is awaiting her turn.

Anyway, they are training this weekend with the 82nd just south of Fayett-Nam along with the Baptist Mens Emergency Response Teams. The drill is to be as realistic as possible with Heliborne traffic, military traffic...vehicular and radio, and actors portraying...get this...

Evacuated medical patients from a major disaster in Washington DC.

This would explain much of what is being seen and heard. Set up was Thursday, Drill was Friday, take down and return home Sat.

Anyway, I hope I'm right... otherwise we will find out tommorow morning on the news.

Years ago "big fence" was used instead of "sky king".

I have monitored 11175 and 8992 for along time. Any EAM over 72 characters is unusual. It's a repeat thing. You noticed the message is repeated 3 times. Starts with prosign, them message.

At times, you will hear Ascension Island broadcast with a 5-10 second delay from the same message out of Andrews.

I've even heard "sky king" messages, from Offutt, break into an Andrews "mainsail" messages.

It's kinda neat to hear their transmitter warm up then give out the message.

As for is this more unusual than other times. You need to investigate traffic analysis. The US military has set up a very decent communication network that broadcasts multiple modes on many frequencies, all the time. This is done so there is no apparent spike in activity before any military action.

reply to post by hinky


Thanks for the info. Todays long messages (the first was 236 characters, and the others were 203 characters in length. THe 203 char one was broadcast 4 or 5 times each with a different 6 character "header". Let me rephrase that: There were multiple messages of 203 characters each with different headers - since I am not writing down the message body, I really can't say they were the same message with different addresses. All were repeated twice.

It would not be unusual for a SKYKING message to supercede a MAINSAIL, as the former seems to be of a higher priority.

As of now, the net has been quiet for the last 4 hours or so except for a SKYKING at 18:06 local.

I'm not familiar with the system that supposedly smooths out the traffic volume, but if the intent is to prevent anyone noticing unusual traffic patterns, I'd have to say its an epic fail! LOL

[edit on 4-6-2010 by Tholidor]

If you listen to the message, you'll hear a 6 character prosign (also called preamble) at the very start. Sometimes they may list 2 or 3 sets of 6 characters. Usually, this prosign is called 3 times before the actual message.

If your a ham, you'll instantly recognize the NATO phonetic alphabet being used. Same as what's used on MARS, SATERN, and virtually every other ham net.

These prosigns can designate a team or a specific operation. The next group of characters, in your case 200+ character, is the action. They will tell you "message follows". Highly coded, supposedly unbreakable, but it is the "go code" for what is going to happen with that/those team(s) and/or operation.

This is some cool double aught stuff.

to me this is what ATS is all about.... ooh-rah!

Has anyone considered the acronym of For Acrylic Acid?

FAA... Federal Aviation Administration

Perhaps For Acrylic Acid is a euphemism for the Federal Aviation Administration during these training exercises.

And we all know what the FAA does...

— Doc Velocity




[edit on 6/4/2010 by Doc Velocity]

Originally posted by gncnew
The freq you found is supposed to be the broad "alert" freq for everyone and then individual units are supposed to move to "discrete freqs" for more info.
May be able to see if it's a nation wide thing or just a specific base..

Dog Gone It gncnew!
Turn the power off!
Some things are just COMSEC/SCI!

Originally posted by hinky
If your a ham, you'll instantly recognize the NATO phonetic alphabet
This is some cool double aught stuff.

The same goes for you hinky!
Turn the power off!
Some things are just COMSEC/SCI!

reply to post by Violater1


This is the wrong place to worry about COMSEC/SCI, Violater1.

'cuz if we get our hands on it here, well. you might as well build it a wiki of it's own, and make it go viral.