| G2 G2a E23 |
| STATUS- ACTIVE |
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E23 "Cynthia Voice" wma 8188 kHz 23 SEP 04 55555 66666 77777 88888 99999 count in. |
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E23 "Cynthia Voice" wma 8188 kHz 21 OCT 04 FULL TRANSMISSION. |
| Swedish Rhapsody from 1989 wma 5 minutes long |
| Swedish Rhapsody pre-1998 |
| Swedish Rhapsody from Leen, NL. via spook007 |
| Swedish Rhapsody1 from Leen, NL. via spook007 |
| A clip sent in by Andrew T.
recorded on 15.1MHz, 1 AUG 1977 at 0905 UTC. Swedish Rhapsody 1977 |
| A clip from Jochen Schafer 17 JAN
82 0800 8188 kHz Swedish Rhapsody 1982 |
| A clip from Jochen Schafer 17 FEB
82 0800 8188 kHz Swedish Rhapsody 1982 Different voice |
| A clip from Jochen Schafer
6507 kHz Swedish Rhapsody with comments from a young Jochen |
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SWEDISH RHAPSODYG2: This station has recently undergone a massive change, of which more later. However let's begin with the original station with the child's voice and the rather tacky music box intro. Langley Pierce has identified this station as being operated by Austrian Intelligence. However, it has recently (late 1998) been traced to Poland. This is his description of the station: The preamble consists of a piece of music played by a music box repeated for five minutes beginning on the hour. The piece is called 'Swedish Rhapsody.' The piece is repeated 23 times. Message. 73242 73242 95222 95222 04528 04528 If a further transmission is scheduled for the next hour, instead of the transmitter being shut down, it instead transmits a 0.5 second 1100 Hz tone every 3 seconds up until the next transmission. This station also operates a secondary format. the preamble as which is made up of two distinct parts. Firstly ten minutes before the hour or half hour depending on transmission time. a 0.5 second 1100 Hz tone is transmitted every 3 seconds. This continues up until the beginning of the musical preamble. And secondly, the music box piece, Swedish Rhapsody is played three times, followed by a count from 1 to 0 in two parts. repeated twice: 2. Traffic. Traffic is presented in standard non-standard synthesised female voice at 17 groups per minute. Each digit Is presented smoothly, although final digits are often subjected to being prematurely cut off. This effect is particularly noticeable with 'Seiben'. The station is characterised by the standard variants of funf, neun and noll being rendered aa "funnif", "noiyin" and "nal" 3. Broadcast Schedule. Traffic is usually broadcast in the evening on pseudo-regular schedule. although transmissions have been heard in the early morning. Due to the length of transmission about 35 minutes sign-on times are restricted to begin on the hour. One interesting feature of this traffic is that every fifth individual group is followed by an extended pause. Day Time (UTC) Frequency Alternate Frequency END OF GERMAN TRANSMISSIONS:
This station, noted for its stability, has recently undergone two radical changes. On 1st April 1998 the old schedules were entirely replaced, turning the unruffled world of Swedish Rhapsody upside-down. Perhaps the biggest change was the total extinction of G2A, whose schedule hadn't altered for very many years. In the third week of April, all this changed again - this time, although the new schedules remained, the familiar 'little girl voice' along with her musical toy disappeared and has not been heard since. Yet another blow to eccentricity which will be sadly lost. The voice in German has been replaced by that of the brash American English - Cynthia. What conclusions can we draw from this? Format has also changed - after a short settling down period. Gone are the single message voice transmissions; all are now of the 100/100/150 group triple type. Transmissions commence at 3 minutes to the hour with a call reminiscent of E5, however, no ID is included, and the counting is in the form of 5 Fig stutter groups. E.g. 11111 22222 33333 44444 55555 66666 77777 88888 99999 00000 repeated until the hour. On the hour the three message headers (still encrypted 5F are read out three times, followed by the first header twice which is immediately followed by the first message (100 pairs, as usual). Without pause the second header is read out twice, and the second message follows immediately. The same applies to the third (50 group) message, which ends abruptly, although the word "END" has also been noted. The main difference between this new format and the old one is the complete lack of pauses and announcements (no English equivalent of "Achtung!") - from beginning of traffic list to end of last message. Headers are read no differently as the message groups themselves, as if they were merely message groups. This gives the impression of one long 162 group message, which of course, it is not. What does this imply? It now implies more so that all three message blocks are intended for the same recipients, and not separate addressees, as would be the case in a station like M10, S10, G3 or G8 for example. It also implies that blocks 2 and 3 are probably continuations (when needed) of the message encrypted in the first block. This means that the third block would always be the least likely one to carry valid traffic. The recipient would first of all transcribe the three headers as headings on a pre-printed (?) form. A grid of 100 spaces (10 x 10) below the first heading would then be filled in as the first block groups are read out. A prearranged Message End Marker, say a particular run of 3 figures (in clear), would be looked for by the recipient and at that point all further groups read out would be ignored, the receiver being switched off. The headers probably provide decryption information, and possibly also a (simply?) encrypted group count - in which case a Message End Marker would not be needed. The message ending could be marked at the appropriate grid square - these squares may even be numbered 1-150. Perhaps the need for three blocks is due to a need (added security? An inherent weakness of the system?) of the encryption system used, a system designed for a maximum of 100 groups. Why is the final block only half the length of the other two? Maybe it's an historical anomaly dating back to a period when time was needed to retune transmitters in time for the commencement of the 10min tone period prior to the next transmission. A 100 group final block would leave very little time to arrange this. 50 groups ending at h + 37.5, would make all the difference; it could be as simple as that. Maybe, for reasons unknown to the uninitiated, there is never any need for more than 150 groups, and this figure depends on a very specific kind of message -perhaps even so specific that precisely 100, 100 & 50 groups are always required, but this seems the least probable theory. We are open to further suggestions and wild speculations!
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