| V23 French Lady |
| STATUS- INACTIVE |
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Description by ENIGMA staff A new station (ENIGMA -station V23) appeared from nowhere twice daily at 0900 and 1900 for seven days in August 1999, using four frequencies alternatively. As the format is identical to Family I a, we assumed it to be Russian, however, its scheduling is not at all typical I a style, but follows E17z's habits, so at the Ukraine was its other possible origin. All messages were different (around 90 groups with no nulls or repeats) and the ID for both schedules was the same throughout: 362. Day Date Frequency (MHz) Decode Key/ GC Frequency (MHz) Decode Key/GC UTC 0900 1900 If you study the Decode Keys you will see a pattern, (559 could be a monitoring error). The 8.140 frequency was chosen to avoid a transmission already using 8.124MHz - a typical Family Ia habit. On the Monday at 0700 on 16.342 an unpredicted V6A appeared with DK/GCs of 553/85 and 534/84. On the Thursday at 1100 on 10.630 an unpredicted E6C appeared using the same 362-appointment code and DK/GCs of 591/93 and 592/98. Both DKs and GCs follow the V23 pattern and 10.630MHz is only 5kHz off 10.635 - quite usual with Family Ia. Two message variants of V6 and E6 have never been noted before, unlike S6E and M14E (very common). This confirms V23 to be a member of Family Ia, but reserved for special operations. Whatever operation this was, it involved French, Spanish and English speaking agents. The only other French language station reported over the last 15 years was V12. (The 362 ID has also been used by a M14A schedule for well over a year, and still appears at 1900 every Wednesday, always with two messages totalling around 140 groups, but is probably unconnected). This is one of many examples of how ENIGMA is able to identify the family origins of new transmissions. |