Monitoring the High seas and High Frequencies by Steve Douglass Note: This article was orginally published in the May 1992 issue of Intercepts. Although some of the frequency listings have changed (swallowed up by the Air Force GHFS system) some remain active today, especially the ASW (anti-submarine warfare) frequencies which are very active with the US NAVY ships shadowing Russian submarines. For some reason there has been a dramatic increase in Russian submarine activity off both coasts. Enjoy! A mighty aircraft carrier is on patrol in the Persian Gulf. It is not alone. A protective umbrella of ships and aircraft keep all hostile forces at bay. The air threat from forces can take many forms: attack or reconnaissance aircraft, missiles launched from the air, from other ships, submarines or possibly from the land. An accurate assessment of the threat to a carrier group is essential . Any naval task force must take into account the weapons that could be deployed against it, the capabilities of those systems, and the possibility that a hostile force may indeed attack. A modern carrier group will consist of many ships and aircraft including, anti submarine ships and planes, escort missile cruisers, air defence ships, early warning platforms, submarines and the like. This "Defence in Depth" may be spread out of hundreds of miles and must be linked together in an efficient and reliable communications system. You can listen in on these communications of the U.S. Navy on the shortwave bands. HICOM The U.S. Navy maintains a shortwave radio network very similar to Strategic Air Command's "Giant Talk" network. It is called "HICOM" and is used for relaying high level communications to Navy ships and ground stations. When listening in, the monitor will first think he found just another SAC frequency, for the same phonetic messages that are heard on the STRATCOM and GHFS channels can be heard on the NAVY HICOM frequencies as well. The messages are the same. Just as SAC uses the shortwave bands to send coded messages to its nuclear forces, so does the Navy. The only difference being, the broadcasts are meant for ships at sea and not bombers in the air. Navy ground stations and Navy airborne communications aircraft such as the TACAMO and P-3 Orions are used to relay the coded messages. Muti-mode A wide variety of communications modes can be monitored on the Navy's shortwave frequencies. USB/LSB (upper and lower sideband) , radio teletype (RTTY) data and fax transmissions. Most of the communications are in the clear but an increasing number of them are encrypted (scrambled). When a station is heard saying "Go green", scrambled communications are sure to follow. For those of you who have radiotelegraph decoding equipment, the Navy RTTY MULCAST transmissions consist of 16 channels 85Hz shift, 85Hz separation, 75 or 50 baud. Most RTTY messages consist of traffic and weather reports, maintenance and a few personal messages for the crew. Most FAX communications are weather maps and satellite photos. Voice Navy voice on shortwave is usually in USB mode, just like those on the SAC channels. Sometimes AM and LSB are heard but rarely. Most stations use a three letter identifier such as "Lima Seven Alpha" but some identifiable call signs such as "OLD SALT" (U.S.S NIMITZ) are still used from time to time. (See table 2). Most communications involve tactical net traffic, unknown aircraft and ship tracking and long range aircraft communications. Ships travelling in convoys use their own tactical call signs, to identify their place and rank in the convoy. ( See table 3). These call signs are never used in communications with shore stations. Some of the tactical voice communications intercepted during the gulf war, were cruise missile nets, shore bombardment groups, search and rescue ops, and aircraft carrier operations. Some of the most active frequencies for voice were 8.778 MHz (NAVY tactical nets) 8.972 MHz (anti submarine and cruise missile launching nets) and 11.267 ( NAVY HICOM). These frequencies remain active to this day. U.S. NAVY RADIO COMMUNICATIONS FREQUENCIES Frequency Use 2130 U.S. Coastal 2150 Test Control- Charleston 2252 Virginia Capes 2368 Harbor Control 2434 Harbor Control 2550 Disaster Net 2586 Harbor Control 2630 Harbor Control 2714 Harbor Control 2716 Harbor Control 2732 Nuclear Subs/Lockheed test Net 2745 NAVFAC Grand Turk 2836 Harbor Control 3023 Search/Rescue 3050 Air-Ground 3053 Ships/Tactical 3088 ASW 3095 Tactical- Atlantic Fleet 3109 Gulf of Mexico, San Diego- Air-Ground 3130 COMSTA Pacific 3237 PMFR Barking Sands/ Outrider Control 3261 NORATS Norfolk 3265 Tactical- Atlantic fleet 4014 Atlantic- Air-Ground 4040 (HICOM) West Pacific 4045 NORATS Norfolk 4082 PMFR Barking Sands/ Outrider Control 4152 Tactical 4253 Nuclear Subs/Lockheed 4359 NAS 4373 Virginia Capes 4377 Pacific Fleet tactical 4416 (HICOM) Pacific Fleet 4491 PMFR Barking Sands 4515 Test Control- Charleston 4622.5 NAS 4700 Pacific AWS 4702 Atlantic AWS 4704 Tactical- Atlantic/Pacific Fleets 4707 ASW Atlantic 4735 PMFR Down range ships 4813.5 (HICOM) Guam 4835 Ship/shore- Philadelphia shipyard 5080 PMFR Range Clearance 5430 COMSTA 5446 USMC Tactical 5680 Search/rescue 5716.5 Atlantic Fleet 5718 Tactical Atlantic/Pacific Fleets 5724 Atlantic/Pacific Fleets 6687 Special Convoys- U.S. Marine Corps 6693 Pacific Fleet 6697 (HICOM) ASW Atlantic/ Caribbean 6705 COMSTA 6708 Tactical-Atlantic/Pacific Fleets 6720 (HICOM) ASW Atlantic/ Pacific 6723 Universal SAR 6742 ASW Atlantic 6746 PMFR Pt Mugu NAS 6799 Atlantic Fleet 6835 Pensacola 7485 Test Control- Charleston 7507 Atlantic Hurricane Warning (pri) 7535 Caribbean/Indian Ocean Fleet/Norfolk SESEF (HICOM) 7645 Disaster Net 7839 Tactical 7885 ASW Atlantic Tactical 7893 ASW Atlantic 8233.5 NORATS Worldwide 8757 TACSFAC 8771 Pensacola 8778 (HICOM) Pacific Fleet 8972 ASW North Atlantic (guard) (HICOM) 8976 ASW Atlantic 8981.5 Pacific Air-Ground 9002 Tactical Pacific Fleet 9006 Tactical Atlantic Fleet 9032 Pacific Aircraft 9037 Atlantic Aircraft (sec) 9124 Tactical 9257 Tactical 9260 Tactical 9380 Fleets Atlantic/Pacific 9950 Charleston Test Control 10730 Ops 11190 Tactical 11191 ASW Atlantic 11195 Atlantic Fleet 11198 Atlantic Fleet 11205 ASW Atlantic 11234 COMSTA RTTY Coord. 11252 ASW Atlantic 11255 Atlantic/Pacific/Mediterra nean Fleet (HICOM) 11261 CINCPAC 11267 Atlantic/Caribbean (HICOM) 11410 COMSTA 11463 Atlantic Fleet 11570 Tactical 12215 Indian Ocean/Guam (HICOM) 12315 Norfolk SESEF 12761 Philippines (HICOM) 13147 Tactical 13169.5 Pacific Fleet 13181 Pacific Fleet (HICOM) 13224 COMSTA 13227 Tactical- Atlantic/Pacific Fleets 13237 Fleets- Atlantic/Pacific 13251 ASW Pacific 13629.5 Tactical 15021 Pacific Fleet 15051 Tactical- Pacific Fleet 15067 Tactical 15077 PMFR Down Range Ships 15087 Pacific Fleet 15520 Atlantic Fleet 15522 Caribbean/Guantanamo Bay (HICOM) 17985 Tactical- Atlantic Fleet 18009 Pacific Fleet (HICOM) 18162.5 Pacific Tactical 23177 Pacific Fleet 23224 Pacific Fleet 23227 PMFR Down Range Ships 23287 Atlantic/Caribbean (HICOM) 23315 Indian Ocean (HICOM) U.S. Navy Tactical Call Sign Identifiers Table 2 Callsign Location ANGEL Rescue helicopter- UH-1 Marines BARBARIC Guantanamo Bay, Cuba- US Navy Facility BATTER UP Any NAVCOMSTA frequency CLIMAX USS Enterprise CVAN-65 COMSERON USCG Key West, Florida COURAGE USS America EAGLE CLIFF USS John F. Kennedy FAIRFIELD USS Saratoga FISHER BODY ATC Guantanamo Bay NAS, Cuba GOLD EAGLE USS Carl Vinson GRAY EAGLE USS Ranger HAMPSHIRE Commander Naval Forces Caribbean, Roosevelt Rds NAS, PR HANDBOOK USS Forrestal HERSHEY Key West, CINCLANT/ Joint Air Reconnaissance Center JITTERBUG Canal Zone, NAVCOMSTA Balboa MUSTANG USS Coral Sea OLD SALT USS Nimitz OTIS KC-130 aircraft, Cherry Point MCAQS, NC OVERWORK Naval network general callsign PANTHER USS Kitty Hawk PEDRO Marines rescue helicopter PLEAD CONTROL Pacific Missile Firing Range RAIDER KC-130 aircraft, El Toro MCAS, GA RASPBEERY Naval air stations prefix RAWHIDE BASE Norfolk, Virginia- Squadron VRC-40 SCHOOL BOY USS Midway SPARTAN USS Lexington CVT-16 STONEWALL CINCPAC STRONGBOX Naval network call designa tor SWORDFISH USCG Aircraft 01 TOPHAND Norfolk, Submarine com mand Atlantic TORREADOR NAVCOMSTA San Francisco, California YELLOW BLOOD HQ F Fleet Marine Force, Pacific U.S. Navy Convoy Voice Call Signs Table 3 Call Sign Ships or Authorities CHIEF Commodore LUCK Vice Commodore TEAM Convoy Collective VAMP Commodore's section MERGE Vice Commodore's section CASEMATE Rear Commodore SWAP Rear Commodore's section BOSS Commander- escort force DELTA + Individual ships in convoy POSITION NO. GANG Collective, escort ships BIT + HULL Individual, escort shipsNO. FOREMAN Patrol/support group commander MOB Patrol/support group collective NEST Escort carrier No. 1 COTE Escort carrier No. 2 STARCAST Escprt carrier No. 3 SACK Escort carrier No. 4 STRETCHERS Rescue ships DUFFER HF DF ships METER MF DF ships HAWKER Ships operating aircraft VAN Ships in or near the van MID Ships in or near the center REAR Ships in or near the rear CRACKER AA cruiser(s) EAGLE Ship controlling aircraft ROMP Even numbered ships TAX Odd numbered ships CANDY Leading ships of columns BRIDEWELL Leading ships on the port side PAGE Leading ships on the starboard side SODA Rear ships on the port side SPRINT Rear ships of columns ROLL Rear ships on the starboard side BLIGHT Even numbered columns MIXED Odd numbered columns SHIRT Columns on the port side PUPPY Columns on the starboard side Screen commander ALFA Escorting aircraft UPDATES WELCOME! E-mail: Steve1957@aol.com Are you interested in military monitoring? INTERCEPTS NEWSLETTER The fascinating world of military monitoring requires up to the minute,inside information. At last monitors have found a solid source of military monitoring intelligence- INTERCEPTS- the newsletter for the serious, dedicated military monitoring hobbyist. In each Intercepts you'll find the latest information on Shortwave and VHF/UHF military monitoring,frequencies, callsigns and codewords! Also the latest military news, first peaks and intentional leaks. What works, and what doesn't. Stealth updates and military aircraft profiles. Air Force Base frequency lists and Interceptor reports. Intercepts is published by Steve and Teresa Douglass P.O. Box 7176 Amarillo, Tx 79114-7176 Subscription rates are $20.00 for one year (12 issues, $27.00 for foreign orders) Plus you'll receive a custom print out of the military base of your choice and the new updated GHFS frequency list. You can E-mail the publisher (Steve Douglass) at Steve 1957@aol.com for more information.