4XZ morse station - first attempt with MultiPSK

In this video I'm using software to log a morse station. 4XZ is believed to be operated by the Israeli navy from Haifa, using several frequencies, including 4331 and 6379 khz. This recording is 4331 khz.

When it is idle, the station can generally be recognised by its roundslip: 'vvv de 4XZ 4XZ = ='

The software is MultiPSK, which has one of the most obnoxious front ends known to man (intentionally kept off this video), but does decode CW (i.e. morse) as well as a host of digital modes, including RTTY. I barely understand most of the functions at this stage.

There are actually some errors in the copy I achieved, as I probably haven't optimised the settings, and the level of background noise is quite high. Due to added noise using my Degen's line out (I don't have an isolation transformer) I'm actually using a microphone and mixer. As can be seen, the broadcast should consist of 5 figure groups, although there was a header of sorts at the beginning. In other words, characteristic of encrypted material much like a typical numbers station broadcast.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• morse
• cw
• israel
• navy
• haifa
• multipsk
• data
• digital
• ham
• numbers
• station
• radio
• shortwave
• espionage
• spy
• code
• cryptography
• intelligence

[Tangereandream]

Hi all, There is nothing mystery about 4XZ, It is listed by the ITU-R InternationalTelecommunication­s Radio Division. The format of the messages despite the encrypted "message body" is exactly the same as that used for "Telegrams" between ships and shore in the not so distant past when Morse rules the radio waves. The reason 4XZ still use Morse is it's ability to punch through all the jamming and interference and an experienced naval operator will pull the signal out through the jamming

[JohnnyX50]

A very kind you tube user who has old morse practicing records has one that tests you on random 5 letter groups, i found his comment to my question extremely interesting .."..those 5-letter code groups were standard in military traffic handling since the traffic itself was encrypted. The roughest Morse tests were always those involving random code groups since you couldn't apply your knowledge of English to fill in any gaps..." very interesting ;)

[fasthandslow]

Great video. I use Multipsk and have found the when decoding CW the 1st letter or so is missing because of the signal marker looks as though its too short e.g G4??? is 4???, anyone else had this problem?

[Hanglands]

Yes, I always get a noisy signal with 4XZ. Never tried this software, but have done it with CWdecoder and CWGet. Wouldnt make much sense with 100% accurate decode to me, but I get an approximation of the format OK.