Had some interesting Spanish language satcom traffic last week on 265.250 between several stations including Moldavia 10, Mérida, and Rangún 10. Lots of test counts and making attempts to establish communication. The station identifying as Mérida mentions being located in the Bellavista sector.
Additional comms regarding a maneuver and discussion about initiating movement towards a specific point based on OP-0010. Mérida mentioned being with Rangún 15 at the location.
During all of this activity, I also logged Mako 93 calling JIATF South.
Last week, I observed unusual radio traffic on the 260.475MHz frequency. The transmissions were likely from a Colombian military or law enforcement operation. The callsigns used were Copán, Pulpo, Mammoth, Aquiles, and Jerónimo. The operators were active for several days and mentioned carrying out police searches, taking photos and videos, and operating a drone. They also provided latitude and longitude coordinates that placed them in the remote jungles of the Darién Gap, along the border between Colombia and Panama. One of the units sounded digital, suggesting that some of the radio traffic may have been patched through a terrestrial radio system. Another clue was dropped when one of the operators said, “Copán, le confirmo la salida en el Black Hawk, en el UH-60 PNC 0625.” This translates to, “Copán, I confirm the departure of the Black Hawk, UH-60 PNC-0625.” A check of the tail number confirmed that this particular Black Hawk belongs to the Colombian National Police.
Lately, I’ve been hearing a regular amount of Spanish chatter on different UHF SATCOM frequencies. Here are several stations using 252.150 conducting radio checks and exchanging information. What caught my attention on this intercept was the mention of a camp in the sector of Kilómetro 41 and the mention of a specific point 500 meters below the point where Río Chinchiná and Río Cauca meet. These are very specific locations and after a bit of Googling, I was able to find an approximate location on this map. This puts them in the Caldas Department of Colombia, which is located a bit north of Pereira. Definitely interesting and bears watching.
I have logged more Spanish speaking stations over the past few days on UHF SATCOM. Just like the traffic on 258.650 from a couple weeks ago, I really don’t get the vibe that these are typical pirates. Today the stations were testing in both Spanish and English. Here are recordings of the recently logged traffic.
265.550: Stations w/ test counts, “hola hola hola holas” and asking “me copia?” – it sounds as if they were giving each other signal reports.
267.050: Person whispering into the radio. This was logged in the middle of the night. I cannot make out what they were saying except maybe “tienes tienes cuatro” (you have 4?) between the encoded traffic.
261.775: Test counts and radio checks in both Spanish and English.
I’ve been hearing quite a bit of Spanish language traffic on 258.650. These comms sound more formal in nature and appear to be using callsigns, therefore I don’t think these are typical run-of-the-mill satcom pirates. Activity has been noted on multiple days and on several other frequencies. 258.650 is where most of the comms have been noted, but I’ve logged some radio checks on other frequencies including 253.850, 261.775 and 262.225 (with occasional test counts both Spanish and American accented English).
Brief comms from Spanish speaking station. He says “Copia seguro esta en claro cambia voz de seguro” which translates to “copy you in the clear, change to secure voice” or something along those lines. Definitely does not sound like pirates. I have noted this activity on several different freqs and suspect it may be some type of military users from Latin America. If anyone has any ideas as to the user please post in comments!
Welcome fellow radio monitors and enthusiasts! Here you will find my reception logs and audio recordings for HF and SATCOM (with a focus on aviation and military) along with other interesting and odd things that have been monitored over the airwaves from my location in Southern California.
My primary HF setup includes the WinRadio G31DDC paired with magnetic loop antennas like the Wellbrook ALA1530. For UHF SATCOM, I use antennas such as the Trivec Avant AV-2011, AV-2055, and AV-2095.
