|
JRT/ftSECRET
NAVAL AIR STATION
Sitka, Alaska 3 December 1941
From: Commanding Officer 1. There is being forwarded herewith the report of HF/DF activities of this station for the month ending 30 November 1941, consisting of the following sections:
J. R. Tate
This report contains thirteen pages. Page 1. |
| HF/DF Sitka November, 1941 |
SECRET |
|
I OPERATIONS
Page 2.
|
|
| HF/DF Sitka November, 1941 |
SECRET |
|
I OPERATION
During the period 1-15 November the HF/DF unit continued to operate in accordance with instructions as set forth in the West Coast Tracking Net Operating Instructions Number 1. 15 November. At 0000 the West Coast Tracking Net shifted from Condition One to Condition Two (See change number 1 to the West Coast Tracking Net Operations Instructions Number 1). Due to slow mail services in Alaska this station was not informed of this change until 0000 16 November. When the operator did not hear the Control Signal Frequency Adjustment Signal on the 15th he sensed something was wrong. We informed the Net Control Station that we were not receiving them on the designated frequencies and requested the frequencies they were using to work the net. At 2035 on the 15th we received a reply to our inquiry, but in a code that was not held by this station and it was not until 0112 on the 16th that we received a message, in a code we hold, instructing us of the change in Conditions. 29 November. Reveived a coded message from COM12 addressed to COM11, COM13, Farallone Is. D/F, Pt. St. George D/F, and passed to us by the Net Control Station at Bainbridge. This message was in a code not held by this station. We informed Bainbridge we did not hold this code but we received no reply or instructions in another code. The External indicator of this code is YKBZY. In view of these two recent cases where instructions have been sent to this station in codes not held, it is requested this station be furnished a copy of all codes used in connection with HF/DF work. At present the only D/F code we hold is USF64. During the period 16-30 November the HF/DF unit operated in accordance with instructions mentioned in paragraph Two above.
Page 3.
|
|
| HF/DF Sitka November, 1941 |
SECRET |
|
II COMMUNICATION DATA
Page 4.
|
|
| HF/DF Sitka November, 1941 |
SECRET |
|
II - COMMUNICATION DATA
During October it was noted that some ORANGE Merchant Vessels, when working on 500 kilocycles, were using four numeral call signs in place of their regular "J" International calls. At that time these vessels were operating in the western Pacific and as their signals were very weak, we were unable to make any identifications. During the later part of November the commercial shore-ship stations JQE and JJU have included some of these four numeral calls in their traffic lists. To date we have not heard an ORANGE Merchant Vessels using these calls on high frequency. We are keeping a continuous lookout for vessels using these calls in an effort to identify them and find some system in the assignment of these calls. Following is a list of four numeral calls signs we have recorded:
High Frequuency500 kilocycles As soon as any vessels are identified and any new calls are received this list will be corrected. These same commercial shore-ship traffic stations are including secret radio calls in their traffic lists, other than the ones mentioned above. One one occasion JQE included the call UEG with the rest of the regular "J" International calls in his traffic list. This breaks down to JHBP when using the Alphabetical Substitution Call System. During the above mentioned time JQE had the occasion to make a new traffic list and this time he used JHBP instead of UEG. He ran this traffic list a short time and then changed back to UEG again.
Page 5.
|
|
| HF/DF Sitka November, 1941 |
SECRET |
|
II - COMMUNICATION DATA CONT'D.
28 November. At 1030 JJU on approximately 8200 kilocycles ran a tape with the following KANA text: RO MU KE 47 RA I TA HO SO SO HO SO SO HO SO SO HE U KE RO KE RO KE RO (Pause)
47 RA I TA RO MU KE HO SO SO HE TI TU MU RI TA TU MU RI YO RE TU SO YA HE HO ? (Long pause and then repeated the above. This was done several times). The two commercial ship-shore traffic stations JQE and JJU are not listed in any Berne publication we have at this station. From observations it appears that these two calls are assigned to the same traffic station and they only serve to indicate different frequencies. JQE shuts down at 0700 and five minutes later JJU comes up and runs the same traffic list that JQE ran before shutting down. The same thing occurs at 1945 when JJU shuts down and JQE comes up. It is unlikely that two commercial stations would operate in this way, in as much as they carry the same identical traffic lists consistantly and are not on the air at the same time. The bearings of these two stations place them in the Tokio-Yokohama area. These stations carry the bulk of the ORANGE ship to shore and shore to ship traffic.
Page 6.
|
|
| HF/DF Sitka November, 1941 |
SECRET |
|
III - DIRECTION FINDER
Page 7.
|
|
| HF/DF Sitka November, 1941 |
SECRET | |||||||||||||||
|
III DIRECTION FINDER.
Under Condition Two, which eliminates the control signal frequency, the operator must search continuously for targets on which to take bearings. Therefore, only a small time each watch can be spent in obtaining bearings on fixed stations. At the beginning of each watch the operator takes approximately five bearings on fixed stations scattered throughout the globe in order to check for deviation. During November the bearings obtained on fixed stations fell in the following qualifications.
During the period covered by this report 184 bearings on ORANGE Merchant Vessels were reported to the Net Control Station. Following is a list of bearings obtained on ORANGE Merchant Ships as reported to the Net Control Station:
DATE TIME CALL FREQUENCY BEARING QUALITY REMARKS
1 0321 JROJ 12410 147 GOOD
Page 8.
|
||||||||||||||||
| HF/DF Sitka November, 1941 |
SECRET |
|
III DIRECTION FINDER CONT'D.
DATE TIME CALL FREQUENCY BEARING QUALITY REMARKS
5 0234 JQKB 12405 174 EXCELLENT
Page 9.
|
|
| HF/DF Sitka November, 1941 |
SECRET | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
III DIRECTION FINDER CONT'D.
Page 10.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| HF/DF Sitka November, 1941 |
SECRET | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
III DIRECTION FINDER CONT'D.
Page 11.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| HF/DF Sitka November, 1941 |
SECRET | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
III DIRECTION FINDER CONT'D.
Page 11.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| HF/DF Sitka November, 1941 |
SECRET | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
III DIRECTION FINDER CONT'D.
Page 12.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| HF/DF Sitka November, 1941 |
SECRET | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
III DIRECTION FINDER CONT'D.
Page 13.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Record Group 181 (RG 181); NARA, Pacific Alaska Region (Seattle); Central Subject Files, 1934-1945 (Entry 50); District Communications Office; Thirteenth Naval District; Records of Naval Districts and Shore Establishments; Box 7, Folder A8-4, Radio Intelligence Reports - NAS Sitka, Radio Intelligence Report for the Month Ending 31 November 1941.
The above format gives the box number for the report, current as of August, 2004. It is, however, not the citation format favored by the NARA archivists and box numbers can change over time, so a researcher wishing to contact NARA over these documents in the future may be better served by the following citation:
National Archives Format:
Radio Intelligence Report for the Month Ending 31 November 1941; Folder title "A8-4"; Central Subject Files, 1934-1945 (Entry 50); District Communications Office; Thirteenth Naval District; Records of Naval Districts and Shore Establishments, Record Group 181 (RG 181); NARA, Pacific Alaska Region (Seattle).