The following article is for the radio enthusiasts or for those who are simply interested.

Large scale military operations involve radio. Radio is how military forces communicate on the battlefield. Whether it’s short point-to-point, or more long-range communication — it’s crucial for military success. That begs the question: can ham radio operators and shortwave listeners have a front row seat to the ongoing Russian aggression in Ukraine?

It’s not as far fetched as it may sound. Mickey Gurdus, who passed away a few years ago, was world renowned for intercepting radio communications. He intercepted anything from plane hijackings, secret Soviet weapons airlifts to Egypt, and even the invasion of Iraq during the Gulf War. All things he knew long before those incidents ever made a news headline thanks to one thing — his radio. 

Monitoring Ukraine Using WebSDR

Web-based Software Defined Radios (SDR) have exploded in popularity in recent years. SDRs located in Ukraine give you the ability to monitor the airwaves from the middle of potential military action. As of this writing, there are still WebSDRs active within Ukraine. However, there have been warnings about what running a SDR available to the Internet could mean for Ukrainian citizens.

Stanislav Stetsenko was a resident of Crimea and regularly monitored ADS-B traffic. Stan was arrested by Russian Federal Security Services and is currently in prison in Moscow, Russia on charges he is a Ukrainian spy. That incident led to the RTL-SDR enthusiast blog to issue a warning to current Ukrainian SDR enthusiasts. 

• Online WebSDRs via KiwiSDR
• WebSDR (filter to European region)

Russian Military Shortwave Frequencies

HF communications are still a crucial part of military communications. Here are some frequencies worth monitoring as tensions rise in Ukraine. Data provided by Pyriom. 

Western Military District

• The Buzzer (4625 kHz)
• D marker (5292 kHz)
• T marker (4182 kHz)
• The Air Horn (3510 kHz)
• The Goose (4310/3243 kHz)
• The Alarm (4770 kHz)
• Katok-65 (4224/3218.5 kHz)

Southern Military District

• The Pip (5448/3756 kHz)
• The Squeaky Wheel (5473/3828 kHz)
• Vega (5372 kHz)
• Baron-78 (3850/4940 kHz)

Russian Air Force Frequencies

• All voice frequencies mentioned on this page are on the upper sideband.
• The aircraft callsigns are made of 5 digits.
• The primary/secondary designations reflect the usage by aircraft; the ground stations usually transmit on all frequencies simultaneously.

Military Transport Aviation

Frequencies (kHz)

• 6685
• 8847 (secondary)
• 11360
• 18030

Ground station callsigns

• Davlenie: 708th Regiment, Taganrog
• Kasta: 224th Detachment, Tver
• Klarnetist: 196th Regiment, Tver
• Korsar: Military Transport Aviation HQ, Moscow
• Magnetron: 566th Regiment, Seshcha
• Lad’ya: Heard in radio checks, location unconfirmed
• Polis: 117th Regiment, Orenburg
• Polotno: Heard in radio checks, location unconfirmed
• Proselok: 334th Regiment, Pskov

This network carries plain voice traffic between transport aircraft and the Military Transport Aviation units.

Voice Frequencies (USB)	5827, 5833, 5803, 5617, 5827, 8131, 8090, 8909, 8033, 8131, 11223, 11320
Call signs	“Balans” (Moscow) “Katolik” (Saratov) “Dvojchatka” (Moscow-2) “Limit” (Saratov-2) “Nabor” (Moscow) “Shpora” (Saratov) “Balans” (Moscow-2) “Tezis” (Saratov-2) “Ochistka” (Moscow) “Medyanka” (Saratov) “Duga” (Saratov-2) “Stupen” (Moscow) “Tablica” (Saratov) “Kedr” (Saratov-2) “Balans” (Moscow) “Katolik” (Saratov) “Dvojchatka” (Moscow-2) “Limit” (Saratov-2)

Long-Range Aviation

This network is associated with the Tu-95 strategic bombers and the Il-78 tankers supporting them. It is also known as the Bear net, after the NATO reporting name for the Tu-95, Bear.

The frequencies and the callsigns used depend on the season. The activity takes place mainly on the 8 MHz channels. During activity on this network, a single letter (“W” for Europe, or “G” for the Pacific) is repeatedly transmitted on one of the Morse ground frequencies around H+00, H+20, and H+40 for 2 minutes each.

Training operations are conducted away from the main frequencies. Voice communications take place within the 5.6 MHz range, with a single ground station present using a distinct callsign. Otherwise, the procedures used are exactly the same. The voiced callsigns for the ground stations when conducting training are named above as Moscow-2 and Saratov-2.

REA4

REA4 is a Morse code station of the Long-Range Aviation that broadcasts airfield weather reports and “Monolith” messages.

Have you heard military radio transmissions?

Have you heard any HF military activity recently? Drop a comment below and let me know what you’ve heard. I’m sure we would all appreciate any reported activity!