• File defaults to the public log. Volunteer copy from eam.watch and War Watch Intel. One row per preamble. Hearing site is usually not reported. A blank file is not proof the net was quiet.
• Logged / Trainer is the SENSOR switch. Logged is crowd transcription. Trainer is generated traffic for procedure. Do not mix them in one sitrep.
• Day ident on Logged is whatever senders the public log reported. On Trainer it is a reconstructed word pair for that UTC day, not ANDREWS, and not today’s live ident.
• On air means a simulated broadcast is being read, character by character. Escape clears the selection.
• Stations shows ANCS vs GFNCS control and ALE IDs. Aircraft still call MAINSAIL or “Sigonella Global.”
• Archive filters by type, station, search, or pins. Pins stay on this device.

CURRENT means a simulated trainer broadcast is being read (trainer only). STANDBY means copy in the last 15 minutes — logged copy uses the logger’s timestamp, not when this desk fetched it. TIMEOUT means 15 minutes with no copy — a blank, not zero activity. A stale public log is still a blank.

Real and public: station list, ANCS/GFNCS split, ALE IDs, core and CHARLIE frequencies, EAM character set, Group 1 shape, SKYKING procedure, MAINSAIL for two-way.

Public logs (Logged SENSOR): preambles, bodies, times, and logger names as submitted to eam.watch or aggregated by War Watch Intel. These are hobby transcriptions. They can skip days, miscount characters, and omit the body (header-only). A recording on eam.watch is the strongest public check this desk will show. This desk does not listen to RF.

Generated (Trainer SENSOR): every preamble, body, timestamp, and the reconstructed day ident. The ident pool is not copied from today’s live net. No audio is taken off the air.

“Listen live” opens public WebSDR/KiwiSDR on 8992/11175 — that path is real RF, this file is not.

A worldwide high-power HF network for C2 when satellites are denied, jammed, or gone. Not dedicated to any one service — traffic is handled by precedence. Transmitters are remotely keyed from Andrews (ANCS) or Grand Forks (GFNCS). Each NCS can remote any site. SCOPE Command added ALE to the old GHFS plant.

MGRS on each card is a 1 km site-centroid, not a survey mark. Andrews is 18SUH3797 (easting/northing 37/97; square UH, just south of 18S UJ). Offutt radiates from Elkhorn (14TQL3080), not the airfield. The Air Force currently lists 13 ground stations. Offutt radiates from eight rotatable log-periodics at Elkhorn, Nebraska (55th SCS).

Two-way: aircrews call MAINSAIL or a site — “Sigonella Global this is Dark 86 on 11175, OVER.” Operators need about ten seconds to key. Test counts still use the station name. Diego Garcia keys as DIEGO, not DIEGO GARCIA.

Broadcasts (EAM, SKYKING, 8888): since about 2015 the NCS uses a one- or two-word ident that changes at 00:00 UTC, not more than nine characters including the space. Today’s reconstructed ident is FLAT ROCK. Before ~2014 those broadcasts said MAINSAIL.

Phone patches are official, unclassified, monitored, and should not exceed five minutes — then QSY to a discrete. During an EAM period, aircraft may only transmit in-flight emergency. Distress is MAYDAY; urgency is PAN.

Spoken in the clear; the payload is encrypted (KG-3XA family), not the voice. Popular articles that call the phonetics “encrypted” are wrong.

Procedure: “All stations, all stations, this is FLAT ROCK, FLAT ROCK.” Optional “For [addressee]” twice. First six characters plus “stand by,” three times. “Message follows” (or “Message of N characters follows”). Full string. “I say again.” Full string. Optional length confirmation. “This is FLAT ROCK, out” — or “more to follow, stand by.”

Group 1 (~two thirds of traffic): exactly 30 characters, one active two-letter prefix network-wide, rotating every 3–8 weeks. Current reconstructed prefix is QH. Last six characters are almost always distinct.

Longer copy is usually assembled from 44-character blocks. Directed messages (~a quarter of non-Group-1) open with FOR FORCE / REGION / SKYMASTER or a numbered addressee. SKYKING (Foxtrot) is rare after 2018: “Skyking, skyking, do not answer,” trigraph twice, time (minutes past the hour), two-letter authentication.

Core voice

• 4724.0 kHzNight secondary · Night / winter
• 8992.0 kHzH24 primary · Always
• 11175.0 kHzH24 primary · Always
• 15016.0 kHzDay secondary · Day / summer
• 6739.0 kHzNight discrete · Night / winter
• 13200.0 kHzDay discrete · Day / summer
• 6712.0 kHzDiscrete · As assigned

CHARLIE windows (E-6B)

• 6691.0 kHzCHARLIE ALPHA · CA
• 11187.0 kHzCHARLIE BRAVO · CB
• 17982.0 kHzCHARLIE CHARLIE · CC
• 3038.0 kHzCHARLIE DELTA · CD
• 9031.0 kHzCHARLIE ECHO · CE
• 4703.0 kHzCHARLIE FOXTROT · CF
• 8974.0 kHzCHARLIE GOLF · CG
• 11264.5 kHzCHARLIE HOTEL · CH · uncertain
• 18015.0 kHzCHARLIE INDIA · CI

USB. EAMs are often simulcast on the four cores — not always, and not always on every frequency a monitor is listening to. CHARLIE windows are a different net (Take Charge and Move Out / E-6B), not the desk’s live rack.

Standard EAMs use 32 symbols: A–Z and 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. No 0, 1, 8, 9 — those belong to the rare 8888 / octopus format.

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ234567

KiwiSDR or a shortwave receiver, 11175.0 or 8992.0 kHz USB. Night: 4724. Day: 15016. You will hear test counts, EAMs in phonetic alphabet, and aircraft calling MAINSAIL. Nothing on those frequencies is a secret — only the meaning of the groups is.

Procedure: RadioReference, Priyom. Why HF still exists: RF Insider. Station counts, prefix behavior, CHARLIE windows, and daily ident rules are from public monitor logs — not from a live receiver on this desk.