[HCDX] Re: QTH of spy #s station tentatively IDed with use of harmonics

[Don Moore <mooredxer@xxxxxxxxx>]

Interesting, to say the least. To answer Mark's question from a
follow-up e-mail, to my knowledge this is still a Roman Catholic
station. I can't imagine it being sold or transferred. It's actually
owned by the local Catholic church in the town of Nahuala. The
population of the town of Nahuala is all Quiche Mayans and the town
has a reputation as being somewhat closed to non-Mayan outsiders
(other Guatemalans). The Quiches are the largest Mayan group in
Guatemala. There used to be (and maybe still are) some programs in
the Cakchiquel language in the afternoons.

I visited the town and station in 1983 and 1987, the second time in
company with three Guatemalan SWLs from Guatemala City. Both times I
met Sister Janet Druffel (spelling?) of Spokane, Washington State,
USA, who had lived in Nahuala and managed the station since the early
1960s. I don't know if she would still be there. She would be getting
rather old by now. A article on my 1983 trip to Guatemala (including
the Nahuala visit) can be found on the Guatemala section of my
website at 
    http://members.tripod.com/donmoore/central/guatemala.html 

Also on the website is an article on Radio Atitlan, their sister
station in the nearby town of Santiago Atitlan. This tells the story
of right wing death squads in that town, including the murder of the
station manager and the American priest in that town in the early
1980s. The thing to see here is that these stations come from the
liberal wing of the Roman Catholic church and represent people who
have been persecuted by the Guatemalan military and traditional power
structure. (On my website, read part one of the 'Sociolinguistic
study of Guatemalan Indians' that I wrote for more on this.) 

Considering recent Guatemalan history, social structure, and the
history of this station and other Catholic broadcasters in Guatemala,
plus the organizations it is part of, the community, etc, this
station could not operate as a CIA front. It's like saying the entire
left-wing of the Catholic Church in Guatemala is really a CIA front. 

The other option, of course, is that the liberal Catholics at the
station are broadcasting spy numbers stuff for left-wing groups. That
can only be true if they are very suidical people. For the past
several decades, people who openly help left-wing politics don't live
long in Guatemala. The right-wing death squads see to that. Things
are much better since a peace treaty was signed a few years ago.
Still, if La Voz de Nahuala were using its transmitters for
subversive purposes, I'm sure the CIA monitors would pass the info on
to their friends in the Guatemalan military. 

I don't doubt what David heard. I do wonder if there is some other
explanation. Frankly, to me it is more likely that someone else was
intentionally using that frequency because it was clear or (much less
likely) to make the broadcasts appear to be from La Voz de Nahuala.
Admittedly, I haven't been in Guatemala for nearly 14 years, but I
spent a lot of time there and did a lot of research on the stations
and the country's social structure, and I just don't see any
plausible explanation for this coming from Nahuala's transmitter. 

In fact, the only thing that might convince me is if it is also heard
on 5040 kHz. Why? That is the other harmonic of Nahuala, and is
sometimes listed as a 60 meter band frequency for the station.
Apparently the station uses a 1680 kHz crystal but amplify the second
harmonic frequency of that to transmit on 3360 kHz. Thus, the station
sometimes puts out a signal on 5040, which appears to be a 1.5
harmonic of 3360, but is really a third harmonic of 1680 kHz. A
parallel signal on 3360 and 5040 would be a real smoking gun.

Don Moore

--- David Hodgson <daveahodgson@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> From: David Hodgson
> Nashville, USA
> 
> I made an interesting little discovery this morning. I
> RXed a spy #s station on 3360.08 @ 1145 NOV 14. It
> consisted of a YL reading 5 digit code in SS. Quickly
> I checked for 2nd and 3rd harmonics, and did indeed
> find the second harmonic audible at weak to fair level
> on 6720.16, and a weak carrier on the exact third
> harmonic freq of 10080.24. This is significant because
> I have logged R LV de Nahuala, Guatemala (several
> times) on the exact same fundamental producing 2nd and
> 3rd harmonics. I was even able to get get an audio
> match on the 3rd harmonic once. It is extremely
> (99.9%) likely that the source of this spy #s
> broadcast was from the TX of R LV de Nahuala. I have
> been chasing a harmonic producing SS language spy #s
> station since mid summer, but the audio from that TX
> sounds quite a bit dirtier. Don't think there is a
> connection, but could be. Also right time of day
> propagation wise. Code ended around 1148. Signal went
> off 1150.
> 
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=====
Don Moore     mooredxer@xxxxxxxxx
Radio: http://donmoore.tripod.com  <-------NEW URL
Family History: http://members.xoom.com/patepluma
General: http://donmoore.tripod.com/mainmenu.htm

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