The Russian VLF
time-signal stations, “Beta”
by Trond Jacobsen at ALFLAB, Halden in Norway
 
The Russian has for a long time operated a Very Low Frequency time-service. These transmitters are sometimes called by the acronym BETA, as a follow up - in a western name giving sequence, started with Alpha, ( RSDN-20 ) of poorly documented Russian transmissions. From the start with test transmissions in 1973, the time signal service made use of 5 transmitters located in the former Soviet Union. The sixth and newest transmitter, RJH63 at Krasnodar in Russia, on the north shore of the Black Sea, was fairly resent included in this VLF time-signal transmission system.
 

 
Russian VLF time signal stations 1. The location of the six transmitters are in the west and east of Russia, as well in two of Russia’s neighbour countries, Belarus and Kyrgyztan. There is nothing wrong with the author’s view of the world, the map is an azimuthal projection of Russia as seen from high altitude. This was the only way to construct a detailed map of Russia and the VLF time signal transmitter sites, small enough to fit the format of a WEB page.
 

 
The BETA frequencies
 
Beta operates on 5 different frequencies in the VLF range: 25.00 kHz, 25,10 kHz, 25.50 kHz, 23.00 kHz and 20.50 kHz.
These frequencies, with various modulations to the carrier, are transmitted after a schedule, and this schedule is seasonally changed and politically affected.With soundcard receivers there is only the transmission at 20.50 kHz that are receivable. But this should not exclude anyone for some interesting monitoring moments.
 

 
Russian VLF time signal stations 2; This is the 20.50 kHz part of the transmission from RJH63 at Krasnodar Russia, 1131-1140UTC, 29. November 2000. It starts at 37 seconds in the spectrogram and last 9 minutes until 540 seconds. At the beginning it is easy to see the adjustment of the phase. Then is there a “carrier only” sequence, this stops at 323 seconds in the spectrogram and is directly followed by a Frequency Shift Keyed ( FSK ) 4 minute long sequence. The station at 20.76 above RJH63 is ICV Tavolara in Italy and the station at 19.60 below RJH63 is GQD Anthorn in the UK. Note also another much shorter transmission from Krasnodar at 18.10 kHz above the 450 seconds mark, this is RDL, Russian Navy. From beginning to start of the spectrogram at 18.20 kHz is VTX3 in India sending its ID using morse. Note also the silence of the Alpha/RSDN-20 stations.
 
 
The BETA time-signal transmission sequence
 
This time-signal system operates with two different sequences. One is in use for RJH77 Arkhangelsk, RJH99 Nizhny Novgorod, RJH69 Molodechno, RJH66 Bishkek and RAB99 Khabarovsk. The second is used exclusively for RJH63 Krasnodar. A full sequence takes 40 minutes to complete for RJH63 Krasnodar and 47 minutes for the other five.
 

 
Russian VLF time signal stations 3; This spectrogram is made using the audio output of my Siemens D2008 selective level-meter. The left part just below the 1280 Hz mark is the end of the 40 Hz modulation part of the transmission sequence with 25.00 kHz carrier frequency. When this ends the transmission is lifted up 100 Hz to 25.10 kHz. This last for 5 minutes, then the carrier frequency is again lifted up, ( around the 375 seconds mark ) this time to 25.50 kHz, also with a 5 minute long transmission of pure carrier. Note the phase adjust at the beginning of both the 25.10 and 25.50 kHz transmission. The station is RJH77 Arkhangelsk.
 
 
Transmission sequence and frequency use for:
RJH66, RJH69, RJH77, RJH99 and RAB99
 
At the moment of writing is these transmitters using the schedule starting at the hour. If you start your receiving session early will notice that there is most of the time a test and tune-up transmission at TT:53-55, ie 6-5 minutes before the actual transmission of the time-signal service takes place. Some of the old schedules started at 30 minutes past the hour, what the future schedules will look like nobody knows. Actually it don’t differ much when the sequence start as most of the users of the time-signal service is performing the correction in time and phase automatically, or after a predetermined program.
 
 Freq.  in kHz 
Time UTC
Emission
Remarks
25.00
XX:00  XX:30  XX:??
Tune up
Adjust phase
 
01 31
A0
 
 
06 36
A1
Callsign, ID using morse code
 
07 37
A0
 
 
10 40
A9
40 Hz  modulation, double sideband – full carrier 
 
13 43
A9
10 pps time code ( 0.1,1,10,60 sec markers )
 
22 52
A9
40 Hz modulation, double sideband – full carrier
 
25 55
Turn off
 
25.10
25 55
Tune up
Adjust phase
 
26 56
A0
 
 
30 XY:00
Turn off
 
25.50
30 00
Tune up
Adjust phase
 
31 01
A0
 
 
35 05
Turn off
 
23.00
35 05
Tune up
Adjust phase
 
36 06
A0
 
 
41 11
Turn off
 
20.50
41 11 
Tune up
Adjust phase
 
42 12 
A0
 
 
XX:47  XY:17  XX:??
Turn off
 
 
 
 
XX = transmission start hour
 
 
 
XY = transmission start hour + 1
 

 
Transmission sequence and frequency use for RJH63 Krasnodar
 
 
This sequence is 7 minutes shorter and only have one 40 Hz modulation segment compared to the other five Russian VLF time-signal transmitters. There is also a change to the end of the transmission that is exclusive to RJH63, from 11:36 UTC to the end at 11:40 UTC RJH63 transmit a frequency shifted keyed(FSK) carrier with a 300 Hz shift.
 
 
Frequency in Khz
Time UTC
Emission
Remarks
25.00
11:00
Tune up
Adjust phase
 
01
A0
 
06
A1
Callsign, ID using morse code
 
07
A0
 
09
A9
40 Hz modulation, double sideband – full carrier
11
A9
10 pps time code ( 0.1,1,10,60 sec markers )
20
Turn off
25.10
20
Tune up
Adjust phase
22
A0
23
Turn off
25.50
23
Tune up
Adjust phase
24
A0
26
Turn off
23.0
26
Tune up
Adjust phase
27
A0
31
Turn off
20.50
31
Tune up
Adjust phase
32
A0
36
F1B
FSK 300 Hz shift
11:40
Turn off
 
 
BETA time signal format
 
The format of the transmission makes it possible for the receiver to make a synchronisation with the sender in both time and phase.
The stations transmit the time information as pulses, each 0.1 second, 1 second, 10 second and minute.
 

 
Russian VLF time signal stations 4: A "long exposure of the time pulses from RJH77 Arkhangelsk.The 50 second marker ( a 10 second marker ) to the left is followed by a string of0.1 second markers and 1 second markers before the first minute marker in the pulse chain. Then this repeats over again until the next minute marker. The 1 second marker is 0.1 second long, the 10 second marker is 1 second long and the minute marker is 10 seconds long.
 

 
Russian VLF time signal stations 5; A detail of the spectrogram above, showing how the time between each second marker are filled with 0.1 second markers. In the long exposure it is easy to see how the 0.1 second markers are responsible for quite an amount of overtones. But here they are recognazible as separate short pulses. 
 
 
BETA time-signal stations transmission schedule
 
The transmission schedule of this VLF time-signal service is not static, it follows the seasons and the political moods in Russia. The current schedule is in fact part of the original pre-1979 winter schedule.
 
BETA stations, winter 2000/2001 schedule, the current version ?
 
Station\time
00
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
RJH63
X
RJH66
?
X
?
RJH69
X
?
RJH77
?
X
RJH99
X
?
RAB99
?
?
?
 
X = verified by Klaus Betke, Trond Jacobsen, et al.
 
 
The question marks are at the slots when the various transmitters was on air according to the “original” winter schedule. For RAB99 is the current schedule not known, because the station is not receivable neither in western nor northern Europa. The RAB99 schedule is therefore only presumed and tentative, but if I should make an guess, I would listen for it at 0900 UTC, because it earlier often was on the air at the same time as RJH77 Arkangelsk.Any information from listeners who is lucky enough to receive the RAB99 Khabarovsk station is very welcome.
 
 
 
BETA transmits ID of each station
 
Between 6 and 7 minutes past the hour the station in operation, transmit an ID using standard morse code. The speed is slow enough for aural reception. Even if you are totally unfamiliar with the morse code, you will soon hear the difference between the patterns each station transmit.
 

 
Russian VLF time signal stations 6; Here is the transmitted ID for RJH69 Molodechno in Belarus. The ID is continually repeated during the 1 minute ID slot of the transmission sequence.
 

 
Russian VLF time signal stations 7; Here is a strange one,recorded 0906 UTC 29112000 - with first sight everything looks OK,but it is obvious that the program running the ID, is not in sync with the stop of the carrier, the ID starts with last dash of the J and the the rest of the ID, -xxH77.The program running the sequence and the transmitter then follows nicely, with a string of complete RJH77’s.
 
 
Operational authority and various information
 
The operator for the Russian VLF time-signal service is:

 
Institute of Metrology for time and space ( IMVP )
GP “VNIIFTRI”, Mendeleevo
Moscow region 141570
Russia
 
If you would like a verification of your reception of one the VLF time-signal transmitters, send IMVP a short report and some IRC’s and they hopefully return you a nice QSL card.
 
STATION ID
LOCATION
COORDINATES
RJH63 
Krasnodar, Russia
44N36 39E34
RJH66 ex USB2
Bishkek, Kirgyztan
43N04 73E39
RJH69 ex UNW3
Molodechno, Belarus
54N26 26E48
RJH77 ex UPD8
Arkhangelsk, Russia
64N24 41E32
RJH99 ex UTR3
Nizhny Novgorod, Russia
56N11 43E58
RAB99 ex UQC3
Khabarovsk, Russia
48N30 134E52
 
 
 
 
 
 


 
Information and direct contact
 
Information is mostly from:
ALFLAB, All Low Frequencies research and detection 59°8’12’’N 11°23’55’’E, - Halden in Norway
Klaus Betke
WUN, www.wunclub.com
The Web, mostly listings and logs by various LW listeners
For direct contact use trond.jacobsen@halden.net
 

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