We've recently been hearing from the ID 274 of Ukraine's E17z, which is now always unscheduled, and renowned for frequent breakdowns whenever there are messages longer than 10 groups. As we learned from the old ENIGMA newsletters, it has already been like that back in the 1990s, when E17z was using the old E17 voice with longer messages. This ID still makes appearances, usually once every a few years.

Looking at the logs, even those from the previous years, this ID consistently uses a certain set of frequencies, which seems to break down into the following:

	Daytime	Nighttime
Main	10240 kHz	6325 kHz
Backup	8180 kHz	?

The "nighttime" appears to start at 18:00 UTC, as transmissions at 17:00 UTC still use the "daytime" frequencies.

All the action began on Thursday, September 18th, when Ary Boender reported a transmission at 17:10 UTC on 10240 kHz, which went like the following:

274 (repeated) 2 stops. Restarts 274 (repeated) stops.
Restarts. 856 856 30 stops 856 856 30 30 81623 33878 89989 48557 31481 46385
34224 3782 30698 3069 stops.
Restart at 1720 UTC 274 (repeated) 31481 46385 34224 33782 30698 35423 35844 41028
95477 47714 45124 91243 30383 38095 84978 35325 92141 43391 33722 33053
34379 48977 45437 52849 44186 36398 856 856 30 30 00000

The above is the expected quality of these transmissions. Note that the message was 30 groups long, very unusual for E17z these days. Omitting all the failures, the message was the following:

274 856 30
81623 33878 89989 48557 31481 46385 34224 33782 30698 35423
35844 41028 95477 47714 45124 91243 30383 38095 84978 35325
92141 43391 33722 33053 34379 48977 45437 52849 44186 36398

A quick look at the Priyom.org log database reveals that the first six groups are duplicates from the following S06s message:

Date	UTC	Frequency	Message
May 6, 2014 May 13, 2014	08:00	14373 kHz	352 918 6 81623 33878 89989 48557 31481 46385
	08:10	12935 kHz

However, the remaining groups are all new. Look at how many of them begin with either 3 or 4.

At 17:35 UTC the same day, we found E17z on 8118 kHz (not 8180 kHz surprisingly), calling 274, which stopped a minute later, followed a few minutes later by the transmitter being switched off. We expected this to be a repeat of the 17:10 UTC message.

The ID 274 was heard again on Sunday, September 28th, at 14:10 UTC on the backup daytime frequency 8180 kHz. This message contained only six groups, and was transmitted without any breakdowns:

274 850 6 40613 77249 40678 17976 21816 42997

All the groups used were duplicates from recent S06s messages:

Date	UTC	Frequency	Message
September 16, 2014 September 23, 2014	07:30	7425 kHz	427 913 5 40613 77249 40678 17976 21816
	07:40	11540 kHz
March 18, 2014 March 25, 2014	10:00	6410 kHz	893 274 5 42997 94184 47374 74154 08531
	10:10	7340 kHz

Another return of ID 274 was on Monday, October 6th, at 15:00 UTC on the main daytime frequency 10240 kHz. No repeat transmissions were found.

274 816 5 40613 77249 40678 17976 21816

The groups used were the same as of the previous message from September 28th, except the 6th group was cut off, and the 3-figure group in the header was changed to 816.

E17z returned to longer messages on Friday, October 10th. It was found in progress on the main daytime frequency 10240 kHz at 13:46 UTC, calling 274, but soon it broke down. At 13:56 UTC, a mistake was made, where the ID 274 was spoken once by the S06s voice, after which E17z restarted:

274 (repeated)
99168 47130 43404 40105 34883 84597 81254 90487 53953 36540
36626 27996 31664 44527 12577 94353 94358 44126 31653 35828
819 819 30 30 00000

Video recording is available here. We missed the first 10 groups. The message above also contains duplicates from S06s, but the rest of the groups is again new. The same extensive similarity among them is prevalent.

Date	UTC	Frequency	Message
July 15, 2014 July 22, 2014	11:00	6810 kHz	754 298 6 99168 47130 43404 40105 34883 89757
	11:10	7560 kHz

A test tone with a carrier and partially suppressed LSB was heard on 274's nighttime frequency 6325 kHz at 17:58 UTC the same day, and the message began at 18:09 UTC:

274 518 518 30 30
80939 34431 94276 54537 549 stops
274 (repeated)
80939 34431 94276 54537 54928 33165 37858 39528 83873 44344
99168 47130 43404 40105 34883 84597 81254 90487 53953 36540
36626 27996 31664 44527 12577 94353 94358 44126 31653 35828
518 518 30 30 00000

Note that this was almost an exact repeat of the message above, except with a different 3-figure group in the header - 518 instead of 819. As we missed the first 10 groups the last time, we can't tell if this was related to a change within them.