Baron78 (Барон78) is the operating callsign of the central hub of a Russian military commandment network serving the Southern Military District. It operates on 4940 kHz during daytime and 3850 kHz during evening/nighttime making use of transmitter noise as a channel marker. It is a station in the same network as The Pip, The Squeaky Wheel and Vega. On January 15th 2020 the channel marker has been found on alternate day frequency 4881 kHz. On 23rd January 2020 the marker has been observed on two new frequencies of 4950 kHz and 5094 kHz. On 17th July 2020 the marker has been observed on 5025, 5095, 5110, 5194, 5210, 5330 & 5366.5 kHz during daytime.

Confirmation of Baron78's inclusion in the Southern Circular Network (The Pip, The Squeaky Wheel, Vega) can be found in the channel marker of Pip being audible in the background of an open microphone in the operations room of Baron78:

In September 2020, Baron-78 has been observed directly relaying multiple messages given moments earlier by The Pip.

There are also occurrences of The Pip's CW channel being audible in Baron's operation room through an open microphone, the below message being "XXX XXX JWB1 JWB1 SBYTOSEW 212 ÖESTNOSTX 251 K":

Schedule

The frequency switch-over times depend on the season and can even vary by 5 - 30 minutes in a given season and has been observed switching over 2 hours later than the typical time. All times are given in Moscow Time (MSK, UTC+3).

The station broadcasts Vozduh messages addressed to Tros28 (Трос28), sometimes within minutes of its sister stations Pip and Squeaky Wheel. The operator typically announces "Vozduh Baklan" prior to the message, Baklan being the collective hub name - much as the N'ZhJ (previously Vega33) operator reads "Vozduh Vega" prior to some messages.

The station has been operational since at least September 2015 but had not been witnessed by Priyom from January 2016 until November 2019. Having only ever been observed from September through January, it is possible that this station is seasonal. The station announces a timestamp in Moscow time after each transmission, noted as время сигнала (vremya signala; English: signal time).

Baron has an open microphone producing noise as a channel marker, sometimes CW can be heard in the background. A radiogram being transmitted on 4855 kHz can be clearly heard through this open microphone on 4940 kHz in the below example from October 7th, 2020 where the recorder (Gwraspe) has changed frequency from 4940 kHz to 4855 kHz with no break in transmission at around 25 seconds into the recording.

Baron78 also had its own actual channel marker in 2015: