priyom.org

GC-Cycle Network

This network consists of a group of weekly transmission schedules based in the Russian Far East:

These schedules are apparently all transmitted from the same site in Chita, in the Russian Far East, and seem to target unidentified areas in Asia. Similarly to the Pacific weekdays network, scheduled transmissions don't take place if they fall during at least these Russian holidays, or associated bridge holidays:

  • All days from January 1 to January 8 inclusive
  • February 23 (Defender of the Fatherland Day)
  • March 8 (Women's Day)
  • May 1 (Labor Day)
  • May 9 (Victory Day)
  • June 12 (Russia Day)
  • November 4 (Unity Day)

Each schedule sends one new message every week, containing between 30 and 50 groups. Historically, from as far back as could be observed, group counts of messages followed an incrementing cycle: within a given schedule, the group count of each new message each week incremented by 1 compared to the previous message of the previous week; after reaching 50 groups, the following message wrapped back around to 30 groups. The two Thursday schedules, E06 ID 361 and S06 ID 842, had their group count cycles synchronized, sharing the same group count every week, while E06 ID 537 was independent; it can be surmised that no-transmission holidays affecting schedules differently depending on which days of the week they fall on would be a source of desynchronization.

In August 2018, the GC-cycle network stopped exhibiting its regular incrementing behavior: while messages still contained between 30 and 50 groups, the group count of each message remained seemingly unpredictable. In November 2019, the network resumed mostly predictable cycling behavior, limited to within month boundaries, and still exhibiting some occasional chaos. Around January 2021, the network returned to a smooth characteristic regular incrementing behavior.

These voice transmissions use the H3E USB mode typical of this operator; however they occasionally appear with an unusual transmission mode: double sideband with reduced carrier and reduced USB.

On Thursday, August 4, 2022, the last transmissions of S06 ID 842 were observed: the schedule went inactive afterwards, not even sending the next-day, Friday repeats of its last message.