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US Navy and Russian signals in the Indian Ocean in 1974
When I was TAD* on Navy destroyers in the Indian Ocean in 1974 it was just barely being thought of as a strategic area. Our team of CT* operators on the destroyer was the only team deployed there. Sometimes we went a week with no HF TTY* communications circuit to the rest of the Navy at either Rota (Spain) or Guam shore stations, they had no rhombic antennas aimed at the Indian Ocean.
For intercepting radar signals from other ships, the destroyer had its own WLR-6 ESM* receiver system and we had one CTT operator assigned to it. He had a tall stack of classified books (like big Sears catalogs) to look up the parameters of any radar signals he heard, from every known piece of radar equipment of every country in the world.
He specialized in using the WLR-6 and was frequently able to detect Russian submarines, on the surface or just below with an antenna poking up, or other Russian ships long before the destroyer's radar or lookouts could 'see' them. It gave the direction the signal came from, as well as other characteristics of the transmitted radar pulses.
One morning at 5AM the CTT op woke me up (I was the team CTM, maintenance tech) and asked me to come to the ship's ESM equipment space and look at a radar signal he found. The signal wasn't listed in ANY of the books and he wasn't sure if he should document the reception parameters, did I think the signal was real? Being the Maintenance Tech (and a ham operator) I told him hell yes, believe the radio and declare a new radar signal. It came from a Russian sub that the ship CIC* had already identified visually off on the horizon.
Our op
eventually got an official commendation for discovering a new type of
Russian radar that no one had heard and documented before!
Glenn AE0Q
T.A.D. - Temporary Additional Duty
CT - US Navy Cryptologic Technician
HF TTY - Long distance, shortwave radio Teletype communications for sending encrypted data (messages) between Navy ships and Navy shore stations.
ESM - Electronic Support Measures, the provision of military intelligence via a range of electromagnetic surveillance and collection devices. Mostly for listening for radar signals from other ships, aircraft or hidden submarines.
CIC - combat information center
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