Monitoring Station Designator: Difference between revisions

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{{Short description|Signals determination}}'''Monitoring Station Designators''' were used by the [[United States Army]] [[Signals Intelligence Service]] to designate a specific signal intelligence monitoring station in order to allow analysts to understand the source and type of [[SIGINT]] they were analyzing. These were used as shorthand rather than writing or typing out the PLA (Plain Language Address), which consisted of the formal unit name and ___location of the unit who performed the signals collection.<ref name="abbr">{{cite web|url=httphttps://www.scribd.com/doc/70575044/Guide-to-Historical-Cryptologic-Acronyms-and-Abbreviations-Pre-NSA-SIGINT-Timeline|title=Guide to Cryptologic Acronyms & Abbreviations, 1940-1980|date=October 2002|accessdate=066 Jul 2013|page=27}}</ref><ref name="hell">{{cite web|url=http://www.nsa.gov/about/_files/cryptologic_heritage/publications/wwii/eavesdropping.pdf|title=Eavesdropping on Hell: Historical Guide to Western Communications Intelligence and the Holocaust, 1939-1945|date=2005|accessdate=6 Jul 2013|page=135|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20121010164500/https://www.nsa.gov/about/_files/cryptologic_heritage/publications/wwii/eavesdropping.pdf|archivedate=10 October 2012}}</ref>

to Western Communications Intelligence and the Holocaust, 1939-1945|date=2005|accessdate=06 Jul 2013|page=135}}</ref>

==Period of Use==

These designators were used from the 1930s through the end of [[World War II]]. They were replaced after the end of the war with [[SIGAD]]s (SIGINT Activity Designators), which are similar in format and application.

Two facilities, Vint Hill and [[Training Center Petaluma#History | Two Rock Ranch]], were operated by the [[NSA]] until the 1970s.<ref name=Stephen>{{cite book|last1=Budiansky|first1=Stephen|title=Code Warriors|date=2016|publisher=Alfred A. Knopf|___location=New York|isbn=9780385352666|pages=301}}</ref>

==General Format==

The general format of the Monitoring Station Designators was the alphabetic characters MS followed by one or two numeric characters. Typically the alphabetic characters and numeric character(s) were separated by a dash character.

==Example Designators==

The following table provides several examples of Monitoring Station Designators from the World War II era.<ref name="hell"/> Sites noted with USA were run by the United States Army, while sites noted with USN were operated by [[United States Navy]].<ref name="hell"/>

{| class="wikitable" style="margin: 1em auto 0em auto; text-align:center"

|-

Line 15 ⟶ 18:

!Navy Designator

|-

![[Vint Hill Farms Station|Vint Hill Farms]], VA (USA)

!MS-1

!

|-

!Two Rock Ranch, PentalumaPetaluma, CA (USA)

!MS-2

!

Line 51 ⟶ 54:

!

|-

![[Radio Corporation of America]]

!MS-12

!

Line 87 ⟶ 90:

!J

|-

|}

|}<ref name="hell"/>

Sites noted with USA were run by the United States Army, while sites noted with USN were operated by [[United States Navy]].<ref name="hell"/>

==References==

{{Reflist}}

* [[Signals intelligence]]

[[Category:Signals intelligence of World War II]]

[[Category:United States Army Signals Intelligence Service]]