Numbers Stations on Shortwave, Part 2

 This post assumes that you read the article that I linked in my previous post.  I re-read that article again last night, and I want to address some points in that article (which is still very fascinating to me).

First, why did the author call it SS/YL?  And whatever happened to the Cuban lady?  Is she still going on?  What have we learned about it?

When I was active in shortwave clubs, the bulletins used a lot of abbreviations.  The English language ws EE.  Spanish?  SS.  One club used EG and SP, but the two other major clubs stuck with EE and SS.  I can't tell you why one club did it their own way.  YL?  Young lady.  Ham radio operators, regardless of age, are either OM (Old Man) or YL (Young Lady).  Married YLs become XYLs (ex-Young Ladies).  At the time the article was written, this numbers station didn't have a name.  Thus the author coined SS/YL.

It was also known in the shortwave circles as the "Atención station" due to its callup, and later on a numbers monitoring group gave it the designator V2.  V for voice, and 2 to identify it as a specific voice station.  Later on it was re-designated V2A due to a format change with a minor variant in.....was it 1986?

The callup became something like "Atención!  Tres siete cuatro....cero uno" several times, and then for three times something like "cero uno.....cuatro cinco"....which in this example is 01-45, where 45 is the group count.  I sometimes would notice double messages.  Let's say 926-05-00, then a 05-78 message, followed by a 00-95 message......78 groups followed by 95 groups.  Why there were two messages is anybody's guess.  

I wasn't active in shortwave listening for a long while, but I knew the numbers stations kept going even after the end of the Cold War.  The V2 station was one of them, and no evidence as to their purpose surfaced until the late 90s.  In 1998 a spy ring was broken up, and it emerged that those involved got their instructions via shortwave radio, and yes, it was from V2.  Evidence of the one time pads for decryption was presented, and the perps were convicted and served time.  What was never made clear was if the messages were in English or in Spanish, but it was proven that yes indeed, the station was transmitting messages to spies.

Now it stands to reason that not all of the messages were for spy traffic.  There's no doubt in my mind that a percentage of this had to be dummy traffic, so that NSA resources would be used for trying to decode them.  Other messages might have been for training purposes.  This is speculation on my part, but I'd be comfortable betting money on this.

So where is V2 today?

Still in commission, but now it's designated HM01.  I tuned in yesterday to hear a transmission.  A voice callup is still used, but instead of group counts, the station now sends out data bursts which are in computer file format.  I looked at a decode of one message and saw both Japanese and Chinese characters in the decode.  From what I could tell, it was random.  So are the spies now using new tools?

I'm not sure.  My thinking is that the message traffic is now intended for military and embassy operations.  The messages continue for several weeks on end without changing.  The transmissions are also nowhere near as frequent, though still daily, and still on a fixed schedule.

There is still a fascination within one segment of the shortwave radio listening hobbyists about these mysterious numbers stations.  There were many others, some no longer active.  A search engine will yield several hits where you can learn more.

You also don't need to buy a shortwave radio to get in on the fun.  Look up Kiwi SDR, and take it from there. 

Numbers Stations on Shortwave

 Many years ago when I was in college and more active in shortwave listening than I am now, I would on occasion come across a transmission of numbers.  These numbers were being transmitted in groups of five, with a female voice, and were on frequencies outside of the international broadcast bands as well as the amateur radio bands.  Their spots on the dial weren't really meant to be easily found by the casual listener.  For the most part, the operation took care never to operate on frequencies used by the Coast Guard or aircraft (there is one known exception to that).  If a casual listener found the transmission, that listener was left with a mystery.  What was it?  Loggings of this nature, when they found their way into shortwave club bulletins, were written of as a "spy numbers" transmission and that was that.

One Wednesday evening in March of 1979 I came across, again, that lady reading the numbers.  I had seen mention of a "mystery numbers" transmissions in a magazine and these were credited to Cuba.  That made sense, as that the propagation pattern closely matched that of Radio Habana Cuba.  The article mentioned that in 1975 some listeners heard audio from Radio Habana Cuba, and some months later I stumbled upon a major on-air slipup.......Radio Habana Cuba on some frequency well outside the broadcast bands, signing off their English program, and then the start of a numbers transmission.  

Anyway, the following Wednesday evening I was again tuning around the bands, and guess what?  I came across that numbers broadcast again!  I noted that it was on the same frequency as the Wednesday before, same time slot, and it was then that it occurred to me that this operation followed a pattern.  If I could spend enough time chasing that station around the dial, I could figure out their schedule, and then be listening in on the same time that whoever that spy was.  The signals were very strong, indicating that they were beamed to North America, and that somewhere over here we've got an intended recipient who is getting some instructions of one kind or another.  All of that figured out, there was still a lot that I didn't know but would end up learning.  But here is what I learned in that timeframe.

One, the transmission would always start at the top of the hour.  I synced by watch to WWV (time station) and learned that they were precise in that.  Before transmitting, there would be a strong carrier, sometimes ten minutes before show time, but the curtain would always rise at the top of the hour.

Two, each transmission would be repeated.  Some repeats were at the bottom of the hour, as in 30 minutes past the top.  Others would repeat five minutes or so after the end of the first, and almost always on a different frequency.  I quickly figured out which frequency ranges to tune in to, and I got them several more times.

Three, the format was easily figured out.  For example, if the transmission started out with "Atención!  Cinco ocho tres:  seis dos" (repeated several times before going into the message), it meant that 62 groups of five digit numbers were in the message.  In this example, I am considering the 583 to be the header and 62 the group count.  I noticed in my monitoring that group counts were usually a number divisible by 5, but that wasn't always the case.  

There was more that I was going to learn.  My interest in this station fell off for a few years, but was rekindled in 1984 when I came across an article in the August 1984 Popular Communications magazine.  The link is below, and you'll have to scroll down to page 16 of the magazine.

https://worldradiohistory.com/Archive-Popular-Communications/80s/Popular-Communications-1984-08.pdf

I'll come back to this topic again in my next post.

Traveling the World by Radio (but a Computer is Involved)

 As I am typing this, I am listening to Radio Argentina.  If I were down there I would have a radio tuned to 570 kHz to do this.  Radio is still involved, except that I am listening via an internet connection to a remote receiver somewhere near Buenos Aires.  The link to the connection is:

http://lu4eec.ddns.net:8073/

Once I connected, I was able to tune the radio to the frequency I desired, and I've spent this evening tuning around, like I did last night.  Last night I learned that the David Lee Roth song "Just a Gigolo" was big down there at one time as that I heard a station play it.  When I tuned to 570, I discovered Radio Argentina, and I am finding the music from them (and from Radio Rivadavia) to be interesting to listen to.  Radio Rivadavia went heavily into the Argentine tangos, as has some other stations down there.  

Had this been a few decades ago, I'd be doing this the hard way:  a good shortwave receiver, a good antenna, and hoping for good propagation.  I have heard Radio Argentina via the shortwave before (and they were beaming an English broadcast to North America), and they were proudly playing their tangos.  I knew that other shortwave listeners were getting Radio Rivadavia, and they (along with me) were tuning the "tropical bands" to search for them as well as the Colombian and Venezuelan stations.

And here we are, years later, and the world is even closer to our fingertips.  I could connect to some (most?) of these Argentine stations by using the net itself without the remote receiver.  I've listened to the Falkland Islands this way.  I might tune the remote receiver to see how well their signal is making it to the remote receiver.  

So why am I doing this?

In one way, it's an extension of a hobby that I have had for many years.  If I wasn't trying to make contact with someone in a different continent, I was listening to signals from different continents.  The listening aspect of it would tell me what propagation was doing, but there was something else that was happening:  I was learning about the world.  I was becoming informed of world events.  

There's another reason.  If I'm tuning in to Argentina, then I'm being relaxed.  I can read books to relax and I do, but I like to vary what I do for relaxation.  Later on I'm going to disconnect from that remote receiver and I'm going to go upstairs and continue my re-read of The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich.  And after that, maybe I'll pickup a real radio and see if I can get that one station in Gallup, New Mexico, which mixes country & western with Navajo music.  

Is this like going out to try a different kind of food?  Like going out for Peruvian, or Indian, or Polish food?  I think it is.  I suffer from the theory that if one widens the variety of what they expose themselves to, or tries different things, then it can be good for your mental health......but up to a certain point.

Not all of what's out there is good for you.  If you go out in the wild and harvest some mushrooms, you are risking a fatal mistake.  If you fill yourself with listening to hate speech of any kind or you spend too much time reading about how wrong the world is, odds are it ain't doing you very much in the way of good.

All of that said......I find the tuning in of distant radio stations, either via my own radio here in Tucson or using a remote receiver in Buenos Aires to be an enjoyable experience.  

That is my simple pleasure for this evening.  It's also taking my mind off of current events, which I don't feel very much like discussing right now.

Tuesday, 11/17/09

Tony's surgery is being put off until the 30th. My cousin Kirk (Tony's middle son) was able to locate a surgeon who has more experience with this type of surgery. Kirk obviously is well-connected with the medical community; he once studied under one of the nation's top dental surgeons and I'm sure he knows who the top dogs are in several specialties. If he doesn't know, he will know who knows and he will make use of their advice.

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It is with some sadness that I report the passing of noted shortwave/ham radio author Harry Helms, who lost his battle with cancer two days ago at the age of 57. I first read one of his articles in the November 1977 Popular Electronics magazine, where he wrote a fascinating piece about pirate radio. A few months later another of his articles dealt with "mystery" signals and clandestine stations on shortwave, including that one numbers station out of Cuba that I've briefly touched on.

Mr. Helms was quite knowledgable about the oddities in radio that were out there, but he knew a lot about some other things. He authored a book called "Top Secret Tourism" which I've been meaning to get a copy of. This book is about places that are not generally known to the public, such as Area 51. He was careful to caution his readers about respecting the signs that restricted access and trespassing.

I stumbled across his blog some six months ago, and he didn't know this but he was inspiring me to create this blog. I never contacted him via his email; he had enough on his hands as that he had been a terminal cancer patient for nearly three years. He was open about what was happening with him, and he faced that battle with dignity.

He will definitely be missed.

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As of late I've been reading The Templars by Piers Paul Read. It's a fascinating history that goes into great detail about the rise of both Christianity and Islam, and the Crusades. The role of the Templars in this period is also examined in great detail.

Up until a year or so ago, this was one of the several areas of the world's history that I've been largely ignorant of. It isn't taught in public schools and if you learn it at a university you're either a history major or you took the class as an elective.

I will grant that a better understanding of the American nation can be gained by studying our nation's history, which typically begins with the voyages of Christopher Columbus. Yes, anyone graduating from high school in this country needs to know American history.

However, I'm wondering if maybe we should go back even further and make our children learn about medieval Europe, and the development of the legal system in England. It wasn't until I read a Supreme Court decision regarding the Second Amendment that I became aware that a lot of our "law doctrine" or concept of rights, if you will, emerged out of England. That in turn goes back to the Magna Carta, which most folks have heard about, but almost no one can explain how that came into being and why, or even what it said in the first place.

Getting back to the Crusades, I think it would do us all well to be knowledgable about them and what was left in their wake. I think the influence of the Crusades is still with us, even though many of us are largely ignorant about it.

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That's it for this evening. I don't think I'll be posting for the next few days.

Shortwave Radio? Or the Internet?

Many years ago I developed an interest in listening to distant radio stations when I encountered CKLW on my brother's pocket transistor radio one night in the fall of 1973 (this was mentioned in a previous post). I spent many nights tuning in those distant stations, and by the following year I was listening to shortwave radio. I also got my ham radio license in 1974, and spent many countless hours talking to other hams.

Two years later I built a shortwave radio out of a kit from Radio Shack. After assembling it I connected it to an antenna and was able to tune in Radio Habana Cuba quite easily. Radio Canada International was also booming in, as well as Radio Nederland (as it was then called) being broadcast from their relay in Bonaire. Although building the radio was neat (I had built an AM radio some two years earlier) it was "cheap" and wasn't getting me very much so I got my Hallifcrafters SX-28 receiver (vintage 1940) out of commission and went on to tune in other stations from all over the world beginning one or two nights after that. Later receivers included a National NC-183, a Yaesu FRG-7 and a Kenwood R5000. I not only listened to the international broadcasters, but I also spent time listening to the Coast Guard, the military, the maritime stations, pirate stations, and "numbers" stations (I should write a separate post about the numbers stations sometime, but if you want to learn more about them then click here.)

I've since sold the NC-183 (I now wish I hadn't), the R5000 has bit the dust, the FRG-7 tuning knob doesn't work anymore, and the SX-28 is in the closet awaiting a restoration that I intend to do when I retire. I do own the Grundig YB400 which is a decent portable and can get the powerhouse stations, but it isn't really suited for "DXing" the maritimes and the military. Many of the maritime stations have left the air as that satellites now provide the bulk of ship-to-shore communications. I think the air traffic control stations are still on the air but I haven't checked. I am thinking of purchasing the ICOM R75 communications receiver, but as I have said in previous posts, "things have really changed". Many of the international broadcasters are no longer broadcasting to North America, instead providing real time audio via the Internet, or "on demand" programs. Instead of tuning in Deutsche Welle to find out what's happening in Germany, I can now go to their website and listen to a temporary audio archive, as I found myself doing two evenings ago.

So the question I am now asking myself is, should I get back into serious shortwave listening?

I'm leaning towards it, but what's holding me back right now are the changes that have taken place.

I haven't actively listened since 1998. Back then I could tune in dozens of stations, learn plenty about the world's events, get viewpoints not available in American media and there were the "utility" stations: that is, the aforementioned military, maritime and aeronautical stations. I could send in reception reports by what we weren't yet calling "snail mail" and in a few weeks or maybe a few months I would get a "QSL" card from that station verifying my reception of them. My goal was to get as many stations and countries QSLed, similar to what I did with ham radio. With many of the major broadcasters no longer broadcasting to North America, my opportunities for collecting QSL cards have diminished, and the bands seem a lot less crowded. If I do go back to active shortwave listening, I must realize that it won't be nearly as much fun as it was thirty years ago.

Another reason not to go back is the internet itself. I found that listening to the likes of Radio Australia, Deutsche Welle and Radio Canada International kept me extremely well informed about world events. I can still get that information by live audio stream if I want to, so it's not like I need to own a shortwave receiver to find out what's really happening in the world anymore. As I write this, I learned from Deutsche Welle that Prime Minister Gordon Brown of the UK is in trouble and that Chancellor Angela Merkel will continue to govern. Sure, I read that on the Drudge Report, but an audiocast report from the Internet was like tuning in to Deutsche Welle all over again except that this time I was clicking the mouse instead of twisting a few knobs. I can make the case that I can be just as well informed relying on the Internet alone. This time, I can get FM stations out of Toronto that I couldn't get before and I'm sure that getting them out of London would be just as easy. That ICOM R75 would set me back six hundred dollars if I use a mail order firm that I've done business with before; more if I have optional filters and other goodies installed and knowing me I just might want them installed.

In spite of the expense and the changed radioscape, there are reasons to go back to listening.

One, I'm one to rotate my hobbies. I have several of them, and the radio hobby is something that I haven't touched in quite a while. I was talking to Mark last night about shortwave, and I mentioned that I might also get back into being an active ham radio operator. The fact is, is that there is a modicum of technical expertise in the hobby. No, you don't need a degree in electrical engineering to succeed in that hobby (I was doing both ham and shortwave before I got my EE degree) but you do have to know a few things about antennas and radio propagation if you're going to try to tune in, say, the Cook Islands. I haven't checked but I think Radio Cook Islands might still be on the air, and I'm not sure that you can get them via the Internet. Either way, it's been a while since I've actively listened, and I'm feeling the urge to get back into it.

Two, the intrigue of the numbers stations is still there. Some thirty years ago I had a fascination with that five digit numbers station that was operating out of Cuba, and that station is still on the air. Those transmissions are not officially licensed or sanctioned, yet they continue. Those transmissions do not officially exist, yet they're there, and any experienced shortwave listener who's ventured outside the international broadcast bands has encountered this station. That sort of stuff has always fascinated me.

Three: there are still several stations out of Africa and South America that are still on the air. My guess is that many of the Chinese regional stations are also still on the air (I'll have to check), and those can be interesting to tune into even if you don't know the language. I'm sure that I could get them in the early morning hours here in Arizona. I think that the Canadian domestic shortwave relays are still active; I've got cards from CKFX in Vancouver and CFVP in Calgary.

So, am I going to get back into shortwave?

I think I will, but I need to do some more research, and I need to make a trip to Phoenix to visit a ham radio store that will let me play with the R75 for a while. Interestingly enough, a good friend of mine here in Tucson is also thinking about shortwave, and I think we'll go to Phoenix a few Saturdays from now.

* * * * * * *

I am pleased to report that Mark's dad is making an excellent recovery from his surgery. As I've said before, I've long regarded Mark's parents to be a second set of parents.

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Mark was asking about eHarmony. If the past few weeks are a reliable indication, eHarmony is likely going to make match.com look good, and that's not an easy thing to accomplish. I may re-activate my match.com membership sometime after I return from Portland.

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You don't have to stick your hand in the fire to know that it is hot.

Likewise, you don't have to pick up a rattlesnake by the tail and start swinging it around like a rope in order to learn that the rattlesnake won't like it.

Unfortunately, there are some people out there who that won't be obvious to.