parnass@ihuxz.ATT.COM (Bob Parnass, AJ9S) (12/05/87)
In article <123.003505@adam.DG.COM>, Pete_Simpson@MERCURY.CEO.DG.COM writes on hearing shortwave broadcasts of coded number groups: > I was listening to one of these last night and the question > popped up again, "What are these people doing?" To my knowledge, no > one has ever come up with a reasonable explanation of why a station > would read off code groups in <English/Spanish/Italian/German> using > AM modulation..... > Thanks...Pete Simpson, KA1AXY These "numbers" stations may be found on several frequen- cies, with both males and females speaking in many langu- ages. They remain the subject of debate among SWLs, and attempts by hobbyists to break the coded messages have been unsuc- cessful. One prevailing theory is that they are "spy" sta- tions, sending orders to operatives in foreign countries. Another theory is that they are associated with smuggling activities, like ordering, and arranging for drug deliveries. I agree with the "spy" theory. Monitoring Times reported a few years ago how an SWL traced down the source of one num- bers station.1 Using a Kenwood R1000 shortwave receiver in his car, the SWL found the signals came from within the War- renton Training Center, a U.S. Army facility in Remington, VA, operated by an arm of the intelligence community. Another numbers station was reportedly located in the res- tricted area of Nauen in East Germany.2 The FCC won't talk much about these signals, but I bet you dollars to donuts that the NSA, USN, CIA, etc. know exactly what their purpose is, and monitor them (and operate some) closely. At the very least, our government knows the geo- graphic locations of these transmitters. The use of double sideband, reduced carrier for transmission allows the operative to use a cheap, readily obtainable short wave receiver (e.g., Radio Shack, Panasonic, Sony). Possession of such a common receiver would not draw atten- tion to the owner. Here are just a sampling of numbers stations I've heard. My most interesting numbers logging is the station on 3.780 MHz. Its strength implied a location in North America.3 3.7800 call?_____unidentified: numbers stn, am, yl/Spanish, 5 digit, as s trong as the strongest ham signals on the band at the ti me. Two hams in QSO on same freq in lsb discussing this signal, 0704Z [location?] (B. Parnass) 5.8070 call?_____unidentified: numbers stn, am, yl/Spanish, "1234567890 3 46 346 346 1234567890 ..." [location?] (B. Parnass) 6.8020 call?_____unidentified: numbers stn, am, yl/Spanish, 4 digit, 12/0 2/86 @0210Z [location?] (B. Parnass) call?_____unidentified: numbers stn, am, yl/Spanish, 4 digit, xmti ng concurrently with KKN50 on 6.9252 cw, both were the s trongest signals on the band at s9+20 db, 5/15/85 @0220Z [location?] (B. Parnass) 6.9254 KKN50_____US: State, likely at the National Communications System installation at Warrenton Training Center, embassy-relat ed?, xmting concurrently with yl am Spanish language 4 d igit numbers station at 6.802 MHz, both were the stronge st signals on band at s9+20 db, cw, 5/15/85 @0220Z [Remington, VA] (B. Parnass) 9.0740 call?_____unidentified: numbers stn, female reading numbers in Spa nish, "229 229 229 1234567890...", xmtd some tones also, am, 12/07/86 @0110Z [location?] (B. Parnass) 18.1950 call?_____unidentified: numbers stn, female repeating "Hotel Kilo" 4 times, then 10 seconds of musical tones. Changes to G erman 5 digit number groups at 1615Z. This xmsn type pur portedly originates from Nauen E. Germany, usb, 04/05/87 @1601Z [location?] (B. Parnass) __________ 1. See "U.S. Numbers Station Found!", by Bob Grove Monitoring Times, April 1984. 2. See "Spy Numbers Transmitter Located!", by John H. Demmitt, Monitoring Times, May 1983. 3. I suppose there is a possibility that an American prankster with ham equipment recorded the transmission on another frequency, and played it back on 75 meters. -- ===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-===-=== Bob Parnass, Bell Telephone Laboratories - ihnp4!ihuxz!parnass - (312)979-5414
mlm@NL.CS.CMU.EDU (Michael Mauldin) (12/06/87)
In article <2475@ihuxz.ATT.COM>, parnass@ihuxz.ATT.COM (Bob Parnass, AJ9S) writes: > In article <123.003505@adam.DG.COM>, Pete_Simpson@MERCURY.CEO.DG.COM > writes on hearing shortwave broadcasts of coded number groups: > > > "What are these people doing?" > > One prevailing theory is that they are "spy" sta- > tions, sending orders to operatives in foreign countries. Bamford's excellent book about the NSA "The Puzzle Palace" confirms that at least one use of these 5 digits broadcasts is for control of Soviet agents in foreign countries. Page 504: Finally, [Geoffrey] Prime was instructed on how to receive coded radio messages and was given a signal schedule describing the days, times, and frequencies over which they would be sent. The transmissions, which would originate in East Germany, would be sent in five number groups, and to decipher them Prime was provided with a supply of small, gridlike one-time pads. Page 532: [T]here was a strange coded message picked up by a radio operator in England on the evening of July 22, 1982, weeks after Prime had been arrested and placed in jail and nearly a week after the scandal had hit the front pages. Coming from and East German radio station was the monotonous sound of a woman's voice reading in English five-number code groups: "04376 74989 30300 70901 82266 68375 81377 80734 61156 ..." The question is, who else was listening? Page 502 to 505, my summary: Geoffrey Prime was a KGB controlled agent in Britain's Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ, their equivalent to the NSA). His KGB code-name was "Rowlands". He began service with the Joint Technical Language Service (JTLS) of the GCHQ on Sep. 30, 1968, so spy messages were transmitted at least from 1968 to 1982. So to all you people trying to decipher these messages, good luck! Soviet military one-time ciphers are probably about as hard to break as pre-stressed concrete! ------------ Michael L. Mauldin (Fuzzy) Department of Computer Science ARPA: Michael.Mauldin@NL.CS.CMU.EDU Carnegie-Mellon University Phone: (412) 268-3065 Pittsburgh, PA 15213-3890 ------------ Maybe one of the nice people at the NSA who monitor UseNet traffic will read this message and shed some light on this matter. :-)
travis@madonna.UUCP (12/08/87)
In article <2475@ihuxz.ATT.COM> parnass@ihuxz.ATT.COM (Bob Parnass, AJ9S) writes: >In article <123.003505@adam.DG.COM>, Pete_Simpson@MERCURY.CEO.DG.COM >writes on hearing shortwave broadcasts of coded number groups: > >These "numbers" stations may be found on several frequen- >cies, with both males and females speaking in many langu- >ages. > There is a rather long list of these frequencies, and what is said on them (i.e., the languages and numbers, not the plaintext!) in the book Big Secrets, which is a compilation of "secrets", such as the Kentucky Fried Chicken formula. I don't have a full reference, but it came out in 85 or 86 in a largish yellow paperback. If you can't find it, send me mail and I'll get the complete info. The author also thought that these were spy stations, but no one is sure. t Arpa: travis@cunixc.columbia.edu Bitnet: travis@cu20b Usenet: rutgers!columbia!travis USMail: 483 Mudd, Columbia Univ., NYC 10025 Phone: 212-280-8091
darrell@sdcsvax.UCSD.EDU (Darrell Long) (12/12/87)
Author: Poundstone, William.
Title: Big secrets : the uncensored truth about all sorts of stuff you
are never supposed to know / William Poundstone. 1st ed. New
York : Morrow, 1983.
228 p. : ill. ; 25 cm.
Notes: Includes index.
Subjects: Trade secrets.
--
Darrell Long
Department of Computer Science & Engineering, UC San Diego, La Jolla CA 92093
ARPA: Darrell@Beowulf.UCSD.EDU UUCP: darrell@sdcsvax.uucp
Operating Systems submissions to: comp-os-research@sdcsvax.uucp