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OWVL
Example recordings
If you are old enough, you will probably remember the mysterious
Numbers Stations
that turned up regularly on the short-wave bands.
Endless sequences of seemingly random numbers read by a synthetic
voice, that seemed to serve no purpose whatsoever.
Well, guess what? Such stations are still active today (2015)
and originate from various places in the world in different
languages.
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Below are some examples of Number Stations
that have been recorded in recent years. Some of the are still active
today.
Many thanks to Karsten Hansky for supplying the audio samples [1].
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Station
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Country
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Language
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Frequency
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Date
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UTC
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1.
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G06
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Russia
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German
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5422 kHz
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2014-04-24
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19:30
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2.
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S06
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Russia
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Russian
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5783 kHz
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2014-03-24
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19:00
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3.
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MH01
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Cuba
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Spanish
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17480 kHz
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2013-08-01
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22:30
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4.
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E11a
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Poland
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English
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14409 kHz
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2013-12-23
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11:09
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5.
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S11a
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Poland
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Russian
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9660 kHz
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2014-04-25
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10:20
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6.
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RDL
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Russia
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CW
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18.1 kHz
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2015-08-15
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12:37
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G06 · Russia
5422 kHz (German)
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This station is operated by Russian Intelligence, and
is most likely located in Russia. It broadcasts in the German language,
which suggests that the messages are intended for non-Russian agents working
undercover in Europe. The female voice is the same one that was used during the
1970s and 80s, and was recorded in the former DDR (East-Germany).
The messages were recorded by Karsten Hansky on 24 April 2014 at 19:30 UTC
and 14 November 2019 at 18:30 UTC [1].
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271
228 39
25326 68373 92453 85458 12496 55482 77233 95864 48376 22795
48538 34693 26852 26468 34579 34687 33529 23258 24468 46726
62964 69477 23295 27399 82453 17847 31125 11631 12253 13648
53178 61135 61345 79322 59385 58736 79383 23682 23392
228 39 00000
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947
532 20
06132 75514 79681 94217 21443 31441 81797 17512 62689 33103
48930 93432 25709 93628 48683 18809 85052 49870 63962 04884
532 20 00000
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Sender ID is in bold (947).
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Recipient is in red (532) followed by the number of groups in the message (20).
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Recipient and number of groups are repeated at the end of the message (532 20).
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All number groups are repeated (except for the terminator).
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00000 is the message terminator.
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S06 · Russia
5783 kHz (Russian)
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This station is operated by the Russian secret service and is identical
to G06 (German) and E06 (English), except for the language.
The message was received on 24 March 2014 at 19:00 UTC on 5.783 MHz
by Karsten Hansky [1] and is pretty short.
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349 349 349
00000
349 349 349
00000
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This is a so-called NULL message, which means 'nothing to report'.
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The message starts with the Sender ID (349) repeated twice.
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00000 is the message terminator.
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The message is read twice without an interval.
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HM01 · Cuba
17480 kHz (Spanish)
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HM01 is located in Cuba and its messages are aimed at agents
in the USA, which is why this station is difficult to receive in Europe.
The message was received on 1 August 2013 at 22:30 UTC on 17.480 MHz
by Karsten Hansky [1].
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The message starts with several number groups read in Spanish,
followed by digital information.
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E11a · Poland
14409 kHz (English)
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This station is operated by the Polish intelligence service
and sends its messages from Poland in the English
language, which suggests that they are intended for non-Polish
speaking agents. Note the Polish accent in the synthesized
English voice. The message was received on 23 December 2013 at
11:09 UTC on 14409 kHz by Karsten Hansky [1].
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950/31
ATTENTION
81371 36913 56737 83783 18924 41854 64769 82330 25384 76629
51016 66965 75511 12197 26941 68322 19368 84430 88874 83626
17281 79745 18146 45451 90007 48550 13561 25474 32539 57122
27831
ATTENTION
81371 36913 56737 83783 18924 41854 64769 82330 25384 76629
51016 66965 75511 12197 26941 68322 19368 84430 88874 83626
17281 79745 18146 45451 90007 48550 13561 25474 32539 57122
27831
OUT
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The message ID in shown in bold (950) followed by the number of groups (31).
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The word ATTENTION marks the start of the message.
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Each 5-digit group is read twice.
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The entire message is read twice.
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OUT is the message terminator.
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S11a · Poland
9960 kHz (Russian)
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Like the previous one, this station is operated by the Polish
intelligence service and is aimed at (former) Eastern Block countries.
The message was received on
25 April 2014 at 10:20 UTC on 9.96 MHz by Karsten Hansky [1].
Note the same Polish accent as in the English broadcast.
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This station is basically identical to the one above (E11a) except
that its transmissions are in Russian rather than English.
This is why the station is identified with the letter 'S' (Slavic).
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RDL · Russia
18.1 kHz (CW)
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RDL is operated by the Russian Nucelar Forces and transmits on the
Very Low Frequency (VLF) of 18.1 kHz, also known as Long-Wave (LW).
The advantage of using such low frequencies is that they can be
received world-wide and even under water, which is useful for U-boats.
This message was received on 15 August 2015 at 12:37 UTC by
Karsten Hansky [1] and is a rare one, since is was sent in morse
and contains a code word.
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XXX XXX RDL RDL 20526 24801 LANOLIN 5290 5805 K
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The message was send twice with a 1 minute interval.
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RDL normally sends digital information (RTTY) but occasionally uses morse code (CW).
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Most CW messages contain number groups only, but this one contains the code word LANOLIN.
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- Karsten Hansky, Sound samples of current Numbers Stations
Received August 2015 - September 2019. Many thanks!
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© Crypto Museum. Last changed: Thursday, 02 February 2023 - 09:33 CET.
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