DEAD ON TOKEN !
That is exactly the same station that I pick up here in Michigan. How do you know that it is V02a? And what exactly is it? Feel free to PM me.
Philip,
V02a is a “numbers station” that is transmitted from Cuba, and it is generally believed to be a secure “one way link” to assets in the field, as are most numbers stations. A simple way of putting it is someone is using a coded message to send information to other people. This technique is virtually secure; there is basically no way to know who is receiving the message. There is actually documentation that strongly supports the fact of this particular numbers station being used to send information to spies, most numbers stations are only suspected of that activity with no corroborative evidence.
So, why “V02a”? V02a refers to the “a” variant of a numbers station that has been given the designator “V02”.
There are several groups of radio hobbyist that are very interested in number stations. Probably the longest running, most active, and most professional in approach is called “Enigma 2000”, sometimes abbreviated E2k.
As you have seen in this thread, saying “I heard a female voice saying 5 number groups” can be confusing, what specific station did you hear? Have others heard the same station before? Also, you might note that brandon says “V07 has been suggested” and I agree that is the most likely ID, but other users, including yourself, are thinking of or have heard V02a and might be assuming the station he heard is the same station you heard. The reason is simple; both stations use a female voice, in Spanish, sending 5 figure number groups.
Because so many numbers stations are similar the E2k “designator” system was developed and is widely used, all E2k designators are assigned only through the E2k group, although some similar non-E2k designators are also in use, such as "VC01" for a psuedo numbers station called the "Chinese Robot". Although many stations are very similar most numbers stations actually have unique habits and formats. In the case of V02a and V07, while many things are similar, the beginning and end of each is different. V07 ends in “zero, zero, zero … zero, zero, zero” (all in Spanish, naturally), while V02a ends in “finish, finish, finish”, also in Spanish. Also the beginning of each is different, V07 starts with a three number designator sent several times, while V02a starts with “Atencion” and three 5 number groups sent several times.
As you can see, it would be a pain to fully describe each station every time you mention it with enough detail so another listener would know which station you heard at that time and frequency. But, say “V02a” and a person who knows the designator system can also know exactly what station you heard, or they can look it up in the ECL.
The E2k group publishes what they call the “Enigma Control List”, or ECL. A new list is published periodically to try and keep up with changes in the numbers stations, it is currently on version 25 I think. The E2k group also publishes a newsletter every other month, listing the most recent known reception reports and other items of interest to numbers station listeners. Their web site is here:
ENIGMA2000 The newsletters, the ECL, and other related reference material can be downloaded from that site.
Another “group” that tracks numbers stations is the “Numbers and Oddities” web site (
Numbers stations & Oddities ), you might find some interesting information there, and they also publish a newsletter. There is also another web site with a good bit of information on these stations and a searchable database of past reported receptions,
http://www.spynumbers.com/ Yet another web site / group that is paying attention to numbers stations is the web site Priyom.org (
Priyom.org - Priyom.org ). Priyom.org are, for the most part, newcomers to the hobby, but their web site is really taking shape, and growing nearly daily, and they are showing much enthusiasm.
Also, just to clarify, I believe what brandon heard, and what he has reported here is NOT V02a, but rather it is more likely to be V07. That is very interesting because V07 has not been reported in a while that I know of, maybe a couple of years. So brandon got himself a good catch there.
T!
(I got your PM and wrote this to answer there, but decided it might be useful to others who are unsure of what numbers stations are or what the designator system is.)
PS, also sorry brandon, did not mean to monopolize your thread.
