What Is This??

[RayAir]

Sometimes I come across these cuban or Mexican transmissions where they just read numbers in spanish over and over again. It goes like this, "Ocho, Ocho, Uno, Dos, Quatro, Uno" and continues for hours! I had heard this type of transmission was used by spies. They get a newspaper, pick a page and use the numbers read over the air to find a letters location on the paper and piece words together like this. Has anyone else heard this?

 

[brandon]

Those are numbers stations. You probably heard the "Atencion" station from Cuba.
I heard it the other night on one of the COTHEN freqs. While it was transmitting I kept hearing ALE bursts on the same freq. Eventually the transmission went away.

I just googled and found this link: http://www.spynumbers.com/V2sked.html
Might be handy to have.

 

[mancow]

When and where did you last hear it?

Those are what got me into radio. My grandfather had an old dial type world band radio when I was a kid. My cousin and I would listen to that thing all the time. I recall the signals were so strong we were picking up those same spanish number stations even when we were in the basement. It really freaked us out and I was fascinated by what it could be.


I haven't heard any in years. I've even looked up the logs for current ones but never seem to catch them.

 

[kb2vxa]

Hi all,

Not likely the spies' handler would muddy the water with references to a newspaper or anything but the current code sheet. Five letter or number groups are a code impossible to break because of the layering and it changes at least day to day and every operative has his own individual code sheets. The possibilities are nearly infinite and if somehow one gets broken it's old news by then and the code has changed.

"When and where did you last hear it?"

A pointless question actually, they pop up unannounced anywhere, any time. Now if you were the spy you would know but they're not talking, and even if one did it would be old news once again. Likely when and where to hear only the next message scheduled is encoded in the current message so by the time "we" find out it's all changed again.

"ATTENTION BLACK TERMINATE MANCOW IMMEDIATELY"

Five numbers, five words, neat.

 

[RayAir]

Hi all,

Not likely the spies' handler would muddy the water with references to a newspaper or anything but the current code sheet. Five letter or number groups are a code impossible to break because of the layering and it changes at least day to day and every operative has his own individual code sheets. The possibilities are nearly infinite and if somehow one gets broken it's old news by then and the code has changed.

"When and where did you last hear it?"

A pointless question actually, they pop up unannounced anywhere, any time. Now if you were the spy you would know but they're not talking, and even if one did it would be old news once again. Likely when and where to hear only the next message scheduled is encoded in the current message so by the time "we" find out it's all changed again.

"ATTENTION BLACK TERMINATE MANCOW IMMEDIATELY"

Five numbers, five words, neat.

So these ARE some kind of clandestine transmission. I am suprised they just don't use a substitution or transposition cipher and send it CW. BTW, the last one I heard was around 0200 Eastern time. I was scanning around on my Grundig satellite. I don't now the frequency but it was between 5mhz-8mhz as that's all I ever scan. I like to listen to New York Radio handling planes coming into the U.S. I believe that's around 6.35mhz USB

 

[fuzzymoto]

Try 151.9700
I hear it there all the time.

 

[kb2vxa]

Hi Ray Spy, White Spy and Black Spy,

It IS a substitution cypher of sorts, each number is a reference to something else. Transpostion is SO easy to break, we played that game in school. Numbers or any other characters may be sent in CW but it's awfully hard to key a high powered broadcast transmitter. How much you want to bet Radio Havana isn't transmitting numbers when a particular transmitter isn't on studio feed? Don't ask, my friend who works for RHC isn't talking and I'm not about asking.

You're dial is a bit off and so is your term, New York Radio is the weather station. Another that actually comes in louder here due to propagation is Gander which alternates with NY on the frequency.

North Atlantic (NAT)
2872 2899 2962 2971 3016 3476 4675 5598 5616 5649 6622 6628 8825
8831 8864 8879 8891 8906 11279 11309 11336 13291 13306 17946

Fuzzy, I know you're being sarcastic but just for the heck of it I checked the frequency and I'm hearing a carrier burst at one second intervals. peep peep peep peep....... (;->)

 

[RayAir]

Hi Ray Spy, White Spy and Black Spy,

It IS a substitution cypher of sorts, each number is a reference to something else. Transpostion is SO easy to break, we played that game in school. Numbers or any other characters may be sent in CW but it's awfully hard to key a high powered broadcast transmitter. How much you want to bet Radio Havana isn't transmitting numbers when a particular transmitter isn't on studio feed? Don't ask, my friend who works for RHC isn't talking and I'm not about asking.

You're dial is a bit off and so is your term, New York Radio is the weather station. Another that actually comes in louder here due to propagation is Gander which alternates with NY on the frequency.

North Atlantic (NAT)
2872 2899 2962 2971 3016 3476 4675 5598 5616 5649 6622 6628 8825
8831 8864 8879 8891 8906 11279 11309 11336 13291 13306 17946

Fuzzy, I know you're being sarcastic but just for the heck of it I checked the frequency and I'm hearing a carrier burst at one second intervals. peep peep peep peep....... (;->)

Try your hand at this transposition cipher. You know the answer, since they're so easy to break:

YRES OAEG NUNT UAIO

PM me the answer or post it.

 

[RiP-HS-]

I went and read this page http://hem.passagen.se/tan01/transpo.html
Good luck brain-e-ack!!! I've had a couple a beers but sheesh, that's tuff!