HFU HF Underground
Loggings => Spy Numbers => Topic started by: K5KNT on November 06, 2013, 1539 UTC
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My first capture since getting my AFEDRI and PAR EF-SWL antenna set up. ;D
Recorded Capture: start: 0659z (in progress), end: 0725z, 9330KHz AM, YL speaking Spanish and digital alternate. On occasion it sounds like a broadcast station in the background.
Based on the schedule from the Enigma 2000 Newsletter #79 and descriptions I've read I believe this is HM01.
I'm not sure what other information is needed/wanted. Let me know and I'll provide what I can.
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HM01 is the only number station that does the voice/digital thing so its likely them. The broadcast station on frequency is WBCQ in Maine. I've found them battling it out with each other many times & the Cuban spies usually come out on top from here.
Congrats on the new setup.
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Heard same tonight here in N. Central Texas via portable outdoors: 11/10/13, 0700z-, 9330 AM, Spanish YL voice, four- or five-number groups with intermittent data bursts, over WBCQ on 9330.
Been awhile since I tuned around and this was the first time I'd heard this particular frequency being QRM'd by a numbers station, although I see from logs on the HFU and elsewhere around the web several DXers worldwide have caught the same thing this year.
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Heard this one on 9240 at 0925 (11/11/13), Spanish YL with an entire 5 digit #s message the old fashioned way, then alternating with a single 5 digit # - DATA - 5 digit # - DATA - etc. for several minutes. Still going at 0940...
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K5KNT, yes, this is HM01.
ff - HM01 does not send a message the old fashioned way, however unless you write the numbers down and look at them and the cycles they make you might not realize it.
HM01 starts up with 5 figure groups for several minutes. However, there are only 6 different five figure groups sent, repeated over and over. This part can sound something like a V02a message, but it is not. Once the data starts then the same 6 five figure groups are used again, but one at a time, between the data groups.
Example below:
57929 29787 65498 63442 87124 07821
57929 29787 65498 63442 87124 07821
57929 29787 65498 63442 87124 07821
(repeated for several minutes)
57929 data burst (notice this is the first 5 figure group used above)
29787 data burst (notice this is the second 5 figure group used above)
65498 data burst (notice this is the third 5 figure group used above)
63442 data burst (notice this is the forth 5 figure group used above)
87124 data burst (notice this is the fifth 5 figure group used above)
07821 data burst (notice this is the sixth 5 figure group used above)
57929 data burst
29787 data burst
65498 data burst
63442 data burst
87124 data burst
07821 data burst
(repeated 5 figure / data for about 20 minutes)
It then starts over with several minutes of sending 6 different five figure groups over an over before transitioning into the alternating 5 figures / data.
What can confuse some people, make them think there are a couple different formats, is the way HM01 changes frequency. As I said, the HM01 messages are pretty much always like I have described above. However, sometimes when the top of the hour comes around and it is time to change frequencies HM01 does not go back to the beginning, but rather just shifts frequency without stopping or changing what it is doing. This means it can come up on a new freq and be in the middle of the 5 figure / data cycle. This leads some people to think HM01 starts out with the alternating pattern sometimes. This habit has caused more than one person to claim finding a “new” mode of HM01.
T!
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It often seems that the numbers for the first half hour tend to be the same in the second half hour of the Cuban transmission.... I've listened to full broadcasts and NOT noticed such a difference. Will aurally investigate the next time 5850 (or 9330) is on the air.... The next DAY'S transmission may differ (sometimes by as little as one number in one group), but I have not noticed an INTRA-DAY (or intra-broadcast) change in the number groups....
However, as noted earlier today (see my long post), the Cuban numbers station can go slightly haywire by transmitting two tape loops simultaneously (or what I believe is two tape loops), losing audio for awhile, and being forced to end the transmission mid sequence as a result (in order to go to their next frequency/frequencies for 06 - 07 UTC).