HFU HF Underground
Loggings => Spy Numbers => Topic started by: Zoidberg on December 20, 2010, 0240 UTC
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12/20/10
6927 USB
0235z: Woman's voice (possibly computer voice) numbers, sounds very similar to voice and cadence for recent Alpha Hotel 7 Hotel "apple" numbers station (http://www.hfunderground.com/board/index.php/topic,4024.0.html), but not enough audible to be sure. Didn't hear entire transmission,
Repeated around 0237z: "I repeat message nine eight nine six (9896)," followed by strings of five-number groups, most of which were buried in a heavy fog of white noise here.
"Next message will be..." (sounded like two syllables followed by) "...Papa-Romeo-Romeo," repeated.
Possible station ID, only able to copy "Hotel Seven Hotel", sounded more like Papa-Hotel-Seven-Hotel than Alpha-Hotel-Seven-Hotel, but unsure due to heavy white noise.
Might be able to ferret out some details after running recording through hiss reduction.
3 minute audio clip in wav format (in case anyone cares to try hiss or noise reduction): http://www.mediafire.com/?v503hws4v00noha
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Lex, it sounds like this transmission went again on 12/22/2010 at 0300, this time on 6925 kHz USB.
I have a pretty good recording that I got from Jon-FL. If you would like I can send it to you. It is clear enough so that the callsign is easy to make out, lima six nine bravo. Alpha hotel seven hotel is mentioned near the end, not sure but it might be saying AH7H is complete. Msg number is 9296. Also, for this one there is no Apple message, rather it says "the pie is in the oven".
One assumes it is apple pie ;)
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1/1/11
6925 USB
0303z: Sounds like same station again, tho' difficult to copy through noise. Same circus music intro, pattern and cadence of numbers in YL computer voice, "message complete" and "next message..." but other details unclear.
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I wonder why the guy does this. This is not legit-Enigma 2000 says it's a load of bs.
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I wonder why the guy does this. This is not legit-Enigma 2000 says it's a load of bs.
And you know this is not legit how? ;)
Actually the E2k group, as a group, has said nothing about this station yet. Several people on that group, including myself, say it is most probably a spoof. The Numbers and Oddities newsletter also has not mentioned this station yet, in any capacity. The Spooks mailing list has also not addressed it at all. However, this has gone on a bit longer than any pirate numbers spoof I have heard of before, and it has contained several different messages, headers, and callups, it is not just the same thing over and over. As time goes on it becomes less and less certain that it is, indeed, a spoof.
If this station were not on 6925 there would be a lot less certainty of it being a spoof (and why exactly is that? There was a legit report of E07 on 6924 last month and several legit numbers stations have been on 6925 in the past.). If it did not contain the apple and pie references (tonight’s said "the pie is in the oven") there would be even less certainty. If it did not use Circus Music people would even be less sure, although I do not quite understand that part of it, why not the selected song? In fact if you remove these three factors people would most likely be saying this warrants further investigation. And if someone was spoofing then why select three such obviously questionable points?
Some people have dismissed this because they say it is someone trying to sound like a famous numbers station. But if you listen to them the only things they have in common is they both use a female voice with a UK accent and they both have 5 figure groups. The two voices do sound fairly similar, but that is really the only thing they share. The format and every other factor is different. If it was someone trying to mimic another numbers station they could have gotten the format much more close with almost no effort. In fact if the voice is the same one, and it is intentionally so, that likely took a good bit of effort to do. I personally suspect it is accidental that the voice is similar.
Pretty much every pirate spoof numbers station I have heard of has given itself up at one time or another. The station op gives it up or they start QSLing the receptions. So far this series of transmissions have not done anything like that. I have followed it rather closely on several boards and so far no one has hinted at doing this.
Yep, I agree, this is most likely, almost certainly, a spoof or a fake. But, there is just the slightest possibility that people are prejudiced by the frequency, and then the other odd details add to the bias. Ask yourself, if not for that frequency, would you be anything near as sure?
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Gah, apologies. A friend of mine said that, and him being part of E2K, I believed him. Disregard that!