Interesting number station msg

[Tom S]

Was going back through old traffic recently when I came across a numbers transmission I remembered copying because the message groups don't appear to be random.  The message was from a CW station heard on 9458.5 back on 17 April 1996 at 0520 UTC:

>041796
>0520Z
>9458.5KHZ
>CW
62460 62455 62050 62940 62130 62520 44018 73573 73072 72972
72877 62578 62374 62565 62755 62348 62240 62529 62820 44020
63568 73375 63280 73177 72978 62775 62573 62960 62953 62749
62445 62142 62730 62919 63133 63530 44022 63555 63152 62845
62654 62542 62736 63036 63538 44024 63086 62875 62870 63067
73267 63270 63175 63076 19191 BT AR SK
>EOT

As you can see all groups start with 62, 63, 72, 73, or 44, with a 19191 stutter group at the end.  What it seems like is that it was a message which was sent out without first encoding it with a one time pad.  There's no way these groups are random.  If there were ever a number station message decoded by hobbyists, it would be this one.

I don't even know for sure which station (ENIGMA designator) which sent this message, and I've never copied anything like it since.

[Echo_One]

Tom,

9458 is an M12 frequency.

I agree that the message is rather odd - leading me to suspect either a special encoding or, more likely, dummy practice traffic

Echo

[Tom S]

M12 ends with 000 000 which this one apparently didn't, unless they forgot to send that, but most of the ex-KGB stations never sent AR SK as far as I know.

It could possibly be dummy traffic, but even most dummy traffic consists of totally random groups.  I wouldn't think this would be a dummy message unless they intend for the other agencies to waste their time focusing on the 62, 63, 72, and 73's.

I really wish I'd have caught the beginning of the message.

[Echo_One]

M12 ends with 000 000 which this one apparently didn't, unless they forgot to send that, but most of the ex-KGB stations never sent AR SK as far as I know.

It could possibly be dummy traffic, but even most dummy traffic consists of totally random groups.  I wouldn't think this would be a dummy message unless they intend for the other agencies to waste their time focusing on the 62, 63, 72, and 73's.

I really wish I'd have caught the beginning of the message.

Well it is a start... Maybe they decided to do something odd this day