forum n00b, my firat numbers station: 9.065 kHz AM. 00:02 PST and again at 00:30

[hfam]

Hey all,

Signed up awhile back (I've been endlessly lurking and learning), this is my first post here, and I'm SO excited I found my first numbers station last night!!  Even recorded it!

I'm fascinated with radio, and numbers stations are my favorite fascination.  I've learned a lot lurking and reading the forums here, sorted out how to read the logs, tried to find stations, etc. 

Last night I found one!  Scanning on my r75, at 00:03 PST I hit 9.065kHz AM, and got some spanish numbers, 5 at a time, for about 20 quintets, then it went to 5 numbers and them what sounded like a data handshake for an acoustic coupler followed by a burst of data, then the 5 numbers, handshake/data, etc.  This went on until 00:22, and I clearly missed a bit of the beginning of the transmission.

At 00:30 PST it began again, and ended at 00:53 PST.

I managed to record both clearly, the second one I only missed the first quintet.  I was tempted to break out an acoustic coupler and ooen a terminal and see if I could sort out what was going on but I was tired.  I do have the recordings though, would be happy to share with anyone interested.

I would also love to know if any of ypu here know of this broadcaster or have any interesting info on it.

I have so many questions, but I have done a lot of "homework" so I'm not totally green.

Id love to be pointed to some data on where/how you seasoned guys/gals know these broadcasters by a moniker (M30, V20, etc), Enigma, etc.

I also see reference to "Twente", and gather its maybe some am/lsb/usb streaming scans?   Maybe someone can fill me in?

 I'd sure appreciate any data you think wpuld be helpful, really want to "know it all" and participate and I'm a hard worker and willing to put in the time to get caught up, just need a seasoned vet or two who'd be willing to take me under their wing, so to speak. 

I live in Oregon, and put most of my relevant gear in the sig.

I'm still so excited I found and recorded my first numbers station!  Any info, help, or mentoring would be met with eternal gratitude and hard studying!!

Thanks all

[Ary-B]

Hi, you heard HM01 from Cuba. It sends 5-figure groups in Spanish followed by unreadable files sent in RDFT.
I have the schedules on my website if you are interested: http://www.numbersoddities.nl/download.html
Cheers
Ary

[Token]

hfam,

Ary has responded with the identification of the station you heard, HM01.  The web site he keeps ( http://www.numbersoddities.nl/index.html )  is a treasure trove of information.  Well worth taking some time and perusing it.  Ary puts out a newsletter that can be found on the site.

HM01 is the most easily heard numbers station in the US.  But your location should also be good for some of the Asian stations.  

The naming convention assigned to numbers stations, like HM01, V07, E17, etc, originated in the mid 1990's.  People found it easier to use these designations than to describe giving a lengthy description every time.

For example V02 (another Cuban station) could be described as a numbers station with "female voice, Spanish language, 5 figure groups, starts with attencion and ends with final".  Since there is more than one numbers station with a female voice, in Spanish, with 5 figure groups, if you did not include all the details it was possible for someone to misunderstand which one you meant.  So a list was started, with all the details presented, and designators assigned.  Then a person could say "I heard V07 on 18047 kHz USB last night" and anyone else could look at the list and know exactly which station it was.  V07 is another numbers station with a female voice, 5 figure groups, and in Spanish.  V07, however, is transmitted by the Russians, not the Cubans.

The list is called the "Enigma Control List" and can be found at several locations on the web, but the group who maintains it is called ENIGMA 2000, and their web site is here http://www.apul64.dsl.pipex.com/enigma2000/  The Control List is on the left side of the web pages, in the Documents frame.  The list was originally put together original ENIGMA group (European Numbers Information Gathering and Monitoring Association), and when that team shifted focus to other endeavors the ENGIMA 2000 team started maintaining the list.  They do a newsletter every other month of numbers station activity.

Another source of information is priyom.org.  These guys are relative newcomers to the arena, but are doing an excellent job, with a nicely put together web site and an enthusiastic group.

By the way, you noted that you heard the station at 0003 PST.  Radio reports and schedules are pretty much universally reported in UTC.  Reports in local time make everyone else convert from the local time you reported to UTC, and much of the time they do not know the offset for your reported time zone, so they first must look up what the offset is.  To make it easy most listeners keep a clock on UTC time in the shack or a second clock on the computer in UTC.

The "Twente" refers to a remote SDR located at the University of Twente, in the Netherlands (  http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/  ).  This is a remote SDR (Software Defined Radio) that you can log onto and use, tuning it to any frequency you want in its covered range.  It is one of several remote listening services to be found online.  Others are Golbaltuners and SDR-Radio.com.

There are several IRC channels related to radio listening.  The nice thing about the IRC channels is that you can get real time reports and feedback on activities.  The #priyom channel on the Freenode server is run by the priyom.org folks, and is aimed specifically at numbers stations.  Most of the people in that chat are European but there are a sprinkling of US folks present much of the time.  The #wunclub on the Starchat server is not numbers specific, it is general utilities listening, but numbers stations are often discussed there.  #wunclub has many US members present.

T!

[Token]

As I said earlier, you can probably get the Asian stations pretty fair from your location.  A couple of suggestions below:

V07 has one known scheduled transmission block per week, it is a pretty rare bird.  The source is probably Asiatic Russia, maybe the Kamchatka Peninsula.  It transmits only on Sunday morning, each week.  If there is a message it transmits three times in one hour, if no message only twice in one hour.  The start time and frequency varies across the year, at this time of year the first transmission is at 0100 UTC, the second is at 0120 UTC, and the third, if there is one, is at 0140 UTC.

Chart of times and frequencies here:
http://www.tokenradio.net/Radio/SharedFiles/NumbersTfer/V07_latest_sched.JPG

How to read the chart:  Times are down the left side, in UTC.  Months of the year are across the top.  This month is November, so look under November.  You see a number, 18074, this is the frequency in kHz.  That frequency is on the "0100" time slot.  This means that in November, every Sunday morning (UTC day), at 0100 UTC, a transmission will occur on 18074 kHz.  Below that is 15874 kHz in the 0120 line.  So that at 0120 UTC, on 15874 kHz, another transmission will occur.  Below that is 14374 kHz in the 0140 line.  So a transmission is also scheduled for 0140 UTC, on 14374 kHz, however this transmission only occurs if there was actual traffic at 0100 and 0120 UTC, if those time slots were "null" messages (meaning only sending zeros) then the 0140 transmission will not happen.

Remember that days and times are UTC, not local.  You indicated you were in the Pacific time zone, local time for you will be 1700 (5:00 PM) on Saturday evening, on 18074 kHz USB.  The next transmission will be 20 minutes later at 5:10 PM local, Saturday night, on 15874 kHz USB.

V24 is a numbers transmission from South Korea.  While it transmits multiple times per month, and on multiple frequencies, it uses a day of month / time of day specific schedule.  So it is not the same schedule every day or every week, but rather a it is cyclic on a day of month basis.

Chart of times and frequencies here:
http://www.tokenradio.net/Radio/SharedFiles/NumbersTfer/V24_M94_latest_sched.JPG

How to read the chart:  The day of the month (UTC day) is down the left side, the time (UTC time) is across the top.  So, if you go down the left side to tomorrows date (the 16th) and then across the time slots you see that at 1330 UTC there is a number, 6215.  This number is the frequency in kHz of an anticipated transmission.  If all goes well on the 16th of every month, at 1330 UTC, V24 transmits a message on 6215 kHz, in the AM mode.  Following the 16th day line further to the right shows the number 6310 under the time 1430.  So also on the 16th day of each month, at 1430 UTC, the station transmits on 6310 kHz, AM mode.

V24 does change freqs and times several times a year, so this schedule is probably only valid for a couple more months, and then I will have to make a new one.  THe station also makes occasional mistakes, so if you tune into a time slot and nothing is heard check the other known freqs, sometimes they accidentally throw a transmission on the wrong freq.

There are several other Asian stations you can probably hear, V13 (Taiwanese), V26 (Chinese), and M95 (Chinese) come to mind.  V26 / M95 are sister stations (same source) but have very relaxed schedules, so can be very hard to predict.  V30 and M97 (both Vietnamese stations) keep fair schedules with regard to time of day, but sometimes go weeks between transmissions.

T!

[hfam]

Thank you both VERY much for the replies and for taking time out to share so much info!   I have a LOT of reading to do and can't wait to get to it!  Ary, if that's a newsletter one signs up for, inbound shortly! 

I feel like a kid in a candy store, I really cant thank you both enough, particularly Token for such a comprehensive response, I assure you I am about to feast on that knowledge!

Thanks also for the info about sharing my data here too.  Just went and set my Sanyo dual's second clock to UTC, wont be making that mistake twice! 

I have a lot of catching up to do, and am about to get started armed with the above primer, thanks again and really looking forward to participating here as a regular.  Really feeling fortunate to have found this little corner of the world!!!

hfam