We seek to understand and document all radio transmissions, legal and otherwise, as part of the radio listening hobby. We do not encourage any radio operations contrary to regulations. Always consult with the appropriate authorities if you have questions concerning what is permissible in your locale.

Author Topic: Numbers station V16, 11493 kHz AM, May 28, 2012, 1414 UTC  (Read 2618 times)

Offline Token

  • Global Moderator
  • DX Legend
  • *****
  • Posts: 2118
    • View Profile
Hello all,

This morning (May 28, 2012) I heard a Chinese language numbers station that I have not heard before live.  Around 1408 UTC a carrier came up on 11493 kHz.  The frequency was a little odd for a BC (broadcast) station so I parked an RX (receiver) on it to see what came about.  This carrier went on and off several times before stabilizing at about 1412 UTC.  Starting about 1414 UTC I heard broken audio on the carrier.  The audio sounded like a YL (female) in Chinese language, but the audio was very bad, my assumption was a BC station with problems.

About 1415 the audio cleaned up, and it became clear it was a YL repeating the same phrases over and over in Chinese, I started recording about 1415:25.  Each cycle in the audio ended with something similar to “oh sie”.  At 1418:48 the last cycle ended with a different word.

The carrier continued with no modulation until 1419:08 when a different sounding YL voice came up in Chinese and started repeating a similar sounding phrase to the first half of the transmission.  This message ended at 1427:07, 4 minutes and 59 seconds after it started.  It also ended with a different word, as had the first message.

Looking at the ECL (Enigma Control List, a catalogue of known and designated numbers stations) and listening to audio examples I believe what I heard was V16.  Each cycle ending in something like “oh sie”, 5 minute transmission (per message).  The description in the ECL contains little other than that.  The Enigma newsletters since 2000 (the oldest on the web site) say nothing about the station.  Neither do any of the Numbers and Oddities / Spooks newsletters I can get hold of.  I am still looking through the old Wunclub newsletters, but so far found nothing there either.

Here is a video of my reception this morning, it starts in the first message, includes the gap between the messages, includes the first minute or so of the second message, and then I jump to the last 45 seconds of the transmission.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gfiv_v3NzNw

Here is an example courtesy of the Enigma 2000 web site, the note on the web site says it is 1977, but I suspect that is a typo:
http://www.brogers.dsl.pipex.com/enigma2000/samples/V16.mp3

Another example from the Conet Project CD, released in 1997.
http://archive.org/download/ird059/tcp_d4_23_unidentified_chinese_station_irdial.mp3

They sound like the same station to me.

This station has not been reported since before 2000.  No idea if it has been gone all that time or just not reported.  I know I stumbled on it completely by accident, was not even looking for a numbers station at the time.

T!
Mojave Desert, California, USA
T!
Mojave Desert, California USA

Offline Token

  • Global Moderator
  • DX Legend
  • *****
  • Posts: 2118
    • View Profile
Re: Numbers station V16, 11493 kHz AM, May 28, 2012, 1414 UTC
« Reply #1 on: May 30, 2012, 1849 UTC »
Ahhh, then it came back on after the 2nd message time off.  And I also misquoted the time for the start of the 2nd message.

I missunderstood what you said in your post, thinking that you saw it at 1410 ("Spotted in passing" sounded like you noticed it but moved on, and it was 59 here) but when you checked back about 1424 it was gone (your post "gone at 1424z", I did not realize you meant ended at 1424).  Since the transmisions are normally just under 5 minutes per the one you saw ending at 1424 probably started about 1419, unless you are saying you stayed tuned to 11323 kHz the entire time and the one ending 1424 was an unusually short message.

T!

(Edit)  I should never quote times from memory, as I said above I got the time of the 2nd message wrong in my post above.  There were three actual transmissions today (May 30, 2012, times in UTC).  
1st TX - Carrier up 1359:12, audio start 1359:28, audio complete 1404:24, carrier down 1404:33.
2nd TX- Carrier up 1409:07, audio start 1409:22, audio complete 1414:19, carrier down 1414:27.
3rd TX - Carrier up 1418:30, audio start 1419:10, audio complete 1424:07, carrier down 1424:12
« Last Edit: May 31, 2012, 0130 UTC by Token »
T!
Mojave Desert, California USA

Offline Token

  • Global Moderator
  • DX Legend
  • *****
  • Posts: 2118
    • View Profile
Re: Numbers station V16, 11493 kHz AM, May 28, 2012, 1414 UTC
« Reply #2 on: June 01, 2012, 1406 UTC »
It looks like this moring, June 1, 2012, they are on 11147 kHz.  First message started at 1359:26z and ended 1404:17z.  2nd message started 1409:14z and off 1414:11z.  3rd message started 1419:37z and off 1424:34z.

T!
« Last Edit: June 01, 2012, 1435 UTC by Token »
T!
Mojave Desert, California USA

Offline Token

  • Global Moderator
  • DX Legend
  • *****
  • Posts: 2118
    • View Profile
Re: Numbers station V16, 11493 kHz AM, May 28, 2012, 1414 UTC
« Reply #3 on: June 04, 2012, 2229 UTC »
Yep, I saw the three transmissions also this morning (Monday, 4 June) in the 1359-1424 time period.  Excellent signal here, as most of these have been.

Only a possibility at this time, but it looks like the schedule might be Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays, about 1400 to about 1430.  Monday on 11493, Wednesday on 11323, and Friday on 11147.  I have looked for it at other times and on other freqs during the days it was not seen, no joy so far.

Although this station is a dead ringer for V16 as defined in the Enigma Control List, a 100% match, it is also possible that this station is V25.  The two descriptions do not preclude each other.  There is some discusion that V16 and V25 could be the same stations, one with a null message and one with traffic.

I did note that there is a CW signal that happens at about 1300 and about 1400 on 11523 almost daily.  Have not looked deeply into this yet, just have seen it several times.  It is possible, based on the one callsign I have seen so far, that this is MC01, sometimes associated with V25.

T!
T!
Mojave Desert, California USA

Offline Token

  • Global Moderator
  • DX Legend
  • *****
  • Posts: 2118
    • View Profile
Re: Numbers station V16, 11493 kHz AM, May 28, 2012, 1414 UTC
« Reply #4 on: June 06, 2012, 1826 UTC »
I think the audio for all three segments this morning (June 6, 2012, 1359 to 1424) might have been the same as being sent by CRI on 11610 kHz at that time.  Here at work I only have one receiver, so could not listen to both in real time, but switching between them they sounded the same.  It sounds like someone selected the wrong audio source for the transmissions.  And yes I also notice the audio being a bit low and muffled.  In the past the Spanish numbers station V02 has done the same thing (selected and transmitted the wrong audio) with audio from Radio Habana, since V02/M08/SK01 and Radio Habana share transmitters.

One of the take aways from this mornings transmissions is that if the audio was the same as 11610 it is a fairly safe assumption that the transmitter facility is one that also sends CRI, and that explains the good signal level here, since CRI is pretty much 100 kW+ on all of its sites, some as hgih as 500 kW.

T!
« Last Edit: June 06, 2012, 1830 UTC by Token »
T!
Mojave Desert, California USA