Pay Sender

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Example of a transmission (German speaker, March 2012) of station G06. Presumably, the recipient is named “947” in the first four minutes; then the actual message follows.

As numbers stations are radio stations on shortwave referred, which usually numeric or letter sequences, sounds and otherwise crafted data transmitted. These are mostly numbers arranged in groups of five, which are repeated at some stations in order to be able to write them down better.

Up until the 1980s, the numbers were often recorded by one person live in a studio, but also - as is common today - by voices that were stored on mechanical or electronic sound reproduction devices. Some stations transmit in amplitude modulation (AM), others in single sideband modulation (SSB), as transmissions in SSB mode can be carried out more economically and with less interference. Some stations broadcast over a longer period of time on the same frequencies and with a regular broadcast schedule.

The origin and purpose of most of these broadcasts are not publicly known. Pay transmitters are sometimes used by secret services to communicate with covert agents . The military and diplomatic services, as well as embassies , also have some receiving devices that are suitable for receiving messages from number senders. Number transmitters are particularly suitable for these tasks, as the signals can be heard over shortwave almost all over the world. The recipients of the messages only need a radio (such as a world receiver ) that is suitable for receiving shortwave in the appropriate frequency ranges and can receive single sideband modulation (SSB).

The data encrypted with groups of numbers was mostly decrypted to plain text with one-time pads .

Origin and function

This section needs to be revised: Linguistic repetitions, many assertions appear out of date / out of date, check neutrality and structure them! - WuffiWuff2 ( discussion ) 11:15, 26 Apr. 2019 (CEST)
Please help to improve it , and then remove this mark.

As noted in the records of The Conet Project , the first reports of number transmitters date back to the time of the First World War . This makes them one of the first radio transmissions.

The fact that number transmitters are used by the military, secret services and diplomatic services can be seen from the fact that many antenna fields from which number transmitters operate are housed in military properties . Furthermore, there are unusually large antenna systems on many embassy buildings.

All of this suggests that some states can, in this simple and efficient way, stay in touch with their personnel globally without the risk of revealing classified information.

It is a relatively safe way of providing spies with orders and information. As evidence, reference is made to the observation that number transmitters change their behavior at short notice during special political events or start broadcasts beyond the usual rhythm, for example during the August coup in Moscow in 1991. It is assumed that the messages are sent as one-time -Pads are encrypted to ensure that no one other than the target person can decrypt them.

Local influences such as weather, season or sunspots can negatively affect reception. However, since spies mostly operate with portable receivers, often under difficult conditions and in all seasons, powerful transmitters, some with over 100 kilowatts of power, are used.

The operation of a number transmitter was z. B. by a spokesman of the Ministry of Trade and Industry in the UK confirmed.

Pay transmitters usually get nicknames from their observers , which are usually derived from special characteristics. This includes B. the (since 2008 inactive) " Lincolnshire Poacher ", one of the best-known number transmitters (one suspects the British secret service MI6 behind it, since the origin of the transmissions to the RAF base Akrotiri in Cyprus has been traced back), the two as the theme song Sending lines from the old English folk song "The Lincolnshire Poacher" before the actual message. “ Magnetic Fields ” plays the song of the same name by French musician Jean-Michel Jarre before and after each set of numbers. The number transmitter “ ¡Atención! ”Every transmission begins with the Spanish phrase“ ¡Atención! ”.

By means of bearing you can find out the transmission location of number transmitters. For example, the station "¡Atención!" Was suspected in Cuba because Radio Havana broadcast on the same frequency as the number station. “Radio Havana” was also often heard softly. In 2001, “¡Atención!” Was officially identified as Cuban by the US . More on this in the next section.

At some stations you can also hear noises in the background.

The ¡Atención! Incident

Cuba's “¡Atención!” Was the first number transmitter officially and publicly confirmed as such to transmit messages to spies in the USA. He was decisive for the fact that the Cuban spies " Miami Five " were convicted in the US Federal Court in 1998. It has been argued that the spies used Sony shortwave receivers to receive the messages and put the numbers into laptops to decipher them. The FBI confirmed that they had broken into an apartment of a suspected Cuban spy in 1995 and copied the necessary program including the OTP keys that had not been deleted. With this they were able to decipher messages from "¡Atención!", As they testified in court.

Three examples of deciphered “¡Atención!” Messages were given:

  • "Priorize and continue to strengthen friendship with Joe and Dennis" [68 characters] ("Prioritize and continue to strengthen friendship with Joe and Dennis")
  • "Under no circumstances should [agents] German nor Castor fly with BTTR or another organization on days 24, 25, 26, and 27." [112 characters] (“Under no circumstances should [the agents] German or Castor fly with BTTR or any other organization on days 24, 25, 26 or 27.”) (BTTR is the anti- Castro grouping Brothers to the Rescue )
  • "Congratulate all the female comrades for International Day of the Woman." [71 characters] ("Congratulations to all comrades on International Women's Day.")

Each number stood for a letter at a speed of one number / second, which makes a good minute per transmission.

Formats

Number transmitters transmit in different formats depending on the station.

The so-called preamble (intro), which is usually decisive for the nickname of the station, contains an identification, either for the sender himself or for the recipient. These can be numbers, a phonetic alphabet, code names (e.g. “Charlie India Oscar”, “250 250 250”), characteristic phrases (e.g. “¡Atención!”, “1234567890”) or a piece of music, or one Melody (e.g. "The Lincolnshire Poacher", "Magnetic Fields"). Sometimes, as in the case of the Israeli “Phonetic Alphabet Stations”, a subject or the level of importance of the message is indicated in the preamble (example: “Charlie India Oscar-2” means that there are no new messages). Usually, such preambles are repeated for some time before the actual message follows.

The actual part of the message follows . Most of the stations read out groups of five numbers. This is usually followed by the repetition, either directly after the group ("12344 12344 44567 44567") or at the end of the message ("12344 ... 77679 I repeat 12344 ... 77679"). The digits are pronounced phonetically.

Some stations send more than one message per transmission. In this case, the entire process is repeated until all messages have been transmitted.

At the end of each transmission, the station logs off in a characteristic way. Usually, a variation of the word "Ende" or "Ende der Transmission" is chosen, regardless of the language in which the transmission was carried out (e.g. "End of message", "End of transmission", "Ende", "fini", "Final", "konec"). Some stations, especially those from the former Soviet Union , end with a string of zeros, e.g. B. "000 000"; others end with music or other sounds.

The type of encryption is not known to the public.

classification

In addition to the many nicknames of the number transmitter experts, the ENIGMA 2000 observation group has created its own classification system in order to better summarize the individual number transmitters and their groups. Broken down, these identifiers consist of a letter that refers to the language or type of messages sent and a two-digit serial number:

  • E means the station is broadcasting in English.
  • G means the station broadcasts in German.
  • S means that the station broadcasts in a Slavic language (e.g. Russian).
  • V means that the station transmits in another language (usually Spanish or Arabic).
  • M means the station is sending Morse code .
  • X means the station is sending something completely different, e.g. B. polyphonic tones or unidentifiable noises and tone sequences.

Examples: E03 is the "Lincolnshire Poacher", V02 is the Cuban ¡Atención !, G12 was the presumably Austrian number transmitter NNN.

The "newest" station is the unidentified transmitter E23, which was received in late 2006 and early 2007. X06, also known as Mazielka (X06), has existed since the 1970s in three variants (X06a, X06b and X06c) that send different tone sequences with six fixed pitches (frequencies). These broadcasts usually precede broadcasts of the type CROWD36 , which are supposed to be part of a selective call system of the Russian Foreign Ministry for encrypted messages.

Some stations are also subsequently identified as not being a number sender. This is what happened with E22, which broadcast "This is Mike Hotel 8" every four minutes on the hour. As it turned out, this is a test broadcast from All India Radio .

Transmission technology

Shortwave is usually used as the transmission path, with a transmission power of 10–100 kW.

Amplitude-modulated transmitters with variable frequencies of class “C” are often used. Spectral analyzes also showed that number transmitters use hidden data bursts, RTTY- modulated information carriers and other means of transmission such as polyphonic tones. As an example, during the Cold War , news was broadcast on commercial US radio stations via RTTY. Since there is more and more reports on a second level in the spoken messages (RTTY, data burst, etc.), it is assumed that one transmission is providing several recipients, perhaps even several operations, with information in parallel.

Voice Morse Generator

For spies “behind enemy lines”, spoken transmissions are still best suited, as it is easier and more inconspicuous to carry a shortwave radio with you than high-tech equipment for analyzing transmitted data packets. Embassies, airplanes and ships have very complex and efficient equipment to receive and evaluate such data packets from home. Due to the technical possibilities, these packages can contain photos, documents and other complex reports (see weather fax ).

It is known that as early as the late 1970s, the received digitally sent messages were displayed in modified Sony receivers with liquid crystal displays.


Interference with regular broadcasts

The North Korean propaganda station Voice of Korea started on a frequency of the Lincolnshire Poachers to send 2006; on 11545 kHz. Since the Lincolnshire Poacher usually transmits in parallel on three different frequencies, one cannot speak of a seriously disturbed message. The presumed target area of ​​this number transmitter is the Middle East , not the Far East .

On September 27, 2006 , an amateur broadcast in the 30-meter band was disrupted by the number transmitter E07 “Russian Man” at 17:40 UTC .

A number transmitter of the West German BND with the identification "Hotel Kilo" broadcast on 9450 kHz and collided with Radio Moscow .

The shortwave station Radio Africa , which broadcasts as the Independent Voice of Zimbabwe from Meyerton in South Africa on 4880 kHz, competed with the Mossad station E10 "ULX".

The religious broadcaster WYFR based in Okeechobee , Florida broadcast at the same time as the Cuban number broadcaster "V02" on the frequency 6855 kHz. This happens more often, so this recording is not an isolated incident.

Radio Ukraine International used to use the frequency 9950 kHz in the 31 meter band, so on November 22nd 2007 at 16:10 UTC you could hear the strong Russian number transmitter S06 with a "call up" for "425".

On September 1, 2009, Radio Ukraine International was again massively disrupted on 9950 kHz by the number transmitter S06. The pay station was at times stronger than the radio station on its official frequency.

The station Voice Of Iran, which broadcasts its program on 5930 kHz, is often disturbed by the Russian (German-speaking) number transmitter G06. On April 26, 2018, the shutdown sound of a Windows XP computer could also be heard, which apparently played the numbers.

Jamming attempts

Numbers were and are often the target of jammers , so-called whining .

Examples of jammers:

Pay station in popular culture

music

In 1997 the English label Irdial-Discs released the 4CD set The Conet Project: Recordings of Shortwave Numbers Stations, which can now be legally downloaded.

65daysofstatic , Boards of Canada , Porcupine Tree ("Even Less"), Stereolab ("Transient Random-Noise Bursts With Announcement - Pause"), Wilco , Chroma Key ("Even The Waves" - voice corresponds to the station "Swedish Rhapsody") and We Were Promised Jetpacks ("A Half Built House") used samples from recordings made by numbers in individual songs.

In 2007, the Austrian noise artist Subcarrier released a free download EP based on recordings from broadcasters.

The Boards of Canada group was at times heavily influenced by numbers. Kraftwerk released the song "Numbers" and Boards of Canada released the track "Gyroscope", in which you can hear a distorted recording of E5.

The Canadian artist Derek R. Audette published the instrumental piece Numbers Station , in which you can hear authentic recordings from number transmitters.

The Swedish band Covenant used various samples from number transmitters during their United States of Mind tour in 2000. You can hear this on the live album Synergy .

The Icelandic composer Jóhann Jóhannsson used recordings from number transmitters in his work "Orphée" in 2016.

Movie and TV

In the German film The West Shines! you can see the agent Harald Liebe receiving instructions from the number transmitter of the BND, G16 (“Lima Golf”), and decoding them with a one-time pad.

Cameron Crowe used several such shots in his film Vanilla Sky to create an aura of confusion.

The numbers 4, 8, 15, 16, 23 and 42 are broadcast on the island's numbers TV station on the television series Lost .

In the book and in the film The Longest Day , members of the Resistance listen to BBC London, which transmits seemingly senseless sentences such as "I like Siamese cats" or "John has a long mustache", which are coded messages for D-Day .

In the German television film Der Illegale from 1972, the agent Grunwaldt, played by Götz George , decrypts instructions received via a number transmitter.

In the American action film Boy Soldiers , shot in 1991 , there are three scenes in which a drug smuggler and terrorist who is holed up in a school is listening to a Spanish-Mexican number transmitter.

One episode of the television series Fringe (season 3, episode 6 "6955 kHz") is about numbers. A mysterious signal, which is sent along with the numbers, erases the listener's memories.

In the action thriller Numbers Station , secret messages are transmitted from the CIA to agents using numerical codes. A significant part of the action takes place on a broadcasting station.

The film Förebudet - Sverige under attack , which was produced in 1986 as an educational film for the Swedish military and which deals with the risk of possible acts of sabotage by foreign powers in Swedish territory, contains a scene in which the topic of pay stations was openly addressed at the time: the narrator listens to number transmitters at home and explains that anyone with a good shortwave receiver can hear these mysterious, incomprehensible numerical codes and that these could possibly be orders to agents to carry out hostile acts abroad. A German-language number transmitter can be heard in the scene.

An episode of the action crime series Navy CIS: LA (season 8 episode 20 * From Havana with love *) is about a Cuban numbers transmitter.

Games

In the first person shooter Call of Duty: Black Ops , a number transmitter plays a major role in the plot and the protagonist of the game has to find it in the end.

In the action role-playing game Fallout 3 , transmissions of Morse code on the radio can be received at various points on the map, the origin of which are underground bunkers.

See also

literature

  • Claudia Heissenberg: "Warning: five, two, zero, zero, separation ..." Secret services on the air. Feature. Deutschlandfunk, September 16, 2003. Online version (link on the top of the page leads to the audio version.)
  • Patrick Woods on netzwelt.de: Agent radio - James Bond is in the air . September 2, 2007.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Voice Morse generator "Device 32620". In: German Spy Museum. Accessed June 24, 2020 (German).
  2. ↑ "Original decryption instructions for a German intelligence service" ( Memento from October 10, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ "Original instructions for German and American intelligence services"
  4. ^ The Shortwave And the Calling: For Akin Fernandez, Cryptic Messages Became Music To His Ears . In: The Washington Post . August 3, 2004.
  5. ^ "Photos of Soviet Embassy Antenna Farms" ( Memento of November 24, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  6. ↑ Counting spies. The soundtrack of surveillance is a little girl's voice, broadcast over shortwave, monotonously reciting numbers. September 16, 1999, archived from the original on January 19, 2000 ; accessed on May 22, 2018 (English).
  7. ↑ UTDX WIKI
  8. ↑ Mazielka (X06) according to numbers-stations.com , accessed December 10, 2016
  9. ^ Donald W. Schimmel: The Underground Frequency Guide: A Directory of Unusual, Illegal, and Covert Radio Communications. (3rd ed.) High Text Publications, Inc., Solana Beach, CA 1994, pp. 27-28.
  10. ↑ Barry W. Collins, W4TLV: The day the US Army invaded W4TLV. QST , pp. 48-49 (July 1997)
  11. ^ Fifteenth edition of the N&O column / Spooks newsletter: Voice stations: Hans-Friedrich's monthly G04 analysis.
  12. ↑ The Voice of Korea in early 06 changed one of its frequencies to 11545 kHz ( Memento from June 20, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  13. ↑ E7 Russian man interferes with legitimate radio amateur Morse transmissions on 10116 kHz ( Memento from July 17, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  14. ↑ - ( Memento of September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) ( WMA ; 169 kB)
  15. ↑ - ( Memento from September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) ( WMA ; 165 kB)
  16. ↑ - ( Memento of February 27, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) ( WMV ; 4.4 MB)
  17. ↑ - ( Memento of February 27, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) ( WMV ; 5.1 MB)
  18. ↑ - ( Memento from February 27, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) ( WMV ; 47.5 MB)
  19. ↑ Video on YouTube (recording)
  20. ↑ [1]
  21. ↑ - ( Memento of March 8, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) ( WMA ; 362 kB)
  22. ↑ PDF at www.iarums-r1.org
  23. ↑ - ( Memento of September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) ( WMA ; 307 kB)
  24. ↑ - ( Memento of September 27, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) ( WMA ; 453 kB)
  25. ^ The Conet Project. Retrieved May 22, 2018 .
  26. ↑ [2]
  27. ↑ This track also features strange, sampled female voice loops captured from 'spy / espionage' numbers station shortwave radio broadcasts
  28. ^ Jóhann Jóhannsson: Orphée , catalog of Deutsche Grammophon . The piece "A Song for Europe" from this composition was published on youtube . See also Derek Robertson: Jóhann Jóhannsson's Track By Track Guide to Orphée ( en ). All sources accessed December 20, 2019.
  29. ↑ Movie "Der Westen lit" (Germany, 1981/82) broadcasted (again) in the German TV channel ZDF at 10 November 2005 0000-0145 UTC ( Memento from November 24, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) ()
  30. ↑ The illegal one. Number transmitter ZDF 1971 shortwave. In: youtube.com. Retrieved March 13, 2015 .
  31. ^ The Number Station in the English-language Internet Movie Database
  32. ↑ Förebudet - Sverige under attack. In: youtube.com. July 31, 2012, accessed March 29, 2015 (Swedish).