Numbers station - XPA polytone short message

You wait a bit longer for an XPA polytone station and you get a message. Recorded at 6842 khz.

Not a very clear recording and, unfortunately, E10 is broadcasting on the adjacent frequency of 6840 khz. In fact at 1.40 you can just about hear the word 'kilo'. It gets very crowded in spy HF land.

The header takes up most of this recording, but skip to 1.30 to shorten the trip.

XPA is believed to be Russian, and transmits tones that can be decoded to numbers, which can in turn be decoded to a 'plaintext' message.

For those who are confused as to what a numbers station is, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_station

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• numbers
• station
• radio
• shortwave
• espionage
• spy
• code
• cryptography
• intelligence

[928GTSR]

Question,do you have any websites that have frequency lists for these numbers stations or it just stumbling across the signals? I've found quite a few reference sites but I was wondering if there are any I might be missing.

Great videos by the way,well done!

[LCduT]

I just stumble, but there are frequency lists. Enigma2000 is a Yahoo group devoted to this stuff, and they produce a bi-monthly newsletter. But even then it's a drop in the ocean as to what is out there.

Amusingly, I think the ITU also monitor the airwaves, and produce a report of all stations they catch too.

[russiansrcreepy]

This was very, very creepy. Thanks for the information & video :)

[LCduT]

Caught it again tonight (Tuesday) at 2100 UTC, frequency 5424 khz AM. Presumably this frequency will stay fixed throughout January on a weekly basis. Anyone in Europe should definitely try and tune in.

[SPLATdangerTHEspazz]

I'm sitting here listening to this going o___o" ehhehehe.... SHIT! I woke people up cause of the beeping noises! its like an oversea horror flick's opening music.

[LCduT]

Sorry but please look up 'one time pad'.

For polytones a computer is only necessary to turn the tones into numbers. The rest is done by one time pad. A computer can do the dog work of matching a pad to a cryptotext, but it won't help you crack it without the pad.

[Letsgoherd3008]

yes but they know what they are cracking the us government says that a home computer processor would take million years to crack a code but their supercomputers take three seconds.

[LCduT]

Very briefly - yes, numbers stations are believed to be for spies, as they can be received intercontinentally without trace. The recipient has a 'one-time pad' codebook to decipher the message. This station (XPA) uses tones but with home equipment (a PC) the numbers can be extracted and then decoded as usual.

[alexma63]

Dude thats extremely creepy... Can you give me a short explanation of a number station? I checked wiki, but I am still unclear. Is this for Russian spys? way creepy.

[CapnSONiC]

Nice catch!!

PS: DEGEN DE1103 :P