Numbers Station - E6 - nightly call for agent 206

Nothing spectacular about this - a null message: '206 206 206 00000'. But it has been broadcast every night I've checked - right up to tonight - 19 December 2008 (the recording was made on 14 December). Same frequency and time every night (see below). I assume it can be heard all over Western Europe.

Each time I've checked it has been a null message. This suggests whoever the recipient is (let's call him/her Agent 206), they must have to check almost every night, and is expected to respond to time-critical instructions, if and when they arise. This is just a supposition though.

Details: 4553 khz, 2100 UTC. The ENIGMA2000 monitoring group call this station E6 ('The English Man'), and it is believed to be Russian in origin. For those who are confused as to what a numbers station is, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_station

Update: 2/1/09 - this schedule has now changed (a common occurence for this family of stations) and is (currently) no longer at the above time and frequency. [But see further updates in the comments below the video.]

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• numbers
• station
• radio
• shortwave
• espionage
• spy
• code
• cryptography
• intelligence
• e6
• russian
• man
• mystery
• sleeper
• illegals

[anisocoro]

Has somebody ever tried to do a "fake transmission" on one of these Number-Stations? I know it could be an irresponsable act, but someone could consider it as a funny joke to spend him time

[LCduT]

@anisocoro There have been a number (if you'll pardon the pun). Mostly just hams having fun. Search 'wir rufen krokodil' for a German example. Plus there was reportedly once a station which spoofed popular/nutty shortwave preacher, Ralph Stair, using his voice to count the numbers.

[himrawkz]

where do i get equipment to listen to this kind of broadcast live?

[LCduT]

@himrawkz - anywhere you can get a shortwave radio. eBay, Maplin/Radio Shack-type place. But patience/specific information is required too.

[LCduT]

Now on 4477 khz - 2100 UTC (confirmed 15/10/09)

[toxicwar]

can someone tell me what this is mostly used for?

[LCduT]

Communicating with spies. I never thought I would ever write that down seriously, but I and others have eliminated the other possibilities, and am 99% sure.

And this null broadcast is still (27/4/09) on 5229 khz, nightly at 2100 UTC, audible in Western Europe (seems to be getting more power to counter the interference).

[graycloud057]

the code broken down says "send some Marlboro cigarettes and bottle of Jack Daniels"

[adrn25m]

Is it still being broadcast?

Any changes?

[Stoub]

I don't think it's too paranoid to assume that it's a espionage tactic. After all there are papers and governments who acknowledge having done activities of such caliber, and the U.S. government has accused spies of using numbers stations as well. Does that mean anything in certainty? Almost, but not quite I suppose. I would say I'm 95% sure it's an espionage tactic with enigma coding of the sort.

[toxicwar]

spies.?