Over the past week a lot has happened with the Priyom chat.
First, we have decided to extend to Discord, and created our own server
there where you can join us and chat: if that's what you'd like,
simply follow this invitation.
This is just an extension, not a move: our Discord server is
bridged with our IRC channel, so it's the same chat, and not an
alternative or a replacement. You don't have to leave IRC
and get on Discord if you don't want to, you can keep
using our IRC chat like curren...
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Recently, we were approached in our chat by the
author of a new blog
about the origins of the ancient numbers station G01, also known as the
Tyrolean Music Station. It stopped transmitting in 1975, but
decades ago back when it was still active, this station used to
broadcast, as its name indicates, Tyrolean music and yodeling,
along with numbers and occasionally, something rather unique, even
coded sentences; listen to a recording of it from The Conet
Project here.
Investigating past number...
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At the turn of the new year it is not uncommon to see numbers
stations schedules, that haven't sent any actual message in a long
while, get definitely retired for the occasion and stop
transmitting altogether. This year again, 2020 brought us its
number of inactive schedules that were taken permanently off the
air: two G06 and two M14 ones, and what's
peculiar about them, is that they were all transmitted from the
same somewhat infamous communication hub located somewhere around
Smolen...
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V07 is a present-day
glimpse back to past times when big numbers station families,
featuring many variants in different European languages, could be
heard on the air: German, Spanish, French, Polish, and even
Hungarian or Bulgarian. Nowadays, apart from Cuban intelligence
unsurprisingly using Spanish like in HM01, the only two remnants of those times are G06 in German, and one
single schedule of the Spanish-language V07.
The last numbers station variant using Spanish: that in itself
gives V...
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Have a listen:
Maybe you have heard this before. It is a sample recording of
the rather common DPRK-ARQ modem, providing diplomatic
communications on shortwave between North Korea and its embassy
network. But one thing we didn't imagine when we started looking
into this modem, was just how much prolific this North Korean
diplomatic network was.
Since the reactivation
of V15 in June 2016, North Korea is back in the numbers station
world. Probably spurred by the escalating international t...
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This is the second part of a previous blog
post on the worldwide KiwiSDR receiver network, make sure to
check it out if you haven't!
When tuning through the radio bands and coming across a
mysterious signal, the same questions often come to mind... What is
it? What does it mean? Actually, can this cryptic signal even carry
any meaning? What is its purpose?... We've all had this feeling. In
the case of numbers stations, we have to resolve to giving up on
deciphering the messages, but...
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If you're already familiar with the KiwiSDR project, you can
check out our new receiver
map and scroll down to read what else the Priyom team is doing
with it!
For many including myself, discovering and listening to numbers
stations live was only possible thanks to the University of Twente
WebSDR. I think it's fair to say that it has been such a unique
and successful receiver, it was a major milestone and became a
staple of shortwave listening.
Over the past year, a new generation ...
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You probably have heard about North Korea reactivating its
number station broadcasts not very long ago. Well, we're glad to
anounce that V15 now transmits on FM!
On December 21st, 2016, North Korea decided to change some
frequencies from their main broadcast stations. This includes Echo
of Hope and Radio Pyongyang, among others. In the case of Radio
Pyongyang, they dropped three MW frequencies (684, 729 and 1080
khz), and they started to broadcast on FM! And not only on one
frequency, but f...
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This June North Korea has resumed its Number Station broadcasts
on Radio Pyongyang. The station V15 has been defunct since 2001,
but it has been reactivated!
There has been a change in operation habits, scheduling and
format.
At the start time, they play a piece of music that varies by the
agent number. Then they send the message for the agent number. The
messages are now read as this: "Page <1-999>, Number
<1-100>".
The station still uses the same frequencies as regular...
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On Thursday 24th of September S28 has transmitted famous Mark
Bernes song "Zhuravli" (Cranes). This song is about WWII soldiers
and says
"It seems to me sometimes that our soldiers
Who were not to return from fields of gore
Did not one day lie down into our land
But turned into a skein (wedge) of white
cranes..."
Purpose of this transmisson is suspected to be test of the relay
line. Recording of the transmission can be found in our Buzzer log
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