priyom.org

Priyom pinpoints V07 transmissions to Khabarovsk

26 October 2018

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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Priyom reverse-engineers North Korean DPRK-ARQ diplomatic modem

01 February 2018

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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KiwiSDR: locating numbers stations and field agents

25 July 2017

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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KiwiSDR: tuning into new numbers stations

26 May 2017

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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Number stations reach FM

07 January 2017

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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Radio Pyongyang resumes its Numbers broadcasts

30 October 2016

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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Mark Bernes Song on Buzzer

25 September 2015

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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Buzzer is not transmitted from Kerro anymore, new military marker on 4525 USB

09 August 2015

The Russian military network The Buzzer on 4625 kHz is not transmitted from the Kerro transmitter site ("Irtysh") anymore. It seems that the Russians are reverting to their old structure, when the frequency 4625 kHz was only used for the Moscow Military District. At present, The Buzzer appears to be broadcast only from the 69th Communication Hub in Naro Fominsk. A new military marker, similar to The Buzzer, The Pip, The Squeaky Wheel and S5292, was discovered on the frequency 4525 kHz,...

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Squeeky wheel S32 new (test?) day frequency

24 April 2015

Priyom found a new frequency for the famous Russian circular military network The Squeaky Wheel. It is 7009 kHz and operates in parallel to network's normal day frequency, 5473 kHz. You can enjoy it here.

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Buzzer adopts night frequency

24 February 2015

THIS FREQUENCY WAS TEMPORARY AND IS NOW NO LONGER IN USE   It hasn't been long since Russian military added a channel marker (B Marker mentioned in last blog post) to a channel - which sends monolith messages just like Buzzer, Pip, Wheel and so on - using frequency 5292kHz. It looks like the Western & Central military districts at least are undergoing some changes and/or upgrades, for the past few days the Buzzer has been also sending continuously on 3216kHz as well as its regular...

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