V28 "The Parrot" is a North Korean station, which was first heard in November 2015. The prevailing hypothesis is that it is a military station, although this is unconfirmed.^[1] V28 transmits twice a day, in the local morning and evening, on randomly variable frequencies. The transmissions' contents are spoken by live operators in Korean.

V28's transmissions are characterized by rather poor quality. Transmitters are affected by poor frequency stability, drift and distorted audio. Operations are generally subpar too, with approximate transmission times, mid-transmission moves to nearby frequencies, ambient background sounds and operator changes during the transmission. Transmission power is apparently pretty low, and coupled with the frequency choices, V28 cannot be properly received beyond South Korea or Japan.

V28 sometimes operates several independent transmissions in parallel at the same time, with different contents and operators. It appears to have a related Morse counterpart station, sent as AM audio from the same transmitters, which is more sporadically heard.

Recording of Morse counterpart transmission

Historical scheduling

V28 was observed to use different transmission times in the past. In 2015, it was logged around 13:30 UTC, often on 3277 kHz. Then it would transmit around 11:30 UTC, with a reported frequency range between 2900 and 3100 kHz, and around 22:30 UTC, between 4494 and 5168 kHz. Around 2017, it would transmit around 09:00 and 21:00 UTC, with 3030 - 3080 kHz, 3505 kHz, 4480 - 4500 kHz, and 5230 - 5280 kHz reported as most often used frequency ranges.^[4] In early 2025, V28 was regularly active at 21:00 UTC around 3050 kHz.

References

1. Cold War Communications: The Two Koreas Resume Coded Radio Broadcasts - 38 North
2. Numbers stations - North Korea - The Parrot - Namu Wiki
3. Scheduling and format information - Reddit - /r/numberstations
4. V28 - The Parrot North Korean Numbers Station - NSRIC
5. Recording by HLKA FM
6. Recording by Now On The Radio
7. Recording by Beomsoo Kim