( Continued from page 37)
VO - 141, 283, 507
VB-088, 415, 697
ZP -505, 125, 703
AB-804, 299, 531
GC-082, 808, 334
FS-099, 361, 816
FB-009, 382, 653, 361
BJ - 358, 591, 152, 879
DF-281, 718
HK-393, 621
WP- 989, 716
NZ-202, 649, 955
RO-941, 098, 660
LD - 482, 677, 146
JD - 534,
HS - 639,
RK- 104,702 (English)
MN - 628
AO 142, 113
DB-038, 329, 848
FP- 081
CD -059
CI**444, 555, 666,
XL-381, 427, 610
JU-271, 667, 499
EG-472, 795, 267
GZ-628, 803, 285
MH-013, 255, 604
DO -167 (English)
QL-410, 028
NU - 264 599 368
JW-521, 081,123
WL- 115, 522, 026
OK-319, 617, 812
JO - unknown
UG - unknown
PJ - unknown
DT - 809, 015, 503

All traffic for this identifier starts with either a 1 or a 0, e.g. 01222, 19988. This applies to 884 only, the others use random five figures.


** CI seems to have been a test broadcast. Its distinctive identifiers point to this and it was heard only once, during the changeover to voice machine.
There are, strangely enough, one or two English language versions of these stations. Those noted so far are "Romeo Kilo", "Juliet Oscar" and "Delta Oscar". The woman announcer on these says "Message for 167, 167 88 groups. Attention!", and then goes into the five figure message. The English variant, apart from being very seldom heard (at least in Europe), is unusually faint and distant-sounding, as though the transmitter site is not on the European continent. The woman's voice has an oriental accent, not German at all. This may suggest that the activities of the organisation behind this station have a world-wide involvement. My own theory is this: DFC37 and DFD21 are aimed at personnel in Western Europe. The times of the broadcasts (afternoons and evenings in Europe), the frequencies used (3370 and 4010) and the large number of addresses seem to back this up. These signals are not readily heard outside of Europe so this would seem to be the case. The traffic is fairly substantial; each addressee has between 20 and 50 five figure groups in each message.

Papa November would seem to be a general alert broadcast. The low five figure group counts (2 to 20) mean little information can be sent to the agent. The message would seem to be on the nature of "Pick up a message at (place)" or "Tune into a broadcast at..." The real information would be sent by all the other two letter stations world-wide as their group counts are always about 100 groups in total.
 
The suggestion of a world-wide operation is backed up by the frequencies used. 19295 at 1400 is not a combination meant to be heard in Europe. Also, certain stations never appear below about 10 MHz, while others keep below 10 MHz. This would suggest that "Bravo Uniform", for example, which never appears below 10 MHz is meant for agents outside Europe. Similarly, Yankee Sierra", which never broadcasts above 8 MHz, is meant for agents closer to Europe.

The 2 letter stations have been heard at every hour and half hour during the 24 hours in a day. The vast majority broadcast between 1800-2000, suggesting that the recipients of the messages are located mainly in Europe.

THE "STRICH"
This station may be the most pointless waste of time in the history of radio. Quite a claim, but when one considers the mind-numbing banality of these transmissions it would be difficult to think of other candidates for such an award. The station, like many others, is multilingual - in this case, Russian, English and German.
When I first heard the German version I couldn't believe my ears! The woman used has an impossibly high pitched voice, almost like the yapping of a small dog. The voice was repeating "acht ,acht, drie, strich, zero, zero" The word "strich" is German for the / stroke sign. After five minutes the voice stopped. No traffic followed and in the years since then no traffic has ever been heard-just s women repeating 883/00 for five minutes and then off the air. Later on, more German stations appeared-317/00 117/00 493/00 and 897/00 , all with the same format. No traffic was ever sent.

Then an English version using the same female voice popped up. This 00, time the voice repeated "Two, eight, eight, oblique, zero, zero" and left the air after five minutes. Then a Morse code (CW) version appeared repeating 971/00. Again, no traffic was sent. Then on 4370 kHz one Wednesday evening at 2300 the familiar woman's voice was repeating something like "jezinta, osem, sedni, presta, dvonta, sedm" (or 187/27). And, miracle of miracles, 27 five figure groups were sent. The language was hard to determine but it seem to be a form of Russian specially adapted for radio (akin to English operators saying "fower" (4) and niner (9). The 1 to 0 figures seemed to break down as:
 
0= zero 1= jezinta 2= dvonta 3=trunta 4=czdiri 5= peyonta 6=sesh7=sedm 8= osem 9= prunka

This was the only time that I heard traffic being passed, in any language. The frequencies and times for this station are:
3247 at 2000, 2300
3823 at 2000, 2100
4015 at 2100
4090 at 2100
4370 at 2300
4540 at 0600, 2100
4723 at 2300
4780 at 2000
5090 at 2000
5500 at 1700, 1800, 2000, 2100
5550 at 2000
5624 at 2100
5830 at 2100

A mistake in one of these transmissions was noted on 4015 at 2100. The German voice was repeating "75-100". The third digit was obscured by a sound like some-one keying a mike over that figure. After three minutes the fault was noticed and the voice then said "751/00" until five past the hour when, of course, it went off the air.
A Russian broadcast similar to the previous station and using altered numbers was noticed one night at 0000. An unfamiliar voice was heard on 7537 - a woman repeating "Edna, sednitzer, nula" very, very slowly. At 0005 the voice said "Norm 162, Gruppi 22" and then sent 22 five figure groups, ending with "nula, nula, nula". The number breakdown seemed to be:

0=nula 1=edna 2=dvoytze 3=tri 4=chetryi 5=pedartze 6=sest 7=sednitzer 8=asem 9=devet
Again, this was either enhanced Russian or another Slavic language.
Early the next morning I continued the hunt. On 10180 I noticed exactly the same voice I'd heard a few hours earlier, repeating the same numbers. Again, the transmission ended with "0,0,0". Since then the same station has been noted on 5580 at 2230, 6750 at 2200 and 5668 at 1930. The format has remained the same; e.g.
repeating "121" for five minutes, then "norma 69, gruppi 13" and always ending with
"0,0,0".

BULGARIAN BETTY

The nickname of this station, which only went off the air in December, 1990, was given to it by various American numbers station monitors. In fact, because of its all night broadcasting schedule, it became a regular logging for listeners in the United States. The language used was variously described as Russian, Polish, Bulgarian, Serbo-Croat and - on a Radio Netherlands report, even Macedonian. The interval signal used was a five note rising scale tune which was followed by the group headings. The messages were sent in the five figure format. It was a very monotonous and boring transmission, even as numbers stations go. At the end of its life it was using two frequencies: 4030 and 4882.5, not in parallel. However, these transmissions were sent at various times between 1600 and 0600. Other frequencies noted during Betty's career were 2805 (unusually low), 3225, 4006, 5157, 5247, 5445, 5860 and 7740. Betty is gone now, but not forgotten.
 

READY, READY

This English language station would appear to be part of the same set-up as the Czech "drums and trumpet" station in that the main frequencies used are exactly the same: 4740 and 6675. The woman announcer tries very hard to sound British but unfortunately the letter "R" in "four" is rolled far too much to sound convincing. The broadcasts start with the woman repeating a five figure identifier. An unusual feature of these identifiers is that they seem to be related.                                                                                                                                                    See how many of them are similar in the list below:

10491 36511 35702 62794 43101 43473 69421 62467 10361
62683 62453 62378 17682 70100 17462 45690 17399 45260
43381 15181 04397 15521 43470 15371 40690 32684 43181 32831 15431

 
After the five figure identifier has been repeated for five minutes, the woman says the group count ("22, 22") then, "Ready, Ready" and goes into the five figure groups.
'Times and frequencies noted so far:

4740 - 2000, 2100, 2200
5695 - 2200
6515 - 2200
6655 - 2100
6675 - 2100, 2200 6935 - 2200
8070 - 2200, 2100
( Continued on page 39)