Cuban Spy Numbers Station (HM01) On 11635 khz

While doing some shortwave listening on my back porch in Fort Worth,
TX recently (5/10/15), I came upon the well-known HM01 spy numbers
station from Cuba. This time I caught it on 11635 khz, at exactly 1800 UTC.
Signal quality was very good, but you can hear from yourself in the video
below. I listened on a Tecsun PL-380 with a 25-ft wire antenna, with cloudy/
rainy conditions.

Shortwave Logs From Fort Worth, TX for 02/15/15

Country in brackets is the transmitter site and not  necessarily the 
country of origin, unless specified.  If two countries are in brackets, 
first one is transmitter site. After that, the date, time and frequency
in kHz is listed. All times in UTC and all stations heard on TECSUN 
PL-380 portable in Fort Worth, Texas, USA, with 25 foot reel wire 
antenna, on a first floor, unless otherwise noted.

[RWANDA/GERMANY] 02/15/15, 1828, 17800 khz -- Deutsche Welle
from Kigali, Rwanda, in Hausa language. Two males talk on unknown
subject. Decent signal for daytime, considering this is coming from 
East Africa. Listened for about five minutes. SINPO 33233.

[USA] 02/15/15, 1842, 15610 khz -- EWTN (Catholic) Radio transmitting
from Vandiver, Alabama. "Vatican Insider" program with female announ-
cer. Strong, clear signal with a little noise, as typical for this frequency. 
SINPO 44344

[CUBA] 02/15/15, 1845, 11635 -- Atencion Cuba spy station with short
set of numbers being read in Spanish by female ("tres, dos, ocho, 
siete, siete"), followed by data-like sounds for several seconds, then
more numbers, and so on. SINPO 45454, good signal. It seems like
Cuban spy activity hasn't slowed down since the beginning of thawed
relations with the US.

[USA] 02/15/15, 1858, 15825 -- Religious talk by male, then station ID
and new show at top of hour (Dr. James Blank [sp?]). Male prays while
female translates into Spanish. SINPO 44344. 

More Cuban Spy Numbers...Now With Data!

One recent afternoon (April 2nd, around 2330 UTC), I was
sitting on my second floor patio, and scanning the shortwave
bands on my Tecsun PL-380, with a 15 foot wire attached to
the whip antenna. I came upon what sounded like the usual
Cuban spy numbers, but this time on 17540 khz, where I don't
normally hear them, certainly not at this hour. No big deal,
as I hear presumed cuban numbers stations all the time, but
this time there were less numbers being read, and the sets of
numbers were interrupted by data bursts/modem sounds. This
was actually not the first time I've come across these voice/
data spy transmissions, but I'll admit I only started hearing
these particular ones within the last 3-4 weeks. This time, I
decided to finally get off my ass and make a recording. Click
below to listen and/or download.

https://www.box.com/s/ueptz8b3gx9ov1p9dxze

SW Logs from February 2013, from Euless, TX

Country in brackets is the transmitter site and not
necessarily the country of origin, unless specified.  If
two countries are in brackets, first one is transmitter
site. After that, the date, time and frequency in kHz is
listed. All times in UTC and all stations heard on
TECSUN PL-380 portable in  Euless, Texas, USA,
with a 6 foot wire antenna, on a second floor, unless
otherwise noted.

[ROMANIA] 02-02-13, 0435, 6130 -- Radio
Romania International in English. Female reads
listener mail. Good signal, SINPO 44344. Per
Aoki, 300 kw from Galbeni, Romania.

[INDIA] 02-02-13, 2148, 9445 -- All India Radio
from Bengaluru at 500 kw. Lots of what was
presumably ambient noise, but still very readable.
Indian/South Asian music, SINPO 33222. First
time ever hearing AIR here in Texas! And the last,
for all I know.

[USA] 02-02-13, 2202, 8420 -- WLO, port beacon
in coastal Mobile, Alabama. Heard beeps/data bursts
and could've sworn I heard morse code. A brief
Google search directed me towards some message board
posts, one of them stating that WLO provides "coastal
radio station ship to shore communications", and that
the actual frequency is supposed to be 8421 khz.
SINPO 34233.

[CUBA] 02-03-13, 0943, 9240 -- Cuban numbers
station. YL reads number sequences followed by
data bursts. Abruptly off at 0946, although open
carrier remained. 54455.

[SPAIN] 02-13-13, 0250, 9535 -- Radio Exterior de
Espana, 350 kw from Noblejas. Male talk in Spanish,
then female with literary segment. Started ok, but
deteriorated to SINPO 34222.

[VATICAN] 02-14-13,  0449, 7315 -- Radio Dabanga
in Arabic/Sudanese, directed to Darfur. Transmitted
from Santa Maria di Galera, 250 kw. Two males
talking, then only one male. SINPO 44444, very good
signal.

[TUNISIA] 02-14-13, 0452, 7275 -- RTV Tunisia, 500
kw from Sfax. Another first time DX for me! Arabic per
Aoki. Middle Eastern sounding music, SINPO 34333.
Pretty sure these guys don't QSL, but I might try
anyway.

[ASCENCION ISLAND/UK] 02-14-13, 0455, 7255 --
BBC in English from the Ascension transmitter in
the Atlantic, 250 kw. Weak but readable, SINPO 24112.
Heard male and female announcers.

[FRENCH GUIANA/VIETNAM] 02-14-13, 0457,
6175 -- Voice of Vietnam in Vietnamese from Montsinery,
French Guiana at  500 kw. Male announcer, SINPO
44555.

[USA] 02-14-13, 0500, 6030 -- Radio Marti in Spanish
from Greenville, SC at 250 kw, directed towards Cuba.
Sounded like it may have been subject to jamming. Male
reads US government editorial. SINPO 32222, bad.

[NEW ZEALAND] 02-14-13, 0432, 15720 -- Radio New
Zealand International from Rangitaiki @ 50 kw (?!) per
Aoki. Male reads sports news, SINPO 33333.

[UNIDENTIFIED] 02-21-13, 0305, 21895 -- Male talks
in what sounds like Portuguese, SINPO 32222, deteriorates
to 22111 around 0313z. Brazillian radio? Pirate?

[USA/TAIWAN] 02-25-13, 0105, 11565 -- Radio Taiwan
International, 100 kw from Okechobee, Florida. Male
reads news in Spanish. SINPO 34233.

 

Shortwave Logs for January, 2013

Country in brackets is the transmitter site and not
necessarily the country of origin, unless specified.
If two countries are in brackets, first one is
transmitter site. After that, the date, time and
frequency in kHz is listed. All times in UTC and
all stations heard on TECSUN PL-380 portable in
Euless, Texas, USA, with 25 foot reel wire antenna,
on a second floor, unless otherwise noted.

[MOLDOVA] 01-10-13, 0035, 7290 -- Voice of
Russia in English from Kishinev-Grigoriopol  at
500 kw, per Aoki. Male announcer, technology and
business news. SINPO 44233, lots of ambient noise.

[GREEECE] 01-12-13, 2220, 9420 -- Voice of
Greece is sometimes barely audible on this frequency,
but reception was slightly better this night. Music and
greek talk by two males. SINPO 34333. Great station
for music when it comes in decently.

[USA] 01-12-13, 2225, 15440 -- Radio Taiwan Inter-
national in English, from Okechobee, Florida. Female
interviews male (about food?), followed by the segment
"Classic Shorts". SINPO 54555, excellent reception.

[CUBA] 01-27-13, 0730, 9330 -- Cuba's "Atencion"
spy numbers station, this time on a frequency which I
don't recall hearing it on before. Aoki lists nothing here
at this time. Female voice reads strings of numbers,
interspersed with data/modem type sounds. SINPO
32333. Listened until 0738. Would've made a recording,
but I'm laaaaazy.

[BRAZIL] 01-28-13, 0037, 11780 -- Radio Nacional
de Amazonia in Portuguese. Caught the end of the song
"Black Sabbath" by the band of the same name, followed
by male announcer saying "memorias musicales", then more
music, not rock this time. SINPO 33233.


COMMENTS: Not a very active month for logging stations
for me, mostly due to me doing most of my DXing outside
and not being a huge fan of the cold. Nothing new or
terribly interesting this month, no new or weird stations.
I'm still hearing Canada's CHU time station on 3330 khz
regularly, although very weak. Radio Habana Cuba still
strong all over, still listening to them almost daily on
5040, 6165 and 11760 khz.

¡Atención! A Cuban spy station

For decades, shortwave radio has been used to transmit coded
messages to spies or other covert operatives. Stations that are
dedicated to this are usually referred to as "numbers stations".
The station will broadcast a voice, sometimes automated, some-
times live, that will read a sequence of numbers. The voices can
be female, male or even children, and the transmissions are
often capped by a distinctive tune, tone, word(s) or song.

The idea is that the person receiving the broadcast will write down
the numbers, and decode the message using a one-time pad.
These days, one of the few entities still operating numbers stations
is the communist government of Cuba. Their station at 5898 kHz is
usually referred to by listeners and dx'ers as "¡Atención!". I
was recently able to hear it and record it, late on a Saturday night.
Well, more like Sunday morning. It was past 2AM central time.
(July 22nd, 2012)

Click below to listen to a couple of recordings from that night.
CREEPY!

Click on the links below to hear or download the mp3 files.


https://www.box.com/s/48d55ab6c74eb663cf1f

https://www.box.com/s/d5fabdf98bad41e405a1