This month I have some interesting activity to report. On July 13th at 0026 UTC, I found the frequency of 8157 to be active with a YL/SS in AM sending a few numbers. It wasn't the usual Cuban V2 or even CIA V5 version of the counting stations, but the Spanish-language version of the "Russian Man" family, the "Spanish Lady" or V6. She repeated a few numbers and then stopped. At 0030, on came the "English Man" or E6. He repeated 989 several times and eventually went into a 261 261 50 50 preamble, followed by several 5F numbers. However, instead of finishing the message, he stopped in the middle of it. Eventually he came back on the air and repeated the callup for a few minutes, then began the message again. Once again, he stopped in the middle of the message. He came back on with the callup, then went into 5F numbers and ended the message, signing down with 0000 instead of the usual five zeros. This happened numerous times until the station finally left the air sometime after 0100 UTC, signing down with the normal five zeros.

I thought the callup sounded familiar, so I checked my logs for the freq 8157. Sure enough, I remembered hearing the "English Woman," or E17, doing this before, and found it logged on September 19, 1997 at 0340. She kept repeating the 989 callup and starting & stopping the message before finally signing down with 0000, not the normal five zeros as is the norm for this station.

I'm firmly convinced that both these transmissions were some sort of test transmissions. The "Russian Man" family of stations, run by Russian intelligence, are normally high-quality transmissions. Technical difficulties are rare. Plus, with the YL/SS version of the voice on freq before the "English Man" signed on shows that they were probably running a few numbers through the system to test it out before broadcasting real messages on other frequencies. The callup of 989 may be an indicator of a test transmission. 8157 will be a good freq to keep an ear to for this kind of activity.

It should be noted that this family of numbers stations uses computer-generated numbers for its broadcasts, not tape. When I was listening to the OM/EE transmission, I noticed that there wasn't enough time to rewind any kind of tape between stops/starts.

Al Fansome sends along his views on a book recently out called "The Code Book." Here are his observations in his own words: "This book is billed as 'The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography', and I think it fills the bill pretty well. It presents the progression of cryptography as a battle between codemakers and codebreakers, from ancient times through the present. It presents simple codes of the ancients, proceeds through a good description of the codebreaking triumphs of WWII against the Enigma, and finishes with a very readable description of modern advances such as public-key codes and quantum cryptography. The math is kept to a minimum, and the codes are explained simply and clearly. This is a good book, and would be a good introduction to anyone interested in the history of secrecy."

I personally have seen this book in my local bookstore but so far haven't purchased a copy of it. But thumbing through it looks like it will be a good read for anyone interested in cryptography.

Read a good book on cryptography, signals intelligence, or secret radio in general? Let me know what you think of it, and I'll include your comments in a future column.

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws

1