Montes maintained contact with her Cuban handlers by calling pagers from pay phones and punching in coded numerical messages. FBI agents served a search warrant on Montes' apartment in Washington and recovered a laptop computer with 11 pages of material. The interesting part for us spy numbers monitors is, part of the text were instructions on shortwave radio reception and included references to "the numbers that you receive via radio." The text consisted of 150 sets of numerical groups. The text begins with 30107 24624. The FBI was able to determine that the number messages match exactly number broadcasts monitored on 7887 kHz AM, on February 6, 1999. According to the complaint filed by the FBI, the broadcast was of a woman speaking Spanish and began with the words "Atencion." We all know this station as the Cuban V2 station.

In a previous column some time back, I mentioned that we numbers monitors never have any hard, factual evidence to prove that numbers stations are actually used by intelligence agencies to send messages to spies. Now it looks as if we have the "smoking gun" to prove that we actually know what we're talking about. The complaint stated that the technique of receiving coded data over shortwave radio is common with Cuban intelligence, and is the same method that 10 convicted Cuban spies arrested in Miami used to communicate with their handlers. It's presumed, but not stated in the complaint for obvious reasons, that other intelligence agencies use the same means of communications.

Personally, I'm glad to see this little tidbit of information come to light. In the past, there was rampant speculation as to what numbers stations are really used for. Theories ranged from international banking communications, reporting snowfall amounts in the Alps, to even secret government communications with UFO's. Now, any time someone raises doubts, all we have to do is point to this. But, of course, don't think you'll convince any UFO enthusiasts otherwise.

For the longest time, probably not long after the birth of radio, a need for communications security was realized. One of the first and most enduring methods used to encode messages is by using either number or letter code groups. The German Enigma machine was invented in the 1920's and encoded text into five-letter groups. I don't know of any earlier uses of code groups for encryption, but I'm sure some methods were probably in use.

The upshot of all this is, letter or number code groups are an effective means of passing secure information. Different methods of encoding have been used with varying levels of success against cryptanalysis efforts, but the same method of transmission has essentially remained the same. And the same method will probably be used long into the future, barring any new, revolutionary breakthroughs in secure communications. So until any country's version of "Q" develops a wristwatch communications device, the real James Bonds out there will still rely on shortwave radio.