Technology
PUBLISHED
Priyom, a group of ham radio enthusiasts dedicated to tracking down and listening to mysterious "numbers stations" around the world, says that it has intercepted a new broadcast that has been active every day since the beginning of the US/Israel attack on Iran.
The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.First up, what are numbers stations? Imagine yourself flipping through various frequencies on a ham radio, when, amongst the static, you hear a phrase or a tone or tune, followed by a baffling string of seemingly unrelated numbers. In some cases, it can be weirder and around 20 percent more sinister, with one infamous broadcast beginning with cartoon character Yosemite Sam saying "Varmint, I'm a-gonna b-b-b-bloooow ya ta'smithereenies".
This isn't some story with a mundane explanation, and these stations are generally believed to be used by nations to send coded messages to spies out there in the field, and in some cases, this hypothesis has been confirmed.
You might think that in this era of communication, such a system would be unnecessary, but it does have its advantages. The main one is that, whilst the enemy may quickly pinpoint where the signal is coming from, it is near-impossible to identify who the message is intended for, with suspects including anyone with access to a radio.
A significant disadvantage comes when the enemy intercepts your cipher, as Cuba discovered when the FBI did just this, and continued to listen to the messages and translate them. Some of the messages, revealed in a court case, said to "prioritize and continue to strengthen friendship with Joe and Dennis" and "Under no circumstances should [agents] German nor Castor fly with BTTR or another organization on days 24, 25, 26, and 27". Classic spy stuff, as well as the more innocuous "congratulate all the female comrades for International Day of the Woman".
Since the attack on Iran began on February 28, Priyom says it has intercepted a number station broadcasting a male voice saying "tavajjoh" or "attention" in Persian, followed by numbers. These are broadcast on 7910 kHz, at 2:00 am UTC, and repeated again at 6:00 pm UTC.
The broadcast, according to the group, can be traced back to a US military base in Germany, and has been targeted by Iran's "bubble jammer" technology.
"Multilateration and triangulation efforts, then local signal characteristics and investigations, have pinpointed the origin of V32 to a shortwave transmission facility within a US military base in Böblingen, 15 km southwest of Stuttgart, Germany - in the forest between Panzer Kaserne and Patch Barracks, inside a restricted area marked as a training field," Priyom explains.
"Technical operations are possibly provided by the 52nd Strategic Signal Battalion headquartered at nearby Patch Barracks - regardless of what intelligence agency these technical operations would really be provided for."
While not necessarily the most useful information, it appears that whoever is responsible for the number station uses Windows 10, with its distinctive background system sound being heard in the background.
As explained above, the beauty of this system is that we don't know who the messages are intended for. However, Maris Goldmanis, a Latvian historian and numbers stations researcher, told Wired that the structured nature of the broadcast and its regular scheduling suggest that it is likely part of a planned operation. Given that Iran appears to be attempting to jam the signal, and that the signal comes from a US base, it isn't a huge leap to suggest that the US is behind the broadcasts.
"Another noteworthy feature of V32 is how all its transmissions take place on the same frequency. Most other numbers stations in general are comprehensive operations targeting many different recipients in different countries, and making use of many different transmission times and frequencies suited to the particular signal propagation needs corresponding to all those areas," Priyom adds. "In contrast, the fact that V32 always uses a single, same frequency, at always two given times of the day, would be consistent with an operation that only needs to target a single geographical area: Iran."
Unfortunately, given that this operation is supposed to be covert, we will likely not know the meaning of the broadcasts for many years, if ever. The group continues to monitor the broadcasts, and you can listen to more on its website.
[H/T: Wired]
1
