Monthly Archives: February 2013

Shortwave Radio Recordings: Listen to Cuban Spy Numbers Station HM01

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WFL_015Numbers stations have always been a dark oddity that pop up from time-to-time in the course of shortwave radio listening. There is unquestionably an air of mystery and intrigue which surrounds them. With the release of the movie The Numbers Station, many non-SWLers may be enticed to explore the HF bands.  A good thing, as it may draw fresh interest to this classic radio hobby.

I have heard numbers stations since I first started listening to shortwave radio broadcasts some thirty years ago, and I find that I often pause to listen (and to wonder) when I come across one on the bands.  The numbers station I hear most often, though the country of origin cannot be confirmed, is in Cuba–well, at least, we’re pretty certain of that. The same female voice, reading numbers in Spanish, has been Cuba’s calling card in the spy numbers world for some time.

Two weeks ago, on a Sunday morning between 10:00-11:00 UTC, I captured the Cuban spy numbers station widely recognized as HM01 (Hybrid Mode Number 01) on 5,855 kHz. HM01 broadcasts a mixture of AM voice and digital file transfer modes intermixed within the same transmission. The voice heard is the familiar Spanish female voice described above; the digital portion of the broadcast uses a mode called RDFT, a differential phase shift keying mode that has never become popular or standard in the ham radio world. If you’re feeling adventurous, the Windows software DIGTRX (download here) can decode RDFT.  Let us know what, if anything, you discover…

You can click here to download the entire HM01 broadcast as an MP3, or simply listen via the embedded player below:

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Finally: Official trailer for the movie The Numbers Station with John Cusack and Malin Akerman

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The long-awaited trailer for the new movie, The Numbers Station:

We first mentioned the The Numbers Station in 2011, when it was still being filmed.

In this film, John Cusack’s character, Emerson, has been given the task of protecting Katherine (Malin Akerman), the operator of a shortwave numbers station that broadcasts encrypted messages to operatives. When the station is compromised in a surprise attack, they must work together to secure it and prevent distater.

According to the website The Digital Spy, The Numbers Station is scheduled for release in the US on April 26, though a UK release date has not yet been confirmed.

If you’re new to shortwave radio and wish to listen to numbers stations, follow the category Numbers Stations–we will post updates on the movie as well as several recordings of real numbers stations still in existence.

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Three things you can do to honor World Radio Day 2013

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Children in South Sudan listen to their favorite shortwave program, VOA Special English. (Photo: ETOW partner, Project Education Sudan)

From my previous posts today you’ll already know it’s UNESCO World Radio Day–a day to celebrate the relevance of radio in the 21st century. Here are some ideas of how you can celebrate and make a difference with radio:

  1. Send a shortwave radio, care of Ears To Our World. You can send one self-powered shortwave radio to a classroom or community in the third world for as little as a $40.
  2. Sign the petition to keep RCI Sackville from being dismantled–Senator Hugh Segal is in the process of holding the CBC accountable for slashing RCI’s budget. Add your voice to support this cause.
  3. If you’ve heard my recording for UNESCO regarding the relevance of radio, you may also like to visit World Radio Day’s webpage and listen to what others have to say about the relevance of shortwave radio. Share this page with your friends.

…Oh, and one more thing:  you can turn on your radio, and listen.  World Radio Day is a young international holiday, but I’m most encouraged to see how it is receiving increased media attention each year.  This is a wonderful, meaningful hobby–and a worthy cause–so, enjoy!

Happy World Radio Day!

Cheers,
Thomas

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Voice of Russia: World celebrates all-uniting role of radio

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WorldRadioDay(Source: Voice of Russia)

February 13 is World Radio Day. It’s a young holiday, just two years old, established on the initiative of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in 2011. Representatives of all of the world’s major radio broadcasters, the Voice of Russia among them, have gathered at the UNESCO’s central headquarters in Paris to celebrate World Radio Day.

February 13 is not a random date. On that day in 1946, Radio UN aired its first broadcast. In his World Radio Day-2013 message, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said that as a boy growing up in a poor village after the Korean War with neither phones nor television people still had something that connected them to the world outside their small village – they had radio. Since its invention more than 100 years ago, radio has sparked imagination and opened doors for change, entertaining, informing, promoting democracy and connecting people wherever they are, and “in conflict situations and times of crisis, radio is a lifeline for vulnerable communities,” Ban Ki-moon remarked.

About 95% of all people throughout the globe listen to radio regularly, chief of the UNESCO’s Communication and Information Sector Mirta Lourenco told the Voice of Russia:

“Radio remains the most easily accessible mass media. You can listen to it in the remotest corners of the Earth. Thanks to radio, people who cannot read or write have access to information. Radio plays a crucial role in emergencies, natural disaster warning and during rescue operations. For the UNESCO, World Radio Day is the acknowledgment of the tremendous use of which radio has been to humanity over more than a century.”[…]

Read the full article at the Voice of Russia website.

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The relevance of shortwave radio for UNESCO’s World Radio Day 2013

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ChildSWRadioUganda

Student in Uganda tunes an Ears To Our World self-powered shortwave radio. (Photo: ETOW partner, The Empower Campaign, Uganda)

Wednesday, February 13th 2013 is World Radio Day.  UNESCO describes World Radio Day as “a day to celebrate radio as a medium; to improve international cooperation between broadcasters; and to encourage major networks and community radio alike to promote access to information and freedom of expression over the airwaves.”

A worthy cause.

UNESCO asked me to record a segment about our non-profit, Ears To Our World, and the relevance of radio in honor of World Radio Day.

Here’s my (brief) contribution:

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The SWLing Post is upgrading servers

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(Source: Google Analytics)

(Source: Google Analytics)

Dear Readers,

If you notice a little downtime over the next few days, it is because
we are in the process of moving the SWLing Post (and all of
SWLing.com) to a new, upgraded server.

Over the years, readership has grown at an incredible rate, and I am
most grateful. Your encouraging comments and personal stories fuel
this blog in innumerable ways.

The upgrade is mainly in response to the increased traffic here on the
site, as well as to implement security measures that should help with
recent attacks from abusers in China who actually attempted to bring
our site down. (No kidding!)

This morning, I glanced at my Google Analytics statistics. In the past
thirty days–which has only been “average”–SWLing.com has had over
78,000 pageviews and over 15,000 unique visitors. Wow! These numbers
do not include the 200+ readers who view the SWLing Post via
Feedburner and other RSS readers. As many of you know, we also have an
active Kindle subscription base, whose numbers increase monthly.

So I’d simply like to say, Thank you! And thanks for your
patience. I would have never guessed back in 2008 when I
began this hobby site, that it would have such an interactive
readership. Going forward, I would like the site to become even more
interactive–so I welcome even more of your stories, your photos, your
recordings, and your thoughts on radio and international broadcasting.

Our new server is faster, provides more bandwidth, and even better
overall support. Though page loads have always been fairly quick,
they’ll be even quicker now. Our upgraded bandwidth gives us even more
room to grow–a necessity, based on the current upward trend.

In the near future, we will begin to invite sponsorship from selected
radio retailers and businesses. Ads from sponsors relevant to
the hobby will be chosen and appropriately placed. We promise,
however, that our site will never be cluttered with
irrelevant, obtrusive ads–no pop-ups, nothing gimmicky–just
industry-related and hobby-related business and services. Our goal is
to simply make enough to support The SWLing Post over the long-haul,
and to showcase businesses that invest in and support the wonderful
hobby of shortwave radio. We also welcome direct donations from
readers, who can support us in any amount here.

Again, thank you all for your incredible support–and, especially,
your considerate comments and emails. The radio listening hobby can
feel rather solitary at times, but you have built community around
this site, and it’s particularly inspiring to realize that this club
of listeners is growing.

Thank you,

Thomas

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