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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mark Fahey (our resident North Korea specialist) who shares the following comment regarding our recent post about the re-activation of the North Korean Numbers station:
The Pyongyang numbers (designated V15) have either become less regular or changed their schedule since March. Its been a few months since I have personally received them – but I also haven’t been specifically tuning in for them lately so maybe I have simply missed noticing a timing change.
If you want to find the North Korean numbers, they are read out in a block between songs within the regular programing of the Pyongyang Pangsong radio station.
The choice of music immediately before the number block seems to indicate which recipient agent the transmission is directed to.
For Agent 27 “We Will Go Together with a Song Of Joy” is played, whereas Agent 21’s song is “Spring of my Hometown.”
The announcements typically take between 5 to 10 minutes to read dependent on the number of digits passed. The transmission schedule is variable; in early 2017 the broadcast alternated with a cycle of one week on Thursday night at 12:45AM Pyongyang Time (1615 UTC) and the following week on Saturday night at 11:45PM Pyongyang Time (1515 UTC).??
Pyongyang Pangsong can be heard on these shortwave band frequencies (it is also on MF & FM on the Korean peninsular):
3250 kHz, Pyongyang 100KW Transmitter
3320 kHz, Pyongyang 50KW Transmitter
6400 kHz, Kanggye 50KW Transmitter
Mark followed up this morning with a off-air recording of V15 on 3250kHz. Mark comments, “I will leave the decrypted message content to your imagination!”
Many thanks to a number of SWLing Post contributors who’ve shared this particular item from The National Interest:
North Korea Broadcasts Really Strange Messages As New Nuclear Weapons Test Looms
Pyongyang is reportedly broadcasting encrypted messages reminiscent of those used to contact spies during the Cold War.
[…]As North Korea prepares to mark a key anniversary — the birthday of North Korean founder Kim Il-sung — a U.S. Navy carrier strike group led by the USS Carl Vinson is on its way to Korea.
[…]Radio Pyongyang began broadcasting peculiar messages at 1:15 a.m. (local time). The messages included numbers and pages, such as No. 69 on page 823, No. 92 on page 467, and No. 100 on page 957.“I’m giving review works in elementary information technology lessons of the remote education university for No. 27 expedition agents,” the broadcaster explained before repeating her message.
The messages are broadcast over shortwave radio.
Yonhap News Agency reports the numbers are different from past announcements. Since June of last year, Pyongyang has broadcast its messages 32 times.
Update: Since I haven’t gotten any direct listener reports regarding this numbers station’s reactivation, I’ve added a question mark in the title. Please comment if you’ve logged this station (and we’d all love a recording!).
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Hawkins, who writes:
This evening I watched the excellent Undercover: How to Operate Behind Enemy Lines on Netflix streaming. This is a 1943 training film for Office of Strategic Services personnel learning how be secret agents. The film was directed by the legendary John Ford who also took an acting role in the film. In this scene, Al is receiving his forged papers from an OSS agent before leaving for Germany. A radio may seen on a shelf in the background.
Undercover: How to Operate Behind Enemy Lines is also available on YouTube:
The next film is much better known. The same model radio makes a foreground appearance in Some Like it Hot. Osgood Fielding III has one of these on his yacht.
Maybe Osgood is laughing because the film takes place in 1929 and the company that made the radio was founded several years later.
I won’t spoil the secret of this radio’s maker and model. It will probably not take long for SWLing Post readers to come up with an answer.
Post readers: are you up for the challenge? 🙂 What model of radio do we see here? I’ll keep quiet, because it’s one of my favorite manufacturers.
And, Dan, many thanks. I really do owe you one because I was not familiar with Undercover: How to Operate Behind Enemy Lines. I can’t believe there was a WWII era Ford film I had missed. I, too, have Netflix but the YouTube copy you suggested is actually a better restored version in terms of audio. Thanks again!
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Gerard Koopal, who shares the following:
Below an article about the return of RNW Netherlands out of a 1958 truck on april 15.
Although i suppose you can’t read German, the times and freq’s should be clear.
… zwar nur für einen Tag aber immerhin:
Am 15. April, also diesen Samstag, gibt es eine Sondersendung aus dem
Automuseum Schagen im Norden der Niederlande. Die ehemaligen Mitarbeiter
Dick Klees, Hans Hogendoorn, Pieter Damave und Ruud Poeze werden aus einem
originalen Ü-Wagen des RNW aus dem Jahr 1958 eine 7-stündige Live-Sendung fahren.
Die Sendung wird über Stream, Mittelwelle van Radio Paradijs auf 1584, 1332 und 1224 kHz und im DAB Kanal 8A in Randstad ausgestrahlt.
Ach ja: Kurzwelle gibt’s auch, von diesen bösen Menschen beim
Schortwääävsörvizzz:
… auf 3985 kHz zw. 11-18 CEST … auf 6005 kHz zw. 11-15 CEST … auf 7310 kHz zw. 11-12 und 16-17 CEST … auf 15560 kHz zw. 14-17 CEST
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Chuck Rippel (K8HU) for the following guest post:
A Tale of Two Radios: Tecsun PL-880 vs Eton/Grundig Executive Satellit
By Chuck Rippel, K8HU
This proved to be a difficult comparison strictly when writing from the perspective of “which one is better.”
In my view, the two models compliment each other and both are worthy additions for any DX’er or listener. Each has its own set of useable and unique features. That said, 1970 is when I got my start in SWBC DX, either of these radios would have been among “the gold standards” at a time when Realistic DX-150s were $119.95 new, Hammarlund HQ-180s could be purchased new and Collins was still putting “winged emblems” on their amateur equipment.
There were few consumer grade receivers which had frequency accuracy until the introduction of the Allied SX-190 at the princely sum of $249 but when tuning the 49MB in the evening, one heard the entire band on one frequency due to overloading. Oh well, I digress….
The Executive Satellit will be the 3rd from the Eton Satellit family I purchased. The first two were initial releases of the standard, black version; and both suffered from build quality issues and had to be returned. Some months down the road, I noticed that my friend, Clint Gouveia on his “Oxford Shortwave,” YouTube channel was demonstrating great success with his own Eton Satellit and with that in mind, I made what would become the 3rd plunge with Clint’s appreciated encouragement.
My first operational impression of the Executive Satellit was that the overall build quality had been improved by an order of magnitude. The radio looks and feels good, responding well to control inputs although their placement on the PL-880 is superior to my way of thinking. On the Executive, I quickly found a feature different from the original Eton Satellit, the adjustable display backlight can be set to stay on indefinitely, even with the radio turned off and when the clamshell style leather case held in place by a number of magnets is folded over the front of the radio, the display is out of view and if left backlit, will result in a set of dead batteries over time.
While on the subject of the Eton’s display, it is a major selling feature. The yellow-orange characters convey all the information a user might need with excellent resolution and the display is overall, pleasant to look at. A welcome change from LCD type displays more commonly found in portables today including the Tecsun PL-880.
The Satellit uses 4 AA batteries (I recommend rechargeable, 2000ma Panasonic Eneloop batteries) while the Tecsun uses an included, single 16550 2000ma lithium ion battery. Both radios share the capability of being able to charge their internal batteries when connected to an included DC wall-wort power sources and additionally, in the case of the Tecsun, from a USB source. The Satellit uniquely allows the user to enter a charging time in minutes via the front panel keypad and the owners manual suggests charging times for batteries of various capacities. A nice feature.
Each manufacturer stresses memory capacity as a selling point. Is a radio sporting 3,000+ memories better than a model with “only” 700? I suggest such a feature is a viable selling point only if the user can remember what is stored in each memory location. Both models help the user organize memory usage by organizing them in “pages” or banks.
As an aside, I organize memory pages using a couple for local MW stations, and one for local FM. Pages 1-24 contain SWBC stations organized by time. Bank or page 1 contains SWBC stations that can be heard at 0100Z, page 2 at 0200Z and so on. A plus for the Eton, the user has the option of assigning an 8 character label to each page of seven memory channels which are accessible via a row of “F” keys, located just under the display.
What about reception; what’s “under the hood?” Both have variable bandwidth, SSB, an external antenna input and fine tuning options. Using only the stock, attached whip antenna I was able to pick up Radio Havana, Cuba on 15370.0 although the PL880 suffered from picking up its own electronic spurs, seemingly a Tecsun characteristic noted across several of their models. Both radios received the station adequately but I’ll give a slight edge to the Satellit due to its slightly better audio recovery. Uniquely, the Satellit offers sideband selectable, synchronous detection but the resulting audio is on the muddy side and that feature is less than stellar. On FM, both were able to provide stereo reception of a 250 watt translator on 96.5 mHz located approximately 10 miles away with excellent, nearly identical audio quality. In as much as audio quality is judged differently by each of us, I will refrain from favoriting one radio over another.
The ability to receive, decode and display RDS data is a plus for the Satellit. An aside, there is a well known MW-DX’pert who also chases FM DX. What does he use for a radio and antenna? How about a Sony 2010 and Tecsun PL-310? He puts each radio on an open frequency and waits for E-skip. No special, hi tech FM tuner or multi-element FM antennas. Point being, either of these radios have high performance FM tuners and are capable of delivering FM DX when there is E-Skip or Tropo-Ducting which speaks highly for both.
As an Ultra-light DX’er since its inception, MW reception is important. Here again, performance between the two is was nearly identical although with their small ferrite internal MW antennas, don’t compete with say… a GE Super Radio II. Both the Eton and Tecsun benefit from an external, tuned, close- coupled MW antenna such as a Crate Loop. Unfortunately, the external antenna input on both is not operable on MW.
Clearly, there is no “best” here, either choice is a good one; having both is perhaps the best option. The performance of the Satellit and PL880 excel well beyond their price and make convenient traveling companions. A third of the size and half the price of what many consider “THE” benchmark portable multiband receiver, the Sony ICF-2010 or in Europe, the ICF-2001, both the Pl-880 and Satellit offer increased portability and compete closely with the Sony on performance and features.
These attributes combine to deliver a sometimes rare commodity: VALUE ! I would challenge anyone to identify a current manufacturer, consumer grade receiver that offers the performance, features and audio quality of either these two receivers for under $250. All kudos aside, neither of these fine receivers will deliver the kind of gold plated performance delivered by a WinRadio, Drake R8B or Perseus, etc.
Many thanks, Charles, for sharing your thoughts on these fine portables!
Cross Country Wireless have released a HF Preselector.
It is a passive high Q design that does not use an amplifier or external power.
It tunes from 0.5 to 52 MHz.
It is ideal for use with simple SDR receivers like the RTF-SDR dongle with upconverter or SDRPlay. It can also be used with the new receiver socket modification on the IC-7300.
The web page has more details including network analyser plots showing the selectivity of the Preselector.
Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mark Fahey (our resident North Korea specialist) who shares the following comment regarding our recent post about the re-activation of the North Korean Numbers station:If you want to find the North Korean numbers, they are read out in a block between songs within the regular programing of the Pyongyang Pangsong radio station.
