Tag Archives: Cuban Spy Numbers

Cuban Numbers Station HM01 Goes Cuckoo! And Other Cuban Broadcast “Shenanigans”…

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Pete Madtone, who shares the following recording of Cuban Numbers Station HM01 and notes:

Hi Thomas,

I was reading HF Underground earlier and a post on it mentioned that HM01 had gone a bit mad “10345 kHz is HM01 Cuban Lady with what sounds like a cuckoo clock“. Well I got up straight away and tuned in on VE7AV KiwiSDR and here it is in all it’s glory:

It almost sounds a bit reggaeish and even has what sounds like a little drum roll in parts.

If you’re feeling a bit down or tired today please have a listen as this’ll cheer you up!

All the best

Pete

Wow–thanks for sharing this recording with us, Pete! What a mystery behind this numbers station! Was the cuckoo intentionally or unintentionally added to the audio at the studio or transmitter level? What could that signify? Since the audio is tracking with the HM01 broadcast, it seems to be originating from the same transmitter.

Perhaps this adds more context or confusion: SWLing Post contributor Paul Walker has noted a number of audio “shenanigans” from Cuban broadcasts. Here are a few notes from his listening post in Alaska:

0320UTC Mon Aug 28 and Cuba is missing from 9700 for the 2nd time in a week, but instead of regular programming they’re broadcasting a horror movie of some kind. I can detect some kind of noise under the movie but it’s like a screech/hum, which is all I heard from 9700 last time it was on.
I should also add, after the first time i heard 9700 down on 9600, I subsequently heard it back on 9700 again…..so something’s up!
And now HM01 aka Suzie Cubana on 10345 is broadcasting……. along with Suzie counting down the numbers and the digital data bursts, theres a cuckoo bird cuckooing over the top of that audio.
In the 0500 UTC, Rebelde on 5025 kHz noted running TV audio too….some English language movie.
The domestic Radio Rebelde AM and FM web feeds appear to be running normal programming

What do you think is going on?

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Jack Barsky: KGB spy who relied on numbers stations

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Many thanks to SWLing Post reader, Anthony, for forwarding this CBS/60 Minutes video: an interview with former KGB spy, Jack Barsky. During the interview, Barsky mentions that he received encrypted KGB “radiograms” via a numbers station he believed to be in Cuba. He admitted that the messages could take an hour to copy, then an additional three hours to decode. This is a fascinating story–well worth watching.

Here is the intro via 60 Minutes:

“Tonight, we’re going to tell you a story you’ve probably never heard before because only a few people outside the FBI know anything about it. It’s a spy story unlike any other and if you think your life is complicated, wait till you hear about Jack Barsky’s, who led three of them simultaneously. One as a husband and father, two as a computer programmer and administrator at some top American corporations and three as a KGB agent spying on America during the last decade of the Cold War.

The FBI did finally apprehend him in Pennsylvania but it was long after the Soviet Union had crumbled. What makes Jack Barsky’s story even more remarkable is he’s never spent a night in jail, the Russians declared him dead a long time ago, he’s living a quiet life in upstate New York and has worked in important and sensitive jobs. He’s now free to tell his story…as honestly as a former spy ever can.”

Click here to view the video via CBS online, or you can simply watch via the the embedded players below:

Part 1

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uV39GSN_Ovw

Part 2

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=70-2OAa7TGU

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Numbers Stations: A bad day to be a Cuban spy

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While band scanning last Sunday (September 8, 2014) I stumbled upon the Cuban numbers station HM01 on 11,530 kHz at 17:30 UTC.

It’s always intriguing to hear shortwave numbers stations, but I prefer those that stick to pure vocal number strings; HM01 has numbers with digital bursts between number sets, which is a more fatiguing listening experience. Nonetheless, I kept it playing in the background as I tooled around the radio room Sunday afternoon, putting away supplies from my recent three week road trip.

Several times during the HM01 broadcast, I heard the audio (not the AM carrier) drop in the middle of numbers sets and digital bursts. This isn’t the first time I’ve heard hiccups on HM01 (see this post from last year, for example), so I wasn’t terribly surprised. Then, close to the top of the hour, HM01 audio dropped for a minute or so, then switched back to five-number sets with no digital bursts between; though I wasn’t copying the message, I suspected that someone in the studio intentionally, perhaps in frustration–or else accidentally–started the broadcast from the beginning again.

At this point, I started recording. The five-number sets continue for about a minute, then the carrier unexpectedly drops:

Since it was near the top of the hour, and HM01 broadcasts only tend to last one hour, I didn’t expect to hear the broadcast repeat–and it didn’t, at least on 11,530.

Via a little band scanning, I discovered that HM01 had unexpectedly migrated 105 kHz higher, to 11,635 kHz. This broadcast audio also begins a little awkwardly. You’ll hear the audio drop; I scan for a few seconds, then return to 11,635, and HM01 comes back. And this time, the numbers set sounds cleaner, with fewer problems. Here’s the recording:

I couldn’t help but chuckle over this…

Evidently, this message had some important content–otherwise they wouldn’t have re-broadcast the entire set the following hour, 105 kHz up from the original frequency (most likely protocol after technical difficulties). I imagine spies huddled around their radios, cursing at the interruptions and frustrated they had to listen for an additional hour; and I imagine the confusion at the broadcast site as they tried to diagnose the problem in a live broadcast. It’s during these little mistakes that numbers stations inadvertently tell us who they are (Radio Havana Cuba content has accidentally been played before on Cuban numbers stations).

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Even numbers stations make mistakes

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On February 5th, 2013, the Cuban numbers station widely known as HM01 struggled to maintain its composure following an awkward studio error.

In this particular case, I started recording a few seconds prior to the carrier, at which point you’ll hear a couple of minutes of “dead air” (silence). The broadcast starts around 2:25, cutting into the middle of a data burst; the station then goes silent before it comes back on at 5:15 with numbers, then abruptly stops. At 6:15 the station restarts the numbers broadcast in earnest.

Download the MP3 of the full recording by clicking here, or listen via the embedded player below:

Click here to view the Archive.org with original audio files.

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