Continued..

Drawing Some Conclusions

Even though it is extremely unlikely that a Spy Number Station message will ever be sucessfully decoded, some interesting things can be deduced, or at least guessed at.

It is quite likely that not all, in fact perhaps very few, of the messages transmitted are actual messages to agents. For example, the SS/YL/5 stations seem to transmit two types of messages, those of a length of exactly 150 groups, and those with fewer (usually much fewer) groups. The 150 group messages are by far the most common. They could be training exercises, or dummy messages, designed to confuse the "other side's" cryptographic forces.

It's also probable that many of the other messages are also false. It may be desirable to trick the opposition into thinking that you have more agents than actually exist. What better way than to send lots of messages to them?

Further backing up the belief that some of the transmissions of for training purposes are the observed broadcasting schedules. Transmissions from the NCS site in Remington, VA have been observed in the 60 metre band during the daytime. This frequency is much too low for propagation outside of North America. These broadcasts may be used to train agents before they are sent into the field.

Some very curious observations may also be made:

Britain's MI6 headquarters in London - home of The Lincolnshire Poacher?

*Why do so many of the world's intelligence agencies use basically the same method for communicating with their agents? We are led to believe that the Counting Station broadcasts are by the CIA, that many of the SS/YL/5 broadcasts are from Cuba, the Lincolnshire Poacher transmissions are from the British MI6 agency, and the Russian Man is Russia's method of communicating with agents.

Then there's he New Star Chinese stations. Not to mention the German number stations formerly used by East Germany (some of which still seem to be on the air!). Israel is slightly different, the Mossad transmissions use phonetics, rather than numbers.

* And here's a question I've yet to see answered - why no French Spy Number Stations! Isn't that odd? And I don't believe that I've seen any reports of Arabic stations either.

* Why are some frequencies hotbeds of Spy Number Station (and other bizzare stations) activity? Take 6840 kHz. While it hasn't been as active recently, it used to be the frequency for spooks. It had everything. And some strange stuff still pops up there from time to time.

* Communism is dead. (At least according to the US government, Mainland China not included). The Cold War is over. So why are Spy Number Stations still so active?

Several recent books about spies that have been caught reveal that they often received messages by copying numbers broadcast over shortwave radio. Sunds a lot like the Spy Number Stations we know and love. Yet, no one from within the intelligence community (of any nation) has revealed any information about these broadcasts, even retired persons.
It would be nice to get just a little confirmation about the purposes of these broadcasts, even without compromising agents or national security.

Why?

With all of today's advanced communication systems, why still use Spy Number Stations to transmit messages to agents in the field? There are a number of reasons why this may still be considered a valid method of communication. Foremost, there is no direct link between the agent and the agency. No letter or package is mailed. No telephone call is made. No
modem or internet communication link can be established. Basically, there's no evidence that someone received the message. This may be the most compelling reason to continue using such a system.

Second, it allows a large number of agents to be contacted at the same time. One broadcast can be received by all agents in a given area.

Finally, it may be the most suitable method to reach agents who live in remote parts of the world, where modern communication facilities do not exist. Indeed, there are still many parts of the US where an internet connection is not a local call!

Conclusion

I hope this brief introduction to Spy Number Stations has been useful, and provided enough information for you to begin your journey into shortwave's "mysterious side".


(C) Copyright 1997 Chris Smolinski, All Rights Reserved
csmolinski@erols.com Chris Smolinski

If you have found this article interesting and wish to find out more, then this website would be well worth a visit - http://www.spynumbers.com - (Ed.)

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