code pad shortwave from cuba: ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Reginald Curtis Date: Mar 31, 2006 11:29 AM Subject: [TSCM-L] Re: Feds bugged bedroom, phones of FIU pair To: TSCM-L2006@googlegroups.com Cc: garya_curtis@hotmail.com In regards to this piece - I found the following in the March 06 edition of Monitoring Times at page 8. "COMMUNICATIONS Broadcasting Spies Use Shortwave Broadcasts In January, a Florida couple was accused of operating as covert agents for Cuba's communist government for decades, using short-wave radios, 5-digit numerical-code language and computer-encrypted files to send information about Miami's exile community to top Castro intelligence commanders. Carlos Alverez and his wife Elsa, both staff members of Florida International University, were denied bond before trial on a charge of failing to register with the federal government as foreign agents. The indictment, which included no mention of top-secret U.S. government information being disclosed, came months after the couple confessed to the FBI. Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Frazier said Carlos Alverez had spied for Cuba since 1977 and Elsa Alverez since 1982. (See page 28 for more on Cuban 'numbers' stations.)" Page 28 "UTILITY WORLD HF COMMUNICATIONS Cuban 'Numbers': A Pattern Emerges By: Hugh Stegman, NV6H hugh stegman@monitoring times.com www.ominous-valve.com/uteworld.html Collection and analysis of several months' loggings confirms that, just as others have observed, the Cuban voice 'numbers' station does indeed have what may be its first daily broadcast schedule ever. This station is also known as 'V2,' 'Attention' (from its callup), the 5-Figure Spanish Lady, and the 'SS/YL/5F' (same thing in shortwavese'). Its the latest version of the famous Cuban spy transmissions which have mystified listeners in much of the world, while inspiring some good pop music, for several decades now. And indeed, these broadcasts are compelling in their sheer strangeness. Mumbling voices, strange noises, Radio Havana, and even the occasional parrot, can turn up on the open tuning carriers run before the messages. Technical flubs, mostly of the 'oops, wrong button' variety, are many and legendary. If everything works (always a big "if" with this bunch), that ominous machine-spliced female finally barks the distinctive 'Atencion' ('Attention'). While the name 'V2' sounds appropriately like some kind of World War II German rocket bomb, it is simply the sequential designator given this particular broadcast on the list maintained by ENIGMA2000. They're the online incarnation of the European Numbers Intelligence Gathering and Monitoring Association. Over the years, this generic V2 has had a number of lettered variants. These differ in message structure or detailed formatting. After the callup, our V2a variant sends a message designator with three 5-number groups. These are the first groups in the three following messages, which are of equal length. Each message is always 150 5-number groups, beginning (as we've noted) with the one in the designator. The whole transmission usually ends with the Spanish 'final' ('end'), around 45 minutes after the hour. While the Cubans have traditionally preferred monthly and weekly schedules, the new local-daytime V2a is a daily one. It's a long schedule by 'numbers' standards. It's more like something you'd hear from an international broadcaster, changing frequency more of less hourly while maintaining a long program. This is pretty ambitious for an operation which is so audibly straining to keep its aging, hurricane-damaged equipment going. The daily schedule starts at 1600 Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), and goes until the 2100 broadcasts ends, nearly six hours later. The times in UTC and frequencies in kilohertz (kHz, AM mode) are: 1600 on 7975.0 1700 on 8010.0 1800 on 8097.0 1900 on 8097.0 2000 on 7887.0 2100 on 6855.0 That's it. By the standards of 'numbers' stations, which often confront listeners with a bewildering number of times and frequencies, this is pretty simple stuff. But there is way more: All of the other V2 schedules are still on the air. These are the more traditional ones, using what may or may not be a weekly frequency rotation. Parallel transmissions frequently occur, on two or three frequencies. At press time, the rest of V2a was on from as early as 0200 UTC until as late as 1500. In other words, there's a Cuban voice 'spy numbers' station going somewhere at nearly any hour of the day. This doesn't even count the hours of Morse code broadcasts in a similar format. For whatever its worth, which may not be much, this represents an awesome volume of traffic. V2a Message Continuity These transmissions have another most interesting feature. If one logs all of the initial three-group message designators, it becomes quickly evident that they are anyting but random. In fact, they ofter increment their last figures by one with each day's broadcast. The best way to explain this is by example. On December 11, 2005, one of several sets of message designators was 38641 45851 51761. On the 12th, this one changed to 38642 45852 71762, but the messages stayed the same. On the 13th, it became 38643 45853 51763. This continued until the last digits reached 6 on the 16th. At the same time, another sequence started out as 55911 12911 31311 (they always seem to start out ending in 1). This one did the same behavior, until reaching 5 on the 15th. Currently, in early January, we have 51871 10971 04481, incrementing daily. It's been theorized that this last digit refers to the number of times a message has been broadcast. In any event, it's a real good idea to keep track of these numbers when logging the Cuban stations. As special word of thanks is due to Camilo Castillo, a dedicated ham and numbers listener in Panama, for making most of the loggings used in the data. A few others appeared on the usual Internet mailing lists, and the showed the same patterns we describe." ....................... THE artilce also shows what they claim is a "Typical code pad used with 'numbers' broadcasts." It is a small booklike pad about the same size as the match box used for the small wood or kitchen type matches ( 2" x 1" x .5") with six columns of numbers printed on both sides of the page. THE END Reg Curtis VE9RWC