Tuesday, April 09, 2013

North Korea Number Station Broadcast - Nope!

 
Thanks to the well trained ear of Mark (Websat2) posting on UDXF, the North Korean number mystery (see my post below) is now solved. As I speculated it is not a North Korean number station, but a Cuban number station known on the Enigma list as HM-01.

The Enigma HM01 was assigned  by the number station group to their list on 18 Nov 2012.  It is a hybrid mixed-mode variant of Cuban XVII Family. Each broadcast consists of alternating SK01 and V02a repeating sequences.  Enigma on their main page says the format is still under investigation.  The Enigma 2000 website is located at http://www.brogers.dsl.pipex.com/enigma2000/.

Mark wrote just minutes ago on UDXF, "It sounds to me like Cuban Station HM01 interfering with a BC station. For example : https://soundcloud.com/websat2/10715-khz-hm01-2245hrs-220313. Why would the DPRK transmit Spanish numbers ?"

We agree with you Mark. Why would the North Koreans be transmitting in a Spanish language numbers format. The short answer is they would not be.

As mentioned above Websat2 posted an HM-01 recording at https://soundcloud.com/#websat2/10715-khz-hm01-2245hrs-220313. The YL SS 5-digit voice number format (it is not the specific message heard in the ConspiracyHQ recording) and the RDFT data stream audio characteristics are identical to the number station that Tim was suppose to have IDed as North Korean in the ConspiracyHQ article mentioned in my last post.

So "Bravo Zulu" to Mark for debunking what appeared to be a hoax or a misID at the very least. We now return this channel to more normal pursuits of Milcom monitoring.