If you are old enough, you will probably remember the mysterious
Numbers Stations
that turned up regularly on the short-wave bands.
Endless sequences of seemingly random numbers read by a synthetic
voice, that seemed to serve no purpose whatsoever.
Well, guess what? Such stations are still active today (2026)
and originate from various places in the world in different
languages.
Index
Below are some examples of Numbers Stations
that have been recorded in recent years. Some of them are still active
today.
Many thanks to Karsten Hansky for supplying the audio samples [1].
This station is operated by Russian Intelligence, and
is most likely located in Russia. It broadcasts in the German language,
which suggests that the messages are intended for non-Russian agents working
undercover in Europe. The female voice is the same one that was used during the
1970s and 80s, and was recorded in the former DDR (East-Germany).
The messages were recorded by Karsten Hansky on 24 April 2014 at 19:30 UTC
and 14 November 2019 at 18:30 UTC [1].
Recipient is in red (532) followed by the number of groups in the message (20).
Recipient and number of groups are repeated at the end of the message (532 20).
All number groups are repeated (except for the terminator).
00000 is the message terminator.
S06 · Russia
5783 kHz (Russian)
This station is operated by a Russian intelligence service and is identical
to G06 (German) and E06 (English), except for the language.
The message was received on 24 March 2014 at 19:00 UTC on 5.783 MHz
by Karsten Hansky [1] and is very short.
This is a so-called NULL message, which means 'nothing to report'.
The message starts with the Sender ID (349) repeated twice.
00000 is the message terminator.
The message is read twice without an interval.
HM01 · Cuba
17480 kHz (Spanish)
HM01 is located in Cuba and its messages are aimed at agents
in the USA, which is why this station is difficult to receive in Europe.
The message was received on 1 August 2013 at 22:30 UTC on 17.480 MHz
by Karsten Hansky [1].
The message starts with several number groups read in Spanish,
followed by digital information.
E11a · Poland
14409 kHz (English)
This station is operated by the Polish intelligence service
and sends its messages from Poland in the English
language, which suggests that they are intended for non-Polish
speaking agents. Note the Polish accent in the synthesized
English voice. The message was received on 23 December 2013 at
11:09 UTC on 14409 kHz by Karsten Hansky [1].
The message ID in shown in bold (950) followed by the number of groups (31).
The word ATTENTION marks the start of the message.
Each 5-digit group is read twice.
The entire message is read twice.
OUT is the message terminator.
S11a · Poland
9960 kHz (Russian)
Like the previous one, this station is operated by the Polish
intelligence service and is aimed at (former) Eastern Block countries.
The message was received on
25 April 2014 at 10:20 UTC on 9.96 MHz by Karsten Hansky [1].
Note the same Polish accent as in the English broadcast.
This station is basically identical to the one above (E11a) except
that its transmissions are in Russian rather than English.
This is why the station is identified with the letter 'S' (Slavic).
RDL · Russia
18.1 kHz (CW)
RDL is operated by the Russian Nucelar Forces and transmits on the
Very Low Frequency (VLF) of 18.1 kHz, also known as Long-Wave (LW).
The advantage of using such low frequencies is that they can be
received world-wide and even under water, which is useful for U-boats.
This message was received on 15 August 2015 at 12:37 UTC by
Karsten Hansky [1]. It is a rare one, since is was sent in
morse
and contains a code word.
The message was send twice with a 1 minute interval.
RDL normally sends digital information (RTTY) but occasionally uses morse code (CW).
Most CW messages contain number groups only, but this one contains the code word LANOLIN.
V32 · Germany
7842 kHz (Farsi)
This station is most likely operated by the US Army, and broadcasts
from Böblingen (south-east of Stuttgart, Germany).
It first appeared on 7910 kHz on 28 February 2026, just 12 hours
after the start of the US/Israeli war against Iran.
There were indications that the equipment used is of US origin. 1
Furthermore, Windows™ sounds were heard [2].
Shortly after the broadcasts started on 7910 kHz, it was jammed by
a 'bubble' jammer, after which the station moved to 7842 kHz.
Transmissions start at 02:00 and 18:00 UTC and contain 5-digit groups,
spoken unevenly in Persian (Farsi), 2 often without a pause between
the groups. Unlike the former East-German Stimme,
the Farsi voice is not generated synthetically, but is pre-recorded
by a native male speaker.
A single broadcast can last for over an hour.
Each transmission starts with the word 'tavajjoh' (توجه),
which means 'attention'), repeated three times.
Every 15 minutes, 'tavajjoh' is repeated three times.
It is likely that the broadcasts are intended for the Iranian resistance.
Note that despite the jamming, the transmission is still legible
The recording below was made on 11 March 2026, at 18:32.
At 2:57 in the recording, the English word 'specifically' is inserted.
This might address the following data to a specific recipient.
User comments on the website of amateur radio operator Lorenzo (IZ0KBA),
suggest that the equipment used is an L3/Harris system, which was improperly
configured before the first few transmissions. A 620/925 Hz double tone was
heard every 3 seconds, which is a typical Plain Text (PT) warning tone on
Harris radios like the AN/PRC-160 Falcon III.
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Crypto Museum. Last changed: Friday, 08 May 2026 - 12:57 CET.
