This is a copy of The Numbers Racket CD-ROM, which I prepared back in 1998. I am presenting it here, unedited, for historical purposes. Obviously most if not all of the information is 'out of date' today, but think of it as a snapshot of what the Spy Numbers scene was like in the late 1990s.

Like what you see here? Help support my work by taking a look at my software , and buy something of interest :) It's all available for download before purchase, so you can try it out.

Enjoy!

How To Listen

Numbers Stations don't publish broadcast schedules. Other than reports of loggings by fellow radio enthusiasts, there are no publically available schedules of transmission times. Fortunately, Numbers Stations have a few traits which make them easier to find:

• They tend to follow regular schedules. Most Numbers Stations are on the same time and frequency on a certain day of the week. For example, a station that is on Fridays at 0400 UTC on 4645 kHz will generally be found there each and every Friday. Eventually, stations do change their frequencies and broadcast times, either due to changing propagation conditions, or because of interference from other stations.

  Not all stations are predictable however. The Russian Man is known for continuously changing it's frequencies, making it very difficult to find each time. It is not known how the agent finds the station each broadcast, presumable he is issued a transmission schedule, perhaps it is sent in one of the messages.

• Transmissions almost always start on the hour. There are some exceptions of course, for example, the MOSSAD stations start on the half and quarter hours also. But the vast majority of broadcasts do start on the hour, which makes it much easier to find them.

• Many Numbers Stations start transmitting before the start of the broadcast, sometimes far before. Always be on the lookout for suspicious carriers. It is very useful to have a working knowledge of what frequencies are and are not usually active at various times of the day. Any carriers noted, especially those that pop up shortly before the hour, should be monitored for possible numbers activity.

• Numbers Stations tend to use frequencies located inside the utility bands. They are rarely found in the broadcast bands, since they would have a hard time competing with the multi-hundred kilowatt broadcast transmitters. They also tend to stay outside of the ham bands, although some have been noted in the 80 and 40 meter bands. This significantly narrows down the number of frequencies which need to be monitored.

• Certain frequencies, or band segments, tend to be more active than others. For example, 6840 kHz used to be an extremely active frequency, used by the CIA, MOSSAD, Cuba, and Romania, at various times of the day and week. And it is still regularly used by MOSSAD.
  
  Hot Spy Numbers Bands:
  
  1. 3900-4050 kHz
  2. 4600-4800 kHz
  3. 5100-5300 kHz
  4. 6750-7000 kHz
  5. 7450-8150 kHz
  6. 9000-9350 kHz
  
  
• Numbers Stations tend to use AM, although there is a distinct trend to using sideband more and more, almost always USB. LSB is rarely used. Another mode that is common is AM with the LSB suppressed.

This is a copy of The Numbers Racket CD-ROM, which I prepared back in 1998. I am presenting it here, unedited, for historical purposes. Obviously most if not all of the information is 'out of date' today, but think of it as a snapshot of what the Spy Numbers scene was like in the late 1990s.

Like what you see here? Help support my work by taking a look at my software , and buy something of interest :) It's all available for download before purchase, so you can try it out.