[Spooks] Movie "Der Westen leuchtet", G16 scene description/audio clip

[dstadermann at web.de]

Hi folks,

I had a thourough look into the interesting scene of the movie I 
mentioned in my previous mail "German TV programme tip". My 
description and comments follow below. I made an MP3 sound clip of 
the scene and sent it to Paul Beaumont and Simon Mason withthe 
request to put it into the ENIGMA files section and the Secret Numbers 
website, respectively to be available for download.

The other programme "Abenteuer Wissen" IMHO was not of much 
interest for us. Much ado but not much substance, and nothing on 
numbers stations in particular.

Regards,

DanielE2Kde
--------------

Movie "Der Westen leuchtet" (Germany, 1981/82) broadcasted (again) 
in the German TV channel ZDF at 10 November 2005 0000-0145 UTC
Description of the movie from the programme guide:
"A secret agent of the East German secret service with the code Name 
Harald Liebe (played by Armin Mueller-Stahl) is sent to Munich, West 
Germany to check whether the Agent "Heinz" got over to the other 
side. "Heinz" puts out as the pretty female chief secretary Dagmar 
Ostfeld. The petty bourgeois eastern agent becomes dazzled by 
Dagmar and her luxurious lifestyle.”


Near the beginning of the movie there is an interesting scene with a 
real numbers station sound. I recorded the programme and tried to get 
the most details out of it by means of slow motion. Here is my 
description (some details and comments as footnotes marked by 
square brackets):

Liebe in his hotel room, inspecting his equipment. He takes an electric 
shaver out of its pouch, removes the top, slides up the longhair 
trimmer. A stack of film cards appears (obviously his stock of One 
Time Pads [1]). He takes it into the hand and thumbs it through. 
Next, a transistor radio [2] is shown on top of the desk. He takes the 
radio and turns the tuning knob; typical shortwave sounds are audible 
(this is the moment where my 1 minute 15 seconds audio clip starts). 
He tunes the radio to the G16 call "Lima Golf”, then he puts the radio 
back onto the desk, plugs an earphone into the radio and puts the 
earphone in his ear [3]. The station changes to the text "Es liegen 
Mitteilungen vor fuer 818 818 Achtung”, then into 5-figure groups [4]. 
He clicks on top of a ballpoint pen and starts writing down the number 
groups. The camera shows him at first from behind, then pen and 
paper close-up when he starts writing below one of the OTP sheets 
which lies on the paper near the top edge. The next take pans from a 
position right of him over the radio and the paper to his face. Then it 
shows again a close-up of the paper with the numbers. The 
transmission ends (without "Ende”), slight noise on the frequency (my 
audio clip ends here). He takes out the earphone and reads the text.
The camera shows the paper again and close-up with a slight time-
lapse: He has already started to decipher the numbers. Here, he writes 
one plain text letter right to each 5-figure group, brings the OTP closer 
to the writing position [5] [6]. He ends up with the following 16 groups:

40509 A
37074 N
34171 K
70144 U
40278 N
03410 F
55156 T
48831 H
77171 E
15379 I
73606 N
26007 Z
43883 2
13743 2.
3?116 1
691?0 3

so that the plain text is "ANKUNFT HEINZ 22.13” ("ARRIVAL HEINZ 
22.13”)

He stands up from the desk; the radio is still on and produces faint 
hissing and humming noise. He takes the sheet of paper into the 
bathroom, holds a burning match to the lower right corner [7].

There were four more scenes when G16 was played in the 
background, but obviously only to produce an atmosphere of 
suspense.

To sum it up, in my opinion the makers of the movie tried to give a 
realistic impression and it is praiseworthy that they used a real number 
station recording (we have seen movies with mock-up number 
stations). I think I found some peculiarities and inaccuracies in some 
details and others may find many more. However, I think it is a nice 
example of numbers stations in a movie!

-------
[1] Cards of film showing some regular pattern of rectangular spots in 
this shot. Later, closeups show clearly a table of 13 rows and 5 
columns of 5 figure groups
[2] A sharp look reveals the SONY sign; model unknown to me. The 
housing design is quite unique: it is folding in the middle by a hinge. A 
speaker on the left half, the tuning knob, scale, signal meter and other 
controls on the right side. Two telescopic antennas on top, one on 
each half of the housing. Band selector for FM, SW and MW (position 
SW); the tuned frequency seems to be just below 4 MHz.  The radio 
seems not to have SSB mode and it sounds like AM mode; this 
matches to the fact that G16 was almost always in AM.
What the scale seems to show is quite far away from the G16 
frequencies around 4 MHz, 3262 and 4543. 
[3] In reality, as we know, with most of the radio sets the speaker is 
switched off when the earphone plug is inserted - not so for the movie 
viewers... (I know I am a smartass :-> )
[4] There is nothing of the typical tootle sounds of this station and no 
group count ("Gruppen")
Another question arises: why should an East German agent in the west 
be able to decrypt the G16 message and get his instructions from G16, 
a West German BND station? He was definitely *not* working for the 
BND, as near the end of the movie they set a trap for him in a cinema 
(where he was to meet a contact person) which he only just escaped.  
[5] This is quite certainly a very simplified, abbreviated presentation of 
the deciphering of an OTP coded message. The details may vary, but 
normally he would be expected to rearrange the five-figure groups to 
groups of two; then he would have to write the OTP figures below the 
cipher figures and subtract them; then he would lookup the plain text 
letter from an additional table (table of plain text letters against 
difference figures).
[6] The OTP is clearly visible in this take and even some five figure 
groups are readable.
[7] He should better destroy the OTP sheet too since it must not be 
reused and is only unnecessary evidence...

-------
Comments by "Kopf"

I called Jochen "Kopf" to read this description to him and play the audio 
clip via phone (he still has no replacement for his defective computer, 
thus cannot play audio files). He had some further comments on it:
The G16 clip sounds authentical for the version of G16 transmissions 
from 1979 on, it is the well known Lima Golf version of the eighties. 
>From his memory, these transmissions were on 5770 (maybe 5775) on 
Tuesdays, Wednesdays at 0800z, Thursdays at 1300z with repeats at 
Tuesdays and Wednesdays at 0900z on 7440. Due to the other 
shortwave signals which can be heard while the actor tunes the radio 
(from higher to lower frequencies) to G16, "Kopf" favours the frequency 
5770 (which clearly differs from the frequency slightly below 4 MHz in 
the movie).
The 80s version of G16 had the tootle sounds alternating with the 
announcement "Lima Golf" etc., which made it easy for the producers 
of the film to remove it. Between the last "Lima Golf" anncouncement 
and  "Es liegen Mitteilungen vor..:" there actually was no more tootle 
anyway. 
"Kopf" also acknowledges the missing group count "xxx Gruppen" and 
also missing are the "Ende" and the long tone which were typical for 
G16 messages. A single 16 fg message also seems quite short.