[Spooks] Spooks Digest, Vol 78, Issue 26
Gene Marlin
genemarlin at gmail.com
Tue Jul 27 16:51:18 EDT 2010
>Another possibility is that the messages were being transmitted using a
>fairly simple digital mode - something along the lines of x milliseconds
>of tone for a mark, and x milliseconds of carrier-only for a space.
>While I'm not aware of anyone actively doing this, it would go some way
>towards explaining the clicking noises.
Could be. But I think the simplest explanation is that they were using a
numbers station and format already known to shortwave listeners. In 2006,
the FBI had a look around the spies' Seattle apartment. The fact that
messages were being recorded in an apartment at all means that the station
used is probably not DX for North America. The spiral notebook with blocks
of random numbers means hand copy.
The FBI complaint mentions a 2009 intercept for the spies instructing them
to "prepare the radio equipment" for "test RGs". That sounds more
complicated than hand copy from a portable radio. Based on the FBI's
definition of an radiogram, as quoted by Paul, that would mean the digital
RGs began between 2006 and 2009 and were probably still experimental.
More information about the Spooks
mailing list