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all 6 comments

[–]GarlicAftershave[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Having listened live today and to a few recordings, I come away with the impression that this station is not being run very professionally.
1. Extraneous sounds- Windows system noises in some transmissions, which occasionally occur on other less-polished stations. This is a beginner-level broadcasting mistake.
2. Reports of L3Harris-esque plaintext warning tones in some transmissions. It suggests the operator wasn't using a heavy, fixed-type transmitter such as you'd have in a broadcast facility. It also points to a US, or US-supported, origin.
3. Repeat transmission on the same frequency many hours later. 7MHz propagation at 0200 is very different from 1800; why not follow the usual method of repeating slightly later, and on a different frequency?
4. The strange, irregular groups- if you can call them that. IMO it's the most unusual aspect of this station and would annoy our notional agent, who is supposed to be copying the ciphertext, to no end. I noted short groups, and groups which counted into the teens.

None of it adds up to a station being run with the professionalism we'd expect from the US, UK, Israel, or France based on their past history. And when has Iran used numbers stations? I think we need more TDOA.

[–]Morbid_Uncle 1 point2 points  (2 children)

Thank you for the links, I haven’t listened at all and have been very curious about all the commotion. Looks like the it broadcasts from western Europe so it’s got to be Mossad, right? I read that the US and Israel are arming Kurds in the north, maybe related?

[–]GarlicAftershave[S] 3 points4 points  (1 child)

We can't rule it out. My thought is that if V32 is from Israel, it's the first time in decades- or possibly ever*- that they've used a numbers station for agent communication. It's a pretty solid bet that Israel have been running agents and operations in Iran for decades, apparently without using one-way HF voice links up 'til now.

*We generally agree E10 was from Israel, but it's not clear whether it was for espionage or if it had a military purpose.

[–]Morbid_Uncle 2 points3 points  (0 children)

It to me signals a need for that type of communication. Obviously we know Mossad has agents in nearly every developed country on Earth, they’re spying on the US, they’re spying on Germany, they’re spying on the UK, they’re 1000% spying on their middle eastern adversaries and absolutely have an efficient mode of communication with their agents around the world.

That’s kind of why that’s where my head goes. The need to go back to that type of tech to me suggests they’re communicating with someone that isn’t able to practically access their usual mode of communication.

[–]tomhannen 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Please can someone link to the best TDOA analysis they have seen on this? If KiwiSDRs can all be used to run time-difference-of-arrival tests, and if there are quite a few KiwiSDR servers around Greece & Cyprus, *and* the signal broadcasts at the same time every day, shouldn't it be straightforward to get a better idea of where the station is broadcasting from?

[–]lamarsha622 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I find it odd to keep the same freq at 0200 vs 1800, even by the end of the broadcast at 1800 signal drops off quite a bit suggesting an origin in the region we suspect. By 0200 the signal at European SDR’s is barely readable. Tonight may listen in to some american or asian SDR’s.

Given the hype it is hard to even get into an SDR in the region close to broadcast time which hints at field agents with actual radios, or they didnt think the news would get out. Not changing up the time is odd. However somebody took it VERY seriously with the jamming, and the station clearly had a backup plan to move. The broadcasts themselves are excruciatingly long, which suggests no other comms method is in place. given the proliferation of encrypted chats it seems really “old school” at the same time high level enough to avoid decryption by the NSA who cant break one time pads.

The lack of structure and changing format even intrabroadcast, going from groups of two or three to singlets to long chains suggests to me transmissions from different departments, collapsed down into one broadcast.
I didnt think much of it in the beginning, but the ABC report grabbed my attention along with some other transmissions in that band that I have found but will not be revealing just in case they are part of an american or israeli op. call me old fashioned but whether i agree or disagree with whats going on dont want to put my countrymen in harms way. I think it may well be what ABC claims it is. If I tune in to an east coast US SDR and hear the broadcast loud and clear, that will be confirmation for me that it is Iranian, transmitting something, plans, updates or wake up calls to sleepers