Introduction
Who
was responsible for what must have been the most unusual of the many
numbers stations? Many published sources make categorical
pronouncements about the origin of the transmissions. However, an
analysis shows that the evidence is inconclusive.
The
European Numbers Information Gathering and Monitoring Association
(ENIGMA) have allocated the reference G1 to the station. In this
article, to avoid any confusion the Tyrolean Music Station will be
referred to by the abbreviation TMS.
East Germany?
Many sources repeat the assertion that the TMS was operated by the State Security Service (the Stasi) of the former East Germany. This belief appears to be based on several pieces of information. First there is the suggestion, of unknown origin, that the pirate radio broadcaster Radio Northsea International (RNI) transmitted some Tyrolean music after the end of night programmes.1 Also, it was proved at the Lockerbie bomb trial that the operator of RNI, the Mebo company owned by Meister and Bollier, supplied electronic timers used by, among other customers in the intelligence community, the Stasi.2 Then there is the report that a former RNI disc jockey, Andy Archer, alleged after his dismissal that a transmitter on the radio ship Mebo II was used for some unspecified secret purpose. However, the author of an article about Archer’s allegation states that his own monitoring of transmissions from RNI revealed that speeded-up audio was used for ship-to-shore communication with the operators of the station, on mundane matters such as technical information regarding the transmitters and requests for replacement components.3 It could be that this means of communication was used on the Mebo II because telecommunications administrations withheld official ship-to-shore radio facilities from RNI as was the case with other unauthorised offshore radio stations.
The
writer of another article states that at his location in the
Netherlands reception of the RNI short-wave transmissions was poor
(the author presumably being so close to the transmitter as to
experience the skip-distance effect) while other numbers stations
were regularly received at good strength. (It is assumed that the TMS
is included in those other stations received by him since he refers
to it in the article). 4
Why
would the Stasi need to establish a transmitter in the North Sea when
a short-wave transmitter within East Germany would provide good
coverage of western Europe? If the Mebo II was used for the
alternative purpose of gathering signals intelligence, it would
surely be inadvisable to arouse suspicion by engaging in any
clandestine transmitting activity from the ship. Also, from a radio
engineering perspective it would be inappropriate to locate sensitive
receiving equipment on board a ship where close proximity to a
high-power medium-wave transmitter and two medium-power short-wave
transmitters would be likely to cause breakthrough and thus impair
reception.
France?
An alternative explanation frequently repeated is that the TMS was run by France’s former external intelligence service, the SDECE.1, 5 This view is based on a report in a French radio publication Interférences issued in 1975, that the source of the TMS transmission was in the Chartres region. One anonymous individual states that he heard from a private source that the station was operated by the SDECE, although no other evidence from the source is mentioned.6 The unsurprising suggestion that French agents were trained in the use of radio is also used to support the idea that France operated the TMS.1 It is said that the TMS ceased operation on being discovered, but why would a state operating a numbers station need to conceal a transmitter located within its own territory? It is of no consequence if the source of the signal is identified. The key feature of a numbers station is that the target country and recipient of the message remain unknown.
Interférences was a quarterly review of
electronics, information control, and pirate radio. Its publisher and
editor was Antoine Lefébure, who now describes himself as an author
and consultant in new technologies. He took part in the 1968
demonstrations in France, and later campaigned against the state
monopoly of radio and television. 34
In March 2020, following a request to Priyom, apparently an online group of radio enthusiasts who monitor and
document the activity of numbers stations, one of their participants succeeded in finding a
copy of the magazine. The author of the relevant article has the
initials BC, and elsewhere in the publication Lefébure refers to his
co-author and friend Bernard Chenal as the source of most of their
material on numbers stations. The Priyom researcher traced Chenal,
who confirmed his authorship of the article. He stated that the TMS was run by the SDECE and was
directed at agents behind the Iron Curtain, and possibly also at a
dissident anti-communist group. Chenal also stated that the TMS
ceased operation almost immediately upon publication of the article.
The article, titled Espionage
and Radio, includes
only this brief reference to the TMS: "Information
not confirmed: a station broadcasts Tyrolean music on 6425 Khz
between 11h 30 and 11h 40 . It would be an SDECE station located in
Chartres and the Tyrolean music represents the key to a message. This
is possible because the spying technicians use a means of
transmission called "emission breves". Chenal then describes speeded-up morse code, although it is not clear
whether he is suggesting its use by the TMS. At
the end of the article the frequency and time of operation of the TMS
is listed with a question mark after the letters SDECE. Chenal clearly states that the information is not confirmed. Further, his
use of the phrase “would
be”, and
the question mark, suggest that he was not totally convinced at the
time of writing that the SDECE were responsible. However, the Priyom
researcher
states
that Chenal’s source is “sound”. Without any further
information it is impossible to assess the reliability of Chenal’s
source, or
whether
it was the source or Chenal himself who made the connection to the
SDECE. 35 (See Part 5 for a translation of the full article).
The following contribution was made to an an online forum in 2014: "The Chartres, France site was DF'ed in May 1972, just looking at a report of this by Larry Magne at the time, there was another French DX'er Michel Dubernat, IIRC his name correctly, who did a regular clandestine magazine involved in finding it. But the information, which was in limited circulation DX magazines, didn't find its way outside of those for some years." 40 (Michel Dubernat was a French long-distance television enthusiast whose death was reported in 1978 37. It is not known whether he produced a publication about clandestine stations). The contributor was contacted in 2020. Having then read the previous draft of this analysis mentioning Bernard Chenal, the contributor conceded that Chenal may have been the named individual involved in tracing the transmissions. An archive listing the content of various radio related publications shows that from 1968 to the early 1970s Bernard Chenal from Nancy founded L'Association des DXers de Langue Francaise and published the monthly magazine Panorama DX in French. 38 The contributor's recollection is that the transmission site was traced by monitoring close to Chartres, the implication being that reliance was placed on monitoring signal strength rather than direction-finding. The contributor was a member of the British Association of DX'ers, a group of about 50 members including the American short-wave enthusiast and publisher Larry Magne. The contributor has a copy of Issue 36 of the association's fortnightly publication Bandspread, dated 3 May 1972, which contains the following report from Larry Magne in response to an item by Jan Tuner of Sweden in the previous issue speculating about the location and purpose of the station: "6425v Thanks to recent DF studies in Europe whatever this station is used for it is not located in Austria but near Chartres, France. It is allegedly run by French intelligence but that and other details are still a bit shakey." The contributor has been unable to find other relevant issues of Bandspread.
The only evidence
linking France with the TMS consists of:
(1) Vague
information of unknown origin, first published in February 1972 in a
study of clandestine stations by Larry Magne, one of the
participants in the study being Bernard Chenal. 17(See below for further detail about that study).
(2) A contributor
to an online forum who recalls information gleaned through membership
of the British
Association of DX'ers
that the
station was traced to Chartres by methods not described, and with the
possible
involvement of Bernard Chenal.
(3) An article
published in 1975 by Bernard Chenal, in which he states that there is
unconfirmed information about the TMS, and suggesting that it would
be an SDECE station in Chartres.
(4) A recent
statement by Bernard Chenal through a third party, now allegedly
saying categorically on the basis of a source only described as
"sound" that the station was operated by the SDECE, but
without any other information to support this claim.
Without at least some description of the methods and equipment used, it is not possible to reach any firm conclusion on the significance of the report about the tracing of the station. Chenal might understandably be apprehensive about revealing the identity of a human source of information. However it would be reasonable to expect him to describe the general nature of the source, and to confirm whether this source is the same one on which the 1975 article is based. If this source is not in fact a new one, then Chenal might explain how he has moved from the speculation of his 1975 article to his certainty today.
None
of the evidence is sufficient to conclude that the TMS
was operated by an intelligence agency of East Germany, or France, or
indeed any other recognised state. The amateurish nature of the
transmissions suggests the opposite. The transmissions were heard
only at weekends and for short periods, suggesting limited time or
resources, or a need to avoid detection, while most numbers stations
were on air constantly. The transmissions featured technical
hitches7, and I recall the
occasional burst of mains hum. Unless the transmissions formed part
of some elaborate deception, then it
appears unlikely that the TMS was a professional operation.
Other
Evidence
I remember hearing the TMS about mid-1969, some months before RNI started transmissions. The transmissions at 1130 UTC consisted of four pieces of music. The carrier would remain on for a few minutes after the end the transmission, and there was no speech or interval signal. I once heard the transmission at 1900 UTC, and this was identical to the morning transmissions with the addition of three words or names repeated after the music.8
There
are reports which appear to describe the TMS long before the
existence of RNI. In 1963 the Benelux DX Club newsletter carried a
brief article on numbers stations.9
This article includes a description of a transmission on 6420 KHz and
6640 KHz at mid-day, consisting of distorted music, both
pop/classical with “short messages in numbers”, and “yodle”
(sic) music with “short messages in words”. In 1966 the
same newsletter’s monthly reception reports include a report by a
Dutch listener about an unidentified station heard on approximately
6500 KHz with German speech and “yodel” music.10
Conflicting
Suggestions
Several pieces of conflicting information about the location of the TMS can be found. An American publication from the 1970s is cited as saying that the location was probably around the Swiss/French border.7 That suggestion is repeated in an ENIGMA newsletter.11 A contributor from the UK to Short Wave Magazine claims that while in Germany he traced the TMS by direction-finding to Burg in East Germany.12 In response to a subsequent enquiry from ENIGMA, the same individual contributed additional information based on his recollections from some 20 years previously (about 1973). He stated that a friend of his in Gottingen had been able to deduce that the TMS was located in or near Burg. How that deduction was reached is not explained. No further details are given about the direction-finding exercise. The contributor noticed what he thought was a form of automatic level control, which rendered extraneous hum and noises audible during periods of no modulation. (This observation might be explained by the fading commonly experienced with long-distance short-wave radio propagation via the ionosphere; signal peaks may have coincided with periods of no audio modulation). On more than one occasion the contributor heard a faint signal superimposed on the TMS. The interfering signal was found to be an East German propaganda broadcast from one of two powerful medium-wave transmitters at Burg. The contributor concluded that this indicated a co-location with the TMS transmitter.13 However, there are several other conditions that might generate the superimposed signal, such as spurious response in a receiver, particularly when in close proximity to the unwanted transmission. In the absence of detailed information about the location of the receiver, and the methods and equipment used, it is impossible to decide on the significance of the contributor’s report.
Another
contributor, from Germany, asserts in relation to the TMS that
“these” transmissions were operated by the Stasi (his use
of the plural may indicate reference to other transmissions as well
as the TMS) from a site at Konigs Wusterhausen near Berlin. No
evidence is provided to support his assertion. He says that the Burg
site never had a short-wave transmitter, according to station staff
there. However he says that that one of the Burg medium–wave
transmissions was heard in the background of various number
transmissions (although the TMS is not specifically mentioned in that
context), hence a rumour that the Stasi transmissions originated from
around Magdeburg (to which Burg is close), but he correctly explains
that this breakthrough could occur in audio equipment (which of
course includes the audio stages of a radio receiver).14
This appears to be the only other reference to the TMS being
affected by breakthrough of a medium-wave station from Burg, but once
again no information is provided about the locations of the listeners
experiencing this breakthrough. Could they simply have been close to
the Burg site when monitoring the TMS and other short-wave
transmissions?
An
item submitted to the ENIGMA newsletter provides hearsay information
suggesting that the UK authorities monitored unlicensed transmissions
around 6 MHz as these stations constituted an underground radio
network in which the radical activist Rudi Dutschke was involved. The
contributor says that it was implied that an unspecified numbers
station was involved. However, the editor of the newsletter adds that
the station was “almost certainly” the TMS but regrettably
provides no evidence to support that conclusion.15
Was The Station Tyrolean?
A
different suggestion is raised in two separate publications. In the
1973 edition of Guide to Broadcasting Stations, the list of
short-wave broadcasting stations includes Radio Freies Tirol (Radio
Free Tyrol) on 6425 KHz.16 This
entry does not appear in earlier or later editions of the book. The
listings in the book include clandestine broadcasters (intended for
public reception) but not numbers stations. The introduction to the
book acknowledges that the lists of broadcasting stations were
prepared by the Tatsfield (UK) receiving station of the BBC.
In
his comprehensive study of clandestine broadcasters dated December
1971, Larry Magne includes an entry for Radio
Freies Tirol reportedly heard in Europe in 1971 on 6425 KHz and 104
MHz, operating at weekends from 1100 to 1140 and from 1900 to 2000.
The transmission is described as “German yodel music with no
announcements beamed from Austria to Tiroleans in Italy’s
German-speaking province of Alto-Adige/Sudtirol”.17
Magne lists a number of participants in his study
(including
a Bernard Chenal, presumably the author of the later Interférences
article). Magne cites
several secondary sources including the BBC, although the source of
data on each individual station is not specified. He includes
a statement that parts of the study were derived from copyright data
provided by the BBC Monitoring Service. The basic information about
station name and short-wave frequency is identical in Magne’s list
and in the 1973 edition of Guide to Broadcasting Stations. If
Guide to Broadcasting Stations is, as its publishers’
preface claims, based solely on data from BBC monitoring, then it
seems likely that the basic information about the station name and
frequency in Magne’s list also originated from the BBC. Did the
additional description provided by Magne also come from the BBC?
Someone, either at the BBC Monitoring Service or elsewhere, made a
connection between the TMS and Radio Freies Tirol, but how that
connection was made remains a mystery since there are no reports of
the TMS transmitting any material which would identify the station.
Papers of the BBC Monitoring Service are held at the UK National
Archives at Kew in London, but whether these documents contain
detailed notes on individual stations is not known and would require
further research.
Magne’s
list incorporates an addendum dated 26 February 1972 in which it is
said that Radio Freies Tirol “may be an espionage station in
Chartres, France”. No source is given for this information.
About
South Tyrol
Radio Freies Tirol was a clandestine broadcaster transmitting propaganda in support of South Tyrolean separatists, some of whom engaged in acts of terrorism. In 1972 Sudtirol was granted a greater level of self-government. 18 The separatists received support from sympathisers in Austria and Germany. 19 Recordings of material purportedly broadcast by Radio Freies Tirol are available online. One recording is contained in a documentary posted online by the current political party Sud-Tiroler Freiheit. The video depicts a tape recorder, with accompanying audio in various languages including English.20 Given the different languages used, it seems fair to assume that transmission on at least one short-wave frequency would be required to reach target audiences across Europe and maybe beyond. The audio quality is quite good and the recording may be the original source material used for broadcasts. Other broadcast material from the period 1965 to 1967 has been posted by Sud-Tiroler Freiheit.21 Although the recordings contain some short musical passages, none of the music sounds characteristically Tyrolean, and cryptic phrases or numbers are not evident in the recordings.
In
2018 in the city of Bozen, in South Tyrol, a permanent exhibition was
established about the history of conflict in South Tyrol, including
the activities of the Befreiungsausschuss Südtirol (South Tyrolean
Liberation Committee, abbreviated BAS). The associated website
contains much information about Radio Freies Tirol along with some
recordings of its broadcasts, which appear to be the same material
released by Sud-Tiroler Freiheit. One exhibit illustrated is the tape
recorder used by Radio Freies Tirol. Reference is also made to BAS
activists living in exile in Austria. Infiltration by the Stasi is
mentioned. It is said that broadcasts included opinion pieces on
current political developments, appeals to the populace,
announcements to the military, and coded messages to BAS task-forces;
that the radio station’s position was shifted frequently to avoid
being traced; that broadcasts were often sent from near the Austrian
border to facilitate good reception in South Tyrol (which does imply
the use of VHF); that the station was never discovered, and the
operators were never identified; that at first the broadcasts were
not powerful enough to reach South Tyrol; and that accounts by
several contemporary witnesses suggest that there may have been more
than one broadcasting station. 22
A
South Tyrolean news website reports a press conference announcing the
release by Sud-Tiroler Freiheit of the recordings. 23
A video recording of the press conference has been posted
online by Sud-Tiroler Freiheit.24
The news article says that Radio Free Tirol
operated from 12 December 1965 until the end of July 1967. It also
mentions that coded messages were transmitted to activists, although
the format of these messages is not specified. It appears that
the transmitter was initially located in the Innsbruck area of
Austria, and was moved constantly to avoid detection. Reception in
South Tyrol is said to have been poor. Another
article provides similar information, and states that the
transmission was on 97 MHz.25
An
article in an Italian publication describes an exhibition at Bozen in
2010 (possibly displaying some of the material used for the permanent
exhibition described above) commemorating activities of the
separatists. One exhibit is described as a “transmitter” used to
send ten-minute messages on Radio Freies Tirol.26
A page from a pamphlet, which appears to describe the same
exhibition, includes a photograph of a portable tape recorder with a
caption indicating that it was used for transmissions by Radio Freies
Tirol operating between 1965 and 1966.27
(This tape recorder may be the “transmitter” referred
to in the Italian article about the exhibition).
A
video documentary on the separatist movement includes a brief video
extract depicting the deployment of Austrian military personnel and a
broadcast from Radio Freies Tirol.28
An
article on the website of the German broadcaster Deutschlandfunk
concerns the role of the Stasi as agent provocateur within South
Tyrolean separatist activism, the strategy apparently being to foment
instability by falsely portraying the separatists as right-wing
extremists. Radio Freies Tirol is mentioned, although not with any
detail about transmissions. The escape by one activist to exile in
Austria is also mentioned.29
The
tape recorder shown in the video published by Sud-Tiroler Freiheit,
and in the exhibition photographs, was made by Uher. It is the
Reporter 4000-L model. Uher machines were known for their reliability
and were popular with reporters and in the film industry. These
recorders were also used by law enforcement and
intelligence communities. The Czechoslovakian intelligence
agencies used the Uher 4000 with an adaptor to provide speeded-up
audio to be transmitted in the electronic version of a “dead letter
box” 30 There is no evidence to
suggest the use of speeded-up audio by Radio Freies Tirol or by the
TMS.
Possible
Connection to the "Spruchnummer" Station
Comment has been made on the similarity of the male voice of the TMS and that of the “Spruchnummer” station (ENIGMA designation G20). 7, 31, 36 Listening to the recordings, I note particularly the pronunciation of the number zero. The other unusual feature common to both the TMS and the G20 station is the extensive use of music. Some contributors, themselves apparently German-speaking judging by names and other submissions to Simon Mason’s website, provide various descriptions of the accent. One describes the TMS accent as “unusual, possibly from Alsace”.1 He also describes the G20 accent as probably from Hungary although with some words pronounced much as Austrians do. Another says that the G20 accent is possibly Swiss-German or Austrian. A third listener is of the opinion that G20 “sounds Bohemian” as if a Slavic language speaker was speaking German, although pronouncing “E” like a Swiss citizen. 32
A YouTube video posted in 2023 attracted several comments about the male voice of G20. Alternative suggestions were a Hungarian speaking German, or an Italian speaking German. One contributor gave a detailed argument for the Hungarian voice. When asked if the G20 voice could be similar to a Tyrolean accent, they replied in the negative, and suggested that, as far as they knew, a Tyrolean accent would sound like a native Italian trying to speak Austrian German. 41
The Wikipedia
article on South Tyrol states that the majority
of the inhabitants of contemporary South Tyrol speak native
Austro-Bavarian dialects of the German language. 33
Could that explain the accent?
Concluding
Observations
The TMS was in operation long before RNI. The “Spruchnummer “ (G20) station was recorded as late as 1978 and possibly 1983 32, so if its operators were connected to the TMS then they were still active long after RNI ceased broadcasting, and after the revelation of the TMS in the 1975 publication of Interférences.
Stasi involvement cannot be ruled out completely. They were active in many areas. The suggestion of Stasi activity as agent provocateur within South Tyrolean separatism does illustrate that they could have played some indirect role in the TMS, although a transmitter site within East Germany would, if located by direction-finding, have revealed their involvement and compromised their activities.
While
a French intelligence organisation seems an unlikely source of the
transmissions, that does not preclude the possibility that the
transmitter was located inside France. It is possible that a group,
maybe exiles, unconnected with the French state, was responsible
for the TMS.
It
is tempting to think that the most likely explanation is that the TMS
was operated by South Tyrolean separatists. However, in the absence
of some definitive evidence it is ultimately impossible to reach any
conclusion about the source of these intriguing transmissions.
References
1.
Contributions to Simon Mason’s website
archived
at
2.
Het spionageverhaal van Andy Archer
3.
Lockerbie Trial Verdict, Paragraph 44
4.
Was RNI een cijferzender?
5.
Unattributed note cited in N&O column / Spooks newsletter, 61st
Edition, 3 June 2003.
http://www.cvni.net/radio/nsnl/nsnl061/nsnl61vs.html#g01
Available in zip format at http://www.numbersoddities.nl/no-newsletters.html
6.
ENIGMA 2000 Newsletter - Issue
29 July 2005
7.
DX Listening Digest 3-146, 14 August 2003. Editor: Glen Hauser
8.
The original four pieces of music are available at the start of the
audio at https://www.numbers-stations.com/ns/german/g01/
Some
pieces in this clip seem to have been truncated. The change in
background noise after the initial interval signal, and after the end
of the last of the four pieces, would suggest that this audio clip is
a composite of several recordings. Another composite recording from
the Conet Project is available at
The
four musical pieces are:
(i)
Der Böller-Schütz von Mittenwald
(ii)
Der Königsjodler
(iii)
A Feder am Huat
(iv)
Fensterljodler
These
versions are performed by Franzl Lang. It is not known if they are
the versions used by the TMS.
An
additional musical piece in some recordings of the TMS is Mein
Gruß Für Dich. The version by Franzl Lang is available on
YouTube with one comment posted under the recording stating that this
song was only used in occasional special
transmissions.
A
longer version of the Conet Project recording is available at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHdvEWQwfx8
which includes three more musical pieces:
Franzl,
noch a Gstanzl
Hochzeits-Jodler
Föhn
Jodler
9.
Benelux DX Club Monthly Publication, Volume 2, No 12 (Issue No 24) 1
November 1963 at Page 16
Three
other stations are also listed, on different frequencies but with
similar characteristics to the TMS. Two of those transmitted
distorted pop or opera music, while a third featured some accelerated
bars from the River Kwai march.
10.
Benelux DX Club Monthly Publication, Volume 5, No 7 (Issue No 55) 1
June 1966 at Page 55-06
11.
ENIGMA Issue 3 (text indicates issue in 1993)
12.
Short Wave Magazine, January 1994, Page 66
also
cited in ENIGMA Issue 5, Page 16
13.
ENIGMA Issue 6, Page 19
14.
ENIGMA Issue 11, Page 31
15.
ENIGMA Issue 17, Page 40
16.
Guide to Broadcasting Stations, 17th Edition, Illife Books,
1973
17.
Broadcasting Stations of Exile, Intelligence, Liberation and
Revolutionary Organisations
Larry
Magne, December 1971 including supplement 26 February 1972
19.
South Tyrol: A Minority
Conflict of the Twentieth Century, Rolf Steininger, Transaction
Publishers, 2003, Page 123
20.
Zeitzeugen der 1960er Jahre berichten: Inga Hosp und “Radio
Freies Tirol“
(Eyewitnesses
1960s report: Inga Hosp and "Radio Free Tirol")
English
extract after 17min15seconds of video.
21.
One example at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tyfiBXe-j1s
22.
Exhibition website https://bas.tirol/en/
A
virtual tour of the exhibition includes a video which contains a
German report (the intials BR at the introductory caption may
indicate Bayerischer Rundfunk TV) showing the use of a transmitter
and VHF antenna (at 58min 44sec of video)
Opening
of the exhibition reported at
23.
Süd-Tiroler Freiheit präsentiert Radio-Aufzeichnungen aus
den Bombenjahren
(South
Tyrolean Freedom presents radio recordings from the bombing years)
(Link broken as at June 2023)
24.
Pressekonferenz Vorstellung Radio Freies Tirol, Süd-Tiroler
Freiheit, 18 June 2013
25.
Piratensender Radio Freies Tirol aus Oberperfuß
(Pirate
Radio Station Radio Free Tirol From Oberperfuß)
Meinbezirk.at,
17 June 2013
26.
La mostra che celebra i terroristi:
cimeli nazisti e detonatori di bombe
(The
exhibition celebrating the terrorists: Nazi memorabilia and bomb
detonators)
Alto
Adige, 9 December 2010
27.
Page from unidentified publication held on website of Sudtirol News.
Undated
(Link
broken as at February 2020)
28.
Südtirol Feuernacht - Zwischen
Bomben und Autonomie
After
37 minutes 47 seconds of video
29.
Auftrag: "Konflikte verschärfen"
Die
Rolle der DDR-Staatssicherheit bei den Unabhängigkeitsbestrebungen
in Südtirol,
Michaela
Koller, 4 August 2007
31.
ENIGMA 2000 Newsletter, Issue 16, May 2003, Page 14
also
available at
This
Newsletter and the DX Listening Digest 3-146 (Reference 7 above)
suggest that the same voice appears on G19 and G20. This seems to be
incorrect. G19 accent is different, and the speaker on G19 uses “Nul”
and not the distinctive “Zero” of the TMS and G20.
In
the booklet accompanying the Conet Project recording of numbers
stations, at Page 18, the Signal Checklist based on data from ENIGMA
also states that G19 has the same voice as the TMS; however at Page
51, the notes on the recordings specify Russian intelligence as the
operator of G19.
Conet
booklet at http://irdial.hyperreal.org/www/conet_project_booklet.pdf
G20
recordings (male voice) at https://www.numbers-stations.com/german/g20-spruch/
and
at
and
at
archived
at
34.
Antoine
Lefébure’s web pages
Main
Page
About
Antoine Lefébure
About
Interférences (with list of contributors to the publication)
35.
Interférences , Issue No 3, Autumn 1975, p. 9 and front cover,
is reproduced at
where
the Priyom researcher also presents additional argument in favour of
the SDECE as the prime suspect. See also the Priyom page about the
TMS at
http://priyom.org/number-stations/german/g01
36. Contribution by R Grey at
https://www.numbers-stations.com/german/g20-spruch/
and his comparsion of voice at
https://soundcloud.com/android-157/g01-and-g20-voice-comparison
36. Contribution by R Grey at
https://www.numbers-stations.com/german/g20-spruch/
and his comparsion of voice at
https://soundcloud.com/android-157/g01-and-g20-voice-comparison
37. Television January
1978 p.20
Comment A: "As a native Hungarian speaker myself I can confirm that G20 definitely originated from Hungary. The accent and pronunciation gave it away way too much. It's a very bad attempt at speaking German. Also the number 0 is "null" in German but in Hungarian we use both "nulla" and "zéró" for the number 0. The number sequence at the end is "zéró, acht, zéró, zéró = 0,8,0,0" That's another give away, alongside the butchered pronunciation." When asked if Tyrolean accent could be similar: "No, these 2 accents are not similar. South Tyrolean would be a native Italian speaker trying to speak Austrian German (as far as i know). I recognize a Hungarian voice who tries to speak German which never learned the language from miles away. The Hungarian accent when they try to speak English and German are very noticeable because of our unique language and pronunciation of some of the letters. I never heard any other language which can say "zéró" this clearly and butcher the german word for 3 - "drei" this nicely at the same time. (We Hungarians speak to clearly and pronounce every letter, which makes it hard to speak and read on other languages.)"
Comment B: "G20 is a Hungarian speaking German. At least that is what this - pretty unmistakable - accent sounds like."
Comment C: "G20 is clearly a Hungarian speaking german"
Comment D: "G20 sounds like a native Italian speaker speaking German"
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