E10 – Mossad Numbers Station History and Profile

E10 was one of the most unique number stations that existed, as it employed letters read in their NATO phonetic equivalents rather than basic numbers. The station was reported sometime in the 1960’s or 1970’s using live voice announcers before switching to an automated female voice.

E10 was reported to broadcast from Israel’s capital Tel Aviv, having MOSSAD origins. Signals were noted to be intensely strong within the city. E10 transmitted in AM mode and were simulcast every hour and half hour on several frequencies (possibly to avoid jamming attempts).

3 letter call signs for this station were numerous, sometimes with suffixes to determine the status of the message. “1” indicated the transmission was merely a test, and “2” indicated a null message.

E10 Message Sample

There were 3 number stations types depending on the activity of a certain station ID:

Station Type Station ID’s Assumed Purpose
1 – High Traffic ART EZI FTJ JSR KPA PCD
SYN ULX VLB YHF
Typical day to day operations messages
2 – Low Traffic CIO MIW General or high alert messages
3 – Non Traffic BAY GBZ OEM NDP
TMS ZWL ROV HNC
Mission specific message or notice

The high traffic station ID’s were seen often on the usual daily schedules happening on the hour and half hour.  Low traffic stations usually did not send messages, most of the time following the no traffic transmission format.

The Non traffic station types seem to have never sent any messages, and were rare to see in the first place.  They were possibly used for a mission specific purpose or some sort of other unknown notice.  Some of the non traffic IDs could go years without being heard and then suddenly are used again.

E10 ceased its shortwave operations in March 2011. Its activity via other means is not entirely known, but it’s possible that Mossad switched to satellite or digital.

Numbers Station Summary

Nickname: Mossad
Activity: Inactive since 2011
Emission Mode: AM or USB
Voice Summary: Automated woman’s voice accented with odd pronunciation when reading some words. Live read voice was reported in early years of its existence
Believed Country of Origin: Israel

 

E10a

E10a was a Mossad numbers station variant that sent and alphanumeric string read in numbers and the typical phonetic (sometimes observed in times of political crisis).  It sends a 3 letter ID followed by the alphanumeric string.  It transmitted on the hour+15m and hour+45m schedules when sending messages.

Its most memorable transmission was sent March 15th, 2006 at 2200z, where it sent a message to an agent “Kilo Papa Alpha” with the string G1O2O3D4N5I6G7H8T. Removing the numbers from this string leaves the text ‘GOODNIGHT’.

 

Sources

ENIGMA Newsletter 15 (July 1998) Page 22
Simon Mason’s Website – E10 Mossad Page (Further Reading)