E23 – Swedish Rhapsody Numbers Station Profile

In 1998, the familiar G02a disappeared and was replaced with an English numbers station with the familiar voice of E05 in USB. This station became E23, the English “Swedish Rhapsody.” Though it was nicknamed this, the English transmissions never played G02’s signature music, and it had a slightly different format.

G02 has evidence from declassified documents that it came from Poland, but how and why did they change it to a broadcast that used the CIA’s voice? Simply put, Poland and the United States since the end of the cold war have been close allies.  The number stations likely shared voices from the CIA lending their voice tech to Poland.  Last observed in January 2007.

Message Recording

Interestingly enough in 1999 Poland also joined NATO, becoming a military alliance with them and other members. Who’s to say the CIA didn’t offer their equipment or services round up the old G02 agents and finishing up their missions using E23?

E23 Message Format

In the station structure, each of the 3 messages has a different header, the 3rd message has 50 message groups instead of 100.*

Preamble Each Message #1 – #3 with different data Outro
00000 11111
22222 33333
44444 55555
66666 77777
88888 99999
34554 34554
92627 92627
01932 01932
34554
34554
24298 24298
02824 02824 …
“End”
Counting 0-9
each number read 5x
3 Seperate
message headers
read twice
1st message
header read
twice
5-digit paired message groups
fixed length of 100 groups
Repeats 3x Repeats 3x

Numbers Station Summary

Nickname: Swedish Rhapsody
Activity:
Inactive
Emission mode:
USB, AM
Voice Summary:
Automated woman’s voice with American accent. Same voice as E05.
Believed Country of Origin:
Poland
Counterpart Stations: G02, M04
Station Family:
Family 11 “Swedish Rhapsody”

Sources

ENIGMA Newsletter Issue #15 (July 1998), Page 15
ENIGMA Newsletter Issue #39 (March 2007), Page 25