G01 – The Tyrolean Music Station Numbers Station

G01, The Tyrolean Music Station was a very interesting numbers station when it existed.  By the way it sounded, the listener would assume it could have been another spy station run by the East Germans. However, this was not the case. G01 was surprisingly a French numbers station, operated by the Service de Documentation Extérieur et de Contre-Espionnage.

This station operated in the 1970’s, transmitting on 6425 and 6600 kHz on Saturdays and Sundays at 11:30 UTC. The messages were addressed to named agents in German, such as Hans or Helmut. G01 ceased operations in 1975, shortly after an article about the station was published in a french magazine called “Interferences.”

The way it was set up was purposely misleading, as it was sending coded messages to agents who were behind the Iron Curtain. Hearing the scales from the Communist anthem Internationale and Tyrolean and German folk music, one would hardly consider the French as a possibility. G01 and its variants emitted in AM.

G01 was also featured in Short Wave Magazine’s February 1994 edition on the “Off The Record” page where a listener revealed G01’s location:

“On the subject of spy stations, John Franklin of Ripley sheds some light on the Tyrolean music station, also mentioned in October. He, while in Germany, used d.f. techniques to trace this broadcast to Burgin what was then the German Democratic Republic. Bavarian folk music was followed not by numbers, but by phrases in German.”

Message Structure

Preamble Message Outro
Interval Music Plays Gutentag! Hans, Adolf,
Helmut
Hans, Adolf, Helmut Achtung, Achtung 92830 01839
43026 74821 …
Ende Ende
‘Internationale’ plays,
3 other songs could
also be played
A series of names
are read
Names are repeated Attention, Attention 5-Digit Message
Groups

G01a

G01a was a variant of G01 that sent songs other than Internationale in the intro.

 

G01b

G01b was another G01 variant that also has irregular tunes in the interval. This variant also replaced the 5 figure numbers with phrase messages. These phrases are likely cryptic messages.

Message Sample

A recording of G01b from 1971 is included on The Conet Project (labelled only as G01) gives an example of the message. The transmission read:
Helmut grüßt Franz. Guten Tag. Die Größen sechundzwanzig bis zweiunddreißig passen mir gut. Die Sonne scheint herrlich. Unsere Henne ist dabei ein Ei zu legen. Alles Gute. Auf Wiederhören.

The translated the message says:
Helmut greets Franz.
Good day/Hello.
The size 26 to 32 fit me good/well.
The sun is shining marvelously.
Our hen is about to lay an egg.
All is good.
Until I hear from you again/Goodbye.

 

Numbers Station Summary

Nickname: The Tyrolean Music Station
Activity:
Inactive
Emission mode:
AM
Voice Summary:
Pre-recorded voice of a man. Readings sound live read, but the voice has been used by other number stations.
Location:
Chartres, France

Sources

ENIGMA Newsletter Issue #3 (October 1993), Page 6
Simon Mason’s Website ‘G1 Tyrol’
Priyom – Long-lost evidence shows G01 run by French SDECE
Short Wave Magazine February 1994 “Off the Record”, Page 66