G13 – Five Dashes German Numbers Station

G13 was a cooperative numbers station maintained by the CIA and the West German BND during the Cold War for destabilization operations.  It used a German military radio variant for 2 and 9, read as “zwo” and “nuenen”.  The 9 variant is ‘nuenen’ (pretty much sounds like ‘niner’).  In February of 1991, the voice drastically changed.  It followed mostly the same format, but emphasized some numbers such as 5 more heavily.  The emission mode is unknown, but was probably USB.

Message Recording

G13a

G13a was a variant of G13 that did not repeat the message groups.

Message Structure

In the 3 figure ID given in the intro, the middle digit indicates the traffic validity of the message.  If the middle digit is even, then a real message will be sent.  If it’s odd, then the traffic is made up of random numbers.  G13 was identified as a CIA station since it followed G05‘s format so closely.  The 5 figure group was thought to be a decoding key or OTP reference ID.

Preamble Message Repeat Outro
948 948 948 71667 122 Five 1 kHz beeps 459-01 874-23
946-22 …
Ich wiederhole 459-01 874-23
946-22 …
Ende
3-figure ID for
traffic validity
One-time pad
reference group
Group count 5-figure single groups,
pauses after the third digit.
 “I repeat” 5-figure single groups,
pauses after the third digit.
Repeated for 5 minutes

Numbers Station Summary

Nickname: Five Dashes
Activity:
Inactive
Emission mode:
Possibly USB
Voice Summary:
Automated woman’s voice. Slow reading and smooth transition between numbers.
Believed Country of Origin:
West Germany
Family Relatives: E13
Station Family:
Family 4 “Five Dashes”

Sources

The Conet Project – G13 Recording
Simon Mason’s Website “E13 G13 Five Dashes Station”
Secret Signals by Simon Mason (1991) – Archived Web Version
ENIGMA Newsletter Issue #1 (1993), Page 3