V01, The Skylark used a very well-known folk melody for it’s preamble music, known by nearly everyone in Romania. Which would pose no surprise that Romanian intelligence would use such music for their agents to find on their number stations. At the beginning of the hour in AM, the melody known natively as “Ciocîrlia” would play twice, and then the voice of a man would appear.
These voices are live or pre-recorded, as different men have been noted when V01 broadcasted. If there was no message, the announcer would simply say ‘terminat’ two or three times before the music resumed. If there was a message, 5 figure groups would be read in Romanian, ending with ‘terminat’. V01 had one variant with the ID V01a, which had an additional intro tune.
Message Sample
Message Format
| Preamble | Message | Outro | |
| Ciocîrlia (The Skylark) Music | 07204 | 05162 09433 85472 23842 … | Terminat |
| Repeated 2x | First digit is always “0”, the next two digits are the group count |
5-digit single groups | Repeated 3x |
Null Format
| Ciocârlia (The Skylark) Music | Terminat |
| Repeated 2x | Repeated 3x |
Schedule Times and Frequencies
The schedule changed over the course of V01’s life, but it used common frequencies and times when transmitting.
| Time (UTC) | Frequency |
| 00:00 | 5425 kHz |
| 04:00 | 6824 kHz |
| 18:00 | 5889, 6824 kHz |
| 19:00 | 5425, 5889, 6824, 8170 kHz |
| 20:00 | 4585, 5185, 5425, 5889, 6824, 7385, 8170 kHz |
| 21:00 | 5425, 5835, 6840 kHz |
| 22:00 | 3885, 4585, 5425, 5889, 6824, 6840, 8170 kHz |
| 23:00 | 5425 kHz |
List of Romanian Numbers
| 1 = Unu | 2 = Doi | 3 = Trei |
| 4 = Patru | 5 = Cinci | 6 = Şase |
| 7 = Şapte | 8 = Opt | 9 = Nouă |
| 0 = Zero |
Numbers Station Summary
Nickname: Ciocîrlia / The Skylark
Activity: Inactive
Emission mode: AM
Voice Summary: A pre-recorded male voice reading off numbers in Romanian.
Believed Country of Origin: Romania
Family Relatives: E06, E20(?), G06, S06, V06, M14, M24, M25
Station Family: Family 16 “Romanian
Sources
Secret Signals by Simon Mason, 1991
Simon Mason’s V1 Skylark Page
ENIGMA Active Stations List V1.3, Page 34
