V21 – The Cuban Babbler Numbers Station

V21 was a Cuban numbers station known for quickly reading it’s numbers.  It was strongly believed to be operated by their Air Defenses.  It’s schedules and transmissions were erratic, having common errors when read which is the usual for Cuban stations.  The voice is assumed to be read live since there are voices in the background and because of the operators pausing when reading numbers.  The last known transmission was February 1st, 2014.  V21 commonly transmitted around 1350 – 1440 UTC.

Message Recording

Sometimes, instead of having strings of numbers, there would just be counting instead.  The transmissions on 5637 kHz were always counting, while the others included strings of numbers.  When counting, the operator would count up to different numbers and would start back at 1 with no pause.  Sometimes an operator would pause on a number and pause on the same number after he/she restarted counting.  The highest number the operator counted to was not always the same either.

Example of The Babbler Counting

Pauses in the actual messages being sent were common too, possibly because the operator was unsure of what number to read.

V21 was known to broadcast on 6539 kHz and was transmitted consistently at 14:00 UTC in 2007.  A change in schedule to 13:00 UTC that year signified that the station might have the same Daylight Savings Time as the USA.  V21 was also claimed to be run by the Cuban Air Defense.

Numbers Station Summary

Nickname: The Cuban Babbler
Activity: Active
Emission mode: USB
Frequencies: 6529, 5637, 6539, 5673, and 5688
Voice Summary: Male and female, live announcer reading off words and numbers very fast
Believed Country of Origin: Possibly Cuba
Family Relatives: (Possibly) V02, V02a, V02b, M08
Station Family:
(Possibly) Family 18 “Cuban”

Sources

“6529 KHZ USB Cuban Babbler V21 Spy Numbers.”
The ENIGMA Control List 25 Page 13
“[Spooks] Re: [enigma2000] V21 Babbler Interesting? Observation.”
“V21 Analysis.” ENIGMA 2000 Newsletter 62 Page 40
Simon Mason’s Website Recordings