NumberStation 'E11' - "Oblique" in 'stereo' (2 broadcasts compared)
Channel: JELmusic
Date: 2020-03-24

#Enigma #NumberStation #E11 #Oblique

Enigma ID 'E11' CodeName "Oblique" in stereo! (Probably a world's first, LOL :D )

So... 'E11' repeats its messages on different days and I recorded 2 of them on 2 different days and tried to combine them to see how closely they match.

I placed one recording in the left audio-channel and the other in the right audio-channel.

They sync perfectly, with no time-drift between them.

What does that tell us?

That they are (Most likely) not mechanical tape-recordings, but not a whole lot else :)

Now, computers also existed during the 'cold war', and have at least been readily available for 30 years now, so the fact that 'E11' emits what is most likely a digitally produced signal is not indicative of anything really ground-breaking.
For all we know 'E11' might use an old Amiga computer from 1989 :)

If we put our tinfoil-hat on for a moment we can't even be sure 'E11' is manned. It could be a forgotten computer running an automated procedure in a forgotten bunker somewhere in Poland (My own Commodore64 from 1984 still ran, with all original parts, in 2019 :) )

Anyway, whatever the purpose of 'E11' (And why the word "Oblique" is even mentioned. Should it be capitalized as a name or be lowercase because it is perhaps not meant as a name?), we can tell that it is safer than, for example, 'E07' "English Man" from Russia, since 'E11' repeats each single 5-digit number 3 times per broadcast, while 'E11' only repeats its 5-digit number once per broadcast.

If these 5-digit numbers are critical for the recipient to copy correctly, then speaking them only once is clearly very dangerous.

With both 'E11' and 'E07' I have tried to manually copy the numbers 'LIVE' during the broadcast-sequence, and in both cases I was not able to copy all numbers without repeating playback of the sequence.

I used a computer where I typed the spoken number into a text-editor as it was read aloud, and when messages go on and on and on and on at some point you just screw up and hit a wrong key and break concentration.

And during a LIVE broadcast, if you sit with a tiny transistor-radio in a dark car in a dark alley while the rain pours down on the roof, you obviously can't rewind and correct.

And then there is obviously also the joy of HF-fading to add to the fun package, which actually made 1 single digit, out of more than 1000 digits in total, unreadable in the 20 minutes long recording of the Russian 'E07'!!!

Imagine that an important, perhaps even time-critical, order, made up of more than 1000 single digits, carefully selected by the broadcaster, is lost because 1 single digit could not be heard clearly by the recipient.

So if a recipient does not have a computer or any means to play back the broadcast, then the risk of jotting down some incorrect numbers on their paper-pad, or whatever they perhaps use, appears to be very high (Unless I am just exceptionally bad at this of course :) )

So my guess is that these 'messages' can not really be very high priority in the 'bigger picture' of things.

But then again, we have all heard that EAMs can be used to launch nuclear missiles... and frankly they are not a whole lot better* (Although I AM able to copy those LIVE without error, so maybe we can not really read too much into all this)

*EAMs are always repeated twice per broadcast, and the strings are short and not mesmerizing long sequences that hypnotize you slowly (Which both 'E07' and 'E11' does)

Maybe we can conclude nothing more than that the USAF is perhaps just smarter than the 'enemy' :)
Or maybe they just try to avoid risky behavior more.

Who knows...
Does not stop us from speculating though :)

As always; if you have any idea what these messages could be, feel free to comment.

Perhaps ideas about what the numbers actually cover.

Does the 5-digit sequence perhaps refer to pages and words in some book? (Maybe the 3 first digits are the page and the 2 last digits the word?)

Are they encrypted in a more involved way? (Which can not be more involved than what a field-operative can decrypt, and most likely decrypt without a computer (At least if the same encryption-system is used now as may have been used during the 'cold war'))

Are the 5-digit sequence just a cover? (Maybe the numbers pair in other ways than 5)

One of the interesting things is that both Poland and Russia use these 5-digit sequences, which, when remembering their joint past in the Soviet-Union but now being adversaries, is somewhat odd (Unless the numbers are using some encryption system that hides the message even to those who may understand the system of the 5-digit sequence)

The possibilities are probably endless :)

These 2 recordings were recorded on 20200321 & 20200322, same time of the day, same frequency, so 24 hours apart but otherwise identical.
You can see this in the video if you look at the time-stamps that pop up on the left side of the 2 spectrums (Or spectra if you prefer) (In UTC time)