Secret message: SO6 Russian Man numbers station, 9205 kHz USB, on Tecsun PL-368

I haven't been chasing numbers stations for a while, so last night (Saturday 18 May) I spent some time looking for these intriguing spy signals. SO6, known as Russian Man, came through at 20:00 UTC.

These numbers stations are fun to catch, and the website priyom.org gives good information about each station. The transmission I picked up appears to be a real message (as opposed to short "null" messages that are sometimes sent out).

I don't speak Russian but I searched for information online to count from 1 to 10, and I tried to identify the numbers. To me it seemed to be 1-7-2, but a viewer who speaks Russian identified it as 8-4-2 (vosyem, chetirye, dva). I do hear that now. So my captions in the video are incorrect, it's not 1-7-2, but 8-4-2.

The S06 signal starts with the message ID, repeated for four minutes. Then the actual message, a string of numbers, follows. The transmission ends with five zeroes being read out.

The signal was not strong here at my location in Johannesburg, South Africa, but it is possible to hear the Russian numbers.

This video contains the full transmission, on the Tecsun PL-368 with a 10 metre wire. I recorded the sound on the Tecsun ICR-110.

00:00 About the Russian Man numbers station
01:42 Message ID: 8-4-2 (vosyem, chetirye, dva)
05:28 String of numbers
14:50 End of transmission, five zeroes