Iranian radio is broadcasting nonsense signals. It’s an old Cold War trick

Iran is using this system to communicate with its spies throughout the Middle East. Although the system was used by the CIA, the most famous case is that of the USSR, and analysts do not exclude the possibility that the US is communicating with informants inside Iran.

A mysterious radio emission originating in Iran, which repeats number sequences in Persian without any sense apparent, aroused the interest of military analysts.

The enigmatic sign is reminiscent of the historic Cold War numerical radiosused by information services to communicate with spies through encrypted messages that are practically impossible to decipher.

According to , transmission began to be detected shortly after that of the United States and Israel against Iran, on February 28.

According to observers monitoring radio signals, a male voice interrupts the static, repeating the Persian word Tavajjoh three times (“attention”), before reading long strings of numbers with an almost mechanical cadence.

Experts identified the signal as a ““, a type of clandestine communication system used throughout the 20th century by agencies such as CIA, the KGB is the Stasiwhich transmitted numbers or coded words that could only be interpreted by agents in possession of the key adequate.

The method is surprisingly simple. A spy only needs a shortwave radio and a key notebook to transform the numbers heard into understandable instructions. For anyone who does not have this code, the transmission is nothing more than a succession of meaningless numbers.

It is precisely this simplicity that explains its effectiveness. Unlike modern digital communications, this system leaves no electronic trace and is extremely difficult to intercept or neutralize, since anyone can tune the signal without revealing who the real recipient is.

In fact, analysts do not exclude the possibility that the issuance is actually directed at informants from other countriespossibly from the USA or Israel, active in Iran.

In recent days, the signal will have been target of interference attempts through electronic noise, probably coming from locking systems. Even so, the transmission continued without significant interruptions, changing frequencies — a usual strategy in this type of clandestine transmission.

Former heads of intelligence services consider it possible that the objective is to maintain the contact with possible informants inside Iranat a time when access to the internet and other international communications may be being restricted by the country’s authorities.

Numerical sequences can be used to activate waiting agentsorder evacuations to meeting points or coordinate covert operations related to the conflict. The signal may also have a psychological purpose: insinuate the presence of high-level infiltrators within the Iranian system.

The “number stations” were one of the most disturbing phenomena radio during the Cold War. For decades, thousands of radio amateurs recorded artificial voices, repetitive melodies or strange phrases that preceded encrypted messages intended for secret agents deployed in enemy territory.

Although many of these emissions disappeared after the fall of the Soviet bloc, some never stopped operatingnote or .

Countries like Russia, Poland, Taiwan or North Korea continue to use similar systems, considered by intelligence services to be an extremely reliable communication tool.