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Receiver OWVL Cold War Sony
Portable short-wave receiver
The ICF-2001D was a portable solid-state LW, MW, SW and FM
receiver,
also known as a world receiver,
made by Sony
in Japan around 1980. Although it was a commercially available
civil-class receiver, used by many people world-wide,
it played an important role in international espionage.
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The ICF-2001D measures less than 29 x 16 x 5 cm and is powered by
two AA-size cells and three D-size cells. It has a built-in telescopic antenna
at the top and a digital readout at the front. The device is commonly operated
on its back, tilted
by a bracket at the rear. This gives the optimum
viewing angle for the LCD display.
The ICF-2001 can be powered by an external 4.5V DC adapter, or by the internal
batteries. Alternatively, a 12V adapter cable was available to allow the
radio to be used in a car. It was available in 3 different basic versions
(types) [A].
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Furthermore, there were at least five country-specific models, each with their
own frequency ranges.
The device fully covers the LW and MW broadcast bands
in AM, plus the VHF FM broadcast band (87-108 MHz). But the actual purpose
of this radio is the Short Wave band (SW), that is available as one contiguous
range from 2250 kHz to 30 MHz (26.100 MHz on some models).
The ICF-2001D was succeeded in 1983 by the
ICF-7600D,
and in 1986 by the slightly improved ICF-7600DS,
both of which have a general coverage from 153 kHz to 30 MHz (except for the
German version which stops at 26.100 MHz). They were also popular in the
espionage tradecraft.
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Radio's like the Sony ICF-2001D
and the Grundig Satellit 2000
were very popular in the 1980s.
During the summer holidays in a far away country, it allowed people to listen
to the international broadcasts of their home country.
In those days, most countries operated such a service on the SW bands,
for example the BBC World Service. From the early 2000s onwards,
most countries have gradually phased out their SW broadcasts,
although the BBC World Service has remained in operation on analogue
and digital platforms, broadcasting
24 hours a day in 28 languages [3].
FUNF, DREI, SIEBEN, ACHT, VIER...
Radio amateurs and SW-listeners will probably remember the mysterious
number stations
on the SW bands. A female voice that was reading endless sequences
of seemingly random numbers for 24 hours a day, often in German or Russian.
During the Cold War, many such numbers stations
were operated by the secret
services of the former Eastern Block countries, such as
Russia (USSR),
East Germany (DDR),
Hungary, Czechoslovakia
and Romania. The numbers were actually coded
messages for their secret agents and spies that operated undercover in the west.
In many cases the agent used a commercial receiver like the ICF-2001D
for the reception of such messages.
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The ICF-2001D has a clear and well-organised control panel that is located at
the front of the unit or actually at the top when it is placed horizontally
on the table. The main power switch is at the left side, with an additional
switch to the left of the display. It also allows timer operation.
The display
consists of three sections: the real-time clock (left), the
frequency readout (centre) and a signal strength indicator (right).
The frequency tuning dial is in the upper right corner. it can be
operated from the top
as well as from the right.
A slider at the right edge controls the volume.
The largest part of the control panel is taken by the keypad which roughly
consists of five sections. The 32 black keys at the centre serve two
purposes. They may be used to directly select one of the memory presets
(8 presets divided over 4 banks). In combination with the blue shift button
at the bottom left, these keys are also use to select the desired frequency
band.
Above the black preset buttons are the MODE selectors. They allow selection
between the FM and AM bands. In AM mode, the remaining buttons are used
to select the desired modulation type (wide, narrow, sync, USB, LSB and CW).
The row of brown keys just below the display are used for timer operation.
The three white buttons at the left are used to activate scanning.
The 11 white keys at the right can be used to enter the desired frequency
directly.
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The ICF-2001D is a true general coverage receiver, which means that the entire
frequency span is available as one contiguous range. Any frquency within its range
can be entered directly on the keyboard or can be selected with the tuning dial.
Depending on the model/country, the following variants are known. Check the front
panel of your radio to see which one you have.
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- 150 kHz - 30 MHz
- 150 kHz - 26.100 MHz
- 150 - 285 kHz and 530 kHz - 26.100 MHz
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- 76 - 108 MHz
- 87.5 - 108 MHz
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- 116 - 136 MHz
- Not available (button missing)
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- Available
- Not available (USB LSB/SW buttons missing)
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- Terminal available
- Not available
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The ICF-2001D covers most broadcast bands on Long Wave (LW), Medium Wave (MW),
Short Wave (SW) and Ultra Short Wave (here called FM).1 On some models even
the Air Band is available. Note that the gaps between the short-wave broadcast
band are also covered by this receiver.
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- 150 - 285 kHz, in 3 kHz steps
- 531 - 1620 kHz, in 9 kHz steps
- 530 - 1620 kHz, in 10 kHz steps
120 m 2250 - 2550 kHz 90 m 3150 - 3450 kHz 75 m 3850 - 4050 kHz 60 m 4700 - 5110 kHz 49 m 5900 - 6250 kHz 41 m 7000 - 7400 kHz 31 m 9400 kHz - 10 MHz 25 m 11.500 - 12.150 MHz 21 m 13.500 - 13.900 MHz 19 m 15 - 15.700 MHz 16 m 17.450 - 18 MHz 13 m 21.350 - 21.950 MHz 11 m 25.570 - 26.100 MHz - 76 - 108 MHz in 50 kHz steps (type 1)
- 87.5 - 108 MHz in 50 kHz (type 2)
- 116-136 MHz (AM) in 25 kHz steps 2
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The Ultra Short Wave band (76-108 MHz) is officially designated the Very
High Frequency band (VHF), but is better known as FM (Frequency Modulation)
after the wide-band modulation art that is commonly used in this broadcast
band.
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The AIR band is just above the FM broadcast band and is only available
on certain models. AIR broadcasts are generally in AM (Amplitude Modulation).
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The ECF-2001D as a spy tool
Due to its small size, its high sensitivity and the fact that it was
battery powered, the ICF-2001D was often the receiver of choice for East-European
spies operating in West-European countries during the Cold War. In many cases,
Eastern-Block espionage agencies, such as the KGB,
the GRU
and the Stasi,
gave their western spies money in order to buy such a receiver in a local shop.
The receiver was used by the spy to listen to the East-European
number stations
that operated on the Short-Wave band (SW).
Hidden in the numbers were secret messages and instructions for the spy,
that were encrypted with the unbreakable One-Time Pad.
Once the spy had decoded his message, he would destroy it and carry out his
mission. Messages were sent back to the spy control centre by means of a
courier, dead letterboxes or a clandestine
spy radio transmitter.
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An example of the use of this radio is the case of Guy Binet (1934-2000),
a Belgian Air Force colonel, who was recruted in 1986 by the Soviet Military
Intelligence Service, the GRU.
On the first meeting in Vienna with his handler,
GRU General Glazkov, he was given a
Minox EC spy camera.
He used the camera to photograph secret NATO
documents and delivered the films
to the Soviets in Vienna in January 1987. That same week he was trained in
decrypting secret radio messages. He received a
One-Time Pad cipher
(hidden in black Snowman marker) and a frequency table.
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He was also given a large sum of cash and was instructed to buy a
Sony ICF-2001D on his return to Belgium [1]. Every second and forth Tuesday
of each month, Binet had to listen to the coded messages that were transmitted
by the mysterious numbers stations
on the SW radio bands.
Sadly for Binet, the
American Intelligence Agency CIA
had photographed his
first meeting with Glaskov in Vienna [1] and tipped-off their Belgian
colleagues of the SDRA III,
after which Binet was arrested. By that time however,
Binet had been spying for the Soviets for more than two years.
He became known as The Red Colonel [2] and was eventually sentenced to
20 years of forced labour and military degradation. After 5 years in prison
he was released on parole and died in July 2000.
➤ More about Binet's Minox EC camera
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Spying for the Cubans
Another example of the use of the ICF-2001D in international espionage,
is a series of cases against US citizens between 2001 and 2009.
In each case, the subject(s) had been spying for Cuba, and the
FBI found a Sony ICF-2010 (the US version of the ICF-2001D) in their
homes.
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The first case is that of Ana Belén Montes (28 February 1957) who worked
for the US Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA) as its most senior Cuban analyst [4].
She had been spying for Cuba since 1985 until her arrest in 2001, during
which time she had passed numerous documents and sensitive military
information to the Cubans.
Prior to her arrest on 21 September 2001, the FBI had searched her appartment
and found evidence of the use of One-Time Pade (OTP)
messages on her laptop.
Also present in the appartment was a functional Sony short-wave
receiver that was used to receive OTP messages. from the Cuban
Numbers Station
on 7887 kHz.
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Evidence for this was found on the Toshiba laptop that was found in her
appartment.
Although she had clearly been instructed by the Cuban Intelligence Service —
the CuIS — to run a special software program to wipe the data from her
laptop after use, she had failed to do so [5].
As a result, the FBI was able to recover a large OTP message, consisting of
150 five-digit groups.
According to author Keith Melton – a well-informed source on US
intelligence matters – she used a Sony ICF-2010 radio
[7], which is the US
equivalent of the ICF-2001D. In a
detailed paper of 2010,
researcher Dirk Rijmenants explains how the FBI cracked the seemingly
unbreakable OTP cipher, due to flaws
in the Cuban procedures [6]. In October 2002 – after pleading guilty
to spying – Ana Belén Montes was
sentenced to 25 years in prison without the chance of parole [A].
Similar cases are those of Carlos and Elsa Alvarez (caught in 2006 after
spying for 30 years), Marta Rita Velazquez, Gerardo Hernández
(one of the Cuban Five) and Walter Kendall Myers and his wife
Gwendolyn Steingraber Myers
(arrested in 2009 after spying for nearly 30 years). In all cases,
the ICF-2001D was used to receive the coded messages from Cuba's
Attención Station.
Interested in more stories? Check out the FBI 100 [8]
or the website Cuba Confidential [9].
➤ Dirk Rijmenents' paper about the Cuban cases
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In 1983, the ICF-2001D was succeeded by the much smaller
ICF-7600D,
and in 1986 by the slightly improved ICF-7600DS,
both of which have a general coverage from 153 kHz to 30 MHz (except for the
German version which stops at 26.100 MHz). In the image on the right the
ICF-7600DS is shown in front of the ICF-2001D.
Needless to say that these two models also became very popular items in the
international espionage tradecraft.
➤ More information
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- Kristof Clerix, Spionage, Doelwit Brussel
ISBN 978-90-223-2771-5. September 2013. pp. 47-48.
- Apache.be, De KGB in België (5): De Rode Kolonel
Website. 21 August 2011. Retrieved August 2014.
- Wikipedia, BBC World Service
Retrieved November 2014.
- Wikipedia, Ana Montes
Retrieved August 2015.
- John (AE5X), 'Numbers Stations' Spies on 40 Meters
1 July 2012. Retrieved August 2014.
- Dirk Rijmenants, Cuban Agent Communications, Failure of a Perfect System
2010. Edited 17 June 2013. Retrieved August 2015 from his website.
- H. Keith Melton, Ultimate Spy
p. 70. Retrieved August 2015.
- Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), FBI 100 - The Case of the Cuban Spy
Ana Montes (and more). Retrieved August 2015.
- Cuba Confidential,
Website. Retrieved August 2015.
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© Crypto Museum. Created: Friday 07 November 2014. Last changed: Friday, 14 April 2023 - 13:59 CET.
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