I agree that our discussions on the BBSs are secure, and probably our outgoing transmissions are also. But the Others, since they have the communication codes, must be able to receive the incoming transmissions from the probes. They know we're here -- they know the probes are talking to someone, and they have a good idea how many someones. It's good that no one is using their real name in probe messages.
Do they care about us? Probably not -- they will think we're just playing games. But if we turn the probes against them, and they can tell from the incomings that we did this, then they may care. It seems clear that they have just started transmitting overnight. The probes would have mentioned them before if they had been around.
We can't communicate on weekends because of the way we are "stealing" bandwidth. Parker and Hardon may not have this limitation...
-E