The spooky world of the 'numbers stations'

Locutus

Locutus

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Jun 18, 2007
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via Fark

If you ever owned a shortwave radio back during the Cold War, you probably remember those creepy 'Number Stations' where a child or woman's voice would utter random numbers, presumably code for field agents. FARK: They're still on the air

This is the era of hyper-tech espionage, encrypted emails and mindboggling cryptography. But you can hear a very old-fashioned form of espionage on shortwave radio.

It is 13:03 on a Tuesday in a cramped room with some fairly advanced radio equipment. What is suddenly heard on a shortwave receiving station is a 10-minute message in Morse code.

There is a small community of aficionados who believe messages like this are a throwback to the era of Cold War espionage. They are the mysterious "numbers stations".

At the apex of the Cold War, radio lovers across the globe started to notice bizarre broadcasts on the airwaves. Starting with a weird melody or the sound of several beeps, these transmissions might be followed by the unnerving sound of a strange woman's voice counting in German or the creepy voice of a child reciting letters in English.

Encountering these shortwave radio messages, many radio hams concluded that they were being used to send coded messages across extremely long distances. Coming across one of them was a curious experience. Radio enthusiasts gave them colourful names like the "Nancy Adam Susan", "The Lincolnshire Poacher," "The Swedish Rhapsody" or "The Gong Station."


more dull skuggery


BBC News - The spooky world of the 'numbers stations'
 
Blackleaf

Blackleaf

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I remember reading about these on the internet on my mobile when I was lying in bed one night a few weeks ago when someone in a scary film I was watching mentioned them. I got well spooked out.

They are creepy, usually involving a mysterious woman's voice babbling what sounds like (to us) gobbledyook, often with strange music and other strange sound effects in the background.

There are several theories as to what they are, ranging from the creepy (that they are distress signals from those lost in the Bermuda Triangle) to the more plausible (that they are secret messages for spies).

Probably the most famous numbers station is the Lincolnshire Poacher, which first appeared in 1988.

"The Lincolnshire Poacher" was the nickname of a mysterious, powerful shortwave numbers station that used two bars from the English folk song "The Lincolnshire Poacher" as an interval signal. The radio station was believed to be operated by the British Secret Intelligence Service and emanated from the island of Cyprus. Amateur direction finding had linked it with the Royal Air Force base at the British Overseas Territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia, Cyprus, where several curtain antennas had been identified as being its transmitter.

It consisted of an electronically synthesised English-accented female voice reading groups of five numbers: e.g. '0-2-5-8-8'. The final number in each group was spoken with a lifted voice. It is likely that the station was used to communicate to undercover agents (spies) operating in other countries, to be decoded using a one-time pad.

An Asian numbers station of identical format is believed to be broadcast from Australia, and nicknamed "Cherry Ripe". It uses several bars from the English folk song of the same name as its interval signal. As of July 2008 the Lincolnshire Poacher seems to be inactive, although Cherry Ripe continued to be on-air until December 2009.

But even knowing that they are likely used by spies, they still send shivers down your spine when listening to them alone at night.

The Lincolnshire Poacher

Lincolnshire Poacher Numbers Station - YouTube

http://www.thelincolnshireregiment.org/music.shtml
 
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S

Sal

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I get so caught up in my own life at times that I forget that this type of thing isn't just in spy books.
 
lone wolf

lone wolf

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I remember hearing Morse Code beeps buried in CHUM AM radio's signal. It all sounded very spy-like - until we learned it was an antenna problem with a neighbour's ham set
 
Blackleaf

Blackleaf

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I bet there are spies out there, though, who read threads like this about their numbers stations and laugh at us for thinking they are creepy.

That's if they ARE for the use of spies, though.

Having said that, although no broadcaster or national government has ever admitted to operating one of these stations, in 1998 Britain's Department of Trade and Industry (which was dissolved in 2007 and which, at that time, was responsible for regulating radio broadcasting in the United Kingdom) told the Daily Telegraph: "These [numbers stations] are what you suppose they are. People shouldn't be mystified by them. They are not for, shall we say, public consumption."
 
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