Anyone familiar with Numbers Stations?

Johnny D. Mudd

I'm not sure what I should do with this but if I must be mocked or ignored then okay. I'm sure there are a good few of you out there who are familiar with this strange and unexplained weirdness. Well I'm bringing this up because I have this app on my laptop called Hamsphere which is basically just a virtual radio. It's pay for use though so you can only really avail of a trial period. Well I'm on that trial period now and I was just messing about on it tonight, seeing what I could find. I'm not an avid ham radio user but I'm really just seeing what I could see. But I have actually managed to find a numbers station using Hamsphere and managed to record it to Audacity. I'll put it here in case any of you want to hear it. It's a little crackily and skips in parts but you get the gist:

Numbers Station Recording.

After a bit of research, I found out that this particular recording is known as "Cherry Ripe" and it supposedly had a more well-known cousin called the "Lincolnshire Poacher", receiving it's name from the interval that plays at the beginning of the transmission. I don't know if anyone is interested in this but I didn't know what else to do and just wanted to share it. It's pretty much going on all night. Anyway, if anyone wants to link their own then okay. So, yeah...

Barry Badrinath

Still a few live ones knocking around.

Tbh, most ones broadcasting are civilian mock broadcasts...especially the more "elaborate" ones.

Johnny D. Mudd

Yeah, couldn't tell ya which one's are legit. I know that this one supposedly went off the air back in December 2009.

Barry Badrinath

Johnny D. Mudd wrote: »

Yeah, couldn't tell ya which one's are legit. I know that this one supposedly went off the air back in December 2009.

Theres actually a forum set up with more or less up to date frequencies.if you went on a brief bit of a Google.

They are an incredibly usefull tool, even today. Tbh, especially in this day and age. Coupled with a Slidex or Cryptex etc its one of the few ways to send / recieve messages without a digital trail or threat of a "hack".

Ted Plain

I thought they were only used by the Russians and East Germans and only ever heard of them in connection with the Cold War.

The East German one was called 'Magdeburg Annie'.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4buFLqjvTjA

B.A._Baracus

I watched a few documentaries about numbers stations myself. Find the whole process about it interesting. But what's amazing is that in this day and age of technology... broadcasting a signal for anyone to hear, but for one to decode is still very much safer than using digital communications.

What's even more interesting is who are these messages going out to.

Lady Spangles

Johnny D. Mudd wrote: »

After a bit of research, I found out that this particular recording is known as "Cherry Ripe" and it supposedly had a more well-known cousin called the "Lincolnshire Poacher", receiving it's name from the interval that plays at the beginning of the transmission..

Are you sure the Lincolnshire Poachers is just its "cousin"? It sounds exactly like it, down to the same folk song and voice reading out the numbers.

buried

Good collection of them here

The Conet Project detailed here

https://irdial.com/conet.htm

Hande hoche!

That reminds me that John Cusack has been rivaling Bruce Willis for bad films as of late.

arybvtcw0eolkf

I haven't really listened to numbers stations in over twenty years tbh.

I had a passing interest because of my job (at the time), plus I'm a licensed HAM operator although I'm no longer active.

I have a shortwave receiver which I use for AM broadcasting DX but the golden days of SWL'ing are long gone.

Duff

The numbers, Mason! What do they mean?!

Capt'n Midnight

Jordy Verrill wrote: »

I thought they were only used by the Russians and East Germans and only ever heard of them in connection with the Cold War.

One was traced to the British base in Cyprus . . .



If they were used to transmit messages to spies then one advantage was a spy could pick them up with a commercially available radio so no incriminating evidence.

Also it's a cheapish way to pretend to have agents everywhere.


Nowadays encryption and stenography mean you can end messages via the interweb with denyability.

Capt'n Midnight

Duff wrote: »

The numbers, Mason! What do they mean?!

well

42 is the answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe, and Everything"