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Shortwave Number Stations

Stormkhan said:
There was a UK tv series in 1991, starring Warren Clarke and Nigel Havers, called ... well ... "Sleepers". Rather jolly good!
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I remember that. Theyd been sleeping for 20years and were accidently outed and recalled when 'up-comrades' unionist working class northerner, clarkes, kid finds his spy radio in the loft and turns it on, and he contacts former partner posho yuppie havers. Neither of them want to leave their cover lives and so go on the run.
 
This would make a good mini drama series: aging sleeper agent, dragging out a drab life of waiting, waiting, waiting each day by an ancient radio; each drab day full of existential angst: what is life's meaning besides serving the soviet era ideals when the USSR is dead? It doesn't bear questioning! And then, another character, living a full and messy life, and dabbling in dowsing/beach combing with metal detector/gardening/refurbishing garden of old property recently inherited, crosses paths with the sleeper, who must jump into action without orders, must leap into the void where no one is left to give commands, must do what they never had to dream of doing, think for themselves without guidance! just to protect their cover and not fail their mission. HBO, are you listening?
 
gordonrutter said:
I’ve heard recordings of number stations but I don’t think I have ever listened to one broadcast live. Until now. I must go and start my mission and it’s a really chilling thing! I’m sensing it could be very addictive!
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There are not as many nowadays but the odd ones are still around, its still the most secure way to communicate with your agents albeit a little cumbersome, it also gives the impression that you have agents in the field, I was wondering if quantum computing power could be the final death knell for them?
 
Robbrent said:
There are not as many nowadays but the odd ones are still around, its still the most secure way to communicate with your agents albeit a little cumbersome, it also gives the impression that you have agents in the field, I was wondering if quantum computing power could be the final death knell for them?
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There seem to be enough to pretty much keep you occupied during an entire day

http://priyom.org/number-stations/station-schedule
 
I know numbers stations are regarded as creepy, especially if listened to late at night, but this breakdown is actually quite funny:

It's like someone pulled the plug accidentally and it wound down. Like hearing a balloon deflate.
 
Doing a little more research on this over the last few days, and there are still plenty of active stations especially operating from Russia, China North Korea and Cuba

I am guessing that they still have plenty of agents still in the field, or that's what they want you to think
 
This story highlighted by @stu neville :
News story

Tells of the recent hacking of The Buzzer number station, which presumably was a joke, but could have come at the worst time considering war is brewing in Ukraine. Does anyone know if the other number stations have been broadcasting differently thanks to the current crisis? Not necessarily hacked, but it Yosemite Sam still furious? Is the Gong still going wonky?
 
Though clandestine, some stations have been used by security operatives. On Sept. 22, 2001, the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency's senior Cuba analyst, Ana Montes, was arrested. She was known to be receiving messages via Cuban numbers stations.

Ana Montes has just been released.

Ana Montes - among the best-known Cold War spies caught by the US - has been released from prison after more than 20 years in custody.

The 65-year-old spent almost two decades spying for Cuba while employed as an analyst at the Defence Intelligence Agency.
After her arrest in 2001, officials said she had almost entirely exposed US intelligence operations on the island. One official said she was among "the most damaging spies" caught by the US.

Michelle Van Cleave, who was head of counter-intelligence under President George W Bush, told Congress in 2012 that Montes had "compromised everything - virtually everything - that we knew about Cuba and how we operated in Cuba. So the Cubans were well aware of everything that we knew about them and could use that to their advantage. In addition, she was able to influence estimates about Cuba in her conversations with colleagues and she also found an opportunity to provide information that she acquired to other powers."

After her arrest, Montes was accused of supplying the identities of four US spies and oceans of classified material. She was handed a 25-year prison sentence, with the sentencing judge accusing her of putting the "nation as a whole" at risk.

However, unlike other high-profile spies caught during the cold war, Montes was motivated by ideology, not personal gain. She agreed to work for Cuban intelligence in part based on her opposition to the Reagan Administration's activities in Latin America.

In particular, a report from the defence department's inspector general found, she is believed to have been angered by US support for the Nicaragua Contras - a right-wing rebel group suspected of committing war crimes and other atrocities in the country.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64200872
 
I'm fascinated by the numbers stations mystery - I briefly get the shivers when I hear them. And I'm still puzzled by someone being arrested for receiving messages from them - anyone listening to them could be considered as receiving them and they could make up anything from them. I assume that the 'code' had to be broken in order to link the listeners comprehension of the message?
 
I don't listen to short wave any more, but when I did the closest I got to a numbers station was CHU Canada, which broadcast nothing but the time of day in English and French along with one-second pulses. Wonderfully monotonous.
 
Yes, it was just to point out to Stormkhan that she wasn't arrested simply for listening to number stations.
 
Honestly, it wasn't asking why the announcement was on this thread.
I was just interested in that the number stations was used to communicate to her and that they'd had to decode the signal and prove her 'message' was one that was broadcast.
Could this open the way to making sense of the remaining stations?
 
Stormkhan said:
I assume that the 'code' had to be broken in order to link the listeners comprehension of the message?
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There's no code, so it can't be broken. The agent listens in and if they hear a certain phrase, they look that up in the book only they have and it says there what it means. Unless you have the book, you'll never be able to work it out.
 
I remember accidently finding all sorts of weird broadcasts on my radio as a child in the 70s/80s in the UK. Apart from weird noises, numbers etc, you could also stumble upon what seemed to be the police. I was shocked. I imagine criminals probably used the frequency to check on the police....

I presume the number of these stations probably decreased during the 80s/90s and other methods of communication were used instead.
 
Earthly oddity said:
…you could also stumble upon what seemed to be the police. I was shocked. I imagine criminals probably used the frequency to check on the police....

I presume the number of these stations probably decreased during the 80s/90s and other methods of communication were used instead.
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One used to be able to listen in to police VHF transmissions using just a household radio. These were the “main set” radios fitted to police vehicles.

Handheld radios used UHF - shorter range - and were far more difficult for the layman to monitor.

In the late Nineties the police changed over to Airwave radios using TETRA. IIRC it’s seriously encrypted, so best of luck trying to listen in.

By the time of the changeover from “steam radio” to Airwave, l was most definitely not “at the tip of the spear”, but my Force still wasted time and money sending a bunch of us old-timers out to a local park with these phaser/ tricorder/ ansibles to try and teach us how to use them. Wotta larf! Twenty hairy-arsed Seventies street bobbies wandering round, giggling, doing all the clichés: “Broadsword calling Danny Boy!”, “ ‘Allo, ‘allo, this is Night ‘awk calleeng”, etc.

Total WOMBAT.

maximus otter
 
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