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Shortwave Number Stations

This subject still fascinates me, used to pick them up in 80's as a kid messing about with a normal radio, like many I now suspect that there was actually no one listening the purpose was to to make the other side think there was, are there any stations still operating I know it's a very secure way of communicating but it's a bit clunky.

If we take the premise that there was someone listening and decoding, does that mean that we have 1000's of sleeper cells all over the world? Just waiting for the right signal?
 
Robbrent said:
This subject still fascinates me, used to pick them up in 80's as a kid messing about...
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Some 25 years back, I bought a top-end Roberts radio with the SW band and attempting to locate obscure foreign stations became a pastime.

There is tremendous backgroud to your queries, on Wikipedia:

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_station

Slight aside, you have rekindled my fondness for same and I downloaded the radio.net app.

Great fun and presently listening to some Steely Dan in the background, courtesy of...

Screenshot_20200605_145339_resize_87.jpg


You can even set a station as your alarm. :nods:
 
I am interested in the concept of sleeper agents, there were rumours in the 80's that the Soviets had buried arms caches all over the UK (how they did it, I don't know but the UK has very porous borders) ready to be dug up by their sleeper agents.

The concept that someone who has totally assimilated into the population that no one has a clue as to who they really are, listens every night to his/radio waiting for instructions fascinates me
 
I always assumed they were non Russian agents....Brits or Americans..etc....because most if not all of the broadcasts are in english.
?
 
Robbrent said:
I am interested in the concept of sleeper agents, there were rumours in the 80's that the Soviets had buried arms caches all over the UK (how they did it, I don't know but the UK has very porous borders) ready to be dug up by their sleeper agents.

The concept that someone who has totally assimilated into the population that no one has a clue as to who they really are, listens every night to his/radio waiting for instructions fascinates me
Click to expand...

l know for a fact that the Russians buried radios in the English countryside for use by sleepers, as l remember a report in a national newspaper of one being dug up. This was the Seventies or Eighties, IIRC.

Here’s an account of one found in Wales in 1960.

Another found very recently in Germany:

fDiXhE2epcxHKus8LqTd7N-320-80.jpg


maximus otter
 
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maximus otter said:
l know for a fact that the Rusians buried radios in the English countryside for use by sleepers, as l remember a report in a national newspaper of one being dug up. This was the Seventies or Eighties, IIRC.

Here’s an account of one found in Wales in 1960.

Another found very recently in Germany:

fDiXhE2epcxHKus8LqTd7N-320-80.jpg


maximus otter
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No, this was done by Cromerians attempting to earth the sets.
 
On the subject of sleeper agents, an acquaintance of mine who works for a local authority, pert of his role is trying to trace family of people who have died leaving no contact information, he told me of a case of a elderly gent who died alone in his flat (apartment) he did not have much in the way of possessions, a TV etc and a short wave radio, using the name he went by they tried to trace him, he was using an assumed name records of him (work etc) went back about 40 years, given time and finance limitations they did not dig much further and he was cremated

My acquaintance said that his contacts in other places come across this quite regularly

My theory is that there was a network perhaps numbering the many hundreds of sleeper agents planted in the UK, some would have been sympathisers, but a proportion of them would have been Russians, just waiting for their orders, in the event of a war their role would have been sabotage

When the Soviet Union collapsed some went back others especially if they were from the Eastern Block were stranded here and die in anonymity taking their secrets to the grave
 
Late to the party.
I'd never heard of the 'phenomena' until I listened to a Radio 4 documentary online about it.
I find it combines 'creepy', 'fascinating' and 'suspicious' at the same time.
I immediately started to 'scour' my memory if I remembered listening to such on my radio (yes, I'm of that generation) and questioned myself if I had actually heard it.
It 'sounds' familiar, if you see what I mean.
 
@Stormkhan...careful.

Puzzled by your personal partial paradox. You say...
Stormkhan said:
Late to the party
Click to expand...
.....and yet:

Stormkhan said:
if I remembered listening to such on my radio (yes, I'm of that generation)
Click to expand...

I've been at the party since shortly after the invitations were never sent....so, if I may, I shall ask you to clarify what you say:

Up until the advent of the public internet, the only people who knew anything about numbers stations (other than the actual originators & recipients) were
  • radio amateurs (cf 'hams', and not all of them);
  • "shortwave" radio enthusiasts (often an entirely-parallel tribe from the formal world of radio hams) and, over the years;
  • a tiny irregular contingent of casual citizens who (out of curiousity) stumbled across numbers stations with what were cheap, barely-functional so-called 'multiband radios'.
Which category is the closest match for you? (I apologise for perhaps appearing to be either pedantic or patronising, because I'm not meaning that in the least).

Your response may elicit from me an entirely-different followup post as a consequence of what you say....
 
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Ermintruder said:
@Stormkhan...careful.

Puzzled by your personal partial paradox. You say...
.....and yet:



I've been at the party since shortly after the invitations were never sent....so, if I may, I shall ask you to clarify what you say:

Up until the advent of the public internet, the only people who knew anything about numbers stations (other than the actual originators & recipients) were
  • radio amateurs (cf 'hams', and not all of them);
  • "shortwave" radio enthusiasts (often an entirely-parallel tribe from the formal world of radio hams) and, over the years;
  • a tiny irregular contingent of casual citizens who (out of curiousity) stumbled across numbers stations with what were cheap, barely-functional so-called 'multiband radios'.
Which category is the closest match for you? (I apologise for perhaps appearing to be either pedantic or patronising, because I'm not meaning to be in the least).

Your response may elicit from me an entirely-different followup post as a consequence of what you say....
Click to expand...
One group missing there Ermintruder old bean. Spies.
 
Robbrent said:
On the subject of sleeper agents, an acquaintance of mine who works for a local authority, pert of his role is trying to trace family of people who have died leaving no contact information, he told me of a case of a elderly gent who died alone in his flat (apartment) he did not have much in the way of possessions, a TV etc and a short wave radio, using the name he went by they tried to trace him, he was using an assumed name records of him (work etc) went back about 40 years, given time and finance limitations they did not dig much further and he was cremated

My acquaintance said that his contacts in other places come across this quite regularly

My theory is that there was a network perhaps numbering the many hundreds of sleeper agents planted in the UK, some would have been sympathisers, but a proportion of them would have been Russians, just waiting for their orders, in the event of a war their role would have been sabotage

When the Soviet Union collapsed some went back others especially if they were from the Eastern Block were stranded here and die in anonymity taking their secrets to the grave
Click to expand...
Sounds like the cold war all over again. The USSR was famous for such activities, that's how they got the A-Bomb.
 
The cold war never really went away. The Russians and the Chinese have their agents hard at work right now, while the West dropped the ball.
 
Robbrent said:
I am interested in the concept of sleeper agents, there were rumours in the 80's that the Soviets had buried arms caches all over the UK (how they did it, I don't know but the UK has very porous borders) ready to be dug up by their sleeper agents.

The concept that someone who has totally assimilated into the population that no one has a clue as to who they really are, listens every night to his/radio waiting for instructions fascinates me
Click to expand...
If you have never seen the tv series The Americans, you really should. A family of deep cover soviet spies in 80s usa. Its very good.
 
Ladyloafer said:
If you have never seen the tv series The Americans, you really should. A family of deep cover soviet spies in 80s usa. Its very good.
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I agree. It is a very under-rated show that just happened to be released while we had a glut of top quality viewing and never quite got the traction it deserved.
 
Jim said:
Sounds like the cold war all over again. The USSR was famous for such activities, that's how they got the A-Bomb.
Click to expand...
It was the Cold War Jim, I am not sure if they use sleeper agents nowadays
 
Ladyloafer said:
If you have never seen the tv series The Americans, you really should. A family of deep cover soviet spies in 80s usa. Its very good.
Click to expand...
Yes I've seen it and enjoyed it, a little unrealistic in some parts the writer was inspired by the Anna Chapman case, although in real life that group were more Keystone Cops than James Bond

It gave a good insight into what was happening inside the Soviet Union as well which I thought was interesting, and it seems that the old Russian joke was true "What's Grey and eats Potatoes? The queue for the Butchers in Moscow
 
Robbrent said:
It was the Cold War Jim, I am not sure if they use sleeper agents nowadays
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Are you kidding? Yes, of course agencies still use sleeper agents. Every agent with a good cover is a hair's breadth away from being a sleeper. Any agent can be told to essentially "lie doggo" and infiltrate for a few years, and sleepers are just a more extreme version of that.
 
AlchoPwn said:
Are you kidding? Yes, of course agencies still use sleeper agents. Every agent with a good cover is a hair's breadth away from being a sleeper. Any agent can be told to essentially "lie doggo" and infiltrate for a few years, and sleepers are just a more extreme version of that.
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I get your point, but its a little more difficult nowadays isn't it?

There are so many background checks, in the past even in the UK it was possible to get a birth certificate but I think there is a lot more double checking, the last operation the Russians did in the UK it appears they flew if two agents rather than use assets on the ground

I am more interested in the legacy, those left behind, the hidden caches, or those that are still tuning into Numbers Stations every day awaiting orders that never come, it could be the kindly old couple up the road who keep themselves to themselves but are ready to jump in to action at the command of a string of numbers

There is also a Slightly Haunted Generation feel about it all, those of us who had our formative years in the 70s and 80s grew up in strange times

On the subject of hidden caches, I think it would be a great Fortean hobby in trying to find out where they are hidden (if they indeed ever existed) if they did exist I imagine there will be 100's if not 1000's hidden across the UK, and if they are there there should be some marker
 
Robbrent said:
I get your point, but its a little more difficult nowadays isn't it?

There are so many background checks, in the past even in the UK it was possible to get a birth certificate but I think there is a lot more double checking, the last operation the Russians did in the UK it appears they flew if two agents rather than use assets on the ground

I am more interested in the legacy, those left behind, the hidden caches, or those that are still tuning into Numbers Stations every day awaiting orders that never come, it could be the kindly old couple up the road who keep themselves to themselves but are ready to jump in to action at the command of a string of numbers

There is also a Slightly Haunted Generation feel about it all, those of us who had our formative years in the 70s and 80s grew up in strange times

On the subject of hidden caches, I think it would be a great Fortean hobby in trying to find out where they are hidden (if they indeed ever existed) if they did exist I imagine there will be 100's if not 1000's hidden across the UK, and if they are there there should be some marker
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Perhaps thats what @MorningAngel has buried in her garden!
 
Robbrent said:
On the subject of hidden caches, I think it would be a great Fortean hobby in trying to find out where they are hidden (if they indeed ever existed) if they did exist I imagine there will be 100's if not 1000's hidden across the UK, and if they are there there should be some marker
Click to expand...

How would you go about finding them though? The examples linked in post 307 were found by sheer chance, one by a farmer ploughing his field, the other by archeologists looking for remains of a Roman villa.

I suppose metal detectors could get lucky but the chances must be extremely slim.
 
hunck said:
How would you go about finding them though? The examples linked in post 307 were found by sheer chance, one by a farmer ploughing his field, the other by archeologists looking for remains of a Roman villa.

I suppose metal detectors could get lucky but the chances must be extremely slim.
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Perhaps you dowse for them (hides under the table)
 
I have been fascinated with numbers stations as well. It seems like old tech but, as such, it is the perfect place to hide in plain sight. That being said, I don't think all numbers stations are used for espionage as such. It would seem that some are used for navigational purposes - but perhaps by the world's submarine fleets. In any event, it is an intriguing window into the many, many dark ops that are in motion in today's world.
 
hunck said:
How would you go about finding them though? The examples linked in post 307 were found by sheer chance, one by a farmer ploughing his field, the other by archeologists looking for remains of a Roman villa.

I suppose metal detectors could get lucky but the chances must be extremely slim.
Click to expand...
Not to mention they may well be booby trapped!
 
Ladyloafer said:
If you have never seen the tv series The Americans, you really should. A family of deep cover soviet spies in 80s usa. Its very good.
Click to expand...
There was a UK tv series in 1991, starring Warren Clarke and Nigel Havers, called ... well ... "Sleepers". Rather jolly good!
 
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