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  #31  
Old 04-15-2005, 12:58 PM
heathkit tv
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Fast_Eddie
I had never heard of this. I work at a TV station and no one here had heard of it either. I pitched it to the News guys. We're doing a story about it next month! With all the increased concer over homeland security, it's just a neat thing that's going on in the world that I bet people would like to know about. Even if we don't really know much!

Thanks for the "tip"

Ed
Don't be surprised if the FCC "reviews" your station's license.

Quote:
Well, think about it. If you're in a less developed country undercover, a computer might stick out. But a radio doesn't look like anything odd. Say we have somone in a forgin country and the CIA needs to comunicate to them. They go in with nothing and can pick up a short wave radio once they are there. Cheap and easy. Getting a computer and internet access might be hard.
Very true...come to think of it, sometimes it's easiest to trip up high tech stuff with the most old fashioned and simplest methods. Perfect example, supposedly Al Queda has for the most part given up using satellite phones and gone to hand delivering messages!

Anthony

Last edited by heathkit tv; 04-15-2005 at 01:03 PM.
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  #32  
Old 04-15-2005, 02:32 PM
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DaWoofer DaWoofer is offline
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Maybe its somebody keeping track of vintage audio prices. (Secretly you know)
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  #33  
Old 04-15-2005, 02:36 PM
Wornears Wornears is offline
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Fisherdude:

I was approached by an NSA guy while in college. We were in a senior level Latin American government class. He was an older student in his 40s, and I had just returned from about a year working in Brasil and spoke fluent Portuguese and Spanish then. ('77). We had a very interesting conversation one afternoon when he asked me if I had ever heard of the NSA and considered working for them.

I had a "Secret" clearance at the time and had certainly heard of the agency -- I'd worked near some of those big "Elephant cage" listening antennae in AK, and also worked on Sheyma, AK island on the Aleutian chain where over-the-horizon ballistic missille detection radar (BMEWs, Cobra Dane) aimed at the Rooskies operated. I politely declined his offer of sponsorship.

I started college as a EE, too, but working overseas corrupted me and I graduated with an English degree with a Math minor. As far as my family was concerned (lifer USAF dad, and dutiful mom) -- I did the equivalent of applying for Russian citizenship. Took a looong time for that to get accepted.

Sandy G.: Having lived near USAF air bases all my formative years, and having a dad get called on alert more than once in the '60s, I got to experience those laughable "Duck & Cover" movies and exercises in elementary school. I can remember how we used to practice getting under our desks and pretending that was going to help protect us from all the blown-in glass.

When working on Shemya, AK we used to joke that the last transmission from there was going to be, "This is Shemya, we have an unidentified . . . . bzzzzzzz"

You can only hope it's that quick.

Last edited by Wornears; 04-15-2005 at 02:39 PM.
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  #34  
Old 04-15-2005, 03:07 PM
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My last security clearance was Top Secret, Cryptographic, Special Intelligence, Codeword. The next level up is what's known as compartmentalized, meaning that just because you have a necessary clearance isn't enough to get you access to that "compartment", you still have to have the "need to know".

The two worst duty stations on earth were Adak Alaska and Sinop Turkey. Luckily I was in Augsburg, Germany. Not bad at all!

I could have stayed on at NSA after my discharge, but the Baltimore/DC area is truly a horrid place to live if you're not wealthy enough to insulate yourself from the environment and surroundings.

One of the favorite phrases in ASA was: "In God We Trust...all others we monitor!"
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  #35  
Old 04-15-2005, 03:27 PM
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Hmmmmm. Always figured we have a few "spooks" here at AK-too bad you can't tell us more or you'd have to kill all of us.I sure would have like to found out WTF that place my bud saw over in the middle of nowhere in the Smokies was...and those strange tones/notes I heard on the phone that time were...peculiar.-Sandy G.
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  #36  
Old 04-15-2005, 07:09 PM
heathkit tv
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3 can keep a secret when 2 are dead.....or my spin on that:

4,353 can keep a secret when 4,352 are dead. More skulls for the collection that way! LOL Speaking of spooks, remember that movie "Sneakers"? I supplied the yellow Karmann Ghia for that and kept missing meeting Aykroyd by minutes!
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  #37  
Old 04-15-2005, 09:12 PM
Wornears Wornears is offline
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Let me tell you folks, when Fisherdude talks about Adak, AK as being a lousy duty station -- that place was "downtown." I think the Navy even had dependents stationed there at one time. The asshole of the Earth is Attu, AK -- the very last inhabited island of the Aleutian chain. [Can you believe that the Japanese actually landed on Attu and Shemya in WWII and we fought like mad dogs for those rocks?] Attu is/was(?) manned by about 15 Coast Guard guys who maintained a Loran C timing site -- we landed there before going to Shemya. Everybody showed up on the airstrip just for the human contact.

I also worked on the former Dew Line in the Canadian Arctic at a main station with about 35 people -- they had "out" sites where only three guys sat with radar gear in the middle of the ice between the main stations. Not too much to do up there --they used to show porno movies inside the radar domes while waiting for the Rooskies' missiles to come over the Pole -- your tax dollars at work.

I salute you Fisherdude -- I know a little about that level of clearance you had. I'd be surprised if they're not still following you around with that level of security access. People, when he "jokes" about if he told you something he'd have to kill you -- I don't think he's really joking that much...<G>
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  #38  
Old 04-15-2005, 10:14 PM
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The fella I've bought quite a few of my guns from was EOD & Intel in Nam, says even now he gets visits from folks from the "company". And he came back to The World in '72. Never anybody he knows, yet they always know him, & they'll never identify themselves, but will let it be known-very subtly-who they're working for.Just a certain word or phrase is all that is said. Very weird. But Jim's a licensed FFL dealer, & is above reproach.-Sandy G.
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  #39  
Old 04-15-2005, 10:33 PM
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Anyone who is interested in this stuff- go to npr.org and search for "numbers stations". They did a great report on it last year that you can listen too over the internet. I sent it to our News Director. That's what finally got me over the top in the story pitch. If you've never actually heard one, there are many examples in the report. I was rivited to it.

I got my son who turns 9 tomorrow to listen to the NPR report. He thought it was really cool too. I had to dust off my old boom box from the 80s with a short wave tuner in it. We didn't find anything, but he had a great time trying to tune it.

Anyone know of a decent short wave set that I could pick up cheap? I don't need anything good, but the old boom box doesn't pick up much and the tuner is way too sensative. Really easy to glide right over a station without ever knowing it was there. I would like to encourage the interest my son is showing. He likes to take speakers apart with me too! I even got him to tag along on a Thrift Store trip one Saturday. We have one in the making here! Never could get him too interested in cars though.

Take care,

Ed
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  #40  
Old 04-15-2005, 10:58 PM
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When I talk about Adak, AK being lousy duty, I'm just talking about places with electricity! For those who worked out of pup tents, yes, it does get worse!

Although in Sinop, just getting outside the perimeter fence was considered a good day.

When I got out I had to sign all kinds of documents promising not to leave the 48 contiguous states for one year, couldn't even visit Canada or Mexico. I wasn't allowed to visit any country with any form of communist government for 10 years. The idea was that by then whatever they tortured out of you was too out of date to be useful. It wouldn't have been that tough with me. Show me a nice redhead and I'll tell you anything!
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  #41  
Old 04-15-2005, 11:42 PM
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Mmmmm, Redheads.
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  #42  
Old 04-16-2005, 07:10 AM
Wornears Wornears is offline
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"I'm just talking about places with electricity!"

Ha! Amen to that.
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  #43  
Old 04-16-2005, 09:00 AM
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look at Grundig...

Grundig makes a range of SW radios that are apparrently all fairly good.

The "Yacht Boy" series are nice portables....

In Canada you can get them at Radio Shack
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  #44  
Old 04-16-2005, 12:07 PM
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This has nothing to do w/numbers stations, but its a neat story, & I don't know where else to put it. This old lady that was a big bud of my grandmother, ran a boarding house during the War. There were 3 guys who would stay with her every so often, they had a truck, & usually one would stay w/it, while the others would sleep inside. They'd spend the night, come back a day or 2 later, & then she wouldn't see them for a month or 2. This continued all thru the war years. Mrs Thompson got to know them fairly well, but never asked what they were doing. After the War was over, one of them came back & asked her if she ever wondered what they were doing. She said yes, but it wasn't any of her business, so she never asked. The guy said, "Mrs Thompson, we were going back & forth to Oak Ridge. Several nights, you had parts of the Atomic Bomb sitting in yr driveway !" She's long since gone, but her house is still there-about a block away from where I'm sitting as I type this. -Sandy G.
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  #45  
Old 04-16-2005, 01:21 PM
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She's long since gone, but her house is still there-about a block away from where I'm sitting as I type this. -
Glowing faintly...
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