Those creepy "numbers stations"

[Charlie]

Last night, I was toying around on the SW bands to see what was on. After running across the dial a few times, I came across one of those creepy numbers stations. I can usually find at least one on any given night. Listened for roughly 10 minutes, then finally turned it off cause it started giving me the eebie-jeebies!

I had a really good magazine article from years ago talking about these broadcast mysteries. Funny to think that after several decades of people studying them, they still haven't quite figured them out. Many people have theories, but, that's usually as far as it gets... just a theory.

For those of you that aren't familiar with what I'm speaking of, these stations are usually found somewhere on the SW band, and the braodcast is nothing more than a seemingly random series of numbers. They are usually called out in sets of five or the 3/2 pattern. May be in English, Spanish, or a couple of other languages.

I found a few good sites concerning these with a little info on the theories behind them if you'd like to read more...

http://www.dxing.com/numbers.htm

http://www.spynumbers.com/

http://www.fiu.edu/~mizrachs/SW-numbers.html

http://www.npr.org/programs/lnfsound...6.stories.html

I have two radios that tune them in really good. One is a small analog tuning 9-band sw radio from Rat Shack. The other is my 1941 Silvertone. Although I do not own one, I would think the Zenith TO sets are great at finding these broadcast.

I was wondering how many of you guys here have stumbled across them while tuning the dial? What kind of radio were you using? For the older generation SW listeners, can you remember how many years back it was when you first found one of these broadcasts? Also, was wondering if anyone here had any theories of your own as to what these are all about?

[mhardy6647]

Generally called "spy and numbers" stations, if you care to Google the subject :-)

[Sandy G]

Oh, yeah, I've heard 'em...Anyone who has a SW set & done more than turned it on has heard 'em. Prolly spies of some sort or another-but it was funny, after the Wall fell in '89, they actually increased. So who knows? Our Gummint will of course, neither confirm nor deny their existence.... They are kinda creepy, but some of the other chit you hear on the SW bands is out-there, too. I've heard 'em on my R-390As, & on my JRC-NRD-545. Makes you wonder what the Gummint is hiding from us...Like what's the NEXT model of the SR-71 ?!? Surely, they've got somethin' that makes it look like a T-model, like it did to everything else back in 19-fackin'-62, when it came out...-Sandy G.

These were in the news last year, in regards to the band Wilco using a sample from one of them and getting sued for it: http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,63952,00.html -- Foe

[mhardy6647]

Who sued 'em? ??!?!

[Ed in SoDak]

That shoulda been thrown so far out of court their farts couldn't be smelled.
-Ed

[Donny]

I figure these stations are for an end of the world thing (nukes whatever) and that the numbers are just ran through to show that the stations are operational. If the gummint told people this,everyone would freak out. As far as using it for spy stuff,wouldn't if have died out sometime in the 80's when computers started to get some power?

[shrinkboy]

did anyone see the episode of 'Lost' this week that concerned the fat boy's backstory, in which he became the possessor of a number sequence given him by his mentally ill friend, which he then used to win $110 million?....only to then discover that while he himself seems to be permanently protected from 'bad luck', he seems to be the bearer of it wherever he goes. it is also intimated that his presence on the plane may well be why it crashed.

the island they are on, in an incredible turn of TV only coincidence, turns out to be the source of the mysterious broadcast of the number sequence, with the closing shot being a fade out of the buried fuselage of a plane bearing that exact same series of numbers?

[Charlie]

Originally Posted by shrinkboy

did anyone see the episode of 'Lost' this week that concerned the fat boy's backstory, in which he became the possessor of a number sequence...

Oh man don't even get me started on that Lost... could have an entire new thread just on that one episode! I thought it was bad-ass! The number thing was really cool.

[Sandy G]

Not quite numbers station stuff, but still oughta make you sleep tight tonite-in late 1990, there was a lot of chatter on the gov't bands about "Faded Giants" & "Broken Arrows". Story came out later that that referred to compromised nuclear facilities. Seems like a bunch of Islamic terrorists in one of the "Stan" countries in the then Soviet Union broke into a Military base, killed the Russians & made out to parts unknown w/the nukes. We were lookin' for 'em, the Russians were, too, but I don't think they were ever found...Or maybe they were....Who knows? I'd venture if we really knew what's going on out there, most of us would likely dig a deep bomb shelter....-Sandy G.

[Fisherdude]

"Broken arrow" does indeed refer to a nuclear accident or release of nuclear material.

Regarding the numbers stations, they're legit, and actually transmissions for and between clandestine stations. When I was in one of my previous lives, I was a Russian interpreter/translator and military intelligence analyst. I spent some time at a radio intercept site in Europe, and my last year at NSA headquarters outside Washington. We frequently intercepted these transmissions, which were recorded and/or copied by hand when in morse code, and turned over to the cryptanalysts. The specific type of five-character groups were known as Cheney/Hornblende.

The bad news is that now that you've read this I'm going to have to kill you.

[Sandy G]

NSA= No Such Agency, correct ? <grin> I wanted to take Russian when I was in college, but soon got over it. Russian uses a totally different alphabet, completely different syntax, & it wouldn't have counted to my graduation requirements as a foreign language since it was only a half-year course. I think you had to have a "thing" for languages to really get anything out of the course, & I have trouble w/English...my 1st language is Hillbilly.-Sandy G.

[Fisherdude]

I was a senior in college majoring in EE when I went into the service. After three years away from calculus, I really wasn't all that thrilled about trying to get back up to speed, so I took my degree in Russian Language & Literature. Not the most useful thing I've ever done, but it does make interesting cocktail party conversation!

[skippy_ps]

I heard them about 20 years ago. Pop had a sw radio (don't remember freq or what kind of radio) in central TX and I listened for a few minutes once or twice. VERY WEIRD. I just assumed it was drug deals or maybe just some goofy guys.

Always keep Occum's razor (aka rule) in mind when dealing with this kind of stuff.

Murray

[asynchronousman]

Originally Posted by Donny

I figure these stations are for an end of the world thing (nukes whatever) and that the numbers are just ran through to show that the stations are operational. If the gummint told people this,everyone would freak out. As far as using it for spy stuff,wouldn't if have died out sometime in the 80's when computers started to get some power?

In the end, Donny, computer networks will be USELESS, telephones will be down, and the only way to communicate will be radio waves. Those codes will let them operate with impugnity as long as they cannot be deciphered in real time too, so even if they discover one of the transmittters (and they have at least once) they are completely secure. It's almost preposterous how "simple" the scheme is yet it can't be figured out by many smart people