Number Stations

[Banshee]

On our way from Skipton to York a few days ago my girlfriend pointed out a large group of what appeared at first to be hot air ballons in the distance, as we got closer they then looked more like golf balls, intrigued I googled it and found out that they were actually "radome" structures belonging to RAF Menwith Hill and are supposidly part of the ECHELON system used to monitor god knows what!!!!

I dug deeper and deeper and somehow got to the subject of number stations.Now i'd like to think I was quite educated on most things "radio" I'm into CB and for someone from my generation, spent a hell of a lot of evenings sat on random hills talking to random strangers giving rig checks and quality reports etc but I've never heard of these before but am now utterly obsessed with the subject and need to find out EVERYTHING about them.

I don't feel very well educated enough yet to explain them to others who know nothing about them but I will warn you, it's a really bizarre and freaky business and if I'm honest makes me feel very uneasy even researching them.

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

The Lincolnshire Poacher and Swedish Rhapsody are by far the eeriest in my opinion.

Does anyone here have any knowledge or anything interesting to add on these? I'm sure Jims Terrano will probably know a thing or 2 :nenau The strangest thing about them that I've found so far is that it was actaully made illegal in the UK in 2006 to listen to one of these broadcasts if you stumbled across it

And even if I don't find out anything more I hope I've at least got 1 more person as excited as I am to have discovered this subject :thumb2

 

[jims-terrano]

They are freaky but never heard one. Quite a few years ago there was some kind of documentary about them. Don't think Menwith had anything to do with them though. You may be a little young but i do remember on several parts of the HF spectrum you could hear a noise nick named the wood pecker, this was apparently a over the horizon rusian radar system. Lots of intriguing things on the radio mate.

Have just done a search and this is the documentary I was thinking of, google and youtube turn up lots of results.
https://youtu.be/Wvr6o7fBcTY

 

[Lazy-Ferret]

When I was (a lot) younger, I had a Rigonda stereo Radio/record player.

Even in the late 70's, this was a very advanced (for it's time, 1950's) stereo, with loads of radio bands. The internal aerial was able to be turned via a knob to improve reception, and the external aerial could be tuned for the relevant radio wave band. The other thing it had was electric tuning, using a motor, and two buttons to move the dial up and down the band. This motor could be either manual, or automatic, where it would tune up or down the band until it found a radio station and lock on, if this station went off air, it would then carry on and find the next station... This auto tuning was great listening to the pirate radio station, Radio Luxembourg, as that used to wander all over the place, but if it got too close to a stronger station, the radio would go off and find that instead.

Often I would flick through the bands, and it would find one of those number stations, but it was the days before the internet, so finding info was very hard. I knew this lovely old gentleman who was a very old radio amateur guy, and he told me they were spy stations... In the war, he was one of the few "Hams" who was allowed to keep his radios, and it was specifically to listen out for spy broadcasts and to monitor those number stations.

You have brought back some good memories there..

 

[Banshee]

When I was (a lot) younger, I had a Rigonda stereo Radio/record player.

Even in the late 70's, this was a very advanced (for it's time, 1950's) stereo, with loads of radio bands. The internal aerial was able to be turned via a knob to improve reception, and the external aerial could be tuned for the relevant radio wave band. The other thing it had was electric tuning, using a motor, and two buttons to move the dial up and down the band. This motor could be either manual, or automatic, where it would tune up or down the band until it found a radio station and lock on, if this station went off air, it would then carry on and find the next station... This auto tuning was great listening to the pirate radio station, Radio Luxembourg, as that used to wander all over the place, but if it got too close to a stronger station, the radio would go off and find that instead.

Often I would flick through the bands, and it would find one of those number stations, but it was the days before the internet, so finding info was very hard. I knew this lovely old gentleman who was a very old radio amateur guy, and he told me they were spy stations... In the war, he was one of the few "Hams" who was allowed to keep his radios, and it was specifically to listen out for spy broadcasts and to monitor those number stations.

You have brought back some good memories there..

Awesome

What's scary is there are still some live today, I can't believe that in 2016 this thing is still going on.

I'm going to get my homebase set up when I get my own place and get my longwire up, the CONET project maintain a live database of known frequencies.

I thought this was the stuff of the cold war era

What a scary world we live in

 

[solarman216]

Zac you are just beginning to understand the corrupt rulers that we are subs too, they will do anything to keep you in the dark about how they play with our lives, cept me that is I sussed them long ago, Rick

 

[Banshee]

Zac you are just beginning to understand the corrupt rulers that we are subs too, they will do anything to keep you in the dark about how they play with our lives, cept me that is I sussed them long ago, Rick

I just thought I was a bit odd Rick, but the more I dig the more I find and the sadder I get, we really are puppets

 

[emjaybee]

You want scary?

Do you know how many Atom bomb tests have been carried out in the world in total?

I'll let that one sit until tomorrow.

 

[solarman216]

I just thought I was a bit odd Rick, but the more I dig the more I find and the sadder I get, we really are puppets

Always have been Zac since the earliest times, but worse now with technology on their side, now you can see why I live off grid with no dependence on the system, and much more that I will not go into on here, Rick

 

[solarman216]

You want scary?

Do you know how many Atom bomb tests have been carried out in the world in total?

I'll let that one sit until tomorrow.

an awful lot more than have been declared, probably into the thousands, Rick

 

[Fez_uk]

I've heard a couple, They are still in use today as they don't need any special equipment to receive and decode their messages and without the number pad or code they are impossible to break. Although it's only a one way type of message.

They are eerie but there's much scarier stuff going on.

Here's one I recorded a while back: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAccEB33cz8

 

[Banshee]

I've heard a couple, They are still in use today as they don't need any special equipment to receive and decode their messages and without the number pad or code they are impossible to break. Although it's only a one way type of message.

They are eerie but there's much scarier stuff going on.

Here's one I recorded a while back: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAccEB33cz8

Quality Fez!!!! Was going to ask if that was E10 as sounded Hebrew and then saw the comments below, apparently E25 are still active in Egypt and also "The Buzzer" UVB-76?

I may be visiting Cyprus soon to visit a family member and will be sure to take a trip down to the south to see Akrotiri, I know it hasn't been heard since '08 but still intrigued nonetheless.

 

[emjaybee]

an awful lot more than have been declared, probably into the thousands, Rick

There number of Atom bomb tests conducted to date is...







2053




Of course that could rise rapidly after this mornings news.

:doh

Go to YouTube, search for number of Atomic Bomb tests. It's a bit of a second rate graphic presentation from many years ago, and it's nearly 15 minutes long, but it's worth watching.

:thumb2

 

[emjaybee]

SLEEP SOUNDLY BOYS AND GIRLS !!!


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[Paultrol]

Look out Banshee.
TRUMPS running it now. :naughty

 

[Banshee]

Look out Banshee.
TRUMPS running it now. :naughty

:lol :lol :lol

:doh

 

[jims-terrano]

You can't beat a good trump, oh sorry wrong sort :lol:lol:lol

 

[emjaybee]

You can't beat a good trump, oh sorry wrong sort :lol:lol:lol

No, no, right sort, loud, impolite, and stinks!

:lol

 

[jims-terrano]

Just had a discussion with my son about these number stations and he can't accept that nobody has ever used direction finding equipment to track the tranmitters down. He's busy googling now:doh

 

[Banshee]

Just had a discussion with my son about these number stations and he can't accept that nobody has ever used direction finding equipment to track the tranmitters down. He's busy googling now:doh

:lol

That's how they found that the Lincolnshire Poacher was being broadcast from RAF Atikori in Cyprus, suspected to be maintained by MI6 :nenau No broadcasts since 2008

 

[emjaybee]

Just had a discussion with my son about these number stations and he can't accept that nobody has ever used direction finding equipment to track the tranmitters down. He's busy googling now:doh

You'll be waiting for a knock at the door then.



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