Numbers stations are shortwave radio stations of uncertain origin. They generally broadcast voices reading streams of numbers, words, letters (sometimes using a phonetic alphabet), tunes or morse code. A solid-state, analog shortwave receiver Shortwave radio operates between the frequencies of 3 MHz (3,000 kHz) and 30 MHz (30,000 kHz) [1] and came to be referred to as such in the early days of radio because the wavelengths associated with this frequency range were shorter than... A phonetic alphabet is any of three things: A type of phonetic notation used for transcribing the sounds of human speech into writing. ... 1922 Chart of the Morse Code Letters and Numerals Morse code is a method for transmitting telegraphic information, using standardized sequences of short and long elements to represent the letters, numerals, punctuation and special characters of a message. ...

The voices that can be heard on these stations are often mechanically generated. They are in a wide variety of languages, and the voices are usually women's, though sometimes men's or children's voices are used.

Evidence supports popular assumptions that the broadcasts are channels of communication used to send messages to spies. This has not been publicly acknowledged by any government that may operate a numbers station, but in one case, Cuban numbers station espionage has been publicly prosecuted in a United States federal court.^[1] SPY may refer to: SPY (spiders), ticker symbol for Standard & Poors Depository Receipts SPY (magazine), a satirical monthly, trademarked all-caps SPY (Ivory Coast), airport code for San Pédro, Côte dIvoire SPY (Ship Planning Yard), a U.S. Navy acronym SPY, short for MOWAG SPY, a... This poster from a Swedish-Cuban friendship organization says: Free the 5 Cubans, political prisoners in the USA The Cuban Five are Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino, Fernando Gonzáles, and René Gonzáles. ... The United States federal courts are the system of courts organized under the Constitution and laws of the federal government of the United States. ...

Numbers stations appear and disappear over time (although some follow regular schedules), and their overall activity has increased slightly since the early 1990s. This increase suggests that as spy-related phenomena, they were not unique to the Cold War. For the band, see 1990s (band). ... For other uses, see Cold War (disambiguation). ...

Suspected origins and use

According to the notes of The Conet Project,^[2] numbers stations have been reported since World War I. If accurate, this would make number stations among the earliest radio broadcasts. The Conet Project: Recordings of Shortwave Numbers Stations is a four-CD set of recordings of numbers stations, mysterious shortwave radio stations of uncertain origin believed to be operated by government agencies to communicate with spies in the field. The collection was released by Englands Irdial-Discs record label... “The Great War ” redirects here. ...

It has long been speculated, and was argued in court in one case, that these stations operate as a simple and foolproof method for government agencies to communicate with spies working under cover (sometimes literally^[3]). According to this theory, the messages are encrypted with a one-time pad, to avoid any risk of decryption by the enemy. As evidence, numbers stations have changed details of their broadcasts or produced special, nonscheduled broadcasts coincident with extraordinary political events, such as the August Coup.^{[citation needed]} SPY may refer to: SPY (spiders), ticker symbol for Standard & Poors Depository Receipts SPY (magazine), a satirical monthly, trademarked all-caps SPY (Ivory Coast), airport code for San Pédro, Côte dIvoire SPY (Ship Planning Yard), a U.S. Navy acronym SPY, short for MOWAG SPY, a... Excerpt from a one-time pad. ... During the Soviet Coup of 1991 (August 19-22, 1991), also known as the August Putsch or August Coup, a group of members of the Soviet government briefly deposed Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev and attempted to take control of the country. ...

Others speculate that some of these stations may be related to illegal drug smuggling operations.^[4] Unlike government stations, smugglers' stations would need to be lower powered and irregularly operated, to avoid location by triangulated direction finding, followed by government raids. However, numbers stations have transmitted with impunity for decades, so they are presumed to be operated or sponsored only by governments. Also, numbers station transmissions in the international shortwave bands typically require high levels of electric power that is unavailable to ranches, farms, or plantations in isolated drug-growing regions. Retail selling Street selling is the bottom of the chain and can be accomplished through purchasing from prostitutes, through cloaked retail stores or refuse houses for users in the act located in red-light districts which often also deal in paraphernalia, dealers marketing merriment at night clubs and other events... This article does not cite any references or sources. ... Direction finding (DF) refers to the establishment of the direction from which a received signal was transmitted. ...

High Frequency radio signals transmitted at relatively low wattages can travel around the world under ideal frequency conditions, which are affected by local RF noise levels, weather, season, and sunspots, and can then be received with a properly tuned antenna of adequate size, and a superb receiver. However, spies often have to work only with available hand held receivers, sometimes under difficult local conditions, and in all seasons and sunspot cycles.^[5][6] Only very large transmitters, perhaps up to 500,000 watts, are guaranteed to get through to nearly any basement-dwelling spy, nearly any place on earth, nearly all of the time. Some governments may not need a numbers station with global coverage if they only send spies to nearby countries. High frequency (HF) radio frequencies are between 3 and 30 MHz. ...

Although no broadcaster or government has acknowledged transmitting the numbers, a 1998 article in The Daily Telegraph quoted a spokesperson for the Department of Trade and Industry (the government department that, at that time, regulated radio broadcasting in the United Kingdom) as saying, "These [numbers stations] are what you suppose they are. People shouldn't be mystified by them. They are not for, shall we say, public consumption."^[7] Listening to numbers stations in the UK is illegal under the Wireless Telegraphy Act 2006, so it is unlikely that it is possible to get official permission to listen to them; however, it is unlikely that the legislation would be used to prosecute those who listen to the stations privately. Indeed, one could argue that a listener could not be prosecuted for listening to stations that officially do not exist and in any case, operate illegally on frequencies not allocated to them by the ITU. This article deals with The Daily Telegraph in Britain, see The Daily Telegraph (Australia) for the Australian publication The Daily Telegraph is a British broadsheet newspaper founded in 1855. ... The Department of Trade and Industry is a United Kingdom government department. ... The Wireless Telegraphy Act is the name given to the foundation of all communication laws in the United Kingdom. ... This article is about the location. ...

Numbers stations are often given nicknames by enthusiasts, often reflecting some distinctive element of the station such as their interval signal. For example, "The Lincolnshire Poacher", one of the best known numbers stations (generally thought to be run by MI6 as its transmissions have been traced to RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus), plays the first two bars of the folk song "The Lincolnshire Poacher" before each string of numbers. "Magnetic Fields" plays music from French electronic musician Jean Michel Jarre before and after each set of numbers. The "Atención" station begins its transmission with the Spanish phrase "¡Atención!" An interval signal is a characteristic sound or musical phrase used in international broadcasting and by some domestic broadcasters. ... The Lincolnshire Poacher is the nickname of a mysterious, powerful shortwave numbers station that uses its namesake folk song tune as an interval signal. ... The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), more commonly known as MI6 (originally Military Intelligence Section 6), or the Secret Service, is the United Kingdom external security agency. ... RAF Akrotiri is one of the few full-scale Royal Air Force stations left outside the United Kingdom. ... Folk music, in the original sense of the term, is music by and of the people. ... The Lincolnshire Poacher is a traditional English folk song associated with the county of Lincolnshire, and dealing with the act of poaching. ... For other uses, see Electronic music (disambiguation). ... Jean-Michel André Jarre (born August 24, 1948 in Lyon, France) is a French composer, performer and music producer. ...

Although it is time-consuming and may require costly global travel to pinpoint the source of a radio transmission in the shortwave band, errors at the transmission site, radio direction-finding, and a knowledge of shortwave radio propagation have provided armchair detective clues to some number station locations.

For example, the "Atención" station was originally presumed to be from Cuba, as a supposed error allowed Radio Habana Cuba to be carried on the frequency.^[8] Whether the frequency of Radio Habana Cuba and the frequency of the "Atención" station merely interfered with each other or whether the operator of the station was listening to the radio and it accidentally ended up on the air is unclear. Circa 2000-2001, Atención was officially identified as Cuban by the United States. Radio Habana Cuba (RHC) is the official international broadcasting station of Cuba. ...

Also, several articles in the radio magazine Popular Communications published in the 1980s and early 1990s described hobbyists using portable radio direction-finding equipment to locate numbers stations in Florida and in the Warrenton, Virginia, area.^[9] From the outside, they spotted the station's antenna inside a military facility. The station hunter speculated that the antenna's transmitter at the facility was connected by a telephone wire pair to a source of spoken numbers in the Washington, D.C., area. The author said the Federal Communications Commission would not comment on public inquiries about American territory numbers stations. Street scene, Warrenton, Virginia, ca. ... This article is about the U.S. state. ... For other uses, see Washington, D.C. (disambiguation). ...

On some stations, tones can be heard in the background. It has been suggested that in such cases the voice may be an aid to tuning to the correct frequency, with the coded message being sent by modulating the tones, perhaps using a technology such as burst transmission. In telecommunications, modulation is the process of varying a periodic waveform, i. ... In telecommunication, the term burst transmission has the following meanings: transmission that combines a very high data signaling rate with very short transmission times - i. ...

The Atención spy case evidence

Atención of Cuba became the world's first numbers station to be officially and publicly accused of transmitting to spies. It was the centerpiece of a United States federal court espionage trial following the arrest of the Wasp Network of Cuban spies in 1998. The U.S. prosecutors claimed the accused were writing down number codes received from Atención, using Sony hand-held shortwave receivers, and typing the numbers into laptop computers to decode spying instructions. The FBI testified that they had entered a spy's apartment in 1995, and copied the computer decryption program for the Atención numbers code. They used it to decode Atención spy messages, which the prosecutors unveiled in court. This poster from a Swedish-Cuban friendship organization says: Free the 5 Cubans, political prisoners in the USA. The Cuban Five are Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino, Fernando Gonzáles, and René Gonzáles are five Cuban nationals who were arrested and convicted of various criminal...

United States government evidence included the following three examples of decoded Atención messages. (Not reported whether the original clear texts were in Spanish, although the phrasing of "Day of the Woman" would indicate so.):

• "prioritize and continue to strengthen friendship with Joe and Dennis" [68 characters]

• "Under no circumstances should [agents] German nor Castor fly with BTTR or another organization on days 24, 25, 26, and 27." [112 characters] (BTTR is the anti-Castro airborne group Brothers to the Rescue)

• "Congratulate all the female comrades for International Day of the Woman." [71 characters] (Probably a simple greeting for March 8, International Women's Day)

At the rate of one spoken number per character per second, each of these sentences takes a minute or more to transmit. Brothers to the Rescue (Spanish: Hermanos al Rescate) is a Miami-based organization headed by José Basulto. ... is the 67th day of the year (68th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Image:IWD 2007 Logo. ...

The moderator of an e-mail list for global numbers station hobbyists claimed "Someone on the Spooks list had already cracked the code for a repeated transmission [from Havana to Miami] if it was received garbled." Such code-breaking is possible if a one-time pad decoding key is used more than once.^[10] Excerpt from a one-time pad. ...

Formats

Generally, numbers stations follow a basic format, although there are many differences in details between stations. Transmissions usually begin on the hour or half-hour.

The prelude or introduction of a transmission (from which stations' informal nicknames are often derived) includes some kind of identifier, either for the station itself and/or for the intended recipient. This can take the form of numeric or phonetic "code names" (e.g. "Charlie India Oscar", "250 250 250"), characteristic phrases (e.g. "¡Atención!", "1234567890"), and sometimes musical or electronic sounds (e.g. "The Lincolnshire Poacher", "Magnetic Fields"). Sometimes, as in the case of the Israeli phonetic alphabet stations, the prelude can also signify the nature or priority of the message to follow (e.g.(hypothetically) "Charlie India Oscar-2", indicating that no message follows). Often the prelude repeats for a period before the body of the message begins.

There is usually an announcement of the number of number-groups in the message, then the groups are recited. Groups are usually either four or five digits or phonetic letters. The groups are typically repeated, either by reading each group twice, or by repeating the entire message as a whole.

Some stations send more than one message during a transmission. In this case, some or all of the above process is repeated, with different contents.

Finally, after all the messages have been sent, the station will sign off in some characteristic fashion. Usually it will simply be some form of the word "end" in whatever language the station uses (e.g. "end of message, end of transmission"; "Ende"; "fini"; "final"; "konec"). Some stations, especially those thought to originate from the former Soviet Union, end with a series of zeros, e.g. "000 000"; others end with music or other sundry sounds.

Due to the secretive nature of the messages, the cryptographic function employed by particular station is not publicly known. It is possible that some stations use a one-time pad that would make the contents of these groups are indistinguishable from randomly generated numbers or digits. See If It Had Not Been For 15 Minutes, Chapter 7 for a simplified explanation of decoding numbers messages without a computer. Excerpt from a one-time pad. ...

Transmission technology

Although few numbers stations have been tracked down by location, the technology used to transmit the numbers has historically been clear — stock shortwave transmitters using powers from 10 kW to 100 kW. Antenna tower of Crystal Palace transmitter, London A transmitter (sometimes abbreviated XMTR) is an electronic device which with the aid of an antenna propagates an electromagnetic signal such as radio, television, or other telecommunications. ...

Amplitude modulated (AM) transmitters with optionally variable frequency, using class-C power output stages with plate modulation, are the workhorses of international shortwave broadcasting, including numbers stations. Amplitude modulation (AM) is a technique used in electronic communication, most commonly for transmitting information via a radio carrier wave. ... The term amplifier as used in this article can mean either a circuit (or stage) using a single active device or a complete system such as a packaged audio hi-fi amplifier. ... INDIAN STORE INDIAN STORE: Radio Radio transmitter design is a complex topic which can be broken down into a series of smaller topics. ...

Application of spectrum analysis to number station signals has revealed the presence of data bursts, RTTY-modulated subcarriers, phase-shifted carriers, and other unusual transmitter modulations like polytones.^[11] (RTTY-modulated subcarriers were also present on some U.S. commercial radio transmissions during the Cold War.^[12]) A spectrum analyzer is a device used to examine the spectral composition of some electrical, acoustic, or optical waveform. ... RadioTeleType (RTTY) is a telecommunications system consisting of two teleprinters linked by a radio link. ... A subcarrier is separate analog or digital signal carried on a main radio transmission, which carries extra information such as voice or data. ... Phase-shift keying (PSK) is a digital modulation scheme that conveys data by changing, or modulating, the phase of a reference signal (the carrier wave). ... MFSK stands for multiple frequency-shift keying. ...

The frequently reported use of high tech modulations like data bursts, in combination or sequence with spoken numbers, suggest transmissions for differing intelligence operations.[1] In telecommunication, the term burst transmission has the following meanings: transmission that combines a very high data signaling rate with very short transmission times - i. ...

For spies in the field, low tech spoken number transmissions continue to have advantages in the 21st century. High tech data receiving equipment is difficult to obtain,^[13] and being caught with more than a civilian shortwave news radio is evidence of spying. Yet governments' embassies, aircraft, and ships at sea are known to possess complex receiving equipment that could make regular use of encrypted data transmissions from the home country. These probably include charts and photos that require more transmitted data than can be sent efficiently using spoken numbers.

The USSR and superpower number stations

• During the Cold War there was substantial evidence that the USSR may have used 500 kW transmitters on the eastern side of the Urals to reach agents in Western Europe, North Africa, and possibly North America.
• HF direction finding evidence that was collected by many different sets of amateurs in Europe, Africa, and the Americas during the Cold War substantiates number stations broadcasting from the East of the Urals.
• Existing USSR technical literature shows that the USSR pioneered HRS 8/8/1 directional HF antennas for shortwave news and information broadcasting in the late 1960s–mid 1970s. Thus it is possible that lower transmitter powers (like 100 kW) were used in the 1980s — the later part of the Cold War.
• Superpower number station broadcasting from the USSR cannot be concretely proven to this day: The USSR jammed HF broadcasts from the west making many HF direction finding attempts nearly impossible. The HF bands in the European region were very crowded during most of the Cold War making good HF direction problematic.

For other uses, see Cold War (disambiguation). ... Map of the Ural Mountains The Ural Mountains (Russian: , Uralskiye gory) (also known as the Urals, the Riphean Mountains in Greco-Roman antiquity, and known as the Stone Belt) are a mountain range that runs roughly north and south through western Russia. ... High frequency (HF) radio frequencies are between 3 and 30 MHz. ...

Interference with documented broadcasts

The North Korean propaganda station Voice of Korea began to broadcast on the Lincolnshire Poacher's frequency, 11545 kHz, in 2006, possibly to deliberately interfere with its propagation. This clash can be viewed in video format here: [2]. However, the Lincolnshire Poacher transmits on two additional frequencies in simulcast to 11545 kHz that are not "jammed". The apparent target zone for the Lincolnshire Poacher signals originating in Cyprus is the Middle East, not the Far East which is covered by its sister station Cherry Ripe. North Korea, officially the Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (DPRK; Korean: Chosŏn Minjujuŭi Inmin Konghwaguk; Hangul: 조선민주주의인민공화국; Hanja: 朝鮮民主主義人民共和國), is a country in eastern Asia... Voice of Korea is the international broadcasting service of North Korea. ... The Lincolnshire Poacher is the nickname of a mysterious, powerful shortwave numbers station that uses its namesake folk song tune as an interval signal. ... A map showing countries commonly considered to be part of the Middle East The Middle East is a region comprising the lands around the southern and eastern parts of the Mediterranean Sea, a territory that extends from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. ... The far east as a cultural block includes East Asia, Southeast Asia, Northeast Asia and South Asia. ... Cherry Ripe is the nickname of a mysterious, powerful shortwave numbers station that uses several bars from its namesake English folk song tune as an interval signal. ...

On 27 September 2006, radio amateur transmissions in the 30m band were affected by the E7 "Russian Man" number station at 1740 UTC. The interference can be heard here: [3] is the 270th day of the year (271st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2006 (MMVI) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

The late "Havana Moon" reported^{[citation needed]} that "one particularly dangerous station has been interfering with air to ground traffic on 6577 kHz, a frequency allocated to international aeronautical communications in the busy Caribbean sector". "On at least one monitored transmission, the air traffic controller at ARINC moved the pilot to an alternate frequency as the numbers transmission was totally blocking the frequency from effective use". “West Indian” redirects here. ...

A station operated by the West German BND agency whose callsign was "Hotel Kilo" ([4]) used to transmit on 9450 kHz, interfering with Radio Moscow (now The Voice of Russia) which used the same frequency. A tape recording of the interference was submitted to Radio Moscow which prompted this response: [5] The Bundesnachrichtendienst (Federal Intelligence Service, BND) is the foreign intelligence agency of the German government, under the control of the Bundeskanzleramt (Federal Chancellery). ... A 1969 Radio Moscow QSL card Voice of Russia is the Russian governments international radio broadcasting service. ...

SW Radio Africa transmits from Meyerton, South Africa, on 4880 kHz and is the "Independent Voice of Zimbabwe". Here you can view a video of the MOSSAD E10 station "Uniform Lima X-Ray" interfering with the African station.[6]

The religious station WYFR transmits from Okeechobee, Florida, USA, on 6855 kHz. It is regularly affected by the Cuban Spanish number station "V2". A video shows the V2 interfering with the American station. [7] WYFR is a shortwave radio station located in Okeechobee, Florida, USA. The station is owned by Family Stations, Inc. ... Okeechobee is a city located in Okeechobee County, Florida. ...

A BBC frequency, 7325 kHz, has also been used. This prompted a letter to the BBC from a lady listener in Andorra. She wrote to the "Waveguide" program complaining that her listening had been spoiled by a female voice reading out numbers in English and she asked the announcer what this interference was. The BBC presenter laughed at the suggestion of spy activity. He had consulted the experts at Bush House (BBC headquarters) who declared that the voice was reading out nothing more sinister than snowfall figures for the ski-slopes near the listener's home. With more research into this case, short wave enthusiasts are fairly sure that this was a numbers station being broadcast on a random frequency. [8] The likelihood of the broadcast being snow readings is in doubt because it would have been illegal to broadcast on an already used frequency. For other uses, see BBC (disambiguation). ...

Attempted jamming of number stations

This article or section needs copy editing for grammar, style, cohesion, tone and/or spelling. You can assist by editing it now. A how-to guide is available.

The tone or style of this article or section may not be appropriate for Wikipedia. Specific concerns may be found on the talk page. See Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for suggestions.

Numbers station transmissions have often been the target of jamming attempts. Despite this targeting, many number stations continue to broadcast unhindered. Several theories exist that aid in explaining the inability to effectively jam the transmissions. With only a finite number of jamming transmitters available at any given time, it may be more efficient to block clandestine stations intended for a large audience rather than a message intended for a single person. Another theory is that there may be a "gentlemen's agreement" in place; i.e. "we won't jam yours if you don't jam ours". In addition, the haphazard nature of some stations, e.g. not having a fixed schedule or frequency, also makes jamming more difficult because the broadcast may go undetected. Image File history File links Acap. ... Image File history File links Broom_icon. ... A Gentlemens agreement is an informal agreement between two parties. ...

Historical examples of jamming:

• The E10 YHF being jammed by the mysterious "Chinese Music Station".[9] This jammer has been dubbed the Chinese Firedrake Jammer and purportedly comes from Hainan Island which is located in the Gulf of Tonkin and is a part of the Peoples Republic of China. Report on Firedrake jammer[10]. (Adobe document)

• The E3 Lincolnshire Poacher station was at one time in the early 1990s the target for "bubble" or "warble" jammers. In this example, the jammer appears to be in some difficulty. [11]

• The E5 CIA station dubbed "Cynthia" by number station monitors has also been the target of the same type of jamming as the above example. [12]

Not to be confused with the unrelated provinces of Henan and Hunan Hainan (海南; pinyin: Hǎinán) is a province of the Peoples Republic of China, located at the southern end of the country. ... The Gulf of Tonkin is located to the south of China. ...

Classification

Although most number stations have various nicknames which usually describe some aspect of the station itself, the ENIGMA 2000 number stations monitoring group has assigned a code to each known station, this takes the form of a letter followed by a number (or, in the case of some "X" stations, more letters). The letter indicates the language used by the station in question:

• E indicates a station broadcasting in English
• G indicates a station broadcasting in German
• S indicates a station broadcasting in a Slavic language
• V indicates all other languages
• M is a station broadcasting in Morse Code
• X indicates all other transmissions such as polytones in addition to some unexplained broadcasts which may not be number stations.

For example, the well known Lincolnshire Poacher station has the designation E3 (or E03), the Cuban "Atencion" station has designation V2 (or V02). The most recent station to be given a designation is E27, which was a station heard broadcasting on several occasions in late 2006 and early 2007. The English language is a West Germanic language that originates in England. ...  Countries where a West Slavic language is the national language  Countries where an East Slavic language is the national language  Countries where a South Slavic language is the national language The Slavic languages (also called Slavonic languages), a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup... 1922 Chart of the Morse Code Letters and Numerals Morse code is a method for transmitting telegraphic information, using standardized sequences of short and long elements to represent the letters, numerals, punctuation and special characters of a message. ...

Some stations have also been stripped of their designation if they are discovered not to be a numbers station- this was the case for E22 which was discovered in 2005 to be test transmissions for All India Radio. Year 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link displays full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... For the electronica band, see All India Radio (band). ...

Numbers messaging on loop lines

The government messaging sources for radio numbers stations may have used the telephone system in a similar manner for a period of time. In "The Numbers Game", The Anomalist Volume 1, Martin Cannon describes his experience as a phone phreak interacting with a similar numbers phenomenon on telephone loop lines. Phreaking is a slang term coined to describe the activity of a subculture of people who study, experiment with, or exploit telephones, the telephone company, and systems connected to or composing the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) for the purposes of hobby or utility. ... A loop line is a type of circuit used in telephone networks. ...

Loop lines are a central office wiring arrangement for free, instant conference calling without an operator. They are probably intended for use by telephone company employees, who are simultaneously repairing multiple and distant parts of a telephone system. Loop lines are a talk-circuit-only 'meeting place' without ringers or dial out capability. All conferees must call into the loop after being notified of a conference, or call on a timed schedule similar to that for numbers stations reception. In the field of telecommunications, a central office or telephone exchange houses equipment that is commonly known as simply a switch, which is a piece of equipment that connects phone calls. ...

Intelligence agencies are assumed to hire persons with skills such as safe cracking, computer hacking, and surely, phone phreaking. The latter would have enabled agencies to implement numbers messaging by loop lines. This practice probably came to an end as telephone systems became computerized, with unauthorized calls to loop lines being automatically traced and logged using automatic number identification. Automatic number identification (ANI) is a feature of telephony intelligent network services that permits subscribers to display or capture the telephone numbers of calling parties. ...

Popular culture references

Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines. The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.

Image File history File links Broom_icon. ...

Music

In 1997, The Conet Project: Recordings of Shortwave Numbers Stations, a four CD set of recordings of numbers stations was released by England's Irdial-Discs record label. The Conet Project: Recordings of Shortwave Numbers Stations is a four-CD set of recordings of numbers stations, mysterious shortwave radio stations of uncertain origin believed to be operated by government agencies to communicate with spies in the field. The collection was released by Englands Irdial-Discs record label... “CD” redirects here. ...

Recordings of numbers stations sometimes find their way onto records by other musicians via sampling, such as Stereolab's song "Pause", Porcupine Tree's "Even Less", Chroma Key's "Even the Waves", or various songs by Wilco, whose album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is named after a message sampled on it. Pere Ubu's drummer Scott Krauss is an avid fan of numbers stations, and has featured recordings in several of the group's songs. The track "On the Lamb" by 310, from the album Aug 56 lasts almost half an hour, and features samples from a numbers station throughout. “Instrumentalist” redirects here. ... This article is about reusing existing sound recordings in creating new works. ... Stereolab are an English alternative music band formed in 1990 in London. ... Porcupine Tree is an English progressive rock band formed in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, England by Steven Wilson. ... This page is a candidate for speedy deletion, because: it is patent nonsense. ... This article is about the music group. ... Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is a 2002 album by Wilco. ... Pere Ubu are a rock music group formed in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1975. ...

The Kraftwerk song "Numbers" is influenced by number station transmissions.^{[citation needed]} Kraftwerk (pronounced [], German for power station) is a German musical group from Düsseldorf that has made key contributions to the development of improvisational rock and electronic music, most notably within the latter categorys sub-genres which later became known as synthpop, electro, techno, house and IDM. Early musical...

The reclusive Scottish duo Boards of Canada were influenced by numbers stations at an early age. The track "Gyroscope" on the Geogaddi album is thought to contain a sample of a child counting provided by the Conet Project. Boards of Canada is a Scottish electronic music duo consisting of brothers Michael Sandison (born 10 June 1969) and Marcus Eoin Sandison (born 21 September 1970). ... Geogaddi is the second album of Boards of Canada. ...

The UK based group 65daysofstatic sample "The Lincolnshire Poacher" along with several other stations on the song "No Station." 65daysofstatic (also known by the abbreviations 65dos and 65days) are an instrumental math rock and post-rock band from Sheffield, England. ... The Lincolnshire Poacher is a traditional English folksong associated with the county of Lincolnshire, and dealing with the act of poaching. ...

The song "Voices" by the Germany based pop group Botany Bay was inspired by number stations and uses recordings of number station broadcasts.

The UK group Cinerama released a cover of The Smiths song "London" as a b-side to their single "Manhattan", in 2000. The track contains a couple of numbers station samples. Cinerama is a UK indie pop band, headed up by David Gedge, whos also the frontman for The Wedding Present. ... The Smiths were an English rock band active from 1982 to 1987. ...

Italian progressive metal band Madwork sampled a numbers station in the introduction to their track entitled "Null" in 2005.

The electronica song "Lifelight" by Andy Hunter° on the album "Life" features a sample of a Spanish number station in the background midway through the track at 5:07. This article is in need of attention. ...

The instrumental composition "Numbers Station" by Canadian musician and artist Derek R. Audette features samples of authentic numbers station broadcasts throughout the track. Derek R. Audette (born June 16th, 1971) is a Canadian artist, musician and poet. ...

"Yankee Hotel Foxtrot" is the fourth album by Chicago-based rock band 'Wilco.' The album took its name from a track on 'The Conet Project: Recordings of Shortwave Numbers Stations.' Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is a 2002 album by Wilco. ... This article is about the music group. ...

The final track, "Found Wanting" on Australian musician David Bridie's 2000 album "Act Of Free Choice" begins, ends and is interspersed with what sounds like a Numbers Station recording. David Bridie is a contempory folk musical artist from Melbourne, Australia. ...

Film and television

The West German film Der Westen Leuchtet shows an agent called Harald Liebe receiving a number station transmission via a Sony ICF-7800 radio. He is then shown decoding the message using his one-time pad. See [13]

In the 1950 Jean Cocteau film Orphée, the poet Orpheus listens to such a station in Death's chauffeured Rolls Royce. Year 1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Jean Cocteau Jean Maurice Eugène Clément Cocteau (5 July 1889 – 11 October 1963) was a French poet, novelist, dramatist, designer, boxing manager and filmmaker. ... Orphée (also known as Orpheus) is a 1949 movie directed by Jean Cocteau starring Jean Marais. ...

Cameron Crowe also featured parts of The Conet Project in scenes of the movie Vanilla Sky. He said he used the station recordings to create a sense of confusion. Cameron Bruce Crowe (born July 13, 1957) is an Academy Award winning American writer and film director. ... The Conet Project: Recordings of Shortwave Numbers Stations is a four-CD set of recordings of numbers stations, mysterious shortwave radio stations of uncertain origin believed to be operated by government agencies to communicate with spies in the field. The collection was released by Englands Irdial-Discs record label... Vanilla Sky is a 2001 film which has been variously characterized by published film critics as an odd mixture of science fiction, romance, and reality warp [2], part Beautiful People fantasy, part New Age investigation of the Great Beyond[3] a love story, a struggle for the soul, or an...

A transcript of numbers from transmissions of the Lincolnshire Poacher station were printed on the set of a series of the UK TV Series: Mark Thomas Comedy Product. In the special episode The Secret Map of Britain number station samples were used as link music between segments. This article is about the anarchist comedian. ...

The numbers 4, 8, 15, 16, 23, and 42 were transmitted from a numbers station on the island in ABC's drama series Lost. The television show Lost includes a number of mysterious elements that have been ascribed to science fiction or supernatural phenomena. ... “LOST” redirects here. ...

One of the clues that appears during the playing of the Lost Experience alternative reality game ("ARG") is the website http://persephone.thehansofoundation.org. The website features looping audio meant to very closely resemble a numbers station.

In the 1991 film Toy Soldiers, the Colombian forces utilize number stations to communicate between the school and their home base. There are multiple scenes which depict the encoding and decoding of information transmitted over portable numbers stations. Toy Soldiers is a 1991 action/drama movie, directed by Daniel Petrie Jr. ...

In the 1984 film Red Dawn, a band of high school guerrilla fighters hears two code phrases (each repeated twice) broadcast over the radio as they hide out in the wilderness. The phrases are: The chair is against the wall and John has a long mustache (the latter of which was actually used as a code-signal by the French Resistance during World War II). For other uses, see Red dawn (disambiguation). ... The Croix de Lorraine, the symbol of the resistance chosen by de Gaulle French Resistance is the name used for resistance movements during World War II which fought the Nazi German occupation of France and the collaborationist Vichy regime. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000...

In the 1959 book and 1962 film The Longest Day, members of the French resistance listen to a radio station broadcasting nonsense phrases (such as "I like Siamese cats") for particular phrases (such as "John has a long mustache," and "Wounds my heart with dolorous languour," a line from a Paul Verlaine poem), which are coded messages regarding D-Day. The Longest Day is a book by Cornelius Ryan published in 1959, telling the story of D-Day, the first day of the World War II invasion of Normandy. ... The Longest Day is a 3-hour-long 1962 war film with a very large cast, based on the 1959 book The Longest Day by Cornelius Ryan, about D-Day, the invasion of Normandy on 6 June 1944, during World War II. // The movie was adapted by Romain Gary, James... The Croix de Lorraine, the symbol of the resistance chosen by de Gaulle French Resistance is the name used for resistance movements during World War II which fought the Nazi German occupation of France and the collaborationist Vichy regime. ... Paul Verlaine Paul-Marie Verlaine (IPA: ; March 30, 1844–January 8, 1896) was a French poet associated with the Symbolist movement. ...

In the 1973 film Seventeen Moments of Spring agent Stirlitz listens the number transmission on Russian radio and later decodes it using a book. Seventeen Moments of Spring (1973) (Семнадцать мгновений весны in Russian), also Seventeen Instants of Spring is a Soviet TV miniseries. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ...

Video Games

Space Giraffe, an Xbox 360 Live Arcade game released in August 2007, uses a sequence of specially recorded Welsh numbers [14] in the style of numbers stations as part of its main menu music, and bonus round music. Space Giraffe is a fast-paced action arcade video game by Jeff Minter and Ivan Zorzin of Llamasoft. ...

Recordings

Image File history File links Tcp_d1_4_phonetic_alphabet_nato_irdial. ... The Conet Project: Recordings of Shortwave Numbers Stations is a four-CD set of recordings of numbers stations, mysterious shortwave radio stations of uncertain origin believed to be operated by government agencies to communicate with spies in the field. The collection was released by Englands Irdial-Discs record label...

See also

• Shortwave
• Radioteletype
• Secret broadcast
• Letter beacon
• Lincolnshire Poacher
• Cherry Ripe
• Yosemite Sam
• One-way voice link‎

A solid-state, analog shortwave receiver Shortwave radio operates between the frequencies of 3 MHz (3,000 kHz) and 30 MHz (30,000 kHz) [1] and came to be referred to as such in the early days of radio because the wavelengths associated with this frequency range were shorter than... RadioTeleType (RTTY) is a telecommunications system consisting of two teleprinters linked by a radio link. ... The invention of the wireless was initially greeted as a boon by armies and navies. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... The Lincolnshire Poacher is the nickname of a mysterious, powerful shortwave numbers station that uses its namesake folk song tune as an interval signal. ... Cherry Ripe is the nickname of a mysterious, powerful shortwave numbers station that uses several bars from its namesake English folk song tune as an interval signal. ... Yosemite Sam is the nickname given by DXers to a mysterious station that first surfaced on December 19, 2004. ... A one-way voice link (OWVL) is a shortwave radio broadcast used by spy networks to communicate with agents in the field. ...

References

1. ^ http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2001-02-08/news/espionage-is-in-the-air/
2. ^ "The Shortwave And the Calling: For Akin Fernandez, Cryptic Messages Became Music To His Ears", The Washington Post, August 3, 2004.
3. ^ http://www.myspystory.com/chap6.html "So here she was with a pillow over her head and over the radio..."
4. ^ http://www.hackcanada.com/blackcrawl/consprcy/secretfr.txt
5. ^ http://www.miaminewtimes.com/issues/2001-02-08/kulchur.html
6. ^ http://www.myspystory.com
7. ^ http://www.salon.com/people/feature/1999/09/16/numbers/print.html
8. ^ William Poundstone, "Big Secrets", p. 197.
9. ^ (Smolinski reported by Mays,2005) (now a password URL, but retained as archive record)
10. ^ Chris Smolinski of Spooks to Miami New Times reporter Brett Sokol, 2001. http://www.miaminewtimes.com/issues/2001-02-08/kulchur.html
11. ^ Schimmel, Donald W., The Underground Frequency Guide: A Directory of Unusual, Illegal, and Covert Radio Communications (3rd ed.) [Solana Beach, CA: High Text Publications, Inc., 1994], pp. 27–28.
12. ^ Collins, Barry W., W4TLV, "The day the U.S. Army invaded W4TLV," QST, pp. 48–49 (July 1997)
13. ^ Even a non-standard civilian shortwave radio can be difficult to obtain in a totalitarian state. See If It Had Not Been For 15 Minutes, chapter 6 for the problems of obtaining a numbers station receiving radio in East Germany during the Cold War.

The Washington Post is the largest newspaper in Washington, D.C.. It is also one of the citys oldest papers, having been founded in 1877. ... is the 215th day of the year (216th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 2004 (MMIV) was a leap year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ...

External links

Overviews

• Welcome to number stations Overview of number stations with recordings and schedules

Feature articles

• Counting Spies - Salon.com's Article on Numbers Stations
• Dark Side of the Band - Wired.com's article about Numbers Stations

In use

• If It Had Not Been For 15 Minutes Thomas Wagner's dramatic first hand account including numbers station use, during a notable Cold War defection from the former East Germany.
• Espionage Is in the Air Sokol, 2001. Backgrounder to trial of Wasp Network of Cuban spies accused of receiving instructions from the ¡Atención! numbers station.

In depth

• ENIGMA 2000 Number Stations Monitoring Group - expert discussion group with documents and newsletters - best available info about a subject with no official existence
• Shortwave Espionage - a large amount of information, including sound recordings. Read the book "Secret Signals - The Euronumbers Mystery"
• Clandestine Radio Open-source Intelligence on Subversive Radio & TV

Media and music

• The Conet Project from Irdial, and MP3s of the 4 CD set at hyperreal.org and archive.org
• NPR's Lost and Found Sound, 2000-05-26: The Shortwave Numbers Mystery
• NPR's All Things Considered, 2004-11-12: Music By The 'Number Stations'
• Tracking The Lincolnshire Poacher BBC Radio 4 programme on Number Stations - Streaming audio..
• KCNC TV Article & Video about Numbers Stations.
• Numbers Monitoring, A website containing .wav recordings of transmissions from Number Stations
• The Numbers Game, another site offering mp3 recordings including that of voices and songs played.