Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Monday, August 10, 2015

FearWatch | The Numbered Radio Stations


Numbered Stations are unlicensed radio stations that transmit odd sequences for no apparent purpose, like buzzes and tones, or a voice reciting numbers, or bursts of music. Reports of numbered stations begin as early as World War I, with Anton Habsburg of Austria listening in on "enemy stations" and delivering 30 pages of transcribed broadcasts each day to the War Department. The broadcasts are considered to be a highly secure method for delivering one-way messages to undercover operatives in foreign locations. As the broadcasts are shortwave radio, they can be picked up across the globe.

At the time of this writing, the Numbers Station Research and Information Center lists 44 active stations in the world. Ten operate in English, two in German, six in Slavic, six in other languages, 17 in Morse code, two in polytones, and two in "other" mode: one listed as "Hybrid Mode" and one "Digital Pseudo-Polytone".

Here is a recording from the Conet Project, from a sample on Wikipedia:


I wonder if any declassified World War I code books (if such even exists!) could be linked to broadcasts transcribed by Anton Habsburg...?

Further reading:
Numbered station. [Wikipedia]
Numbers Station Research and Information Centre [NS-RIC]
The spooky world of the 'numbered stations'. [BBC]  Sorrel-Dejerine, Olivia. 2014 Apr 16.
The mysterious numbers station formerly known as UVB-76. [KNuts] Ramsay, Heather. 2015 Aug 9.
Numbers stations: mystery over the airwaves. [NPR] "Staff". 2010 Jul 17.
Inside the Russian short-wave radio enigma. [Wired] Savodnik, Peter. 2011 Sep 27.
The Conet Project. [ConetProject]
Spy Number Stations on Shortwave Radio [SpyNumbers]