- Joined
- Jul 29, 2024
This thread is to discuss numbers stations. In short: these are shortwave radio stations broadcasting coded messages most likely meant for spies, diplomats, and intelligence officers in foreign countries. If you have ever frequented a "Skyking" thread on /pol/, or heard/seen the "Skyking" meme, then you already know what I'm talking about.
Disclaimer: there are undoubtedly other users on this site who can more accurately describe what is going on, how to use this WebSDR, what all the different widgets are, and discuss regular broadcasts and numbers stations with greater eloquence than I. If you are one of those users, please correct me or otherwise use this thread to make the topic easier to understand for newbies. I've been doing amateur radio shit for years now and I put heavy emphasis on the amateur part. Some of this stuff I figured out intuitively and I don't know what the correct technical terms are. If I sound like a retard, it's because I am one.
Anyway, back to the numbers stations. What usually happens is a voice goes over a certain frequency, announces a series of random numbers, and then stops. Some use a synthesized voice (think text-to-speech voice) to transmit data, but others use Morse code, while some use a kind of frequency modulation (e.g. they cause a frequency shift) to send information and/or signals. The majority of these stations transmit at regular times or patterns, although some do not and you have to just monitor the frequency.
Numbers stations have existed as early as World War I and see continued use to this very day. They were most active during the Cold War. A shitton of countries acknowledge using these things: the Czech, Swiss, and Swedes are three examples. Obviously, the USA and Russia operate these things as well as other NATO countries like the UK.
Some no longer operate. There was a famous "Lincolnshire Poacher" station which broadcasted from roughly the mid-60's until 2008 when it ceased operation. Most believe it was operated by British intelligence services and it had a regular broadcasting schedule. It's famous because it used the "Lincolnshire Poacher" song as an interval signal, which basically means it helped listeners tune their radio, informed other stations the frequency was in use, and was a sort of station identifier. Following the interval signal, a pre-recorded voice listed 5 numbers and the final number in each group always had a higher pitch. There are many stations that people recorded but are no longer in use.
You can use Google to find out much more than I'm putting here - it's a popular topic and there are books about it. However, for anyone interested in listening to these, Signal Identification Guide has a short list of known numbers stations and other interesting signals (I have only skimmed this wiki so please don't attack me if there's some gay shit on it). You can also search Google for lists of known and past stations to check their frequencies.
"But Hey Johnny Bravo," you ask, "how do I listen to these? I don't have a short-wave radio or even an analog radio." Well, dear reader, you are in luck: the Faculty for Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, and Computer Science at the University of Twente in The Netherlands has a free to use, wide-band WebSDR that anyone can use.
"But Hey Johnny Bravo," you ask, "I don't know what the fuck I'm doing. How do I use this tool?" Well, let's do a tutorial of sorts. When you first access the page, you will have to activate the audio and you will hear a lot of static. Scroll down until you see this:
The squiggly pink lines you see are like audio streams. The yellow thing underneath is your tuner. Bright areas are transmitting audio, dark areas are not. In the lower left you see your frequency in kHz, which is the frequency you're tuned into. CW, LSB, USB, AM, FM, and AMsync are - to put it crudely - different ways to listen to audio by adjusting the radio band. Some audio you can only hear properly on the AM band, for example.
So, if you're interested, here's your first task: tune into "DWD 1 Pinneberg RTTY." Enter 4582.70 into the kHz field. The web tool will bring you directly to this frequency, which is used to transmit weather broadcasts. All you'll hear is a lot of fast beeping, but, congratulations! You found it. With your mouse hovering over the waterfall (the purple and pink streams), scroll all the way in on your frequency (make sure to stay near, but above, the yellow tuner thingy below). Once you're scrolled all the way in above the yellow tuner thingy, you will see a marker for "DWD 1 Pinneberg RTTY." There are tons of markers all along the waterfall of this WebSDR which can help you find channels used for military communications, other numbers stations, and even international radio.
Once you're all zoomed in, you can easily tune up and down by putting your cursor over the yellow tuner thingy under the waterfall (scrolling over the waterfall zooms you in and out, scrolling under the waterfall changes your tuning), and scrolling up or down. From 4582.70, you can scroll up a little bit to 4625. You will see a marker for the famous Russian "Buzzer." During the day in the US and EU, this frequency is silent. At night, though, there is a loud ass "BRRRT" over and over. This is used to keep anyone else from using the frequency and is often followed by a readout of numbers.
To tie this back to the Skyking threads on /pol/: if you tune into 6712, 8992, 11175, 13200, or 15016, you can sometimes hear a voice go "SKYKING" and read out information. This US system (called an Emergency Action Message) appears to operate at different frequencies and, to my knowledge, does not have regular broadcasts. You just have to be listening to catch anything.
You can also listen to regular radio broadcasts from many countries like China, India, Japan, or even North Korea. I use this tool to find pirate broadcasts (amateurs broadcasting without a license) and it's pretty cool. Just look for any pink data stream, tune the radio to that frequency, and listen in. Try the CW, LSB, USB, AM, FM, and AMsync buttons to dial it in if it's just static - although, sometimes, it really is just static, random beeps, or whatever. It has happened where I found a random stream of data, tuned in, and heard some random dude in a random country broadcasting (illegally) for funsies. You can find cool shit like that.
With all that said, I hope this is useful or interesting to my fellow Kiwi Farmers. I would love this thread to be used to discuss what we find, our theories about stations (or other non-standard, unidentified broadcasts), and so on.
Disclaimer: there are undoubtedly other users on this site who can more accurately describe what is going on, how to use this WebSDR, what all the different widgets are, and discuss regular broadcasts and numbers stations with greater eloquence than I. If you are one of those users, please correct me or otherwise use this thread to make the topic easier to understand for newbies. I've been doing amateur radio shit for years now and I put heavy emphasis on the amateur part. Some of this stuff I figured out intuitively and I don't know what the correct technical terms are. If I sound like a retard, it's because I am one.
Anyway, back to the numbers stations. What usually happens is a voice goes over a certain frequency, announces a series of random numbers, and then stops. Some use a synthesized voice (think text-to-speech voice) to transmit data, but others use Morse code, while some use a kind of frequency modulation (e.g. they cause a frequency shift) to send information and/or signals. The majority of these stations transmit at regular times or patterns, although some do not and you have to just monitor the frequency.
Numbers stations have existed as early as World War I and see continued use to this very day. They were most active during the Cold War. A shitton of countries acknowledge using these things: the Czech, Swiss, and Swedes are three examples. Obviously, the USA and Russia operate these things as well as other NATO countries like the UK.
Some no longer operate. There was a famous "Lincolnshire Poacher" station which broadcasted from roughly the mid-60's until 2008 when it ceased operation. Most believe it was operated by British intelligence services and it had a regular broadcasting schedule. It's famous because it used the "Lincolnshire Poacher" song as an interval signal, which basically means it helped listeners tune their radio, informed other stations the frequency was in use, and was a sort of station identifier. Following the interval signal, a pre-recorded voice listed 5 numbers and the final number in each group always had a higher pitch. There are many stations that people recorded but are no longer in use.
You can use Google to find out much more than I'm putting here - it's a popular topic and there are books about it. However, for anyone interested in listening to these, Signal Identification Guide has a short list of known numbers stations and other interesting signals (I have only skimmed this wiki so please don't attack me if there's some gay shit on it). You can also search Google for lists of known and past stations to check their frequencies.
"But Hey Johnny Bravo," you ask, "how do I listen to these? I don't have a short-wave radio or even an analog radio." Well, dear reader, you are in luck: the Faculty for Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, and Computer Science at the University of Twente in The Netherlands has a free to use, wide-band WebSDR that anyone can use.
"But Hey Johnny Bravo," you ask, "I don't know what the fuck I'm doing. How do I use this tool?" Well, let's do a tutorial of sorts. When you first access the page, you will have to activate the audio and you will hear a lot of static. Scroll down until you see this:
The squiggly pink lines you see are like audio streams. The yellow thing underneath is your tuner. Bright areas are transmitting audio, dark areas are not. In the lower left you see your frequency in kHz, which is the frequency you're tuned into. CW, LSB, USB, AM, FM, and AMsync are - to put it crudely - different ways to listen to audio by adjusting the radio band. Some audio you can only hear properly on the AM band, for example.
So, if you're interested, here's your first task: tune into "DWD 1 Pinneberg RTTY." Enter 4582.70 into the kHz field. The web tool will bring you directly to this frequency, which is used to transmit weather broadcasts. All you'll hear is a lot of fast beeping, but, congratulations! You found it. With your mouse hovering over the waterfall (the purple and pink streams), scroll all the way in on your frequency (make sure to stay near, but above, the yellow tuner thingy below). Once you're scrolled all the way in above the yellow tuner thingy, you will see a marker for "DWD 1 Pinneberg RTTY." There are tons of markers all along the waterfall of this WebSDR which can help you find channels used for military communications, other numbers stations, and even international radio.
Once you're all zoomed in, you can easily tune up and down by putting your cursor over the yellow tuner thingy under the waterfall (scrolling over the waterfall zooms you in and out, scrolling under the waterfall changes your tuning), and scrolling up or down. From 4582.70, you can scroll up a little bit to 4625. You will see a marker for the famous Russian "Buzzer." During the day in the US and EU, this frequency is silent. At night, though, there is a loud ass "BRRRT" over and over. This is used to keep anyone else from using the frequency and is often followed by a readout of numbers.
To tie this back to the Skyking threads on /pol/: if you tune into 6712, 8992, 11175, 13200, or 15016, you can sometimes hear a voice go "SKYKING" and read out information. This US system (called an Emergency Action Message) appears to operate at different frequencies and, to my knowledge, does not have regular broadcasts. You just have to be listening to catch anything.
You can also listen to regular radio broadcasts from many countries like China, India, Japan, or even North Korea. I use this tool to find pirate broadcasts (amateurs broadcasting without a license) and it's pretty cool. Just look for any pink data stream, tune the radio to that frequency, and listen in. Try the CW, LSB, USB, AM, FM, and AMsync buttons to dial it in if it's just static - although, sometimes, it really is just static, random beeps, or whatever. It has happened where I found a random stream of data, tuned in, and heard some random dude in a random country broadcasting (illegally) for funsies. You can find cool shit like that.
With all that said, I hope this is useful or interesting to my fellow Kiwi Farmers. I would love this thread to be used to discuss what we find, our theories about stations (or other non-standard, unidentified broadcasts), and so on.
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