Numbers stations listening & discussion - I had to ask Null which forum was appropriate for this

[Poppavalyim Andropoff]

haven't heard about these since I stumbled on this a few years ago

 

[Fyrnite]

I had a period where I was obsessed with number stations back in 2017 and lasted for a couple of years. It used to weird me out but I found some sort of appreciation for them. I used to have sat on the Netherlands WebSDR as any other, just watching the log and jumping onto stations whenever someone pointed out some interesting station. I have collected a fair number of recordings during my time and including some imagery when watching the waves.

 

[Manuel Noriega]

I managed to find another channel that has a huge trove of numbers stations - as well as war broadcasts, interval signals and other additional things.

 

[Hey Johnny Bravo]

I had a period where I was obsessed with number stations back in 2017 and lasted for a couple of years. It used to weird me out but I found some sort of appreciation for them. I used to have sat on the Netherlands WebSDR as any other, just watching the log and jumping onto stations whenever someone pointed out some interesting station. I have collected a fair number of recordings during my time and including some imagery when watching the waves.

For future reference: if anyone wants to share recordings of their own, make sure to note the frequency, date, time, and so on. This is great, though. Thanks for uploading these.

I managed to find another channel that has a huge trove of numbers stations - as well as war broadcasts, interval signals and other additional things.

Sometimes I sit on North Korean radio channels just to see what they broadcast. It's really weird and cool at the same time since that country is almost a time capsule.

 

[SigueSigueSpergnik]

Sometimes I sit on North Korean radio channels just to see what they broadcast. It's really weird and cool at the same time since that country is almost a time capsule.

Don't forget the livestream of North Korea's Satellite TV feed. Broadcasts typically start around 05.30Z (14.30 KST) and run for a few hours, but the schedule is known to vary.

 

[Manuel Noriega]

Sometimes I sit on North Korean radio channels just to see what they broadcast. It's really weird and cool at the same time since that country is almost a time capsule.

You might enjoy this then!

 

[hog cranking frog]

Great thread OP. Fascinated by them myself, have stumbled across many, always quite spooky even if you know its simply a one way spy transmission. I get a lot of Cuban and Russian ones at my QTH.

 

[Hey Johnny Bravo]

You might enjoy this then!

The music is so funky and alien. Then again, I listen to a lot of garage and punk rock.

Great thread OP. Fascinated by them myself, have stumbled across many, always quite spooky even if you know its simply a one way spy transmission. I get a lot of Cuban and Russian ones at my QTH.

Thanks, buddy. If you have the setup for it, you should record some and post here. Do you remember what frequencies and times you've heard the transmissions?

 

[Manuel Noriega]

 

[hog cranking frog]

Thanks, buddy. If you have the setup for it, you should record some and post here. Do you remember what frequencies and times you've heard the transmissions?

I have the equipment but live in a tight valley now. Haven't been too inspired to record and post radio silliness lately. Maybe I'll get another antenna up this spring.

 

[Hey Johnny Bravo]

I have the equipment but live in a tight valley now. Haven't been too inspired to record and post radio silliness lately. Maybe I'll get another antenna up this spring.

I hope you do. In any case, happy listening.

 

[Fyrnite]

Lot of fascinating stuff shared here.
Has anyone tried chasing a particular station? My two white-whales when I was into shortwave was trying to find the high pitch polytone. In some of the recordings, I had thought I got a variation of it but not the one that's commonly recorded. Though I probably will not ever find it since some sources out there claim that it's inactive. Another is the Yosemite Sam station that looped a quote from Yosemite Sam off a cartoon short with Bugs Bunny. The origin of that station ended up being shut down way back in the mid-2000s when a couple of curious ham radio travelers, linked it to a military contractor's radio test site. They got caught taking pictures of the building and within three hours, the signal ceased.

So while I know getting to hear the real things is now impossible, it would've been cool if someone replicated them just for the experience.

 

[Manuel Noriega]

Another is the Yosemite Sam station that looped a quote from Yosemite Sam off a cartoon short with Bugs Bunny. The origin of that station ended up being shut down way back in the mid-2000s when a couple of curious ham radio travelers, linked it to a military contractor's radio test site. They got caught taking pictures of the building and within three hours, the signal ceased.

I don't think the original transmission can be recovered but is this close to what you remember?

 

[Fyrnite]

I don't think the original transmission can be recovered but is this close to what you remember?

I've known about that video for quite a time, but yes. I've tried frivolously to re-visit its frequencies on WebSDR in hopes it somehow got brought back up, knowing the story behind it though, it's very unlikely. These kinds of stations as we know, the sources do not like being routed out.

 

[Manuel Noriega]

I've known about that video for quite a time, but yes. I've tried frivolously to re-visit its frequencies on WebSDR in hopes it somehow got brought back up, knowing the story behind it though, it's very unlikely. These kinds of stations as we know, the sources do not like being routed out.

That is a huge shame, as I like when the numbers stations decide to add some humor to serious proceedings.

 

[SigueSigueSpergnik]

I've known about that video for quite a time, but yes. I've tried frivolously to re-visit its frequencies on WebSDR in hopes it somehow got brought back up, knowing the story behind it though, it's very unlikely. These kinds of stations as we know, the sources do not like being routed out.

This one may have been figured out last year:

That is a huge shame, as I like when the numbers stations decide to add some humor to serious proceedings.

Agreed. That's usually more a part of the SW pirate world, though.

Speaking of SW pirates, for anyone who may be interested, check out the Free Radio Network and HF Underground forums. HFU is the more active of the two, but the FRN catches things that might not be found elsewhere.

 

[Fyrnite]

That is a huge shame, as I like when the numbers stations decide to add some humor to serious proceedings.

Trues. Interestingly, since I had a though

This one may have been figured out last year:

Agreed. That's usually more a part of the SW pirate world, though.

Speaking of SW pirates, for anyone who may be interested, check out the Free Radio Network and HF Underground forums. HFU is the more active of the two, but the FRN catches things that might not be found elsewhere.

I'm still going believe in my head-canon that it's something to do with military and some secret project that wasn't supposed to have been found out.

Which now makes me want to clarify some of the recordings of mine. During the time I recorded everything, I had zero knowledge of what was what in the radio world. I just wanted to check out some of these number stations and hear what is still active. It was really casual listening at best and I apologize for not having fleshed out what was what. Though I'm going to go off some memory of what I remember of some of those recordings.

The recording with the frequency of 27600 has a label called 'local pager'. What that is, I've no idea and it can be revisted on the Netherlands WebSDR.
Obviously the recording with frequency 8588 was when I found the infamous Slot Machine in Japan.
Frequency 17462.0Khz on April 2017 was a number station
Frequency 8530.0Khz on April 2017 was another number station. Some times I was checking in on number station schedules and going by what was being said on the chatlog so I didn't miss out on interesting number stations. So some of the recordings are when I caught some of them. So that summarizes a good chunk of the recordings.
All of those recordings on January 2017 at the 7077.0 frequency, that was me playing with the settings on the WebSDR that gave those creepy sounding recordings. They don't actually exist. I believe I was changing between LSB and USB alternatively and discovered the different effects interchanging them had.
The frequency at 4020.4Khz recorded on September 2017. Someone in the chatlog had pointed out that there was a distress signal released about a boat on the verge of sinking and a crew was desperately trying to reach out.
The frequency at 7055.0 on October 2019, I think that was someone trolling with propagandizing lol. The images with the drawn penis on the waves is connected to that recording, I was watching it all be spit out like that. It amazed me because I didn't know that was possible.

 

[Hey Johnny Bravo]

Which now makes me want to clarify some of the recordings of mine. During the time I recorded everything, I had zero knowledge of what was what in the radio world. I just wanted to check out some of these number stations and hear what is still active. It was really casual listening at best and I apologize for not having fleshed out what was what. Though I'm going to go off some memory of what I remember of some of those recordings.

Don't worry, I figured as much. No need to apologize and thank you for trying to recall information about the recordings.

 

[Manuel Noriega]

I discovered another treasure trove channel

 

[XYZpdq Jr.]

I heard about these in a book on pirate broadcasting. Never heard any live.
also there was a building near Palm Beach International that was super razor wired off and shit back in the day, near the dog track, story around town as I heard was that it was numbers or jamming cuba or both