|
Vintage Amateur and Military Radio Amateur/military receivers and transmitters, morse, and any other related vintage comms equipment. |
|
Thread Tools |
23rd Aug 2014, 1:01 am | #21 |
Rest in Peace
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Hexham, Northumberland, UK.
Posts: 2,234
|
Numbers stations
Are there any "numbers stations" still to be heard on short waves nowadays or are they all a thing of the past. My son asked me about them today, having read about them and was wondering if he could hear a live broadcast. I remember hearing them in the eighties along with the woodpecker and that horn thing that sounded every few seconds but I wouldn't have a clue where to find them now, even if they still broadcast. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.
|
23rd Aug 2014, 7:07 am | #22 |
Nonode
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Warsaw, Poland and Cambridge, UK
Posts: 2,681
|
Re: Numbers stations
There's plenty of strange stuff still out there, though less than there was. There's a web site called 'HF underground' on which people post their findings, and probably others as well. The horn thing you refer to its probably 'the buzzer', which is still to be heard on 4625kHz, if I remember rightly.
Chris
__________________
What's going on in the workshop? http://martin-jones.com/ |
23rd Aug 2014, 7:30 am | #23 | |
Nonode
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Worcestershire, UK.
Posts: 2,052
|
Re: Numbers stations
Quote:
During my time at the BBC Monitoring Service, we often heard what we nicknamed "German bingo" during HF out-of-broadcast band occupancy scanning. I often wondered how these codes were generated and whether there was some poor soul sat in front of a microphone reading from hundreds of sheets of paper covered in numbers ... The 'woodpecker' (sometimes referred to as 'Gomel pulses') was the audible effect of an 'over the horizon' radar system: http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duga-3 One of our engineering services was the off-air reception of Voice of America HF broadcasts for relay purposes; the 'woodpecker' could be very disruptive at times. Best wishes Guy
__________________
"What a depressingly stupid machine." [Marvin: HHGTTG] |
|
23rd Aug 2014, 12:26 pm | #24 |
Octode
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Reading/Fakenham, UK.
Posts: 1,326
|
Re: Numbers stations and short wave mentioned on the One show
Although numbers stations are less common than they were, there are at least two groups which follow/catalogue/categorise their continuing activity.
Extremely dedicated groups have the following websites: http://priyom.org/ http://www.apul64.dsl.pipex.com/enigma2000/ and http://www.simonmason.karoo.net/page30.html Remember that there are Morse and data numbers stations too. But possibly more intriguing are the related odd noise stations operating 24/7: 'The Buzzer' 4625 kHz audible across Europe from dusk 'The Pip' 5448 kHz (daytime), 3756 kHz (night time) 'The Squeaky Wheel' 3828 kHz (night time), 5473 kHz (daytime) Then there's the 'backward music' or 'whale song' station that appears from time to time. Most of these stations are clearly audible after dusk in the UK. They seem to be from the Russian military, and the noises are just used as channel markers with voice messages being fairly rare. Googling numbers stations will bring up more pages, but for anyone wishing to follow this subject up, priyom.org (mostly UK-based volunteers) is a good place to start, with audio samples and a clear frequency list. I find some of these signals fascinatingly creepy - especially when listening in the shack, alone... at night... Ian |
23rd Aug 2014, 12:53 pm | #25 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Nov 2011
Location: Surrey, UK.
Posts: 4,400
|
Re: Numbers stations and short wave mentioned on the One show
"The Buzzer" seems to have been designed to deter human beings from listening to it for any length of time- though, no doubt, there is automatic monitoring implemented by those who don't tend to shout about such things.
|
25th Aug 2014, 7:37 pm | #26 |
Nonode
Join Date: Oct 2010
Location: Gloucester, Glos. UK.
Posts: 2,150
|
Re: Numbers stations and short wave mentioned on the One show
I've just listened to my first "number station" recording on YouTube, and I have to say I was a bit spooked, I've never heard this before.
Swedish Rhapsody irdial? Sounds silly I know, but... |
25th Aug 2014, 8:51 pm | #27 |
Rest in Peace
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: Hexham, Northumberland, UK.
Posts: 2,234
|
Re: Numbers stations and short wave mentioned on the One show
I tuned in "the buzzer" on the radio the other night and showed it to my lad. He was intrigued and has become very interested in listening in but unfortunately I failed to find any numbers transmissions. I remember in the eighties they were all over the place. I think it is the monotonous unemotional nature of the (usually) female voice which makes them so mysterious.
|
25th Aug 2014, 9:14 pm | #28 |
Octode
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Reading/Fakenham, UK.
Posts: 1,326
|
Re: Numbers stations and short wave mentioned on the One show
Yes, the 'Buzzer' (4625 kHz USB) has quite a following across the world, although no one can make out what the very occasional voice transmissions (in Russian) are about.
There's even a 24/7 web radio live stream (http://uvb-76.net) and although not really a numbers station, it remains one of the strange signals lurking in the murky corners of the short-wave spectrum! Ian |
26th Aug 2014, 12:43 am | #29 |
Heptode
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire, UK.
Posts: 951
|
Re: Numbers stations and short wave mentioned on the One show
The Buzzer clearly audible on 4625 tonight, M08a also heard weakly on 8010 (used spectrumlab to see it rather than listen)
They're still out there, http://priyom.org/ will help you find them, it has a useful 'next station at...' feature!
__________________
I got food in ma belly and a license for ma telly My Blog - http://g7mrv.blogspot.com |
26th Aug 2014, 9:19 am | #30 |
Heptode
Join Date: May 2008
Location: Selby, North Yorkshire, UK.
Posts: 951
|
Re: Numbers stations and short wave mentioned on the One show
Just listened to S06s 'Russian Lady' on 11655 and 14373. Very active and very eerie!
Followed with a demo to my son of how 'one time pads' work!
__________________
I got food in ma belly and a license for ma telly My Blog - http://g7mrv.blogspot.com |
21st Oct 2014, 6:57 pm | #31 |
Pentode
Join Date: Oct 2014
Location: Spalding, Lincolnshire, UK.
Posts: 181
|
Re: Numbers stations and short wave mentioned on the One show
The first time I ever heard of these rather eerie transmissions was on a Radio 4 program called "Tracking The Lincolnshire Poacher" after the now defunct number station of the same name. It turned out that it most probably emanated from RAF Akrotiri in Cyprus and was probably used by MI6.
The documentary is available on Youtube and worth a listen. |
21st Oct 2014, 10:03 pm | #32 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Penrith, Cumbria, UK.
Posts: 3,687
|
Re: Numbers stations and short wave mentioned on the One show
Isn't this what the Soviets used for their HF jamming of the BBC World Service?
__________________
Regds, Russell W. B. G4YLI. |
22nd Oct 2014, 10:46 am | #33 |
Moderator
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Fife, Scotland, UK.
Posts: 22,902
|
Re: Numbers stations and short wave mentioned on the One show
I've just noticed what 4cx250b posted a while back, that one of the numbers stations 'Cynthia' was just down the road from him. Now he lives near Mainz.
Mainz is the town where BAPT (Bundesamt fur post und telecomm) has its headquarters, and they are the radio regulatory agency for the German government and have over 100 VW vans running around the place tracking interference, chasing pirates and doing general spectrum management duties. This makes it pretty definite that that numbers station was official. David
__________________
Can't afford the volcanic island yet, but the plans for my monorail and the goons' uniforms are done |
22nd Oct 2014, 2:21 pm | #34 | |
Octode
Join Date: Jun 2004
Location: Reading/Fakenham, UK.
Posts: 1,326
|
Re: Numbers stations and short wave mentioned on the One show
Quote:
They'd discovered that psychologically, it was much harder for the brain to unscramble a wanted signals if it was masked with the same language but distorted and echo applied. They could also give the feeble excuse that it wasn't 'deliberate interference' but a transmitter fault! All the Soviet jammers also had a Morse ID superimposed on them so jamming HQ knew which jamming stations were operating. Jammers operating in the Middle East sounded like seagulls, there were (are?) wobble jammers, then there are the fantastic Chinese "Firedrake" Jammers (audio) that go on for hours! The backwards whale is an odd one. Audio here. I think the belief is that it's some sort of audio feedback between rx/tx, but I don't think anyone knows for sure. The SW bands are still full of weird stuff! Ian |
|
22nd Oct 2014, 2:41 pm | #35 | |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jul 2007
Location: Penrith, Cumbria, UK.
Posts: 3,687
|
Re: Numbers stations and short wave mentioned on the One show
Quote:
Ah. Thanks; it's the brain thing I was thinking of. I knew the Soviets had done much research into messing with peoples' heads and I thought that it was this way they did it. I knew about the Firedrake from China. We (the 'royal we', that is: slightly before my time!) used to operate 'barrage' transmissions from Skelton: eighteen frequencies, all with the same programme on them, so the 'what, why, where, when and how' of the news could get through to the audience before the jammers cut in - which wasn't very long.
__________________
Regds, Russell W. B. G4YLI. |
|
10th Feb 2018, 7:04 pm | #36 |
Retired Dormant Member
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Westbury, Wiltshire, UK.
Posts: 2,451
|
Number stations
|