Numbers Radio Stations

[DRM]

Did anyone here ever come across these during the 70's & 80's, I used to pick them up at night on short wave, they would usually have a German or English voice reading out groups of numbers, that were basically messages to spies in the field, when they came on air they usually had a musical box theme tune, which used to be used as a name, eg Britain had the Lincolnshire Poacher, which opened with the tune of the same name, I was reminded of these stations by the Ice Cream Van that comes around these here parts, the chimes were very familiar, until it came to me, Swedish Rhapsody, the numbers station that transmitted from Poland
https://priyom.org/number-stations/german/g02
Theres an audio sample on the link, strange how something can take you back 45 years or so!

 

[Dogtrousers]

Yes. I remember picking them up in the 80s sometimes.

 

[Drago]

Yes yes. As an avid SWL before I got my ham ticket I heard a few.

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

I just remember listening to the radio one day as a kid in the late '80s'/early '90s' and it had nothing but morse code on one station/frequency.
My brother and a friend heard it too.

I heard it a few times after that, but there was also another one that just had electronic beeps like you'd hear from an old internet modem/router or similar.

 

[Hover Fly]

I just remember listening to the radio one day as a kid in the late '80s'/early '90s' and it had nothing but morse code on one station/frequency.
My brother and a friend heard it too.

I heard it a few times after that, but there was also another one that just had electronic beeps like you'd hear from an old internet modem/router or similar.

The Morse ones I used to pick up were just strings of numbers, - - -.. - -… …- -

 

[Dogtrousers]

OT: Back in the 80s I was on holiday travelling around France with a mate. I bought a little radio from a shop out there. I forget why, maybe to try to get the cricket or something. Anyway, it turned out that the best English language station that my little radio could get was Radio Tirana. We spent quite a few evenings in run down hotels being entertained by Albanian accented English that kept fading in and out of reception.

 

[DRM]

OT: Back in the 80s I was on holiday travelling around France with a mate. I bought a little radio from a shop out there. I forget why, maybe to try to get the cricket or something. Anyway, it turned out that the best English language station that my little radio could get was Radio Tirana. We spent quite a few evenings in run down hotels being entertained by Albanian accented English that kept fading in and out of reception.

OT too, but tuning around at night, late 1970's early 1980's it was possible to pick up American Forces Network from Germany, one of the regular DJ's was Wolfman Jack, but the info ads were terrible, how to shave without razor burn & such, just like, and as bad as on Good Morning Vietnam!

 

[Mad Doug Biker]

The Morse ones I used to pick up were just strings of numbers, - - -.. - -… …- -

What were they though?

More Spy stuff?

 

[DRM]

What were they though?

More Spy stuff?

They will have been numbers stations, iirc they were on voice & morse, but were undecipherable, unless you were the intended recipient,as I believe the numbers referred to pages, paragraphs, lines & words in a book, so the book was just a book if the spy was investigated, not a code book, so nothing incriminating to be found, if you don't know what book is being used, you can't crack the message, plus they would send messages to several agents, all very fascinating.

 

[ktmbiker58]

Some still pop up from time to time, Emergency Action Messages are worth listening for as well EAM Watch theres a good description of the EAM network at EAM 4724kHz USB is a good place to listen -

If nothing interesting is going on I tune into North Korea on 12,015kHz AM to get an update on tractor production, there is a broadcast in English at various times through the day, you can find out whats on Short Wave Guide