I Rang A Secret Numbers Station... And Got A Response!
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- Опубликовано: 23 ноя 2024
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Back in May I published a video on a story that broke back in 2013 on The Kernel in which a phone number was made public that had apparently been set up in place of the famous Lincolnshire Poacher numbers station.
An anonymous source claimed that the Lincolnshire Poacher lived on as a secret telephone number for MI6 agents to receive encoded messages in the Middle East.
Known only as Mr Bland, the informant claimed that after the Lincolnshire Poacher ceased operations in 2008, it was moved to a UK telephone number. Mr Bland even provided the telephone number.
The Kernel called the number and was met with a mysterious version of the Lincolnshire Poacher.
The following day after numerous calls to the number, the Lincolnshire Poacher message system had been taken down. Instead of hearing the numbers station, callers were relayed a different message.
The Kernel, along with several readers, then received a text message from a different number informing them that the “Lincolnshire Poacher” telephone number was restricted and requesting that they don’t call it again.
When the Kernel tried to call the new number that the text message was sent from, they were told that the number wasn’t recognised.
Today I have some updates for you!
I Rang A Secret Government Numbers Station!
• I Rang A Secret Govern...
First part!
I Rang A Secret Government Numbers Station!
ruclips.net/video/FObo3-Q6FEA/видео.html
Can you make a video about the Haarp Array(High-frequency Active Auroral Research Program) can it really control the weather?
is this the device that the number station music is made with ruclips.net/video/KdeLP67i95Q/видео.html
Ringway Manchester the number sequence sounds like it’s for a bomb and missile codes because the numbers are in sequence 1050142 this could be for a missile launch code used for used by the United States government and Canadian government to launch Launch missile And also, it’s also used for military training as well if you wanna try to ring a secret station Radio tower I will provide you with the number try ringing edit
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More information
The "Russian Man" station signing off. The numbers read: 83912 83912 10080 10080 46543 46543 - 257 257 143 143 - 000 00
I would advise you to try to ring that tower I mean that tower the Russian man station singing off the numbers.
In the late 80's I worked in the central alarm station/control room of a US based multinational corporation. I was basically a glorified telephone receptionist and radio operator. The company had its own security director who was a retired military intelligence officer. What is interesting is that at a point in time everyone in my position was given an envelope with a piece of paper inside. The paper had a person's name on it and instructions stating that if someone called our international help line and identified themselves as that person we were to only ask them where they were and nothing else. We were to them immediately contact a list of people at their office or home no matter the time of day or day of week. It seemed very bizarre to me and my coworkers that a regular business would do this. It also felt that we were being used as a last resort. Years later I now have to wonder if it was a similar situation to what was explained in this video.
Sounds like a Night Action program 😂
Sounds like a spy doing corporate espionage at the competition. If they were found out, they called in to get rescued.
@@gorak9000 lots of “private” front companies for the CIA are known. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Central_Intelligence_Agency_front_organizations
I used to work for a company that had links to an organisation which employed ex-special forces people to go and do certain unpleasant things to certain unpleasant people in the event that a senior executive was being held hostage or menaced in some of the countries they were working in. They had a terribly charming person working for them who I think was a former ops officer for a regiment euphemistically 'based at Hereford' and they were all terribly charming in a supremely self-confident way.
Or a GREAT way to screw with your employees!
Time to register an 0845, make a weird recorded message and rake in the profit!
I heard a story about someone setting up a premium rate phone number for a morse code "competition", they had multiple car phones set up to call the number, using nefarious methods to put credit on the phones, the scheme was run from a narrowboat so the signals couldn't be DF'd very easily, knowing the circles the chap who told me about it frequented, I found it utterly believable!
Numbers Station Deluxe DLC
So, in this comment, I noticed 0845...is that a toll-free/free-phone number, like our 800/888/877/etc codes, or a pay-per-minute line, like our 900 codes (probably likely due to nature of comment)
If shortwave radio fuzz and artefacts can be heard on the telephone line version, its most likely a hoax. A legit source is likely to have access to and use a direct recording of the original sound source / hardware generator used. Added to that, yes, calling strange numbers on foreign networks is totally going to get noticed, particularly if under investigation; so that would be very strange.
Exactly what I said and an hour of scrolling later I see your comment, the song sounded recorded off the air. Aka non original source. A hoax.
@@AldoSchmedack not only that, but it sounds EXACTLY like the conet project recording.
@@PeterBellefleur I did wonder if it would. Pretty much confirmed at that point.
@PeterBellefleur thank you!!! I couldn't remember the name it was doin my head in
@@vinny142 these days I get the impression various forms of plain sight stenography maybe favoured in the field instead. Messages hidden say in images on a news website someone might be expected to visit normally, which then can be decoded with a one time key entered into an app which would be on a device by default, but has some extra code added to it to facilitate this by security services. Various fun things of this sort that could be out there.
As I said on the other video, using a number station as a auto playing recording on public accessible number is dumb idea because every phone line on every network in every country is attached to a Dialled Number Recorder for one very basic reason, Billing.
Yep I call bogus, you would never use number codes to a traceable line even a throw away phone, and it sounded rerecorded over quality wise, like they got the poacher song off the air and reused it, they would have used the original if legit.
Bit off topic but that's why I - and everyone else should as well - completely reject the notion that scam/spam phone calls can't be stopped. Every call that crosses a billing boundary is documented, they are 100% traceable.
I remember hearing about this at the time and immediately dismissing it as a hoax. I don't understand why it would have the call-up signal (the lincolnshire poacher tune), surely the whole point of that part of the broadcast was to ensure that the receiver was tuned to the correct frequency, and to serve as an indicator that the channel was active and a message would follow shortly, neither of which are issues with what basically amounts to an answerphone
Yes, exactly. You wouldn't need to identify the broadcast, you dialled the number!
it seems counterintuitive to make your top-secret intelligence phone line blast the (essentially) theme song of a very well known number station down the line at you for all your enemies to hear.
to be fair, on radio you would blast it in the airways for *everyone* to hear. Secrecy is not in hiding the message, but the meaning of it, not hiding the transmitter, but hiding the receiver. Having your spy make a deliberate call to UK number kinda contradicts those benefits. There are some publicly known actors who don't need to practice tradecraft - think embassies. They might just use a low tech, unencrypted yet reliable landline connection to receive a one-time code. Who cares if it gets intercepted :)
i came to the youtube comments for the REAL security experts
Payphones used to be everywhere like strip clubs, and subway stations with both junkies, and that gang of six Africans stalking you from behind the pillars on the next platform.
As always, i love the radio conyent, but you taking deep dives into things like numbers stations are always really intriguing to watch and listen to. Thanks for the work you put in your videos Lewis. Youre awesome! Youve also got a good following across the pond here in the states.
Yes I enjoy it too! His videos are always first I watch in my feed. Also from USA and I absolutely love our allies, most of all, by far, the Brits. We may have once very long ago been enemies but I consider it far gone and it was only because of that one man whom didn't treat people on his side good either (KG). But I won't get into that. My point is we helped each other out a TON since then and maintain a great mutual respect and relationship between us. Yanks and the Brits. Bless them both! In this day and age we need each other and can't afford nonsense. We share everything from resources, manpower, intel, weapons development, secrets, you name it. I hope we are always allies. Have a great love for all UK, esp Britan, and not just because I am part English, but because they are a very respectable people. Well liked here in my region btw (Midwest). Hope to get to England someday soon here. Hungry for good food and beer and some 'ol english heritage.
Not gonna lie. I knew next to nothing about Ringway's core content, radio communications and the like. I hitched my wagon after the incredible Duga and number stations series of videos. But I'm a huge fan of learning about things I never even knew existed. Especially when presented in such a way that makes seriously technical subject matter easily digestible and so very interesting .
absolutely, just getting into this whole thing completely by accident. I find it equally interesting, fascinating, informative and scary & creepy. had a scanner in late '90s/early '00s so I remember when you could even get mobile phone calls! Was aware of the exotic SW community but never anything like this.
A much better covert dial in would be a weather number and the report would have subtle messages mixed into the report.
The tune it plays sounds like it was recorded from shortwave radio, and then the rest of the audio sounds clean. So I think that's a clue that it was a mock-up rather than authentic.
Could be they were too mean to pay for a new recording. The original was taken fron a vinyl record.
I might try those Lincolnshire Poacher numbers on The National Lottery this weekend.
Nice update! I think that the number must have been a hoax, as afterwards they changed the recorded message to say 'this number is not available'. Whereas dialling a number which is truly not available would prompt a response from the telecom operator, as they couldn't connect your call in the first place...
Sounds like the person who sent you details of the precautions they take has more reliable information - we just hope they're still alive and watching your videos from wherever they're hiding in plain sight!
I got a much better reason everyone seam to miss. Why would they play a recording with all the reception noises instead of the actual tape if it was the real deal. Makes no sense. Yes it's a fraud!
Also "This number is currently unavailable. Do not use this number at this time. Please refer to backup channel RX39" Is not a message for the investigator. Red herrings aside its a fun mystery.
@@MissEldirayou can much easier tell it's a fake by the fact that telecom companies can simply detect the number being dialed, this is why shortwave number stations are still operated by Poland among others as the reception of one cannot be detected
It sounds like you were being played by one person who decided to have some fun at your expense. By the way, Sir Alec Guinness is the real George Smiley. Gary Oldman did well, but Guinness made you feel the Cold War malaise that was Britain during that era. Thanks!
Yes indeed.Anybody interested in espionage and the cold war should watch the immaculately made mini-series Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy created the BBC from the 80s. It stars Alec Guiness and it shows the gritty vibe of 80s London and an underestimated master spy cleaning up traitors in his midst. Very slow paced and flawlessly acted. The excellent Smiley,s People is also the resolution to the first story. It is generally findable on youtube. Not alot of action, just strategy and behind the scenes detail.
I think this latest guy was quite probably the real deal, although why I think that is slightly complicated to explain. I also agree with your original conclusions for all the reasons you stated. Your reasoning is sound. I've never personally had any direct part in the world of smoke and mirrors, but I am aware that several members of my family (now long since deceased) almost certainly did, and I've also had a few friends and associates about whom I've had my suspicions (although working as I did in Broadcasting, and certain rather specialist types of IT, it wasn't exactly going to be a surprise if one or two colleagues had been so associated.) So all in all I consider myself moderately familiar with the fringes of that world, and what you say all makes a lot of sense.
A finger of fudge is just enough to give the kids a treat!
"Now then, now then"
Oh yeah! 😅
ha ha oh yeh
So nice to have someone who has seen my favourite TV series of all time The Americans! Yeah I love that element of it, I recall even them tuning in onto the BBC on shortwave so that they could get information. Certainly gave a "Damn this is certainly set a long time ago" vibe to it.
The cease text message came from Aldershot, home of the British military as I'm sure you know (and my home also). Just something I noticed.
The number can be located to roughly the junction of Ordnance Road and the High Street.
@@YAHUAHsgotmysix That's exactly where the Aldershot telephone exchange is :) I'm impressed you managed to triangulate it!
For someone even to spend the time setting up a fake number, and response on the line with music and numbers etc, is actually Brilliant 😂😂😂😂. Government stuff though.. MI5, MI6, SNEEKY BEAKIES etc etc. We will never know exactly what goes on within these organisations.. class video. Keep them coming
With modern VOIP systems this would take minutes
doesn;t take long at all, you can have this done in a hour if that. All you need is your own PBX hand have the DID(phone number) directed into your PBX. With asterisk you can seti it up to allow someone to call once and hear one recording and any other time they call they get a different one. Longest part would be making the recordings. I can have a phone number purchased and configured for this in about 15 minutes. And thats with propagation time
In the James Bond books he 'worked' for a company called Universal Imports and Exports (or something like that) and any calls made were answered by a perfectly normal receptionist.
Within Royal Mail there were/are? certain addresses with a special instruction to hand any received mail unopened directly to the office manager for, as I was told, special branch!😂. Much weird sh1t goes on right under our noses.
John Le Car-ray btw, Carré has an accent :). And you should totally read some, great stories!
é on end is an "eh?" like Canadians go 😂
It sounds fake, why would they play a recording of the Lincolnshire Poacher tune with cracks and hisses and all when they own the master tape of it? It would be crystal clear on the telephone if it was genuine.
Same with reading out the numbers.
I once called a us number that a client gave me with their extension. When i called i heard the phone pick up but no like answer so i just said my company name. Then a woman said hold please. Then after about 30 seconds they seemed very confused and basically politely but firmly told me not to call this extension/number again and seemed very nervous that I had called it. I still do not know what i called that day. When i saw the client again they said that i copied down the number wrong.
This was years ago when i was 18 or so and working retail. I remember thinking the number was way too long.
So, at 1:20, the phone recording... if you listen to the song it has radio noise. It clearly tried to remove it but you can't remove all of it in some situations. The rest of the recording doesn't have it at all, it of course makes sense .. why would you have radio noise over a phone call.
Not sure why but something tells me that if investigated you would be able to find the recording from which he cut the song part.
I think it's a faked recording.
An interesting point. An entity using the chimes for identification would use the source audio. Whereas an entity that reproduces this noise and radio aesthetic is putting in special effort into creating a presentation that is wholly distinct from the underlying technology, a performance. That’s not conclusively a hoax but given this it is clear the intent is “sound like the numbers station” not “disseminate the information previously disseminated on the numbers station”.
Several of us said same now. Spot on.
Never had a remote interest, but do now. Much appreciated Lewis, the Brian Cox of radio 📻. Great vids n info.
Using a phone number that can be traced through the system is a poor substitute for the radio transmission that can be listened to anonymous. I call shenanigans.
I have a conjecture for you. Transmitters are remote, and you have to get a signal to them. If you use another transmitter, you give away a location, so a wire is understandable. AM radio stations news opt-ins, remote church networks and the like could very reasonably dial in to service at a fixed time to relay the audio, and it means not having to send messages daily to the transmitter on tape.
Perhaps the phone number was a long-forgotten unlisted dial-up service for the transmitter, which was not taken off line when the broadcast stopped due to inefficiencies in paperwork etc. The messages may have even been dummy content (a change in transmission patterns in itself is intelligence, so even "no news" would have been semi-random digits), just a computer told nothing important but providing the daily "no news" messages.
The publication of the number would have raised eyebrows itself, so allow the service to be replaced by whatever is currently used, and was never meant to be a (ridiculously non-covert) subscriber agent dial-in.
I think that would align with all the facts and be in sympathy with the covert nature of the systems. Makes sense to me at least - part paperwork cock-up between departments, and fitting the overall story.
"I rang a number station. And then I proceeded to blabber about books and movies..."
In Australia I remember dialling a 4 digit number and I got a recorded message "hello you have reached ______ exchange please enter code "" I tried 1234. It stated " your code is incorrect goodbye" thinking it must have been a line for workers to remote change or access information. I don't remember it was a similar to dial time 1194 a recorded service lines.
Yeah, I think it was 1194 for the time and 1196 for the weather. That was super cool in the 80's as a teenager. :)
The concept of using a traceable, interceptable connection over the PSTN (Public Switched Telephone Network) seems rather unlikely.
For those of us intrigued with espionage, there were two stellar mini-series on BBC by John le Carré, "Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy" and "Smiley's People" starring Sir Alec Guinness. I am among those who consider these to be the best espionage stories extant. Both of these series are currently available here on RUclips. Recommended.
My late Father made a mistake and asked an inappropriate Question at a Bletchley Park lecture. He was taken to one side and told to shut up if he knew what was good for him. He was over 80. Previously he checked his service record and it was complete fiction! Said he was a civilian working for the civil service. He was actually a regular army staff sergeant! I have a picture of him in uniform! He was doing what the lecturer claimed was impossible. Decoding Japanese signals in 1941 with Americans. They even changed the records of the hut used! As it was 1941 I'll leave it to you to realise what they discovered!!!! Got something to do with a lot of ships. Btw a few days after discovering it the US fleet carriers sailed from a certain port. Funny that.
Didn't need a decode to figure out what was about to go down, but like some things that were allowed to let happen to keep ULTRA unknown, "it was for the greater good." I can't help but to think of the three young men who survived in the sunken hull of a destroyer half the month of December before they finally perished. I wonder if they ever realized no one was even trying to help them. The photo of the one the evening before enjoying himself like young men do in paradise not knowing what the bosses know is in store for the poor basterds come morning. You can bet the farm that no cabinet member, senator, etc son was deep in the bowels of a ship that morning even if it was their normal duty station. Like no one noticed all the build up and preparation it took to assemble and supply that huge tojo fleet for that long. Nor did anyone notice all the major jap carriers mia. D-day wasn't secret, but the germans were ate up with turncoat to the point Hitler couldn't didnt know what was what. They like to put that NCO (and spy) down for his later performance, but really he outperformed most of the Prussian noble military blood bred for the part
Sure. That story never happened, your dad would have known about the importance of the world not knowing that the US knew about the Pearl Harbor attack and would not have “made a mistake”. It is a well documented conspiracy theory that the Americans knew about the attack on Pearl Harbor.
The story of the small team at Bletchley dealing with Japanese traffic (including the names of people involved) is here:
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hut_7#:~:text=The%20Japanese%20Naval%20Section%20was,moved)%20later%20to%20Block%20B.
Your channel is a large part of why I got into Ham Radio. Yeah I know its 2023 and HF radio is rather out dated. But each night I scan through the bands in hopes of finding something like this. Still searching....
Most likely a goofy prank, a viral marketing ARG or (most unlikely) a recruitment tool for entry level enthusiasts like the GCHQ puzzles we have seen in the past. But most likely a stunt, perhaps even by a fan of the channel’s coverage
You received a reply on your iPhone 3GS. Interesting.
I didn’t receive any reply, that screenshot is from 10 years ago
yeah I work in telecom, it is not hard to spoof a number to send an SMS and it is not hard to make your own Recording to say anything you want. I did this prank to many friends just a year ago . So take all of this with a grain of salt
It's a bit off-topic but watching this video has reminded me of something from years ago. When I was a child in the mid eighties, I went outside the house one day to find my elderly (and usually very friendly) neighbour frantically smashing something up with an axe. I vaguely remember it was a cylindrical object, grey or brown, about a foot long with one or more of what looked like rotary telephone dials on the side of it. He saw me, looked horrified and told me to go away. I only saw it for a second and it was pushing 40 years ago so the memory isn't clear. I believe he and his wife were of German origin and he was an engineer/draftsman working for a large defence contractor. It's always bothered me as to what the object was, why he was destroying it, and why he didn't want me to see it. I suspect it was some kind of encoder/decoder device. In short, I suspect that he or both of them were a spy for one side or another.
Too bad you didn't dig thru his trash and retrieve said object, and hide it somewhere safe for 40 years. That would be a real museum piece now.
It was a dildo.
I wonder why he smashed it outside for the world to see? If he didn't want neighborhood kids around then smash it inside?
Of course. If it was some sort of encoding device he would choose to destroy it in public.
… or, he was fed up with losing at Hungry Horace and rage quit his Commodore 64 with an axe.
Sometimes Bugs Bunny hit the carrot patch, and other times he took a wrong turn in Albuquerque.
A dial in numbers station doesn’t sound viable- why risk getting your phone located if your hiding.
A question for you guys. Back in the mid 80s I had a very old FM radio that had a scale from 80 to 101 Mhz (I think!) made by either Hackett or Hacker. I can't remember which. Anyway in the part of the scale below the normal FM band there was a dead signal being transmitted all the time, and about once every 5 minutes it played a bit of orchestra style music that lasted about 10 seconds. I couldn't say how long this went on for as I was only a kid and didn't listen to it much. Anybody know anything about this?
There used to be a lot of drone stations at the end of the FM dial that was like in the 60s we could hardly get anything on UHF in the 80s, all the weird stuff was 88-89 because of college radio.
Here's the questions. Iasked myself when I watched the orginal video:
* Why would a crackly version of the Lincolnshire Poacher, which sounds like it was recorded from a remote radio, be played at the start of the phone call instead of a sharp, clear version?
* The Lincolnshire Poacher number station was famous for its voice inflection so why was it dropped for a completely different voice without any inflection?
* Why would any music be played at the start of a phone call when the recipient knew who they were calling, a phone call doesn't need to clear the broadcast airwaves, and making the call longer would make it easier to capture a spy who was known to be stuck on a phone call for a specific time?
* Why not send a burst of digitally encrypted data instead of making the spy sit on the phone for a half hour, copying numbers and not saying anything while on the phone, making the call seem more suspicious? Even Cuban spy Anna Montes had a computer program to decode Cuban number stations and she was arrested in 2001.
* Why use traceable phone numbers instead of untraceable short-wave radio broadcasts?
* Why use an in-the-clear phone number when voice-over-ip can be restricted to a specific caller, is harder to trace, and can be encrypted?
Congrats on the 100K Lewis! 👍👍
Seems to defeat the purpose of what makes a shortwave broadcast preferable, as all you need is a way to receive the message without exposing yourself by dialing a specific # that can be flagged and monitored by the government of the country you're operating within.
BINGO ❤
Fascinating stuff, Lewis.
It's pronounced John le Carray, by the way. Have you been taking lessons from Mr. Shenanigans?
I see you popped up on a Martin Zero video recently. Hope you made him pay for stepping onto your patch. I'm with you on the tea. ;o)
The name Le Carre is a French name, fgs!
@@svensimpson4130 Then why don't you add the «accent aigu» on the final e?: é
Fascinating video Lewis. Keep them coming!👍
Back in the late nineties, I was playing around on the land-line one evening. Simply putting in random four digit number sequences to see if anything happened. Then, after one sequence i got an answer. It didn't make any sense at the time and I hung up. Thinking back, I could have stumbled upon a secret services access number? Wish I could remember the four digit code. 🤔
There were a lot of 4 digit sequences that were used by BT technicians for line testing. The most well known being SALT Subscriber Automatic Line Testing. You dial the salt code and hang up - the system would complete a number of technical tests and ring back giving error codes. You could also use the system to test a different line by adding that number on the end - it was fun as the test would cause the remote bell to 'tinkle' and people would often pick up the phone - there was no speech path if I remember correctly. Other sequences could introduce other tests - like line tracing tones and howler tone.
There was on System X exchanges a long number sequence that would put the exchange into a lock down emergency condition. Only nominated phones could initiate calls - but everyone could receive calls. This was a Cold War response so that lines would be free for Government, Fire, Police etc.
A colleague working on a very large private telephone system was testing lines from an MDF - when connected to an unmarked jumper on the tag block he was met with a stern voice demanding to know who he was and where was he etc. Fortunately the heavies did not arrive when he explained he was line testing.
@@barrieshepherd7694He found a tap off to the nethworld! 😊 There exist a few all over certain regions near certain places. It's how they reroute things to appear elsewhere. Completely untraceable.
@@barrieshepherd7694 1471 was a line test number in the 80's, it then became the last caller redial in the 90's.
Did the same in late eighties. Can't remember exactly what it was, I think it was a pound + three digit and it read the phone number back to me or something. That's been a whole lotta moons ago.
@@user-lp3cf5yn5b In the UK you can dial 17070 and it will read the line number back to you, followed by a series of BT line tests you can run such as quiet line test.
Congratulations on reaching 100k subscribers I remember subscribing about 8 years ago crazy time go fast.
Ticked over 100k, nice one and well deserved.
Congratulations on 100k subscribers
I agree, the phone number and Mr Bland are someone with an adventurous mind. Mr ‘There ain’t nobody’ appears to have more accurate information but this could have been gleaned from fictional sources. I guess we will not know for decades how the Poacher was really replaced. Another really interesting video Lewis, just one minor point ‘Carrė’ is generally pronounced ‘kah-ray’. The 1980s BBC adaptation of Tinker Tailor is exceptionally better than the film. It stars Sir Alec Guinness for a start.
What strikes me immediately is the audio on the phone-it is certainly an over the air *recording*. It doesn’t make any sense to do that, why would you bother when you have the source? Setting up a phone number to do this is dead simple using a VoIP provider. I could create the equivalent in 10 minutes for literally just a little more than $1 (here in the US, in the UK it could be more expensive-or less, I don’t know). It isn’t like the days of POTS lines where you needed some serious technical muscle, connections, and substantial money to pull something like this off without being trivially traceable.
The other problem with the numbers announcement on the phone was the interval signal? Why would you do that? Even if there was some “authentication” value in one play, playing it 3 times? No one is tuning their telephone after dialing the number, it’s just a (potentially dangerous for an operative) waste of time.
There are many other reasons why this is almost certainly a hoax. I say almost only for formality-obviously I can’t been 100% certain, but I would feel comfortable betting a large some on it, or making tactical decisions with it as an assumption.
I enjoy your videos, thank you. I was an avid SWL in the late 70’s and 80’s when it was a vital medium. I did listen to broadcast but utilities, military, and mystery signals were my focus. I watched as much of what was so engaging left the air. Personally, I some of this fleeing the HF bands has the potential to haunt us. Just like abandoning copper POTS lines, dropping HF channels may leave us with big communications trouble in the future should a disaster (natural or otherwise) happen they knocks out the infrastructure we’ve grown to rely on.
Keep up the good work. 73.
obviously from the jingle, it's a delivery service for Secret agents wanting a raspberry ripple, hard to get in N Korea
Congratulations on 100K subscribers.
Just to note "there's nobody here but us chickens' was also a joke line used as a punchline in the Robert Lindsay sitcom "Nightingales". Based on 3 night watchman, it was the standard response when somebody walked in and asked if anybody was there. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightingales_(British_TV_series)
Damn! I just replied with that to a previous comment and then I saw this!
we're of a similar age 🙈@@ReverendFlatus
Remember that comedy. Worked as a night Watchman for a month or so and it was quite accurate.
I agree. Sounds like a hoax.
I always love to hear your accent. The contents is good as well.
Best leave it alone! Let our (your) country and their agents do their job. You could be putting them in grave danger.
Don’t be silly 😂 it’s clearly a hoax. You see, people don’t usually leak stories like this to small scale defunct online magazines. They go to the big papers.
Telephoning a number station seems too traceable to be safe.
Agreed. Could be done in the age of analogue tone dialling. but more or less impossible with digital exchanges... unless there us a secret network of analogue tone dialling exchanges that enables operatives to spoof their locations?
The stuff you talked about towards the end is essentially from Ian Fleming, Bond contacting Universal Export (an interesting rabbit hole to pursue there). Given the age we are in, the reasonable expectation would be a citizen would phone an embassy if in trouble, that would be normal. If you wanted to be covert and talk to home, there are loads of other techniques, for example, within images easily sent encrypted over social media. But nothing is secure as all means of communication have been tapped for a century, so it's just a case of a good enough code.
For what it's worth, if I was an intelligence agency, I'd flood target countries with Lincolnshire Poachers by the boatload. Yes, I might have a couple of people out there, but I'd have them wasting time and resources chasing false leads.
The sound at 2:01 and 3:04 I believe is -- or was -- called the "T-Jingle." Source: I used to work for T-Mobile. I wonder if the "Lincolnshire Poacher" sample came from the Conet Project compilation?
OK, another thing is I want to say that the music Is a conformation for location. each verified location calling the number gets its own music like that (non-verified locations get an invalid note or music). the number after is either a confirmation number for another number you have to call or checking if your number matches their numbers and you are a valid caller.
I have a secret encoding device. Hitting a key took me straight back to 1981 from the sound pushing the key made. Now I drive a woodgrained car with a Carnation in my lapel and a piece of chalk in my pocket.
Is there life on Mars ? And no, the answer isn't 42 . . ..
The phrase, "Nobody here but us chickens!" is used on some websites when your search queries come up empty, particularly on image boorus. That's how I first heard of it.
I've heard it ever since I was a kid. Cartoons etc
Same. Seen it used in a few places for queries. Don't know where it comes from though. I think I will ask some oldschool devs but likely they saw it somewhere and used it.
It was used as a catch-phrase in the 1990 channel 4 comedy 'Nightingales', they did a little dance with it.
@@ReverendFlatus such a good show as well.
Anybody there???
Dial-a-number station? No way. Particularly since it's a recording of a known transmission. That's sentimental, not practical, and if you get sentimental when you're in this kind of business you make mistakes. Besides, phones are too easy to monitor, especially compared to email with a code phrase set or using some stenography.
The audio of a number station can be thought of as cypher-text, usable only to the party holding a private decryption key. While HF communications were traditionally held to be reliable vectors of delivering sensitive information at range, electromagnetic interference becomes more of a problem every day. A phone number, on the other hand is very stable and internationally connected. Nowadays, anyone with an internet connection can set up a VOIP phone that uses TOR or another VPN to make regular calls into the HO without "hotel staff" having to know about it. A message relay station would still be useful in relaying orders and information to agents in the field who may not have enough safety to authenticate verbally.
About 30 years ago I worked for a London based market research company who specialised in cold calling uk residents. They would give us prefix codes for cities and we would change or make up the last numbers. During these trawls we came across a Manchester residential number which when rang we would hear a recorded message. It was a working class London accent very firm- it was a repeated list of numbers. We assumed it was a works number for a log in code or something but the non business number felt like a quirk.
That’s interesting!!!! I wish you had a recording!
Thanks for the recommendation of Argo, I really enjoyed it.
Good show. I will get out my baord game and play around of clue. I always like it when the job was done with the silver candle holder. it still does not beet the blow tourch in the 1980s out of the canaries islands. It would lull me to sleep. From my bed in Seattle the cold war helped me to sleep. Thanks for the fun. Best Regards Jack.
1:35 *insert rotating a-pose heavy*
Was it a premium number
Hi Lewis - many thanks for this fascinating video! I enjoyed the antenna shots too, especially the Danish Terma 2D primary radar (not totally relevant but I'm being pedantic)! The rotation time of about 2,4 seconds could indicate a useful range of about 50 NM - suitable perhaps for a coastal or gap-filler application? They are also often used for airport surface movement (SMR), harbour movement or even windfarm (radar disturbance) mitigation. All the best, Rob in Switzerland
"please refer to backup channel romeo xray three niner" flips thru dogeared code book from the 1970's lol
Have you got a video about the station you show at 2.33 I Grew up near there, my grandad used to call it big ears as we drove past it. When i was a teenager me and my mates used to park in secluded places so we could indulge in the wacky backy, one day we parked outside the station shown in your video about 10 oclock at night, within 5 minutes a police car pulled up at the side of us, my friend the driver rolled down the window letting out a cloud of smoke, all our eyes were red it was obvious what we was doing was illegal, double illegal to be driving under the influence too. The copper said I don't care what you boys are doing just don't do it here, made us set off (knowing the driver was high) told us to never park there again. Always found it really strange, both the quick response time and not caring about the actual crime we were committing.
'Nobody here but us chickens', was the theme tune to a TV series called 'Nightingales'. The premise is three nightwatchmen in an anonymous block belonging to an unnamed company who sit around doing - not much at all, all night
The only way i MIGHT see calling a phone number working for a spy is using a VOIP phone service over a VPN, and even then you'd have to be supremely confident your VPN connection wasn't MITMed or compromised somehow. The thing about a numbers station is that you can listen to it with pretty much untraceable, innocuous equipment that a travelling person might have with him for legitimate reasons (ie, a shortwave receiver). Calling a phone number is far less conspicuous and far easier to track
Kinda wish the aussie military was more sneaky beaky with stuff
Go stand out the front of a number staion and look around strangly on a routine basis until someone approaches me for being strange
The reason for the music is to keep the channel clear. They wouldnt need to do that on a telephone based system.
I think it was mostly a hoax but not necessarily fake. It could keep the other side guessing. If the original recording was used and not an over the airwaves one that would be significant. Anyone can fake using off air copies.
I agree with the comments regarding restricted government numbers. I've had to do it on occasion and it's exactly as described.
The tune is "get outa here with a boom boom boom and don't come back no more? I think that is indicative of the phone call information.
1) a sarcastic answer implying "who else would be here?" or "just the regular crowd"
2) could be used to hide someone there who should not be
source: originally from a fable involving a chicken thief (possibly a fox) hiding in the hen house and answering the farmer's question of who's making all the noise.
I have no idea yet again what all this is about but I keep coming back for more, I'll get into it one day 😂
How agents ("spies") contact HQ for orders or report security compromised amongst other reasons. 😉
😅😅 me too. I got the general gist of it though.
RUclips recommended this channel to me today, for some unknown reason 👀
I thought I'd watch one video, and here I am....after watching about eight! 😂
This all kind of reminds me of when I used to spend the evening listening to short wave radio (at least I think that's what it was), as a kid.....picking up pilot chatter, and sometimes bits and pieces of fuzzy police chatter. It was thrilling to me.....but then I was a strange little girl! 😅 I loved listening to the shipping forecast too! 😊
PS. "Ain't nobody here but us chickens" has been a favourite song of mine for decades!
Ringway Manchester: That's very strange! The music that's played at the beginning of that transmission reminds me of an Old English tune. I can't remember the name of it right now.
Great stuff Lewis.
Congrats 100k subscribers mate! 73
Sounds like a tune that is used a memory aid so you know which phone keys to press to get to through to the operator by finishing the tune
Hmm interesting, i wonder what the message was, clearly the 0s were a key to dial into the decoder
I phoned the LP back some years ago and also got through to receive a message
It's differently an interesting method which I could see having a use as long as you're not concerned about calling a number that would obviously sound weird but it could also be a Hokes. The Melody though does remind me of a television sign off from Buffalo New York SUNY, the infamous musical color bars but it is a different Melody.
Just noticed that you reached 100,000 subscribers. Congratulations!
Definite fake for the original number, playing the poacher tune and numbers would be an immediate red flag to anyone tapping the phone call.
I would say fake, lots of reasons but the tune being played would be super easy to scan for using wiretapping software, and then you could at least start narrowing down who is placing the calls.
100 procent right.
Re: There's Nobody Here But Us Chickens: There was a TV series in the 1990s, called Nightingales (Robert Lindsay, David Threlfall) about a group of nightwatchmen in an office block, where surreal things happen as a matter of routine.
A common gag was that when any one of the guards entered a room, they'd ask "Is anybody there?"
The others would respond "There's nobody here but us chickens".
It's probably just a reference to that.
Ain't nobody here but us chickens was a catchphrase used in a Robert Lindsay comedy series called nightingales. Can't think of a significant link for that and the poacher though.
I had one number to call and a short message to confirm my ID if I needed to. In 5 years of working for an unusual group I never had cause to call it. But that was all of 40 years ago. This was in the UK.
If this was a legit phone line with a number station at the end of it, it would not be playing a recording of the AM radio transmission of the original marker.
I'm pretty sure it could be an answering machine outgoing message that was just a recording of the actual number station.
Love yours videos buddy hope your doing well and I can't believe you got a response 🤣
The Americans was a great show
Indeed, a very under rated show and wished it would come back from thenperspective of the kids being on opposite sides or similar.
The security guards in the show nightingales from the early 90s always said nobody here but is chickens as a response. Was a good sitcom with Robert Lindsay
Where is that rotating radar unit because there's one like it in severn beach near bristol.