Some great wierd & wonderful transmitting stations shown in this vid and the odd bunker-style structure too. Love stuff like this-the more mysterious the better - keep up the good work!
Wow, a blast from the past. I remember listening to a lot of these stations back in the 80's, when i got my realistic DX 440 shortwave receiver. I spent many happy hours searching the shortwave bands, listening to these numbers stations. Sadly, i never had a tape recorder to record them.
Back in the 80s and 90s we shortwave listeners in the U.S. learned about numbers stations from some clearly homemade newsletters by a guy who called himself "Havana Moon". The local amateur radio shop had stacks of them for a couple dollars each and for years he published updates every few months. Even though his publications couldn't have looked any more amateurish (obviously copied at Kinkos and stapled at home), they were incredibly accurate and fun to read. Another publication was "Clandestine Confidential" by Gerry Dexter which came out around 1984. Of course the frequencies in it were quickly out of date but it has lots of interesting historical information.
Fascinating mate and covered on the hit amazon prime ghost hunting show Truth Seekers, I must admit I had never heard of the Lincolnshire Poacher before I watched Truth Seekers and I thought that was just made up, although I do remember tuning in to these number stations on my mums multiband radio back in the 1070s and early 80s, back when you could listen to the police and the fire brigade.
Very good. I was actively interested earlier so it was new to me that several have ceased transmission. I recognized the CONET/ENIGMA2000 nomenclature. 73's, Rob
I could receive two of the Lincolnshire Poacher transmissions where I live in north eastern Kansas, in the US! I didn't even need an outside antenna. I just used the built in whip, with a twelve foot piece of speaker wire alligator clipped to it. Even with the worst propagation, I could pull it in, though it could be noisy. When conditions were good, it would boom through the speaker! I believe the transmission that came in the best started at 11:00 UTC, but it's been years, so I could be wrong. It was in the early evening where I lived, that I do remember. I recorded hours of these transmission on a Radio Shack cassette recorder, running into an Eton E1 receiver. The most interesting recording I captured was the Cuban V02a interfering with the Lincolnshire Poacher. The V02a was broadcasting on LSB! V02a almost always broadcasts on standard AM since they use the Radio Havana transmitter site. I sent that recording to Simon Mason, along with others, and for many years, he had it on his website. That was a bygone era, and now the only numbers we get are from the HM01, which is mostly digital data transmission noise. Only the headers are transmitted in voice.
I hadn't realised the Lincolnshire Poacher in Truth Seekers was a real numbers station, down to using the same tune Very interesting. If you watch the series you'll be humming that damn tune all night :)
I have the Conet collection and its fascinating to listen to, a lot of these sounds have been used in music. But the Lincolnshire Poacher I do know a bit about being ex RAF
Thanks for the excellent video. I always enjoy these numbers stations, such as the buzzer and the woodpecker. I used to years ago hear the woodpecker then around the amateur radio bands. If one then transmitted morse code on top of their signal, it would change frequency. Some years ago I heard a numbers message from the USAF Andrew's, AFB, near Washington DC, on my Shortwave receiver. I was with other USAF ROTC cadets on a trip to Andrew's, AFB, in January 1967, when our plane waited to land, because they were bringing in a plane with bodies of the three NASA astronauts killed in an early Apollo capsule fire back then. Ray W2CH
@Raymond Martin Interesting but note that The Woodpecker was not a numbers station. It was a military over-the-horizon-radar called "Duga" in Russian, NATO code name "Steel Yard", with sites in soviet Ukraine and Siberia. One transmitter antenna is still gathering rust near Chernobyl. The system frequency-hopped in line with the continuously fluctuating optimum usable HF frequency and with feedback from the receiving sites trying to separate out potential incoming missiles and jamming(!) The system was shut down with the fall of the USSR and the end of the Cold War but, like the USA's Cobra Mist OTHR installation at Orfordness in Suffolk, it ultimately didn't work all that well and in the late 1980s spy satellites were proving much more effective at ballistic missile early warning.
I recognise some of the images from Cheshire abs Lancs, but where is the dish array near the water towards the start and the loop array towards the end?
The loop array at the end I recognised seeing in Cornwall at Holywell Bay Nr Newquay. Been passed it and had nosey a couple of times. Not sure if it's the same one. If it is, there are a couple of these arrays at this site. Look on Google earth at Holywell Bay. Always wondered what it was used for.
I was at YLE Radio the State broadcaster of Finland in January. I was up in the North of the country in Kaajani, few hundred miles from the Russian Border. I understand there were FM Number Stations which surprised me. At which point I may recommend a Finnish Radio Channel similar to this called Riddux ruclips.net/channel/UCds4zycbXIuh_jQXmVphMhw. Wasn’t there a family of sleeper agents caught in Britain as a result of listening to Number stations, MI6 or whoever scanned the country to find the output oscillation frequency. Like the way when two FM radios are side by side, one will transmit a dead carrier 10.7 from the Frequency it is on. Meaning if Radio A is on 90FM it will TX a dead carrier to 100.7FM and thus block 100.7 out on the other radio. This was revealed in the Banned in Britain Book “Spycatcher” While here, for no reason I might mention I live in an apartment Block in Dublin and as people move out there is a place where people leave things for anyone else, chairs, desks, mirrors, electrical items and just this week I seen this huge Ghetto Blaster which I ignored for 2 days. Eventually I took it up and it’s a Twin Cassette and it’s Karaoke Inputs too and the radio bands are FM SW 1 SW 2 and MW, so I suspect it originated for the SE Asia Market. Great sound, includes Tweeters speakers, a button to switch stereo on or off. High speed dubbing etc. So glad I rescued it and it’s in excellent condition, Ariel still stiff etc. Phillips Designed in Europe, made in Singapore, Phillips Type AW 7530/01
With respect Mike you're missing the point. There were /are two principal transmission modes used for number stations....voice, via AM or SSB ...and CW. To someone who knows nothing of number stations they may assume after watching the video that.. a) all number stations were voice based...and b) they no longer exist. My comment attempts to inform the reader that CW was used and can still be heard. Watch my video of one such station. My comment was not referring to the plethora of stations historically.
It's the world's longest running bingo game.
The text would be easier to read if it was in a darker colour. Good video though, I have a collection of these recordings.
The loop antennas at 06:04 intrigue me. Where/what are these for?
It looks like it may be a HAARP antenna ..google haarp if you don’t already know ...I would explain but it’s not my videos 😀
The background makes it really difficult to read the text sometimes and makes an intriguing video frustrating at points.
Drop shadows on the text would be a huge help.
Wow very interesting! Great video mate!
Some great wierd & wonderful transmitting stations shown in this vid and the odd bunker-style structure too. Love stuff like this-the more mysterious the better - keep up the good work!
Wow, quite impressive. Those tunes used before transmitting the codes are kinda wacky! Thanks for sharing!
I’m seriously considering purchasing a PRC320 radio because of your channel.
Great videos - keep them coming.
These have always interested me. Code for under cover spies. Very James bond. Good video bud.
Wow, a blast from the past. I remember listening to a lot of these stations back in the 80's, when i got my realistic DX 440 shortwave receiver. I spent many happy hours searching the shortwave bands, listening to these numbers stations. Sadly, i never had a tape recorder to record them.
Back in the 80s and 90s we shortwave listeners in the U.S. learned about numbers stations from some clearly homemade newsletters by a guy who called himself "Havana Moon". The local amateur radio shop had stacks of them for a couple dollars each and for years he published updates every few months. Even though his publications couldn't have looked any more amateurish (obviously copied at Kinkos and stapled at home), they were incredibly accurate and fun to read.
Another publication was "Clandestine Confidential" by Gerry Dexter which came out around 1984. Of course the frequencies in it were quickly out of date but it has lots of interesting historical information.
These are fascinating and make compulsive listening, only made aware of these yesterday. Riveting.
Sat under a numbers transmitter station once, needless to say it was one of ours ;-)
Fascinating mate and covered on the hit amazon prime ghost hunting show Truth Seekers, I must admit I had never heard of the Lincolnshire Poacher before I watched Truth Seekers and I thought that was just made up, although I do remember tuning in to these number stations on my mums multiband radio back in the 1070s and early 80s, back when you could listen to the police and the fire brigade.
Very good. I was actively interested earlier so it was new to me that several have ceased transmission. I recognized the CONET/ENIGMA2000 nomenclature. 73's, Rob
Great stuff. I find these things fascinating.
I could receive two of the Lincolnshire Poacher transmissions where I live in north eastern Kansas, in the US! I didn't even need an outside antenna. I just used the built in whip, with a twelve foot piece of speaker wire alligator clipped to it. Even with the worst propagation, I could pull it in, though it could be noisy. When conditions were good, it would boom through the speaker! I believe the transmission that came in the best started at 11:00 UTC, but it's been years, so I could be wrong. It was in the early evening where I lived, that I do remember. I recorded hours of these transmission on a Radio Shack cassette recorder, running into an Eton E1 receiver. The most interesting recording I captured was the Cuban V02a interfering with the Lincolnshire Poacher. The V02a was broadcasting on LSB! V02a almost always broadcasts on standard AM since they use the Radio Havana transmitter site. I sent that recording to Simon Mason, along with others, and for many years, he had it on his website. That was a bygone era, and now the only numbers we get are from the HM01, which is mostly digital data transmission noise. Only the headers are transmitted in voice.
I used to listen to all that and the wood pecker and the last one was just out side of Moscow we listened to some strange stuff
Really enjoyed this one 👍
Thanks Martin
I hadn't realised the Lincolnshire Poacher in Truth Seekers was a real numbers station, down to using the same tune Very interesting.
If you watch the series you'll be humming that damn tune all night :)
I have the Conet collection and its fascinating to listen to, a lot of these sounds have been used in music. But the Lincolnshire Poacher I do know a bit about being ex RAF
Super nice!
Love it mate the numbet stations are really intresting
I spent quite a few years working at odd times at our Out Stations Gawcott,Cresslow & Poundon from FCO Hanslop park!
Marc In BletcHley Towers G6XEG
Great video Lewis 👍👏👏
S10 "Mumber" station??
First one sounds like a old icecream van tune ha
Thanks for the excellent video. I always
enjoy these numbers stations, such as
the buzzer and the woodpecker. I used
to years ago hear the woodpecker then around the amateur radio bands. If one
then transmitted morse code on top of
their signal, it would change frequency.
Some years ago I heard a numbers
message from the USAF Andrew's, AFB,
near Washington DC, on my Shortwave
receiver. I was with other USAF ROTC
cadets on a trip to Andrew's, AFB, in
January 1967, when our plane waited
to land, because they were bringing in
a plane with bodies of the three NASA
astronauts killed in an early Apollo
capsule fire back then. Ray W2CH
@Raymond Martin Interesting but note that The Woodpecker was not a numbers station. It was a military over-the-horizon-radar called "Duga" in Russian, NATO code name "Steel Yard", with sites in soviet Ukraine and Siberia. One transmitter antenna is still gathering rust near Chernobyl. The system frequency-hopped in line with the continuously fluctuating optimum usable HF frequency and with feedback from the receiving sites trying to separate out potential incoming missiles and jamming(!) The system was shut down with the fall of the USSR and the end of the Cold War but, like the USA's Cobra Mist OTHR installation at Orfordness in Suffolk, it ultimately didn't work all that well and in the late 1980s spy satellites were proving much more effective at ballistic missile early warning.
I recognise some of the images from Cheshire abs Lancs, but where is the dish array near the water towards the start and the loop array towards the end?
The loop array at the end I recognised seeing in Cornwall at Holywell Bay Nr Newquay. Been passed it and had nosey a couple of times. Not sure if it's the same one. If it is, there are a couple of these arrays at this site. Look on Google earth at Holywell Bay. Always wondered what it was used for.
I'm sure the images of the dishes is a Salford Quays opposite the BBC buildings
Thanks Lewis
I’m not entirely sure what the dishes had to do with MF/HF numbers stations. But pretty none the less.
I was at YLE Radio the State broadcaster of Finland in January. I was up in the North of the country in Kaajani, few hundred miles from the Russian Border. I understand there were FM Number Stations which surprised me. At which point I may recommend a Finnish Radio Channel similar to this called Riddux ruclips.net/channel/UCds4zycbXIuh_jQXmVphMhw.
Wasn’t there a family of sleeper agents caught in Britain as a result of listening to Number stations, MI6 or whoever scanned the country to find the output oscillation frequency. Like the way when two FM radios are side by side, one will transmit a dead carrier 10.7 from the Frequency it is on. Meaning if Radio A is on 90FM it will TX a dead carrier to 100.7FM and thus block 100.7 out on the other radio. This was revealed in the Banned in Britain Book “Spycatcher”
While here, for no reason I might mention I live in an apartment Block in Dublin and as people move out there is a place where people leave things for anyone else, chairs, desks, mirrors, electrical items and just this week I seen this huge Ghetto Blaster which I ignored for 2 days. Eventually I took it up and it’s a Twin Cassette and it’s Karaoke Inputs too and the radio bands are FM SW 1 SW 2 and MW, so I suspect it originated for the SE Asia Market. Great sound, includes Tweeters speakers, a button to switch stereo on or off. High speed dubbing etc. So glad I rescued it and it’s in excellent condition, Ariel still stiff etc. Phillips Designed in Europe, made in Singapore, Phillips Type AW 7530/01
No mention of the morse number stations still heard on the bands today...
There’s no mention of hundreds of stations...
It's a summary. Covering every known source would take many hours. The CONET Project data alone is massive..
With respect Mike you're missing the point. There were /are two principal transmission modes used for number stations....voice, via AM or SSB ...and CW. To someone who knows nothing of number stations they may assume after watching the video that.. a) all number stations were voice based...and b) they no longer exist. My comment attempts to inform the reader that CW was used and can still be heard. Watch my video of one such station. My comment was not referring to the plethora of stations historically.
It was a great time for us siggies in the forces..... In the midst of the cold war. They still exist although not as much obviously.
Numbers stations “ one time pass makes it impossible to know what being sent out “ love the idea 💡 tho 👍😀🏴
A sneaky told me these days its easier to alter colours fonts pics on a web page. But remember the poacher.Cheers
Very interesting content, and visually beautiful
Not bad , maybe did something different wit the text would easier to read
Very wierd mate these highly classified of why they exist ment be for secret agents and stuff maybe missle codes encrypted in strange numbers
707 hi hats mmmmmmmmm
very interesting.
1,5,7,9,2,0,(20-30) N,O.
Bladimir, Víctor.
Todays number stations come from satellites.
Text is hard to read, and at least once has repeated itself from one slide to the next.
Of all the things you could’ve said you blew what could’ve been a good comment with that...
Intetesting video...hmmm...The Truth Is Out There..
Lewis mate, that first one reminded me of an Ice cream van from my childhood lol.
How you doing pal ?
9779 9779 9779