my computer is broadcasting numbers stations from the cold war era

[datasuspect]

http://www.archive.org/details/ird059

[Adsos Letter]

1. I pick those up on my shortwave late at night...

there are a bunch of them still in operation, not just Cold War stuff, either. Sounds kinda spooky about 3AM or so...

:D

[datasuspect]

2. really?

they are spooky.

i was drinking with this guy in this guard trailer that was in a remote location.

he had a shortwave and we'd get all kinds of weird broadcasts.

got some chatter that was really clear and sounded like a police frequency, but VERY clear. there was no road within miles, no people, no nothing.

that was spooky.

[Adsos Letter]

3. yeah, they are...like something from beyond the grave...

I've picked up quite a few of them. From what I have read, they are still used by various nations to communicate with operatives inside other countries. Some, out of Korea and Northern China, use a woman's voice...makes the hair stand up on the back of my neck.
But it has to be early, early AM (that time when everything seems kinda "gleepy" anyway) and I gotta be alone.

There are some good websites that will give ya the lowdown on 'em; just google "numbers stations".


:D

[datasuspect]

4. i read up on them a few months back

and listened to the sound files at home, late at night, and got creeped out.

especially the lincolshire poacher broadcasts. or the ones that use voices of little girls.

[sasquatch]

5. That sounds strange

[darkstar]

6. I like that stuff too.

I dl'ed a collection called the Conet Project awhile back and used them in some psycho-dub music. They are strangely soothing and creepy at once. I don't know how else to describe it.

Does anyone know how they work more specifically, i.e. how the end user gets info from the numbers? Do they only listen in at a predetermined time? How does the agent get the new codes if they are changed every so often?

[darkstar]

7. I like that stuff too.

I dl'ed a collection called the Conet Project awhile back and used them in some psycho-dub music. They are strangely soothing and creepy at once. I don't know how else to describe it.

Does anyone know how they work more specifically, i.e. how the end user gets info from the numbers? Do they only listen in at a predetermined time? How does the agent get the new codes if they are changed every so often?

[Frank Cannon]

9. Supposedly they use something called a "one-time pad"

Basically it's a book with a different code key on each page. The recipient just works the pages of the book in order, and every time the code is broadcast, the key is entirely different. These are supposedly impossible to crack.

I don't know how the recipient gets a new pad. Probably on a deserted bridge at 3:00 a.m.

[Frank Cannon]

8. Those things scare the shit out of me

I don't know what it is I find so creepy/scary about them, but they really make my skin crawl. Particularly the one called "Swedish Rhapsody". It's like the audio equivalent of the "haunted" e-Bay painting.

http://www.castleofspirits.com/hauntedpainting.html

[datasuspect]

10. ok, that is weird

[Crazy Dave]

11. I picked up a North Korean propaganda broadcast....

...in english one night and it was hilarious. Straight out of the "1984" handbook.