Station Numbers | Listen to spy broadcasts, audio and frequencies

NUMBER Stations. Since World War I, digital stations have transmitted coded messages to spies around the world using shortwave radio. And I'm still broadcasting now. We'll listen to a few in this episode.

These transmissions sound strange to casual listeners. But to the right set of ears, they contain information that could change the course of history. In fact, number stations *did* change the course of history.

Countless number stations are on the air right now - for what purpose, few really know. And the people who * know? I don't talk. They are essentially pirate stations - operating illegally. But no one closes them. And no government even recognizes that it exists.

With a decent radio, you can tune in to a strong shortwave signal from the other side of the planet. Now, this is quite useful if you are an intelligence agency and need to send a secret message to agents and assets in the field.

Many stations have been given nicknames that reflect the station based on what they broadcast. Names like The Buzzer, Cherry Ripe, The Spanish Lady, The Russian Woodpecker, Atencion, Yosemite Sam and Swedish Rhapsody.

Sometimes the transmissions are very clear. At other times, atmospheric conditions can degrade signals. And sometimes, intentional jamming from other countries creates enough interference on the frequency that it makes the transmission difficult to understand. To compensate, many stations, such as Yosemite Sam, will bounce around different frequencies.

If you just want to broadcast stations, you can go down a rabbit hole with the Conet Project. The Conet Project was an independent initiative to record, catalog and inform the public about the secret transmissions that are all around us, in the air every day.

As communication technology continues to evolve; and digital encryption becomes harder to crack, we could eventually see the end of digital stations.

Or maybe the opposite will happen. Perhaps a catastrophic digital apocalypse will create a renaissance digital station. Pushing broadcasters to the front lines of international information. Where random numbers raining down from the ionosphere can, once again, change the course of human history.