Fig. 1: A page from the author’s SWL Logbook from 1992 showing the date, time, frequency and partial transcript of a numbers station transmission. In the early 1990s, at the end of the Cold War and ...

There are two kinds of dedicated radio listeners. Most are those who listen regularly to their FM or AM station of choice, or to a station that only broadcasts on the internet. The rest are dedicated ...

OTTAWA, Ontario — “6-7-9-2-6. 5-6-9-9-0.” Tune across the shortwave bands (above AM/MW), and chances are you will come across a “numbers station.” There’s no programming to speak of; just a mechanical ...

NUMBERS STATIONS. Not a relic of the past. Intelligence agencies use shortwave to communicate with spies, agents and assets in the field. Right now. Today. Let's listen to a few and learn how to tune ...

The output of a mysterious radio station in Russia, which has been broadcasting the same monotonous signal almost continuously for 20 years, has suddenly changed. Numbers stations are shortwave radio ...

Numbers stations are a weird phenomenon where odd voices read out long strings of numbers or random codewords to the confusion of the vast majority of the listening audience. If you’ve ever wanted to ...

Numbers stations are shortwave stations that broadcast cryptic messages that are widely assumed to be used for communications between nation states and spies. But who’s to say it’s up to the ...