Real Mysteries #1: Number Stations

We live in the age of information...

Communication is probably the most important aspect of life this past century. Humans are more connected than ever. Messages that used to take days, weeks, or even months to send now take minutes or even seconds. While communication media like Television, the Internet, and radio are usually used for harmless purposes, they can be used for more dark and mysterious reasons as well.

This is an article about a real-life phenomenon, the Number Stations.

What are "Number Stations"?

Radio has been a popular form of communication since the early 20th-century, and as such, so it didn't take much work to listen in on all the traffic. Thus, messages containing secret material would have to be sent on specific radio bands, and within a coded format. These messages would sound nothing like the rest of the radio stations that broadcast the weather, sports events, or news. Usually, they transmitted seemingly random groups of numbers, giving them the name Number Stations.

Number Stations are believed to have been active since WWI, making them some of the earliest uses of radio communication. They have since picked up in popularity during the cold war.

The reason Number Stations are used is because:

(1.) The messages are easily one time encoded so that each new message has to be deciphered by a new key, making it nearly impossible to decode by the enemy.

(2.) It is challenging to accurately determine the location of both the origin and the receiving end of the message. The only possible way to tell is usually by the language of the messages or the signal intensity as the listener gets closer to the origin. Number Stations could sometimes be heard worldwide, making tracking even more difficult.

(3.) The technology is simple, cheap, and easy to hide. Anyone with a shortwave radio transmitting station can send a message, and anyone with a shortwave radio receiver can listen to it. You'd also have no idea who the intended recipient of the message is unless you were directly spying on them. 

What is the purpose of these stations?

Truth is, nobody is entirely sure, but here are some of the most likely reasons:

(1.) Espionage: This was especially true in cold-war era Europe, where there was little distance separating both sides. It only makes sense to transmit seemingly gibberish radio signals around if the point was to communicate with spies behind enemy lines in secrecy. Spies would most likely tune in for new orders, warnings, or locations of drop off points for supplies. While no world government acknowledges the existence of Number Stations, you may get arrested if caught listening to one due to suspicion of espionage. This should tell you enough about the mystery behind these broadcasts.

(2.) Military Orders: It appears that most of these stations are located in countries with a strong military presence as number stations start transmitting messages with a vastly higher volume during a global crisis or important geopolitical situations.  This is logical, as these number stations are probably sending coded messages to their soldiers giving secret orders, information, or even warnings. It is suspected that UVB-76, a popular Russian Numbers station, is used for this purpose.

(3.) Jamming: Some number stations seem to never actually transmit any numbers or cryptic messages. Rather they transmit strange sounds or noises on specific frequencies during specific times. This is thought to be for the purpose of jamming a hostile country's own number stations or communications, preventing the recipients from hearing the message. North Korea and Iran have been known to try to jam the suspected MI6 number station The Lincolnshire Poacher, which ran on 3 different frequencies while transmitting a message in order to circumvent such jammings.

Examples of famous Number Stations:

The Lincolnshire Poacher: Named for the English folk song it uses to mark the station and before a transmission. It first appeared in the 1970's and disappeared in the late 2000's, believed to be operated by the British Military or MI6 off of Cyprus.

The Swedish Rhapsody: Known for its creepy music box tone and even creepier coded messages. The song is actually Polish, not Swedish, and transmitted German messages during the cold war. While offline now, it is thought to have originated from Poland and serve a military purpose. You can tell the real message is about to start when you hear "Achtung! *Number sequence* Achtung!"

I would recommend "Gong Station Chimes" and "The 3 Note Oddity" for listening to as well, from the same YouTube Channel.

UVB-76, The Buzzer: With a constant repetitive buzzer tone 24 hours a day, occasionally it is interpreted with weird changes in the buzz tone or messages in Russian Code. Believed to be transmitted somewhere outside of Moscow, it is also thought to be militarily active, yet the Russian government will not acknowledge its real purpose.

The Backwards Music Station: While not actually playing backward music at all, the distorted and pitch changing tones certainly is unsettling. This Station never broadcasts actual words and is always changing tone or pitch. Many believe it is transmitting messages in an encrypted or compressed format, and the source seems to be from the United States Navy.

Still interested? 

Learn more about Number Stations here.

https://www.numbers-stations.com/

Thank you for reading! Have another mystery or paranormal thing you'd like me to report about? Comment down below!