Happiness is receiving your Shortwave Shindig QSL card which sports the superb Shindig logo by Jeff (K1NSS).
Did you miss the Shindig broadcast? Click here to listen to off-air recordings.
Also, click here to check out all of David Goren’s work at Shortwaveology.net.
I hope the Shindig will do another live broadcast in 2015. Stay tuned!
There have been a lot of numbers in the news lately.
Earlier this week, David Goren’s numbers station radio documentary was featured on the ABC Radio National show, Sounds Like Radio.
This morning, I also noticed this excellent BBC News Magazine piece on numbers stations, which includes an interview with Akin Fernandez, the creator of the Conet Project.
Here’s an excerpt from The spooky world of the ‘numbers stations’:
“This is the era of hyper-tech espionage, encrypted emails and mindboggling cryptography. But you can hear a very old-fashioned form of espionage on shortwave radio.
It is 13:03 on a Tuesday in a little crammed room of the BBC Monitoring building in Caversham and what is suddenly heard on a shortwave receiving station is a 10-minute message in Morse code.
There is a small community of aficionados who believe messages like this are a throwback to the era of Cold War espionage. They are the mysterious “numbers stations”.
At the apex of the Cold War, radio lovers across the globe started to notice bizarre broadcasts on the airwaves. Starting with a weird melody or the sound of several beeps, these transmissions might be followed by the unnerving sound of a strange woman’s voice counting in German or the creepy voice of a child reciting letters in English.
[…]Times have changed and technology has evolved, but there’s evidence that this old-fashioned seeming method of communication might still be used. Shortwave numbers stations might seem low-tech but they probably remain the best option for transmitting information to agents in the field, some espionage experts suggest.
“Nobody has found a more convenient and expedient way of communicating with an agent,” says Rupert Allason, an author specialising in espionage issues and writing under the pen name Nigel West.
“Their sole purpose is for intelligence agencies to communicate with their agents in denied areas – a territory where it is difficult to use a consensual form of communications,” Allason says.
A former GCHQ officer, who does not wish to be named, whose duty was to intercept signals towards the UK and search for these numbers stations in the 1980s is also adamant that these were broadcasts to agents in the field or in residencies or directed to embassies.
It was “one-way traffic” – the transmitters broadcast numbers to the recipient. The recipient did not reply.”
[…]”This system is completely secure because the messages can’t be tracked, the recipient could be anywhere,” says Akin Fernandez, the creator of the Conet Project – a comprehensive archive of the phenomenon of numbers stations. “It is easy. You just send the spies to a country and get them to buy a radio. They know where to tune and when,” he says.
If you would like to know more about numbers stations, click here to read other numbers posts.
We’ve mentioned “Shortwaveologist” David Goren on the SWLing Post multiple times. David is a talented radio producer who also happens to be a life-long avid shortwave radio listener.
One of David’s productions, Atencion! Seis Siete Tres Siete Cero: The Mystery of the Shortwave Numbers Stations, first aired in 2000 as part of the NPR series Lost and Found Sound. It’s a richly layered soundscape, a sonic journey woven together by David’s narration and a series of interviews in a form of personal documentary–and it’s simply inspired. This piece caught the attention of Roman Mars, producer of my all-time favorite podcast, 99% Invisible. I’m pleased and proud to report that 99% Invisible‘s latest podcast features this brilliant numbers station piece of David’s.
For those of you who don’t know, 99% Invisible now has, deservedly, one of the largest listenerships in the podcasting world. A version of their show is also produced and aired over NPR. This piece will give shortwave radio significant exposure, and in turn make it a little less…well, invisible.
Intrigued? Join us–and begin by listening to David’s feature. Either subscribe to 99% Invisible via your favorite podcasting software, download the show as an mp3, or simply listen on 99% Invisible‘s website by clicking here.
Be sure to check out David Goren’s updated website Shortwaveology.net which has an array of his own audio productions as well as a sound clips and a listener’s (b)log. It’s terrific.
PS–If you would like to meet David in person, plan to attend his annual listening event: the Shortwave Shindig at the Winter SWL Festival in Pennsylvania (you have registered for the annual SWL Fest, right?).
David, we look forward to any and all of your future work (rumor has it that he’s working on Shortwaveology #3)…Stay tuned!