{"id":15374,"date":"2015-10-31T06:12:02","date_gmt":"2015-10-31T10:12:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/?p=15374"},"modified":"2015-10-31T06:12:02","modified_gmt":"2015-10-31T10:12:02","slug":"hackaday-secret-radio-stations-by-the-numbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2015\/10\/hackaday-secret-radio-stations-by-the-numbers\/","title":{"rendered":"Hackaday: “Secret Radio Stations by the Numbers”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"SWLingPost-Spy-Numbers-Station\"<\/a><\/p>\n

(Source: Hackaday<\/a> via Andrea Borgnino<\/a>)<\/p>\n

One thing has stayed with the James Bond movie franchise through the decades: Mr. Bond always has the most wonderful of gadgets. Be it handheld, car-based, or otherwise, there\u2019s always something to thrill that is mostly believable.<\/p>\n

The biggest problem with all of those gadgets is that they mark Commander Bond as an obvious spy. \u201cSo Mr. Bond, I see you have a book with many random five character groups. Nothing suspicious about that at all!\u201d And we all know that import\/export specialists often carry exploding cufflinks or briefcases full of unknown electronics in hidden compartments.<\/p>\n

Just as steganography hides data in plain sight, the best spy gadgets are the ones that don\u2019t seem to be a spy gadget. It is no wonder some old weapons are little more than sticks or farm implements. You can tell a peasant he can\u2019t have a sword, but it is hard to ban sticks.<\/p>\n

Imagine you were a cold war era spy living in a hostile country with a cover job with Universal Exports. Would you rather get caught with a sophisticated encryption machine or an ordinary consumer radio? I\u2019m guessing you went with the radio. You aren\u2019t the only one. That was one of the presumed purposes to the mysterious shortwave broadcasts known as number stations. These were very common during the cold war, but there are still a few of them operating.<\/p>\n

Continue reading at Hackaday…<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

(Source: Hackaday via Andrea Borgnino) One thing has stayed with the James Bond movie franchise through the decades: Mr. Bond always has the most wonderful of gadgets. Be it handheld, car-based, or otherwise, there\u2019s always something to thrill that is mostly believable. The biggest problem with all of those gadgets is that they mark Commander […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,172],"tags":[4088,1879,445,1607],"class_list":["post-15374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-numbers-stations","tag-numbers-stations","tag-spooks","tag-spy-numbers","tag-spy-numbers-stations"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pn3uc-3ZY","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":15792,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2015\/11\/hackaday-recounts-an-an-unlikely-radio-story\/","url_meta":{"origin":15374,"position":0},"title":"Hackaday recounts an “An Unlikely Radio Story”","author":"Thomas","date":"November 26, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to SWLing Post reader,\u00a0Michael Letterle, who shares this story from the excellent website Hackaday. The following is an excerpt from Swans, Pigs, and the CIA: An Ulikey Radio Story: Shortwave radio is boring, right? Maybe not. You never know what intrigue and excitement you might intercept. We recently\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"SWLingPost-Spy-Numbers-Station","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/SWLingPost-Spy-Numbers-Station.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/SWLingPost-Spy-Numbers-Station.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/SWLingPost-Spy-Numbers-Station.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4904,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2012\/11\/coded-message-from-wwii-carrier-pigeon-structured-like-numbers-station-communique\/","url_meta":{"origin":15374,"position":1},"title":"Coded message from WWII carrier pigeon structured like numbers station communiqu\u00e9","author":"Thomas","date":"November 26, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"This news story\u00a0about a recently discovered WWII carrier pigeon message has been floating around the Internet over the past few days. (Source: CNN) Not even the British spy agencies that inspired James Bond can solve the mystery of a secret World War II message recently found on the skeleton of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/WWIIcarrierpigeonmessageclip-300x217.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":30813,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2018\/02\/bbc-video-the-spy-radio-that-anyone-can-hear\/","url_meta":{"origin":15374,"position":2},"title":"BBC video: “The ‘spy radio’ that anyone can hear”","author":"Thomas","date":"February 10, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Mark Hirst, who writes: Nothing that an SWLing Post reader doesn\u2019t already know--more for general consumption: http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/av\/world-42819704\/numbers-stations-the-spy-radio-that-anyone-can-hear For decades, people around the globe have been able to listen in to mysterious spy broadcasts from all over the world with just a radio. Gordon Corera\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/SWLingPost-Spy-Numbers-Station.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/SWLingPost-Spy-Numbers-Station.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/SWLingPost-Spy-Numbers-Station.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10767,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2014\/09\/numbers-stations-a-bad-day-to-be-a-cuban-spy\/","url_meta":{"origin":15374,"position":3},"title":"Numbers Stations: A bad day to be a Cuban spy","author":"Thomas","date":"September 13, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"While band scanning last Sunday\u00a0(September 8, 2014) I stumbled upon the Cuban numbers station HM01 on 11,530 kHz at 17:30 UTC. It's always intriguing to hear shortwave numbers stations, but I prefer those that stick to pure vocal number strings; HM01 has numbers with digital bursts between number sets, which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"SWLingPost-Spy-Numbers-Station","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/SWLingPost-Spy-Numbers-Station.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/SWLingPost-Spy-Numbers-Station.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/SWLingPost-Spy-Numbers-Station.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":9685,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2014\/05\/numbers-station-presentation-by-peter-staal\/","url_meta":{"origin":15374,"position":4},"title":"Numbers station presentation by Peter Staal","author":"Thomas","date":"May 21, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to Jonathan Marks who discovered the following video--a lecture by Peter Staal at\u00a0TU Delft--on the topic of numbers stations: Note that they attempt to sort out a technical problem in the first three minutes of the lecture. Check out Jonathan's post on Critical Distance for his comments and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News"","block_context":{"text":"News","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10770,"url":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/2014\/09\/numbers-stations-featured-in-highbrow-magazine\/","url_meta":{"origin":15374,"position":5},"title":"Numbers stations featured in Highbrow Magazine","author":"Thomas","date":"September 9, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Many thanks to\u00a0SWLing Post reader, Richard Cuff, who shares this link to a numbers station piece in Highbrow Magazine; one of the more comprehensive numbers station articles I've read in a while. Here's an excerpt: \"Many nights, Spooks turn on their shortwave radios and drift through the frequencies. On any\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Articles"","block_context":{"text":"Articles","link":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/category\/articles\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"towers","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/11\/grimetonbandw-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15374\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/swling.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}