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The Numbers Stations Analyzed, Discussed
GMontag wrote to mention a Washington Post article about the always-intriguing 'number' radio broadcasts. The numbers stations, as they are known, are 'hiding in plain sight' spycraft. Random digits broadcast at little-used frequencies are known to be intelligence agencies broadcasting their secrets in encrypted form. The Post article gives a nice run-down on the truth behind the transmissions, and touches a bit on the odd community that has grown fascinated by them. From the article: "On 6840 kHz, you may hear a voice reading groups of letters. That's a station nicknamed 'E10,' thought to be Israel's Mossad intelligence. Chris Smolinski runs SpyNumbers.com and the 'Spooks' e-mail list, where 'number stations' hobbyists log hundreds of shortwave messages transmitted every month. 'It's like a puzzle. They're mystery stations,' explained Smolinski, who has tracked the spy broadcasts for 30 years."
This article made me recall a great All Things Considered story from a few years back about Akin Fernandez's 'Numbers' CD, a CD compilation of some of the most interesting strings of randomly read numbers reaching out across the airwaves.
I won the lottery.
Twice.
I spent a lot on booze and whores.
I wasted the rest.
Radio: 1... 2... 3... 4... 5!
1 2 3 4 5? That's amazing! I've got the same combination on my luggage!
Actually no, it's spies reading the content of a suspicious #chatzone IRC log file, only they don't quite get it. See for example this transcript:
C0016UY: 1337641: 69?
1337641: 637 1057!
"A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of" - Ogden Nash
So the little voices I been hearing is from the spooks instead of the green little men. Maybe I been watching too much X-Files.
In Soviet Russia, this would be modded "Informative".
it's a blue bright blue Saturday hey hey
The "numbers" stations only exist to confuse people. On Wednesdays, we have "beer" day, where you are entitled to a beer from the cooler if the number 12725 comes out.
So we had one day, last year, where somebody (I think it was the Chinese) hacked our main server, and made it broadcast 12725 continuously all day. So there we were, plastered out of our mind, when 270 Lbs of fissionable material was stolen from our floor. The investigation is due to be completed sometime around 2021 - we don't talk about that very much.
Anyway, here's the source code: Information wants to be free!
I have no problem with your religion until you decide it's reason to deprive others of the truth.
four eight fifteen sixteen twentythree fortytwo
Search your logs like the web: splunk!
Great, now we have to post this every 108 minutes.
8675309
"What do you despise? By this are you truly known." --Princess Irulan, Manual of Muad'Dib
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Dude, a slashdotter said he heard a female voice. That's pretty much the same as winning the lottery around here.
You have just illegally transmitted the first 10 bytes of Britney Spears' new album. The RIAA will be contacting you shortly.
A translation for the weak of leet:
A fine, upstanding gentleman: Dearest, skilled lady... wouldst thou join me in mine bedchambers for some chaste frolicking?
Skilled lady: Alas! No, I must not! For thou art neither truly updstanding, nor the gentleman thou claim'st to be. Now, leav'st me be posthaste!
That green slime had it coming.
I am a habitual NPR listener, but everyone I know finds it slow, uninteresting, easily dismissed radio. I try to expose them to intriguing news material that's delivered spin free and very palatable, but have not yet impressed a single person. It's times like these that I just shake my head and sigh.
"a great All Things Considered story from a few years back about Akin Fernandez's 'Numbers' CD, a CD compilation of some of the most interesting strings of randomly read numbers"
Interesting... random numbers... Ok, so my friends were right.
42
A slip of the foot you may soon recover, but a slip of the tongue you may never get over. -Benjamin Franklin
And if you're going to steal, get it right! George's wording was far better:
"I spent a lot of money on booze, birds and fast cars. The rest I just squandered."
See? That word: squandered. Much, much better than wasted. You can waste anything but only riches can be squandered. And you forgot the fast cars. Unforgivable.
Political language
The thing with HF is that there's really no way to reliably determine where the signal is coming from, because it's operating at a frequency that can bounce around in the ionosphere indefinitely. That's how they're able to send a signal from distances beyond line of sight... it's not penetrating the Earth, it's bouncing around in the atmosphere.
Given the right atmospheric conditions, you can pick up the signal decades later: one of the coolest things that ever happened to me was picking up battle chatter from Vietnam while on a training exercise with Army Signals. I'm 25. It was eerie people die in a transmission that was sent before I was born.
If you believe everything you read, you'd better not read. - Japanese proverb
8008? I always knew that Intel was filled with perverts, but finally I have proof....
Ewige Blumenkraft.