Gongs and Chimes Numbers Station (GDR/DDR 1970s-1990)

[Click on CC if subtitles are not working] One of the popular numbers stations, G3 was a regular broadcaster during the height of the Cold War and was heard around Europe. It made a quick exit a few months after the demolition of the Berlin Wall...
[1]Daily evening broadcasts:1800hrs to 2300hrs UTC on 3258 kHz
Saturday morning broadcast: 1000hrs UTC on 5410 kHz
www.simonmason....
[2]Some info on the activities of the foreign intelligence branch of the Stasi, HVA under the notorious spymaster, Markus Wolf popularized as 'Karla' in the John Le Carre novels. www.cia.gov/li...
[3]"Interesting Footnote. The thawing of the "Cold War", initiated by Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev, which lead to the Brussels conference of world powers in November 1990, finally silenced the East German numbers stations on the evening of Wednesday, 9 May, 1990, when final messages were sent out to agents in the field. As the West German DPA news agency reported;
"They were always preceded by a gong being struck several times. Then on shortwave, a frequency of 3220 kHz, (really 3258kHz) one heard a synthetic voice speaking in a metallic tone: eg. one, seven, five, three, eight, combinations of numbers in groups of five conveying coded news from East Berlin to agents in the FGR and neighbouring foreign countries. Once again the routine broadcast was expected on Thursday evening by the FGR counter intelligence service, but it never came. The voice of espionage has fallen silent."
www.simonmason....
www.simonmason....
Audio
www.simonmason....
Images
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Various images of the fall of the Berlin Wall
Clock tower images from StockFootage.

[@joeblow8593]

The combination of the chimes and the sounds of the broadcasts of the numbers stations, coupled with the eerie stark and surreal grainy footage of the East German sector and the Soviet Block makes for one very compelling and memorable video. Well done and excellent editing 10/10

[@DeVolksrepubliek]

So true

[@RaphaelFrancaisAnglais1506Z2N]

Agree

[@MeinhofKym1944]

That's the jam Honecker listened to when he was in a good mood.

[@granvillebutler5449]

I want this as my ring tone

[@ADAMSIXTIES]

Yup, his favorite music!

[@Das_Deutsche_Moerdervolk]

I have this exact Gong and Chimes on my Smartphone as a ring tone, without the female and male voice. Copy and Cut from Wikipedia, made in 2 minutes.

[@481216Dragon]

Probably my favorite station. Thank you for posting. Have a great day.

[@Tirana44]

I can remember hearing this on my Grundig short wave radio back in the 70s/80s. There was also a station using a tuning signal of four ascending electronic tones. The speech in German featuring number sequences in a female ‘voice’ sounded identical to that of the ‘The Gongs’ station. Strange times!

[@doramilitiakatiemelody1875]

Was it Three Note oddity? I remember Three note oddity interfering with my AM radio while i was listening to German Pop music in 2003

[@LiveWire276]

You’re Albanian? Nice. I sometimes wonder if Communist Albania ever had numbers stations, couldn’t find any

[@inphaze]

That'd be the Four Note Rising Scale numbers station, also known by its Enigma designation G08. Like the Gongs and Chimes station as well as the Three Note Oddity, all use the same Stasi Sprach-Morse machine (Gerät 32620), I think, which had programmable boards for English, German, and Spanish.

[@freedomgundam95]

The Gong noise is most likely made by a Wandel & Goltermann machine. The tone is called: "4 klang gong"

[@johnkelly1083]

Thanks for that, just looked this up on KZbin and the chimes sound exactly like that generated on such a machine. The gongs generated by the machine were then recorded onto tape to be played over the airwaves.

[@chn9285]

sounded like not from this dimension! Eerie Gongs! love it!

[@CatfishMaster-b9s]

And its must better quality than the conet project recording of it

[@ParadiseBureau]

Too bad stations like this don't exist today. I'd say the closest we have to an eerie numbers station is E07, and that's only because of the new tones they added in the background.

[@ParadiseBureau]

All being phased out for digital modes.

[@jusesjimmybars]

there's only really E25 with any quirk to it these days

[@grandpabrezhnev5762]

There are still Cuban number stations

[@docteur6667]

Russian buzzer still up and running

[@ivaporizedmitski]

@@ParadiseBureau I agree

[@EaglehawkMoonfang]

Fascinating stuff, the past was truly magical. Thanks for uploading

[@Rick.434]

1:15 for anyone wondering what the guy is saying here is a translation i made but it might not be that good: we're discussing the most important matters/cases related to the further development (unintelligible) of the country

[@etenorio0622]

Always providing great videos, perhaps the only on KZbin doing this around number stations. Keep it up, great historical value and for those interested in the mysterious/occult. You have some fans!

[@Freshbobba]

Occult? There are still numberstations around on shortwave. Manly yankees and russians. its a spy and military thing

[@johnkelly1083]

Those chimes send a shiver down my spine. Some recordings of this station give the impression that the tape recording of the chimes deteriorated over time, indicated by the wow and flutter.

[@Ac3sdg]

Tape deterioration doesn't manifest in increased wow and flutter. Only way for that to happen would be if the tape stretched over time and cellulose acetate, which is the structural component of magnetic tape, does not stretch well. The wow and flutter you're hearing is most likely caused by a stretched drive belt or worn down capstan roller in the tape player itself.

[@aeternitasromae]

As it continued for a little while after the Berlin wall fell, I wonder what they were saying to agents in the period after. Telling them to go home? continue, but for who? etc etc

[@YouTubeMillionaire456]

Germany didn’t reunify immediately after the fall of the Berlin Wall. It wasn’t until 1990 that East and West Germany officially reunified.

[@shortwavemysteriesbroadcas2159]

Great video, Jonny, I remember when I listened to this station years back, made my night dark

[@DanielDanGRFRS]

first on air 1983 for me and my little shortwave receiver ....fascinating ! why this women music and niumbers ? searching in 1999 thanks internet........g3 gong station east germany....old day and cold war era ...nostalgy...

[@Tirana44]

I can remember this well. There was also another station which carried these number sequences in exactly the same sounding voice, it’s interval signal was an electronic sounding ascending scale. I’ve no idea if it was also a GDR station, but the voice was identical.

[@buzz_archive]

It probably was. The G1 'Tyrolean Music Station' announcer sounded like the same male announcer in the G20 'Spruchnummer' station.

[@itogi]

There were several german language stations that used the same voice generator, all of them were in Eastern Europe.

[@pogchampminku2535]

Why did people start recording number stations in the early 70s and further on rather than the years beforehand when number stations were broadcasting in the 60s and even in world war 1... was it because recording technology was good enough once the 70s struck?

[@elevcan2312]

That sounds like a grandfather clock

[@michealcastor4775]

Chills brought me here.

[@omchamlin]

Wow... I was born over there and lived there again (Army brat) during the late 60's - early 70's. It's amazing that all of this went on and we have learned NOTHING from it. We'll be there again in a few years... I remember looking over the wall into East Berlin during a visit there in '71 and what a squalid, empty existence they lived. Be we apparently want that again?

[@ednaaaxx]

Great video how did you do the subtitles?

[@ComradNoFucksGivin.]

I like haw sinister that antenna looks.

[@callumjoyce1712]

2:26 Those German women look to be between their late 40s and early 60s. Their experiences up until that point are absolutely unimaginable to us. Here we see them watching young men making the same mistakes as their fallen fathers, husbands and sons.

[@punishedsnake6141]

Blah blah blah what the fuck does that mean?

[@deactivatedaccount5140]

Sounds better than modern rap music

[@neglesaks]

Yah man dem hos in da East side be so dank you kno dawg

[@Popeye6400ThegoatMoethegoat]

The most scary sound during the war is the silence when you don't know what can happened

[@philfam4]

At around 1:16 with the radio tuning and static, is that from the original recording and audio?

[@philfam4]

Can you tell me what it's from?

[@krystianmroz2685]

Polish Language

[@daniialsyed7175]

most likely it is a radio station on a different frequency. Frequency Tuning Sounds

[@Rick.434]

im not really sure where does it come from but i do know the voice says: we're discussing the most important cases/matters related to the further development (unintelligible) of the country

[@-TimZambra]

One of your best. Really good editing.

[@Freunderealitaet]

Amazing Edit

[@buzz_archive]

Thank you.

[@robertcole1865]

Thanks. Enjoy your day.

[@franktillman295]

Started in the early 60’s

[@dr.seytan4310]

Possibly 1963

[@gregatim]

It's unknown actually the number station rarely was recorded imagine in the 60's or 70's

[@Hologhoul]

Good Lord this is eerie! And the video is perfect for a Boards of Canada track.

[@Inescapeium]

This is my favorite one

[@ADAMSIXTIES]

1:37 I think this swing ride was popular throughout Eastern Europe then. I've seen it in clips of many cities.

[@DeVolksrepubliek]

We have one of these in the Netherlands as well

[@YouTubeMillionaire456]

It’s a merry-go-round.

[@RichardTClark396]

Creepy to hear that late at night with a onetime pad in a broom closet I’m having flashbacks 😮

[@ronfogartyfogarty9362]

Very cool those gongs and chimes are cool keep it up

[@violashutters]

fascinating

[@newenglandfantasypainthobbies]

I could have sworn some of the sounds i heard was from the teletubbies voice trumpet.

[@timgstar3585]

Thanks for the video dude

[@thrillaspirit]

I fucking love this

[@qu33nnitr0s9]

Creepiest sounding numbers ever

[@unauthorizedentry-coldwave777]

the guy who made this and put in the talk and hiss with dial buzz did it for effect this broadcast would sound different every time as interference on the sw medium was always there

[@buzz_archive]

Yes I do it on purpose for effect.

[@TheSilencedGamer420]

Hi! What sort of radio would I need to pick up weird number stations and other ones, like the chanting one?

[@TheSilencedGamer420]

Jonny thank you! I shall invest.

[@Quants0]

You keep confusing "null" with "neun".

[@allancopland1768]

I called then the 'Evil Gongs'.

[@RaphaelFrancaisAnglais1506Z2N]

Wow

[@VilldoesOfficial]

The best chime 0:30

[@doramilitiakatiemelody1875]

What clock tower was gong station chimes's chimes recorded from?

[@slendybendygames9603]

None

[@NielsPaul]

Sounds more like a school bell chime to me. Just look for "Pausengong" on KZbin, those are quite common in Germany.

[@freedomgundam95]

Wandel & Goltermann gong machine

[@van0tot100]

Why hasn't this been explained after the fall of the GDR?

[@thekidfromiowa]

A less distorted version.

[@blinikot7960]

3:57 min long. 357.000km^2 is the sice of a unifide germay.

[@jusesjimmybars]

great video

[@boltontownhall]

This website does a very accurate job of explaining the message format. www.simonmason.karoo.net/page73.html He explains that each message began with a 5 number code indicating the agent's number, followed by the word Trennung meaning "separation" to tell how many groups of 5 numbers would follow for that agent's message. After that many groups were broadcast, an 8 second dead space occurred, followed by the next sequence of an agent's number, the "trennung" group count, and then those groups with the secret message. These groups are used in a method called a one-time pad which is a code book that matches the numbered group with a word. It's been used since the famous Zimmerman Telegram of WW-1.

[@franktillman5474]

It’s been said this has started as early as 1959

[@dr.seytan4310]

Actually proof states that it started probably in 1963

[@RADITDAOP9]

what year was it recorded?

[@buzz_archive]

In the 80s most likely.

[@emirvmendoza]

Recording from 3:33 is from 9 May 1990, according to the video description, citing the defunct Simon Mason site.

[@blackforestpygmy8756]

Subscribed.

[@deactivatedaccount5140]

So close to 4k subs

[@immunderpaladin7904]

What are These Number mean

[@user-xl7ip9ov5v]

nice

[@georgieippolito9924]

I would so use this to sleep with at night

[@ВиталийЕгоров-ы6о]

Stasi - ist KGB (GDR-version)

[@errc23]

+

[@apollonius6214]

Cc says 0 when neuen is nine and null is zero

[@buzz_archive]

Its showing fine in my end.

[@apollonius6214]

@@buzz_archive must be the auto generated cc, my mistake. Nice video.

[@aliciaandfam1111]

What song is this

[@almondthefurret6818]

wow creepy

[@MichaelMouseStar]

Come help us solve the mystery: www.reddit.com/r/PlsDontCryptography/

[@ninjacker1497]

I feel bad for the people that lost there jobs broadcasting G03

[@ivan5595]

Creepy

[@fungo6631]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/hZDCdalrr9B1b9k This is the gong machine used

[@emirvmendoza]

Well done, it's the real deal and not spam

[@timgstar3585]

I don't think they are spy code ..