What Happened to the Numbers Stations? - Spying by Numbers

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If you've ever listened to a shortwave radio you may have heard the strange creepy numbers stations just calling out numbers in synthesized voices with little tunes introducing and ending them. What is their purpose? and why are they still being used 70+ years after began to be heard? Are they calling out to spies and embedded agents around there world or are they just a relic of the cold war, in this video we look at the mysterious numbers stations.
This video is sponsored by Brilliant.org :
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Written, Researched and Presented by Paul Shillito
Images and footage : NSA, GCHQ, Priyom.org, Ilya B, Cryptomuseum.com
FlinnScientific, OfficialSWLchannel
You can hear loads of recordings of numbers station recorded by the Conet Project here : archive.org/de...
Make your own One Time Pad with the encryption/decryption instructions from the CIA here :
www.numbers-st...
A big thank you also goes to all our Patreons :-)
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Henri Saussure
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john edwards
Jonathan Merage
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P.S.
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Pyloric
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Walt Dennig
Music from the KZbin library
Marianas by Quincas Moreira
Sunrise Over Big Data Country by Dan Bodan

[@johnfranks]

Spy communication activity or non-activity is obfuscated by keeping an unused station on air and on schedule. Deploying a station only as needed could be a clue to your adversaries.

[@Player_Review]

Would be a great way to waste the time of foreign intel assets as well, though the resource allotment is probably relatively autonomous and looking for what you mentioned, a substantial variance in the data feed; I'll bet at some point, if it were a ruse, that foreign agents were tasked with monitoring all of these feeds... But, I'm wagering they operate with more purpose of design than flustering foreign intel. Fun stuff.

[@nibblrrr7124]

​@Richard L Apparently Bell Lab's _Audrey_ system could do digit recognition calibrated to one speaker in 1952, and many number stations are not only by the same speaker, but always the same pre-recorded samples. OTOH, some stations like the UVB-76 "buzzer" use a live announcer, and transcription of that is tricky to automate reliably, even with state-of-the art tech like deep learning (post ~2012) - just look at automated YT captions... Speech recognition is hard.

[@nibblrrr7124]

I vaguely remember a story about the Soviets deliberately leaking false reports of successful research into paranormal/psychic abilities, so the US would waste resources on _actually_ researching it? Was that in "The men who stare at goats"? That the US did in fact research stuff like that seems pretty well-established, but I can't find a good source about Soviet efforts, whether serious or deceptive.

[@LeonVonDai]

Its such a low cost way of sewing paranoia in your enemy.

[@fiftyfuckingfeet]

@@nibblrrr7124 You should also take into account the often horrific audio quality of shortwave stations. Any kind of automated dictation could be hampered by interference. Numbers stations typically repeat their messages at least once to account for this but when I've received them in the past I had trouble getting decent enough reception.

[@AtheistOrphan]

‘You may have come across some weird broadcasts with no normal talking’ - Yes, that’s called ‘BBC Radio 1’

[@skunksrus007]

BBC Propaganda !

[@zebratangozebra]

Bullseye

[@rogerb5615]

Reliable sources tell us that Mme. Clinton, Valerie Jarrett, and possibly Barack Hussein Obama all earned SSB licenses so as to communicate in (they thought) total secrecy.

[@Speechiegirl1]

Lol

[@brianb8060]

It's called, 'radio talk show callers'.

[@ribbitgoesthedoglastnamehe4681]

Transmissions coming from Bletchley Park and Guam: certainly we cannot know if UK or USA are involved, it could be anyone!

[@gustavgnoettgen]

We will never know 🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔🤔

[@jeffreyskoritowski4114]

It never happened for diplomatic reasons.

[@brazeiar9672]

Britain's numbers station transmitted from the sovereign base area on Cyprus, not from Britain. British mainland has long wavelength transmitters for commercial radio and for commanding submarines/nuke strikes, but they weren't used for numbers stations. They don't use numbers stations anymore, it's easier to just send an email or text message :)

[@ribbitgoesthedoglastnamehe4681]

@@brazeiar9672 Aha! ,You confess! Or are you just trying to confuse us, hmm, trying to make us THINK its UK, hmmm?

[@pdunderhill]

@@brazeiar9672 The Water Tower at the front of BP was the 'Shack' used for HF SOE transmissions and predates the more cerebral later activity at Bletchly.

[@stevangucu522]

Imagine if a 80 year old sleeper agent who was just watching your video for fun got the message from the beginning to start protocol on the 50 year old mission.

[@SLU2MOVIES]

This is quite possible, I was watching this with my grandpa, he stood up and said in midway he has to leave for a while Coincidence 🤔

[@KrautKranky]

"Hay KZbin Folks!" Bridge over the Rhine explodes.

[@respectbossmon]

@@SLU2MOVIES > Coincidence Nope. Regularity.

[@zinussan50]

Regardless his surrounding, the first thing to say is.... "Oh.....shit" 🤦‍♂️

[@RCAvhstape]

The Red Queen has given me my target.

[@johnladuke6475]

They're probably still around because your agent might be in a situation where they have no access to modern information technologies. You might get zero bars in the deepest jungle, but your short-wave radio will still get your orders from the numbers station. Or, a radio might raise a lot less questions than a sophisticated computer setup for an agent in a low-tech rural setting.

[@Player_Review]

Good call... Seems plausible.

[@orangejoe204]

Problem is also the opposite: I don't personally know a single person in the US who carries around a portable shortwave radio receiver. Everyone I know who's even AWARE of what shortwave is are licensed amateur radio operators with comfortable home setups. In 1st world countries with the Internet, a spy would be much safer simply using a VPN or TOR from a public wi-fi. A foreigner running around with a portable shortwave radio would be a red flag to law enforcement.

[@johnladuke6475]

@@orangejoe204 Indeed, but I had meant to suggest the opposite conditions; picture a remote fishing village where nobody has internet, but everyone has multiple kinds of radio. The agent waiting to help smuggle people and things through the harbour would be a lot less noticeable if they didn't have the only laptop in town.

[@beeble2003]

@keith moore Nothing to do with psy-ops. You're not going to influence a population by playing a little tune and reading some numbers at them in a foreign language for five minutes a day if they happen to tune in to the correct frequency.

[@beeble2003]

@keith moore Fair enough, though I don't think that's what "psy-ops" usually means.

[@kelleydupuis1059]

About four minutes into this video, you see a guy named Kendall Myers, convicted in 2009 of spying for Cuba. I knew him. In 1986 I had just gone to work for the U.S. State Department, and before my departure for Germany that spring, I took a class at the Foreign Service Institute called Western European Area Studies. Kendall Myers was our instructor. He worked for the State Department.

[@MetalFan10101]

I knew him too. He served me my McDonalds burger back in the summer of '76.

[@XxwarxX.]

Knew him to, he was my teacher in English class

[@crf80fdarkdays]

Me too, he was my great great grandfather and served in the Civil war, I only got to meet him once for a little bit but he told me he met Fidel Castro and he was a great guy

[@therealnoriega1433]

I believe you bro . No reason to lie.

[@straygameplaywalkthroughps6480]

@@crf80fdarkdays everyone on KZbin is a genetic clone of whoever that guys name was.

[@thevellocet]

I've had an obsession over these for many years and they still sound so creepy to hear. Swedish rhapsody is up there with the nightmare fodder.

[@eddjordan2399]

it realty is nasty to hear something with no explanation.

[@ribbitgoesthedoglastnamehe4681]

If it is a problem, then it is thinking itself which is the problem. The reality is that there are no thing that is unexplainable, everything happens for a reason. That reason is simply unknown at the moment. Logic can provide likely reasons for everything, as well as unlikely ones. There is never complete uncertainty, and never complete certainty either. Trying to hold on to something that does not exist will inevitably cause suffering.

[@masaharumorimoto4761]

Perfect!!! Number Stations are my FAVORITE part of spy shit, I love how it's all real, it's all clandestine, and it all had real impacts on real people in the real world. No bullshit arg's or creepypasta here, just really creepy reality.

[@Player_Review]

really creepy reality indeed. fun stuff.

[@Player_Review]

@Madolina Degocelli I refuse to revolt, even for 4786 dollars. Just kidding, I'm super lousy at wanting to determine value of 'p' or 'a' or any inherent meaning buried in cryptography. My lizard brain sees patterns where none exist, like years in those numbers, so I'd either be great or horrible at conspiracies... Regardless, I'm sub-optimal at even the most cursory of studies in the cryptography field.

[@Player_Review]

@Madolina Degocelli 12151791 was a pretty good day. I like those inalienable rights that are not to be infringed upon by the government, but instead their duty is to recognize those inherent freedoms and safeguard them from actors seeking to remove said liberties. I haven't caught the news yet for today though, certainly has been some busy times since the Boston Massacre. Not totally in the know about the relationships to be inferred, but at some point we just admit I'm too dull for the task and i can't expect to be spoonfed, but I thank you for humoring me by letting me know at least seeing the years was something sentient i managed to pull off. Have a good one, take care.

[@AgentOffice]

3789

[@kriss3d]

When I was a kid, growing up in the countryside of my country we did use radios. So naturally as a boy with a knack for electronics I loved to work with radios. And I had NO idea what it was back then as that was before the internet. Almost 10 years ago I randomly came across numbers stations here on youtube and were intrigued. And watching a video that had the lincolnshire poacher play hit me like a freight train. I had heard that before. Many times. And it just awoke something inside me and suddenly I remembered hearing so many of those when browsing the frequencies. Several of them came to life in my memory. The buzzer. The poacher. The swedish rhapsody.. Others I cant name. Such a shame they havent been publically exposed.

[@Harvester_OS]

“It’s 11:59 on Radio Free America; this is Uncle Sam, with music, and the truth until dawn. Right now I’ve got a few words for some of our brothers and sisters in the occupied zone: “the chair is against the wall, the chair is against the wall”, “john has a long mustache, john has a long mustache”. It’s twelve o’clock, American, another day closer to victory. And for all of you out there, on, or behind the line, this is your song.”

[@KRAFTWERK2K6]

Few years ago i arranged/compiled some of these CONET recordings to a soundscape piece because the whole topic of the Number Stations has such an eerie tone to it and in one way becomes really musical and the shortwave medium makes it feel like it's an organic creature trying to communicate.

[@pressureworks]

Having used many numbers stations in many recordings, i would like to hear yours.

[@David-xo8ci]

THE NUMBERS MASON, WHAT DO THEY MEAN!?!?

[@vicviper319]

looking for this comment!

[@sagebiddi]

Man ...it's amazing what a human mind can store and even though I never consciously tried to remember it immediately came in a flashback of a fictional character having a flashback as soon as I read what you wrote. You didn't play a sound just wrote it and triggered not just me but from the looks a good more than several so far... crazyness at how this could be used

[@pygzig]

Steiner, Kravchenko, Dragovich... all must die...

[@vellocet2438]

Yeeee boiiii Making me want to boot up BLOPs

[@rogerhudson9732]

The numbers encypher or decypher , the received message after the process (say subtraction from the OTP key Mod(10) will still be numbers but then the message is applied to the code book to decode the real message.

[@Alexander_Sannikov]

in early 90's i was a radioelectronics enthusiast in Russia and it was pretty simple to receive very similar signals on a homemade radio. some of them were broadcasting in Morse code beeps that i havent deciphered. it did sound very mysterious and creepy, still don't know what they were for.

[@Stormgebieder]

When things go bad, the old tech may surpass the new one.

[@andie_pants]

There's a reason the government still uses those ancient giant 7" floppies and old Cray mainframes... they're beyond difficult to hack remotely.

[@cokeforever]

@@andie_pants yep, but the weakest link of any information system is human... who is prone to manipulation, bribe, romance, terror or any other form of mind-game

[@andie_pants]

@@cokeforever True. Insider threat is a real thing. There's training to detect the most common telltale signs, though.

[@BeeRich33]

It often does, and saves many lives.

[@dougyates7218]

Bingo! Just what I was thinking. It does make sense.

[@dominicrusho]

I managed to decode one of the messages: “ A M A N H A S F A L L E N I N T O T H E R I V E R I N L E G O C I T Y”

[@Aquapod9]

H E Y

[@mr.w.146]

One I decoded read: "Barry O was the Illinois Enema Bandit and Michael was his right-hand hand-job man."

[@colin7225]

I decoded one, it said, never go for the anal without lubing up first.

[@keithmcgurn5336]

That's not really "decoded" you still need to "decrypt" it. Even then the term you need to paint a Bill's house. Means you need to kill Bill.

[@michaelmcglynn5863]

😂

[@thelanavishnuorchestra]

I remember listening to them when I was a kid with a shortwave radio, collecting QSL cards.

[@stevemumbling7720]

I'm guessing you never got a QSL card from a numbers station.

[@thelanavishnuorchestra]

@@stevemumbling7720 ha, no.

[@highpath4776]

Can two recievers triangulate the broadcast source of a SW broadcast or is atmosphere bouncing affecting that ability ?

[@stevemumbling7720]

@@highpath4776 Two antennas should be able to triangulate the source of a SW signal. Amateur radio operators located the 'The Lincolnshire Poacher' to a BBC World Service site in Cyprus. And located the source of the 'Russian Woodpecker' HF over the horizon radar. Regardless of how the SW signal wave front is bent by the ionosphere the direction of the signal away from the transmitter will remain the same.

[@64BBernard]

@@stevemumbling7720 I hated that damned Russian Woodpecker!! It would blanket nearly the entire SW spectrum with that rapid "peck peck peck peck... sound".

[@ArthurKonze]

There are 2 errors in this video: 1. In the late 1990th and early 2000th several former GDR agents gave a detailed view on east germanys number stations like G03, the 'Gong Station'. So there is no 'myth' about them nowadays. 2. It is completely wrong short wave bands could not be tracked. I worked for german military signal intelligence in the 1990th and we recorded nearly the whole radio bands from the LF to the UHF bands 24/7. Back then we needed 3 barracks, a large data center and a giantic antenna field for this. Today this can be done with a few small USB SDR sticks and raspberry pies for under 1.000 dollars.

[@MB-xo2lx]

So what exactly is the idea behind the number stations?

[@ArthurKonze]

@@MB-xo2lx Number stations do send out encrypted informations. They have 2 main advantages: 1) they can easily be picket up with a simple shortwave receiver or even online with a websdr. 2) they are nearly impossible to decode without the proper key. Furthermore it is very easy to locate the sender, but very hard to find the receiver. The GDRs secret service Stasi used their number stations to inform agents about meeting times or dead drops in example. The german DLF radio made a great report about number stations: kzbin.info/www/bejne/qIiakGmVq9-Iibc

[@antony716]

I'd love to pick your brain

[@nigelrg1]

@Michael PacNW Maybe, though I'm not sure I believe that. Even today, there's a limit to data storage. But, assuming it's true, how do you search for something among terabytes of data? This video spoke to the problem.

[@randomlyentertaining8287]

@@ArthurKonze I think the third advantage you mentioned, it being hard to find the receiver, is what he meant by not being able to be tracked. You can listen in but you can't track who the signal is meant for.

[@gaveintothedarkness]

7:08 Damn, thought that was going to be a slick Nord VPN advertisement.

[@breakingthemasks]

Same dude. Lol

[@Player_Review]

When I think of that stuff, I think of the fake commercials on the video game Grand Theft Auto's radio stations, especially the one for 'The Cloud'. These places have your traffic because origin IP and it just means an extra subpoena if gov wants the origin IP from them, unless ToS circumvents it so it is one of the money makers for them. I love the 'anonymous data' collection, pretending that them knowing your IP isn't a thing, but I'm not James Bond so I don't require piles of vpn's and vm's to watch KZbin.

[@macadamianut824]

Player Review the cloud commercial makes me chuckle every time lol

[@Player_Review]

@@macadamianut824 Your information is safe 'In the Cloud'.

[@macadamianut824]

@@Player_Review "Where did the cloud go?"

[@Rafaga777]

I have to admit that it is the first time I heard about these number stations. Absolutely fascinating. Btw: thanks for the video. As always topnotch quality...

[@BeeRich33]

Pick up a book on Radio Caroline. It's absolutely fascinating.

[@krashd]

@@BeeRich33 And if he buys that expecting it to be about numbers stations? There's a movie with John Cusack called The Numbers Station, it's pretty good and gives an insight into how they are used.

[@thatsreallyam5758]

OverMan in call of duty black ops 1 it is used, in the game you try and hunt down the station which is broadcasting to sleeper agents in the united states that are waiting for the order to release and nerve toxin called nova 6

[@markdamen730]

dammit there go my lottery numbers,now i am "LOST"

[@showaltermicro]

nice lol

[@PJohann]

4 8 15 16 23 42 i'm unable to forget these

[@markdamen730]

@@PJohann lol exactly,dont tell me Trisha Takanowe is dead

[@jameswebb5080]

Not Penny's boat!!

[@markdamen730]

@@jameswebb5080 lol

[@ellemjay]

I found one of these stations when I was a kid playing with someone's shortwave radio. It sounded terrifying to an eight year old!

[@LongStripeyScarf]

I think I suggested this to you as an idea for a video! Regardless of whether you saw my suggestion, I’m really pleased you made this!

[@thebeststooge]

I remember this from the 1980's and it was all over the shortwave bands.

[@GeoHvl]

I got a Zenith World Transistor Ocean1000 radio in1964 for my 10th birthday. It had I think 12 bands and the handle was the antenna. The length of the antenna fully extended was 8 feet I had to lay the floor to play this thing. It also had a map with all the shortwave bands of the world. I never used it with batteries because it would hold 8/D cells but it also used AC. I heard so much stuff sometimes freaked me out. Also a lot of key code. Nights were the best times to listen. Now I can watch this video. I remember hearing random very fast clicking noises. Tons of different languages being spoke

[@graycloud057]

When I was a boy, ( early 1970’s) I listened to these stations on my grand dad’s shortwave radio. These transmissions sounded so strange and erie. Thanks awfully old chap!

[@jjohnston94]

For more on the use of one-time pads, and cryptography in general (fictionalized, but with reality-based explanation), read Neal Stephenson's "Cryptonomicon".

[@Bacopa68]

Or just say read Cryptonomicon. And after that, read Stephenson's Baroque Cycle, a prequel trilogy set three hundred years earlier consisting of three near-doorstoppers. And these books do not disappoint: "Quicksilver" sets the stage, or stages, and hooks you in. "The Confusion" is, well, confusing; But it's my favorite. And the third volume, "The System of the World" brings it all home in a most satisfying way. I wanted to stand up and clap after I finished "System".

[@crf80fdarkdays]

Isn't that another variant of covid?

[@AcuraLvR82]

Back in 2001 I had a set of Labtec flat panel computer speakers that for whatever reason would randomly pick up similar signals. Pretty sure after watching this video some of it was military or government in nature. But one time out of the blue at 2am, in the background you could hear a pocket of static then for a brief second cleared up and a guy was saying something like "Hey Jim! I just got into town, thought I would let you know your pizza will be delivered soon!." then "Okay Brad thank you and just to let you know the Eagle is cleared for landing!!!". Then a bubble of static again then nothing. ALL WHILE THE SPEAKERS WERE TURNED OFF. To this day I still wonder wtf that was all about, and what made those speakers so special about picking up the signals.

[@markoprskalo6127]

That was nearby cb station and it was picked up by your speakers

[@samcerulean1412]

You’re Videos are the Most interesting on KZbin. I find Your voice and style of commentary incredibly informative butso easy to follow.

[@Speechiegirl1]

This is one of my favorite topics. I love listening to number stations .

[@bartoszbrown1322]

Which one is your favourite?

[@gryfandjane]

Fascinating stuff. I first came across numbers stations while playing with an old short wave receiver years ago, and had no idea what was going on. I’ve since learned, but your explanation is the best I’ve heard yet. Thanks!

[@FirstLast-vr7es]

I recently repaired an old tube radio for my parents, down in a suburb of Atlanta, GA. I took it to them, hooked up a random wire antenna and immediately found a numbers station on shortwave transmitting in spanish and coming in five by five. Likely those rascally Cubans again. Eerie, but cool though. Odds are that it wasn't a bluff.

[@acidphaze]

You probably heard HM01, it’s a mixture of Voice and Data.

[@hyperdistortion2]

Ooh, I love all the mystery around numbers stations; love to see a Curious Droid on the subject! UVB-76 is probably the most interesting, in my opinion...

[@Exospray]

The buzzer? Its probadly the most interesting for the voice messages than anything

[@DrCranium]

@@Exospray Yet it's probably the most mundane in its use and meaning behind the messages: there is evidence that the transmissions are intended... for draft stations of the Russian military. Yep, that's right: most of the code messages are just drills for/check-ups on the personnel tasked with conscription duties - who, none the less, would be vital in case when a mobilization is needed.

[@nibblrrr7124]

@@DrCranium Oooh, interesting! Do you have a source? I love all the amateur monitoring & research done on it. Speculations how the signal is generated, accidentally leaving the mic on in 2001, going completely silent for a day in 2010, variations in the buzz, frequency & concent of messages ...

[@DrCranium]

@@nibblrrr7124 well, the oldest claim I've found so far is from 2004 on a radio forum (www.radioscanner.ru/forum/topic12415-4.html - link): former military draftee "muha131" claimed that the station (known by military personnel during his service term as "Droplet") was in direct subordination to the Staff of the Moscow Military District. Then, there were photos "taken in military commissariats" - storage.olegon.ru/supermag/upload/forumpics/2018/03/800px-%D0%A2%D0%B0%D0%B1%D0%BB%D0%B8%D1%87%D0%BA%D0%B0_%D0%B2_%D0%BE%D0%B4%D0%BD%D0%BE%D0%BC_%D0%B8%D0%B7_%D0%92%D0%BE%D0%B5%D0%BD%D0%BA%D0%BE%D0%BC%D0%B0%D1%82%D0%BE%D0%B2_4625%D0%BA%D0%B3%D1%86.jpg - wich show a radio reciever as well as an instruction about it's operating frequency (the same as UVB's) and its operating mode ("24/7"). Then, the "outages" in the summer of 2010 and transmitter's relocation coincided with the restructuring of the chain of command in the army, particulary - merger of Moscow and Leningrad Military Districts. And, finally - former Soviet officials which became officials of the newly formed independent republics (Lithuania, for example) had confirmed that the station was used by the Soviet military in order to confirm that the operators on receivers are alert. TL;dR - "Buzzer", most likely, is a reserve channel for distributing orders in the Russian military (probably - intended for military commissariats, i.e. draft offices), for cases when any other means (phone lines, for example) are unavailable/cut, and that is occasionaly checked with drill transmissions (operators should get the transmission, decipher it, and report its contents back to the Staff of the Military District/perform the order in that transmission).

[@theh0r5e90]

I don't know I kind of like Japanese slot machine or Sky King and I actually used to use data streams as background noise

[@nibblrrr7124]

5:36 Correctly-used one-time pads aren't just _considered_ to be unbreakable, they're _mathematically proven_ to be - the argument about a ciphertext being equally likely to stand for any message (which Paul gives in the video) is enough, and just has to be expressed more formally. Message length is the only thing that could even begin to leak any information, and that can be avoided by padding them out to always have the same length. (Which does waste precious key bits.)

[@tanall5959]

The only way to break them is by looking for people not following the rules: Failures in physical security, sanitation (IE not destroying them), reuse, or the use of non-random sources.

[@LeonVonDai]

If you just brute force every outcome and sort it with a machine learning algo to find sensable outcomes, theres really nothing stopping it from being cracked now.

[@nibblrrr7124]

​@@LeonVonDai No. Then your ML model is just _guessing_ what the most probable message to send would be. There would be no need to feed it the encrypted text, as that is literally just random noise. AI is not magic, and it can never overcome constraints set by basic information theory.

[@nibblrrr7124]

​@@tanall5959 Absolutely correct, and b/c key distribution is hard and e.g. makes key reuse tempting with such a wasteful scheme as OTP, that's a viable attack. I wouldn't call it "breaking" the cipher, though. If you steal someone's car key & use it to get inside the car, you're not "picking" the car's lock. Nothing the designer of the lock could have done to prevent that. That's why information security ideally takes a holistic view that goes far beyond cryptography/cryptanalysis.

[@thebigmacd]

@@LeonVonDai if you give me a cypher text made with a one-time pad, I can make a separate decryption one-time pad for every possible plaintext message that could fit in the message length. IE there is no way to brute force an OTP message. There is no way to know what the plaintext message was. Brute forcing requires some sort of known reference to validate against.

[@HowieeZ]

I remember listening to the (I think) East German number station on shortwave in the late 50s when I as a kid. I would sometimes write the numbers down but had no idea what the message was!

[@zeproo]

I love you talk about all unusual topics. I'm radio amateur.

[@BeeRich33]

73 de VE3

[@BentConrod]

VK QF68 --... ...--

[@RobbertN]

1337 X360

[@demolitiondavedrillandblast]

QF22QD

[@AnexoRialto]

Then there were the jamming stations on short wave. A low loud buzz broadcast by the USSR and others to block foreign stations. They always sounded so sinister to me as I moved up and down the dial.

[@StormsandSaugeye]

To this day, China still has a number of jamming stations. When I was in Japan I would listen in on the HF and you would hear a station go active and then be drowned out by Chinese propaganda stations that would suddenly go active. It was crazy to hear.

[@Hachiae]

@@StormsandSaugeye is that not illegal as its japanese "airspace"?

[@StormsandSaugeye]

@@Hachiae no because it's an incidental effect. The stations being jammed are Korean and Chinese

[@Hachiae]

@@StormsandSaugeye oh i understand, my mistake

[@doramilitiakatiemelody1875]

Are you talking about UVB-76

[@joshrandalldisavows6697]

Sensational upload @Curios Droid I new nothing of this matter. Great work.

[@scottlarson1548]

After 45 years of shortwave listening, the only numbers station I hear now is Cuba's hybrid-digital HM01. In the late 70's you could hear all kinds of professional number stations as well as ones that were incredibly amateur. Around 1979 I heard one guy speaking Spanish numbers with a push-to-talk transmitter. He'd read off one row and the transmitter would turn off. Then it would turn back on and he would read another row, over and over.

[@iseeolly9959]

It's just an international game of Numberwang.

[@BrentWalker999]

That's numberwang!

[@iseeolly9959]

@@BrentWalker999 5 points to you

[@1220b]

26 ?

[@lindongreen8922]

Genesis

[@MarshallPust]

Lassen uns Numberwang spielen! Rotiere das Brett!

[@anonlastbend7439]

At first the shirt lacking color was concerning, but soon you realize the pattern is so intense you think its moving. A subtle start that only builds in energy. Very well done. Also, the number stations are always an interesting topic.

[@James_Bowie]

"On September 21, 2001, [Ana Montes] was arrested and subsequently charged with conspiracy to commit espionage for the government of Cuba. Montes eventually pleaded guilty to spying and in October 2002, was sentenced to a 25-year prison term followed by five years' probation. In their charging documents, [US] federal prosecutors stated: Montes communicated with the Cuban Intelligence Service through encrypted messages and received her instructions *through* *shortwave* *encrypted* *transmissions* from Cuba. In addition, Montes communicated by coded numeric pager messages with the Cuban Intelligence Service by public telephones located in the District of Columbia and Maryland. The codes included 'I received message' or 'danger.' The prosecutors further stated that all of the information was on water-soluble paper that could be rapidly destroyed.

[@respectbossmon]

The Mossad supposedly made frequent use of number stations. Supposedly they used two formats: message and action. The message format was similar to what was described in this excellent vid. The action format consisted of a (usually) female voice speaking the numerals 1234567890 followed by a three-digit number, repeating several times. The numbers could mean, "Retreat," "Meet you contact #1 at the usual place," "Operation cancelled," "Assassination authorized," etc. Or so they say....

[@beardymart906]

Great video as always. Suggestion for a future topic: The history of the English Electric Canberra. The world's first jet bomber in the 1940s, still flying today with NASA as the WB-57 to gather data on spacecraft re-entry, with many flight records some of which I think still stand. A unique and distinguished career of over 70 years and counting, and I for one would love to see it celebrated.

[@TechnologistAtWork]

Your channel is like TV documentary level quality. Your voice is really soothing.

[@mahmut4951]

Teheh, i grew up in Akrotiri, Cyprus where the Lincolnshire Poacher was broadcasted from.

[@envitech02]

6:50 The flash paper is awesome!!

[@starventure]

"DRINK YOUR OVALTINE"

[@pc2753]

That is weirdly familiar

[@jf_knows_nothing]

I got this joke. It’s brilliant

[@johnstevenson9429]

Well done sir/madam

[@SWIFTO_SCYTHE]

Come on folks - A christmas story geezus.

[@Onizukachan915]

starventure well played sir!

[@ag3498]

Thanks for explaining the encryption method also. While I had known about numbers stations I had never really understood how they actually sent the information to the agents in the field.

[@James_Bowie]

Regarding one time pad security: "It appears that the radio messages led to the detection of Kendall and Gwen Myers. The FBI affidavit in the case makes clear that *Cuban* *codes* *had* *been* *cracked* and messages to the Myerses and other Cuban spies in the US monitored so that scraps narrowing down identification could be gathered."

[@Platyfurmany]

It's nice to see how old-tech can still be, not only still relevant, but better than the latest cutting-edge technology. I remember hearing about number stations back in the days (the 1970s-1980s) when I paid attention to shortwave and ham radio, but never could I find out what they were all about.

[@PhoenixT70]

"Mason! For the last time! Where - is - the numbers station!" "How many times - Steiner was there! We had to kill Steiner!" "We? _Viktor Reznov?"_

[@PitunghereTNOschizo100]

Meanwhile, my mind: *Remember Heavy spinning on the yards.

[@Sparky-vj2dq]

Excellent rundown as always. Two other points. 1) In order to thwart monitors, some numbers stations are believed to have broadcast dummy data for much of the time and only the intended recipients with their OTPs and a pre-arranged instruction to listen at a particular fixed time could tell if there was a genuine message for them in the broadcast. 2) Current remaining western numbers stations are most likely aimed at countries with paranoid authoritarian regimes where even carrying innocuous IT (eg USB sticks) raises eyebrows and internet access is controlled, limited and monitored by more sinister agencies than Google et al. who just want to sell you stuff. I'm thinking mainly of North Korea here but if Russia's recent experimentation with an independent internet develops further... 3) The highest risk to agents in the field with this means of communication is probably the short-wave radio itself. You might have to smuggle it into the target country in the first place, if sale, ownership of such devices is banned or otherwise restricted. But having got your radio the risk still remains since in order to be ab;le to tune to more than one frequency (normally required as short-wave reception is highly variable) the radio will itself contain one or more mixing oscillators which can radiate weak but detectable signals in the local area - a similar and related process to the TV detector vans used in the UK to find TV licence evaders before the digital TV era. Rant: I used be a keen short wave listener until the advent of light-touch regulation of the use of radio waves which often makes short wave listening in urban areas impractical due to high noise levels from devices such as internet powerline adaptors, VDSL cabling and poorly made switch-mode power supplies.

[@ghost_ship_supreme]

This makes me think of “THE BUZZER” radio station.

[@SlingbladeJim]

Now THIS was very interesting..............................thank you.

[@AtheistOrphan]

I would love to find out all about the recording session for the Lincolnshire poacher and the nicely-spoken numbers lady.

[@55Ramius]

I played the sound from some of those recordings you left url to in description to a app on my phone called Spectroid. I can see numbers and letters show up as they speak. I already knew you can save sound from a image and play it back in this program thus recreating picture but I did not expect to see anything from these old recordings.

[@KrautKranky]

I grew up in West Germany during the Cold War. My older sister had a world receiver radio. That thing was huge, and one afternoon I happened upon one of those stations. I was a Tom Clancy kid, and for days I'd write numbers down..... let's say I never scored a huge catch for our Bundesnachrichtendienst. :) Btw - Jack Ryan on Amazon is amazing, and I love tour channel.

[@oliverfasola19]

Genuinely happy to see a new video about short wave number stations; it seems like KZbin has forgotten shortwave

[@vk2ig]

Increasingly the general public has no idea what shortwave is. About three decades ago many people still knew about it.

[@TheStwat]

I remember stumbling upon some of these in the 80's when I used to love scanning for world radio stations.

[@MrWombatty]

That Sangean ATS 909 receiver looks so similar in some ways to it's smaller brother the ATS 808 which I've owned for many years. Apart from the smaller size & all black case, the major differences was that the ATS 808 missed out on single-side-band (SSB) capability of the more expensive ATS 909.

[@richardjweeks]

Thank you Paul for introducing me to something I have never heard of.

[@therealjammit]

A sudden reduction or increase in the number of transmissions can be used to notice something is up. A change in "noise" is still a change. When a message is encrypted for use with a one time pad, the message is also encrypted with a number the agent has remembered. This way you need the one time pad and the memorized number to decrypt.

[@miiiikku]

Key message could be absolutely anything at all. A KZbin commet would do.

One possible reason for the use still: you cannot send electronic messages without raising suspicion. Messages can and do get tracked. Oh, and you need quite a bit more in equipment, which all _can be found_ and also has to be secure. The fall of use could have a similar reason: depending on where you are, buying a shortwave radio could be seen as at least curious, if not suspicious.

[@phfen]

Really interesting and innovative topic to talk about! Thanks!

[@daneast]

Great video, and very good description of how OTPs work. I do have a few comments. It's entirely possible, and likely, that numbers stations did not only use OTPs to encrypt messages. It is likely that they also had codes that the agents would have memorized that they could understand straightaway without requiring a OTP. Since a OTP was a physical object, the loss of it would have prevented them from receiving any messages at all. So undoubtedly there would be instructions they could follow directly, such as being recalled, going into sleeper mode, etc. Additionally with a OTP, the person decoding the message has to know precisely when to begin decoding the message. So messages would have to begin immediately after the music / tones ended and the numbers started, or again, there would have to be a known code in the numbers that indicated that a message was about to begin. Finally, it is possible to use the same OTP many times to encode different messages. However, each re-use makes it "easier" to break the code and determine the OTP by using things like letter / word frequency analysis, etc. Generally, a OTP could probably be used at least twice safely, especially if the text they encoded wasn't verbose plain language text (which is unlikely, because using verbose verbiage would require bigger OTPs, longer transmission and decoding time, etc so the text was undoubtedly highly abbreviated and possibly in yet another code the agent could memorize). And finally, and this wasn't clearly stated in the video, is that even when the number stations were in widespread use sending messages, it is likely that the vast majority of the numbers they broadcast were random, meaningless numbers.

[@vk2ig]

One problem with re-using OTPs is that even though an adversary may not be able to read the contents of, say, two such transmissions, they can use the two to form a "book cipher" and attack the cipher that way.

[@terrypussypower]

I used to love listening into numbers stations back in the 70's! I had loads of recordings of really weird stations on Shortwave. I wish I'd kept them. They were a goldmine of amazing samples! The Conet Project is the best archive of these weirdo stations.

[@behr121002]

This is absolutely fascinating, especially from the vantage point of history.

[@umageddon]

neuralobserver id suggest go listen to some of the stations. Some are really quite creepy indeed.

[@afrog2666]

History being what it is, did it have a vantage point, and do we also have that same vantage point, or do we in the PRESENT have the vantage point, OVER history..

[@afrog2666]

@@umageddon Watching the news is creepy, politicians and corporate leaders are creepy, SJW`s and vegans are creepy, several dousin gender pronouns are creepy, some numbers aren`t going to freak me out in the slightest after being exposed to everyday life ;)

[@umageddon]

A Frog true enough 😂

[@RWBHere]

Thanks Paul. You don't need a very powerful radio transmitter for global coverage. Amateur Radio signals of ten Watts have been used on a number of occasions, for voice communication between England and Australia, for example. Morse code signals of 100 milliwatts have been used for transatlantic communications, too. I've used simple, low power (3 Watts) equipment for talking to people a couple of thousand kilometres away, using an indoor home-made magnetic loop antenna, and that's far from being unusual.

[@SteverRob]

One of the greatest/coolest mysteries of shortwave listening. I've been poking around the airwaves since I was 13 (47 years ago)!

[@Authenictruthoid]

This is the ONLY REASON the BBC is still on the air ! This is your BEST one yet ! We have to keep a open mind about this. Peace

[@johnphillips519]

I have always wondered about these transmissions, Over the horizon radar makes an unusual sound as well

[@MrTrashmasterfx]

John Phillips Russian woodpecker;)

[@mattbates6887]

Does anyone remember that German numbers station during the late 70's, near the top end of the 80 Meter amateur band? I can't remember the exact frequency, but it must have been about 3820 Khz. It was always a very strong AM signal, usually S9+ 50 dB on the S meter, with a female voice continually announcing numbers in German. I always tuned into that station each evening, and was quite fascinated by it. Some of the numbers that are still stuck in my mind are, eins drei sieben acht neun. She would say these numbers over and over again, I think vier was somewhere in there as well :)

[@tz8785]

Number stations might make a comeback if more and more countries make a habit of shutting down the internet when things get hot politically (or simply filter out everything they can't decrypt).

[@acidphaze]

Quite true, just look at recent events with Russia. Their websites got blocked and RT news was took off regular freeview TV. I bet they wished they didn't close down Voice Of Russia in 2013 which was their international broadcasting station on shortwave. And now that people are starting to realise that shortwave still has its uses, the local shops do not stock radios with the shortwave band on them anymore. You can buy ones with FM, AM or DAB but no SW band. You can only buy them online thesedays. The local Tescos has just recently discontinued their world band receiver, and it's not as if it wasn't selling it was selling like hot cakes. It appears the powers that be are afraid of someone else's opinion, and are making it harder for people to aquire a SW radio.

[@foamer443]

I can easily imagine some some government department having no need for this service anymore, and it being small and obscure being totally forgotten about and so just continues on. Mindlessly. It is government after all.

[@letitbe6604]

Thank you for this interesting video, Many Years ago I used to listen to short wave radio but I never was interested in those strange broadcasts which were undecipherable and weird, though I still have my German Grundig Satellit 3400 professional radio(who of you remember it?) stashed somewhere in my house. Thank you again to bring it up!..make me start to un-dust it(the truth is that is clean and like new, it came with a nice cover too-was optional-)!

[@Mr.Nin10do.]

Nobody: mentions number stations Black Ops Fans: THE NUMBERS MASON

[@patrickwalsh2884]

Listened-in on these stations back in 1972 after I was gifted a multi-band radio. Short wave stations from Russia and North Vietnam were picked-up here in my town in northern New Hampshire, USA ( at night only). There were/are so many sounds and tones still on the short wave bands along with so many religious stations broadcasting fire and brimstone.

[@ArbnTyphoon]

“The numbers mason, what do they mean!”

[@ablemagawitch]

It means prepare to shell out another $80 plus $50-$100 more in the DLC in the next game.Which will only bring you to what end result to continue the mission? Wallet come suffer with me, by the way you have read Ulysses right?

[@jamespfp]

0:01 -- So Yeah, *GREAT VIDEO* first of all; I have a question for you to think about though, perhaps by way of follow-up. While I agree, the "Numbers Station" method is about as secure as humanly possible for the Intelligence Asset in the field (almost perfectly anonymous) there is a huge flaw built right into the middle of it, and while you mentioned it several times, you didn't seem to notice that it, combined with the Human Elements (ie. the Intel Asset) would tend to nullify the benefits gained by the anonymous reception. *TO WIT,* the little fragments of music, *if they are not codes in and of themselves,* uniquely identify the station / transmitter / Agency. And, if those tunes are "Ear Worms", the Intelligence Asset in the field may well not be aware of the effect that the repetition will have, with a collection of melodic tones. For example, a Counter-Intelligence Officer might only have to whistle a bar or two of the song, and the Asset ( *should they react* ) could blow his cover.

[@notvalidcharacters]

That's called an interval signal, very commonly used in repeated fashion to herald a forthcoming broadcast by a station about to use that frequency. It allows for tuning the desired signal to be prepared for the broadcast. As long as said interval signal is not *unique* to that station (e.g. the "Lincolnshire Poacher" is an actual traditional folk song), reacting to the tune would mean nothing.

[@jamespfp]

@@notvalidcharacters That was one example, I can think of many others. Human tendencies being what they are, I mean. :D

[@RobertDeloyd]

When I was a kid with a shortwave radio I'd listen to them and were always a mystery to me what it was all about but I knew it had something sinister about them like spies and such...

[@RCAvhstape]

I think the internet, or any telecommunications, is less secure than radio. The downsides to radio are that you can locate the transmitter, it can be jammed sometimes, it's one way only, and usually a low data rate. But you can't tell where the receivers are and if using the right encryption it's very secure. It also has an almost unlimited range, depending on the equipment used and the atmospheric conditions.

[@etaeleifi]

Love this channel!

[@ComputerLearning0]

The last numbers station I heard was in mid 2017 and I still have the audio recording I made of it using one of those cheap RTL dongle style sdr receivers using HDSDR.

[@AngelArtists]

Perhaps the one that lasted for over 30 minutes was yet ANOTHER 12" mix of 'Two Tribes" by Frankie Goes To Hollywood 😂😂😂😂

[@biggiesmith]

Wonder if this is in any way connected to "The Russian Woodpecker" I used to run into on amateur radio bands? It really destroyed some bands, especially at night. I believe it's been gone for a number of years.

[@stumo8681]

That was a Russian Over the Horizon Radar installation in Ukraine, near Pripyat I it was used to detect missile launches

[@OgamerNL]

I am pretty sure I found one in The Netherlands some years ago on an AM wave, but was translated to morsecode. Unfortunately I am unable to understand that but sure it was.

[@64BBernard]

I used to come across on the shortwave spectrum five number broadcasts via RTTY from various embassies and even international medical organizations. So the five number broadcasts are not neccesarily nefarious. The USAF used to broadcast their GO Codes on shortwave. Anyone remember "Skybird Skybird do not answer... Alpha Papa..."

[@emjackson2289]

I heard these via my Uncle's organ amplifier picking up the signals one evening, it was the freakiest, freakiest thing ever.

[@jamesplotkin4674]

Bet his wife was freaked out.

[@anullhandle]

Would be freakier if your old tooth filling did it lol. It would have to be a large close station. Something like a cracked solder joint can simulate a crystal diode. That demodulates the signal, further stages of the amplifier made it audible.

[@leroyjenkins4811]

I used to hear these stations when I got into some ham radio type stuff years ago. I didn’t know what they were. They just kept saying the same thing over and over. It was kind of boring to listen to with all of the repetition so I quickly moved on to other frequencies. I had no idea they were potential spy messages! Who knew?

[@aeroflopper]

i used to often hear these on my side band radio years ago always thought they were transmitting for aircraft..

[@Player_Review]

were you in an area with busy government airspace and/or aerospace? i'm near a military base, intelligence installations and the like, haven't picked up the hobby though and just used radio for my pleb boomboxes growing up.

[@jeremey2072]

I came across a Morse code numbers station a few days ago scanning around on my SDR receiver. I was decoding with FLDigi and had it for about 5 minutes before it faded back out again. It was off any of the standard ham or shortwave bands, groups of five numbers at a relatively slow wpm- I didn’t take note of the frequency so they are still broadcasting.

[@radarmusen]

Reminds me of boards of Canada there has used the station in one of there tracks.

[@carlospulpo4205]

The simplicity of analog transmissions make them very robust in noise, and atmospheric conditions. Perhaps the number stations are mixing the old with the new, they can use numbers to and OTPs to point to a key schedule of RSA keypairs as an example. So for example each number could be responsible for transforming 256 char blocks of the message. Also you can use the number stations to seed a PRNG so key pairs can be predictably generated...lots of permutations.

[@m1k3droid]

numbers stations have value, in telling agents which pages on one time pads to use, settings for key generators, but also as disinformation to obfuscate to enemy intel agencies to waste resources on red herring data

[@doit9854]

I used to pick up European radio stations on guitars connected to tube amps in the US in the '90s. I'm sure the nicknames of number stations helped name a few bands we still love today.

[@doit9854]

"You simply cannot track a handheld radio"... The UK Mil published a paper in the '60s on how to do this exactly. Transmitting overloading radiofrequency radiation leading to backscatter of tuned antennas with weakly defined resistance. Or something like that. Anyone in US Intel Mil-Spec today knows this capability...

[@sski]

I've always loved the mystique of numbers stations and the feeling I get when listening to them. I also like vidya games like Fallout. Funny you didn't mention the Russian 'Dead Hand' system, supposedly linked to a numbers station during the Cold War. That's some awesome creepy stuff.

[@cindytepper8878]

As an Amateur Radio operator I've talked to a lot of Europe and Hawaii with a 100 watt transceiver, a motorcycle battery, and about 100 feet of wire I found on the dump hung from trees at about 25-30 feet up and that was SSB (voice). CW (Morris code) that same setup could communicate anywhere on the globe. That is all good proven stand alone fairly low tech stuff. If things really went bad they could still communicate with their agents using very little. Not to mention the 160 meter band is close enough to AM broadcast that you could use any AM radio for a receiver, even a crystal radio set made out of junk.

[@madwax4771]

@1:20 YSIYSI means 99 in finnish

[@cdl0]

99 = yhdeksänkymmentäyhdeksän

[@sampsasaahkari3209]

Mad Wax Glad I’m not the only one who noticed.

[@RevolutionibusOrbiumCoelestium]

Because end to end encryption can be used to derive traffic analysis. Number stations can’t be traced to a receiver.

[@pontusgustafsson9510]

I wonder why the Swedish Rhapsody is called that as it was spoken in german. I am swedish so i want to know.

[@lynncai587]

The tune used in the numbers station is from a symphonic piece called Swedish Rhapsody

[@or2kr]

Steganography makes this topic a whole lot more interesting