There is a diverting thread on TOP about Cold War spy radios etc. I recalled these broadcasts and predictably found an entry in wiki. For your interest:
I wonder how many intelligence agencies play the numbers game midst the white noise on the internet in JPEG images and the like on innocuous sites, like this one even?
When I used to play around with radios, short wave, etc, there were a few stations that did USB (Upper Side Band) voice broadcasts of strings of numbers, single digits, in German read out by a woman with a monotonous voice.
SIEBEN ACHT ZWO NULL VIER EINS SECHS NEUN DREI FUNF DREI DREI NULL ACHT .......
Apparently it was something to do with met reports.
I wonder how many intelligence agencies play the numbers game midst the white noise on the internet in JPEG images and the like on innocuous sites, like this one even?
EBCDIC, last worked with that IBM format on the AS400.
I was introduced to it in 1965!
Thought that this 8 bit byte thingy was slick.
In 1967 I realised that a 16 bit word was better.
Re: Numbers Broadcast
Posted: Fri Mar 27, 2020 8:31 pm
by AtomKraft
More usually known as "number stations".
Check out, on YouTube maybe.
1. The buzzer.
2. Gongs or chimes.
3. The Lincolnshire Poacher- a British one that!
There is a certain fascination about them, for those fascinated by such stuff.
I wonder how many intelligence agencies play the numbers game midst the white noise on the internet in JPEG images and the like on innocuous sites, like this one even?
"This is to all agents listening in. Status green"
Re: Numbers Broadcast
Posted: Sat Mar 28, 2020 1:43 am
by boing
The neat thing about a numbers broadcast is that 99.9% of its transmissions can be total garbage with the "one in a thousand" being useful. This means that a rival decryption facility has to decode the whole thousand transmissions to find the one that may be interesting and then they must break the second level of code to read the contents. The actual intended receiving party can use a "one time pad" as simple as a yesterday's local newspaper for decoding.
The system is cheap to operate requiring basically one operator and a transmitter and it creates its own obfuscation while an unintended receiving party needs to make a considerable effort to decode the signals.
.
Re: Numbers Broadcast
Posted: Sat Mar 28, 2020 6:37 am
by AtomKraft
Here's 'The buzzer' with a proper look at the station.
I wonder how many intelligence agencies play the numbers game midst the white noise on the internet in JPEG images and the like on innocuous sites, like this one even?
The neat thing about a numbers broadcast is that 99.9% of its transmissions can be total garbage with the "one in a thousand" being useful. This means that a rival decryption facility has to decode the whole thousand transmissions to find the one that may be interesting and then they must break the second level of code to read the contents. The actual intended receiving party can use a "one time pad" as simple as a yesterday's local newspaper for decoding.
The system is cheap to operate requiring basically one operator and a transmitter and it creates its own obfuscation while an unintended receiving party needs to make a considerable effort to decode the signals.
.
Really good synopsis of the pro's of the system and, as you say, the message can be further encoded using 128 or, better, AES 256 bit encryption (for example) to slow the would be eavesdropper down some more.
Use phase shifting, frequency hopping etc. and the would-be decoders task has just got a lot more difficult...
Signals that look like natural static or noise are great places to hide in plain sight... faux entropy being the best disguise....
Re: Numbers Broadcast
Posted: Sat Mar 28, 2020 10:37 am
by TheGreenGoblin
As a kid I found radio fascinating and used to tinker around with old valve radios and build antennae to pick up signals in both the short and long range frequencies ranges, my ambition in the latter frequency range being thwarted by my father who objected to me stringing the antenna cable through his grape vines in the back garden.
However some of the most interesting signals coming in from the Russian radars and often a whole block of the shortwave band would be be obliterated by the Russian Woodpecker, irritating the local radio hams who were unable to transmit or receive with fellow amateurs around the world. The Russians were completely insouciant about this disruption in their defiance of international regulations and norms and persisted in their provocations, blocking multiple frequency ranges in their pursuit of long range over the horizon radars and communications systems as well, right up to the late 80's...
Re: Numbers Broadcast
Posted: Sat Mar 28, 2020 11:03 am
by TheGreenGoblin
For sheer majesty and awe in strange and exotic radio frequencies nothing can beat mother nature and the cosmos itself...
Maybe an advanced alien civilisation will attenuate a pulsar's signal to transmit the meaning of life , the universe and everything.
I must admit I can listen to the sounds of these signals stepped into audio frequency ranges for hours. Perhaps I need help...
Re: Numbers Broadcast
Posted: Sat Mar 28, 2020 11:42 am
by Boac
Here's hoping they are intelligent enough not to attenuate it............
