Numbers Stations

Astonishing Legends

Scott Philbrook

History, Society & Culture

4.6 • 9.8K Ratings

🗓️ 28 August 2022

⏱️ 171 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Since antiquity, espionage and deceit have always been crucial weapons of warfare. As technology and strategy have advanced over the centuries, methods for governments to deliver information and orders to their secret agents in the field have become more sophisticated. Yet, one form of cryptic communication implemented in the early 20th century has proven ever effective and relatively simple. With the advent of wireless telegraphy combined with a cipher technique called a "One-time Pad," militaries have been sending coded messages to their undercover operatives abroad since World War I. It wasn't until shortwave and HAM radio enthusiasts started noticing eerie and enigmatic broadcasts of spoken series of numbers or strange electronic sounds that these coded communiqués aroused widespread curiosity during the height of the Cold War. Although the use of public airwaves for clandestine messaging seems to have declined in recent years, listeners can still hear these top-secret instructions delivered to unknown spies, perhaps even your neighbor. One can only wonder how these spooky transmissions saved or cost lives or what world-changing actions they triggered. Join us as we delve into the mysterious world of spycraft and Numbers Stations.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Listen to the astonishing junk drawer exclusively at patreon.com slash astonishing legends times and dates are Scott's kryptonite
0:08.6	He was really fascinated with how sideways that got by the way
0:11.5	I'm going to publicly shame you scores of persons in the streets dropped unconscious and several of them died the
0:17.4	Betz fear. Oh the Betz fear. Yes, of course. Do you need to change your perspective?
0:20.9	I don't think you're supposed to remember past lives also check for notes or an autograph sometimes there's one and they know yeah
0:27.5	And when her grandmother died she and her sister fought viciously over this ring and nobody other than you folks will ever see it again
0:35.6	They're cosmic jokers after me
0:37.6	Estonishing legends would like to thank one dream mint mobile are contributors at patreon.com and you are listeners from a
0:47.7	Lincoln tonight show possible Scott and I grew up with radio in fact we're old enough to have some memories of even listening to AM radio
1:17.7	Some of you probably don't even know what that is but guess what it's still out there KNX 1070 in Los Angeles 1010 wins in New York City
1:28.2	Scott tells me he used to fall asleep listening to 1010 wins back in the day
1:32.9	But now more recent generations are probably spending more of their time on Spotify and other online streaming methods to consume audio content
1:42.3	But for 90 years FM radio was king of the hill in the United States
1:47.3	While across the world and internationally folks also listen to something known as shortwave radio
1:53.4	You'll learn all about that tonight but for now let's just say that hundreds of millions of people own shortwave receivers at the height of their popularity
2:02.3	Some of those people would sometimes hear bizarre sounds coming across the airwaves
2:07.1	Sounds like the ones you just heard moments ago
2:10.9	No one knew what they were or where they were coming from no organization company or government would even acknowledge their existence
2:20.9	But they were out there out there for anyone who wants to listen
2:26.7	Most of the time they broadcast strange human but almost robotic sounding voices spewing sequences of numbers
2:34.2	This would be at your spurs with strange tones or odd low fidelity music that sounded like the ice cream truck from twisted metal
2:42.5	Some of you will get that reference
	...

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