North Korean Shortwave Numbers Station Active Again

North Korea broadcasted indecipherable five-digit number segments during a radio segment on Friday, a Cold War-era espionage method intended to relay information to agents in the field, says a North Korea intelligence source, according Korean Joongang Daily.

The source exclusively told the JoongAng Ilbo that the North's propaganda radio station Pyongyang Radio Station aired a 12-minute segment in which a female announcer read five-digit numbers for 12 minutes, the first such broadcast in 16 years.

Full story at :

http://www.trunews.com/article/north-korean-shortwave-numbers-station-active-again

The World’s Strangest Radio Broadcasts

We have only the vaguest idea where the broadcasts are coming from, and even less idea where they're going. The sounds are strange—the synthesized voices of women and children mixed with snatches of music, Morse code, or high-pitched buzzing. Sometimes the transmissions appear on a fixed schedule, other times in short random bursts. The only thing they have in common is the eerie recitation of numbers, beamed through shortwave radio signals bouncing across the globe.

 

Read the interesting story at :   http://mentalfloss.com/us/go/65869

Explore the century-old mystery of numbers stations

Some time after World War II (if not earlier), shortwave radiobroadcasts started appearing with no obvious purpose. A synthesized voice, usually female-sounding, would read out a list of numbers or seemingly random words, sometimes accompanied by morse code with a nonsensical translation. It is widely assumed that the stations are used in spycraft, but no country or intelligence agency has ever admitted to being the source, and their true function remains unknown.

Read more at :

http://www.avclub.com/article/explore-century-old-mystery-numbers-stations-207413

The spooky world of the 'numbers stations'

By Olivia Sorrel-Dejerine

BBC News Magazine

This is the era of hyper-tech espionage, encrypted emails and mindboggling cryptography. But you can hear a very old-fashioned form of espionage on shortwave radio.

More at :

http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-24910397

Beethoven and numbers on Korean shortwave

Dec 9 (Reuters) - As a scratchy rendition of Beethoven's Piano Sonata No 8 fades into a sea of shortwave radio static, a robotic female voice starts speaking in Korean. "Number 1913, number 1913, incoming message," the voice says, before reading out seemingly random sets of numbers.

Read the intersting Reuters story at  :

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/12/08/korea-north-spies-idUSL4N0JK0GM20131208

Peculiar Russian shortwave numbers station is an unlikely internet star

Anyone who has spent some quality time scanning the shortwave radio bands has likely come upon what are known as numbers stations.

More at :
http://www.radiosurvivor.com/2011/10/12/peculiar-russian-shortwave-numbers-station-is-an-unlikely-internet-star/

Numbers Stations: Mystery Over The Airwaves

Read the NPR story here :
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=128586766