It seems to me that the cult existed long before NPR ever reported it.
They certainly were not the ones who released a CD of number stations,
nor were they the folks on both sides of the Atlantic who bought the
the things. As noted here by others, people have spent many hours
logging the stations and writing about them.
As a boy, I remember reading Tom Kneitel's articles about them in
Electronics Illustrated. Conspiracy theories about the things have
been around for years.
So yeah, I would say that there was a cult of people who were into
numbers stations. It was interesting to learn that there are people
out there still discovering them.
Hats off to NPR for doing good radio!
Who knows? Perhaps some people out there found that report on number
stations interesting enough to buy a shortwave radio. A few may even
find their way into our hobby.
In any case, it is certainly a lot more interesting than the usual
radio fare. It sure beats the likes of morning drive blatherers like
Howard Stern and Don Imus, the right wing echo chamber of Limbaugh and
Hanity, the semi-automatic no-personality bad music juke boxes that
populate the FM band, and 99% of the other garbage on commercial radio
these days.
Alan Cohen
WA2DZL
On Nov 13, 2004, at 7:20 AM, Mark Foltarz wrote:
Funny how NPR and the liberal media freaks mentioned in the story
can take
something like a UTE such as a number station and turn it in to a
cult! I
remember when I actually liked listening to NPR. Even 'A Prarie Home
Companion'
has gone sour like a bad compost heap. Bummer.
Number stations were certainly used for clandestine applications.
But also
there are more innocuous uses. For example, maritime operators and
other
private industry used number groups to send company (i.e. private)
information.
Only intended recipients could decode the groups into anthing
meaningful.
One might contend "Why use such primitive means in this day of
computers?"
Have you ever worked in an office or other bureaucracy where you see
how
something could be done simpler or better? But no one in the office
wants to
change, or it takes a long time for something to change. This is the
same kind
of latency or inertia. Business usually has to repond a little quicker
than
goverments.
Ultimately, sending number groups is real simple. The music you
hear at the
begining of some of the number groups is purposely poppy, sugar sweet
or just
plain annoying to make it easily recognizeable to the intended
audience.
Number ststions seemed to be more abundant before the end of the
USSR. So
was woodpecker jamming and 'over the horizon' radar jamming of SWBC.
I almost
miss the buzz saw sound blanketing parts of the spectrum. It was a real
challenge to hear a station under such a barrage. Around 1989 it all
sort of
just stopped.
de KA4JVY
Mark
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