Govornment Radio Encryption

A while back, I had been talking with my father about different forms of encryption. on thing that came up was the use of radio. apparently, some governments use a monotoned womans voice over a certaint radio frequency to read off numbers and letters, possibly cooresponding to a "one-time pad." I was wondering if anyone knew more about this subject, or at least the specific name of that type of encryption, so i can google it.

they are known as ` numbers stations ` google will provide further info

You'll hear Spanish number stations on different frequencies on the shortwave band. "Numbers stations" or "Spanish number stations" will give you all the results you want.

You can hear alpha-numeric broadcasts on 8192 usb and 11175 usb from our military. They will call out "all stations all stations, break" then start an encoded message. There are several other message types on these frequencies also. These are "Mainsail" and "Skyking" messages. Search for "HF-GCS" on Google.

There are also number and letter stations on shortwave that use Morse code. These stations operate outside the ham bands and if you don't know these frequencies, it is a little confusing.

Short answer, yes, the short wave radio frequencies are full of various encrypted signals. We didn't even touch the digital signals that are encrypted.

hi there,i live in the uk.can any one help me(info,ect....) on how to listen/find a numbers stations??? i.e. what frequencies an that.
i have a hand held scanner it is a

BEARCAT - UBC3500XLT CLOSE CALL SCANNER.

thanks

Unfortunately your scanner does not go high enough in frequency. You need a radio that receives in the short wave bands. 2 MHz to 30 MHz is considered high frequency. Your radio starts at 25 MHz which is at the upper end of the HF band.

These stations usually are on 4MHz to 15 MHz with occasions a little higher and a little lower.

is there a scanner that can pick them up?

i seen a video on youtube which a person is using a Yupiteru MVT-7100 Multi band Radio Scanner,would this scanner be ok?

thanks for all you'r help

This is a list of number stations that are on the air at any given time:

www.spynumbers.com...

It's also a generally good site.

You can also download the full set of the Conet Project. Just Google it, it's a free download. This is the website if you don't know what the Conet Project is:

www.irdial.com...

The Conet Project is very interesting, it has a huge array of number station recordings. It's been sampled in movies like Vanilla Sky and White Noise: The Light.

As for the type of radio you need, any shortwave capable radio will do. Preferably with SSB tuning (Single Side Band). Things like police radio scanners usually don't cover shortwave, you need to look for a radio like this one:

www.radiointel.com...

There's hundreds of different shortwave models, just steer clear of anything really really cheap that is a direct import from China.

You'll need a pretty long antenna, about 20ft of randomly strung hook-up wire will do the trick.

Here in Australia I can pick up Cuban number stations, which are in obviously in Spanish, but also stations ran by Mossad and MI5, all usually only of a night time. The sun is at solar minimum, so the shortwave bands have been pretty crappy lately.

You won't be able to make any sense of the messages, but the fun is in the hunt.

so the Yupiteru MVT-7100 Multi band Radio Scanner would be ok then to use(as the youtube guy is picking up number stations with it?)?

Yep, any of those big world/multi band receivers would certainly do the trick if you can find one cheaply. Some of them run upward of $3000 and beyond...

cool coz i was thinking of getting this(this will deffo do the trick as i dont want to spend all that money and find out it didnt pick them up,lol)

cgi.ebay.co.uk...:MEWA:IT&ih=018

[edit on 20-5-2008 by rikgrimsby]

That one would probably do the trick nicely. Personally I'd prefer something with a tuning knob to skip through the frequencies faster. That little Sangean I linked to in my first reply is what I use for shortwave, you'd probably find something like that a bit easier to use.

But if you know what you're searching for on the band, I'd say that one you've found would be fine.

Good luck with it all

cool.so what band would i need to be in then?

thanks for all your help

this one looks good tho www.amazon.co.uk...=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1211277754&sr=8-3

Hi,

I've been thinking of getting a pc based radio, would the models shown on this site www.winradio.com... pick up these frequencies? Would a discone antenna be able to pick them up as well?

One more quick question, has anyone had any luck with digital scanners recieving police transmissions using apco p25 systems?

Originally posted by primamateria
Hi,

I've been thinking of getting a pc based radio, would the models shown on this site www.winradio.com... pick up these frequencies? Would a discone antenna be able to pick them up as well?

It depends on the software you install. Discone antenna is designed for HF , so yes it will work fine.

One more quick question, has anyone had any luck with digital scanners recieving police transmissions using apco p25 systems?

Yes, here is link to a place for that discussion.

www.radioreference.com...

has any 1 on here had any luck using a

Yupiteru MVT-7100 listening to nuber stations?

thanks, everyone, for the info

rite i need help which one should i get to listen to these numbers stations ie which would be better this:
www.amazon.co.uk...=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1211309658&sr=8-3

or this :

cgi.ebay.co.uk...:MEWA:IT&ih=005

i need HELP