>> Man, I miss the Cold War!
>> What, no!
[incredulous] Said nobody, ever!
>> No, there was something,
you felt alive when you were worried about--
>> No, you felt scared and alone,
because the world was going to end at any moment!
>> ROBOT VOICE: The modern rogue intercepts a signal.
>> I can't remember the first time I heard of a number station, but I was fascinated by
the idea the moment I heard it.
>> Oh yeah.
I actually found one, I was about 11 years old.
I said, "Let's go to the place where none of the songs are,
"but all of the weird noises live."
>> Oh of course, because you had those giant 1980s jamboxes,
>> JASON: It's huge!
>> -with shortwave radio on there!
>> Yes! I thought, "Is this the launch codes‽"
Because, I was watching War Games, Cloak and Dagger, you know.
>> So if I understand correctly, shortwave number stations
are one-way communications to field operatives
out there doing espionage stuff all over the world.
The idea is, you send a message that the whole world can hear,
but there's only one person
that it's impactful for.
>> That's the prevalent theory.
Now, no government has ever even acknowledged
that they are in any way affiliated with any number stations.
They started to appear after World War II, and they were all over the place.
There are still many of them that are active.
You can find some of them from Cuba, Korea, what used to be the Eastern Block in Europe.
>> Wow.
>> All over the world, they're still active.
How they work, according to an alleged ex-CIA operative:
an operative out in the field will have a one-time pad, or an OTP.
>> All right, so a one time pad is a set of pages with random numbers on there
that there's only one copy of-- or I guess two copies of,
the sender and the receiver have one.
>> Exactly!
>> And they know that this is page-- we're on page 53, we're going to do it
and I'm going to encode it with this pad, you have that pad, nobody else in the world knows.
Now we're going to tear up those pads and they're gone.
>> Right, because shortwave radio, anyone can pick it up.
>> Sure. >> Even the bad guys,
but they won't know what they're listening to.
>> Well dude, I want to hear some of this!
Where can we find out where the numbers stations are?
>> We have a shortwave radio!
>> Okay, all right.
I assume that somewhere on the website, on the website, "The Internet." >> Yes!
One of the more prevalent ones is HF Underground spy numbers forum.
>> BRIAN: Look at this, look at all this activity just in the last few days.
>> They're a little difficult to decipher when you're first looking at it,
but a lot of these number stations have designations like,
"E11a."
>> BRIAN: Or "S11a."
>> JASON: And then you have, like, your date.
Now UTC is--
>> Universal Time Code, right?
>> Exactly.
>> So these are people logging the times of the messages, and recording the messages,
and sharing them for the purpose of trying to decode them?
Or maybe this is just a hobbyist, like a cool curiosity?
>> It's a little bit of both.
Everyone always hopes that they're going to be able to decode it or something like that,
but I think rational people understand the futility of that exercise.
>> Sure. Let's find something to find on the shortwave radio.
>> Okay.
>> So here's a log that says, "Unknown CW number station."
[radio turns on]
♪ [a lively tune starts playing diagetically]
[in unison] Oh, that's FM.
[laughter]
>> I got excited for a second! >> We got one!
You know, now that the Cold War's over, they're just having a good time with this.
>> They're still celebrating 30 years later.
>> Yeah, exactly. The wall came down!
So one of the things about the number stations, is that they are always broadcast at regular intervals.
Like, there's one out of Cuba that broadcasts on four different frequencies.
It'll do one, and then five minutes later it'll do the next one.
>> The exact same message?
>> Yeah, and then it won't do it again for another two hours, or another four hours.
And it only does it on Tuesdays and Thursdays, or only on
Wednesday mornings at 06:00 AM UTC.
That kind of thing. >> Got it.
>> So they're very regular schedules, because the spy
has to know exactly when it's coming on.
>> Well, and if he or she misses the one opportunity, he has to know where he can go to get it in
the next, you know, four or five opportunities.
>> Exactly.
It's a little difficult to find one, plus there are atmospheric conditions, because
the way shortwave radio works, it broadcasts from between
1.6 megahertz and 30 megahertz. >> Yeah.
>> Right above the medium wave AM band.
You can actually bounce these off of the ionosphere through something called skip propagation.
If you aim it at the sky when it transmits,
and it can go, depending on atmospheric conditions,
to the other side of the world.
>> Wow.
>> So someone in say, Spain might be able to pick up something
that's broadcast out of Japan,
but we may or may not be able to hear it.
>> So that's the problem, is all of this is super iffy.
And this is what, like a $20-$30 shortwave radio?
>> Yeah, any shortwave radio will do, you can even build these yourself.
>> Well let's see if we can tune something in on the shortwave.
>> Okay.
We'll start over on the first band,
way down at the end of it at 5.7.
[cycling between frequencies of static]
>> This is like the worst white-noise app ever.
>> Yeah.
So I gotta be honest, it's going to be very difficult to catch something on this.
We don't know exactly the frequency, we don't know what time, it's a poor antenna,
imprecise controls,
this could be an exercise in futility.
>> I can't help you with the time,
but I can help you with the precision, the controls, and the antenna.
There is an online, totally free, super-precise, high quality shortwave radio available to everyone.
>> Okay, let's see it.
[vaguely spy montage noises]
>> BRIAN: This is a shortwave radio anybody can use through their web browser,
sponsored by the University of Twente in the Netherlands, and it is freaking amazing.
Check this out.
This waterfall shows you the entire spectrum of what's being transmitted all over the world right now.
So here, let me uh...
[a low static grows louder]
So right now we're dialed into kind of nothing, but you can see there's lots of activity down here.
So here, I'll just click down here.
[tone changes]
And it's tuning in, and then check this out.
You can zoom in,
and it gives you--can you see all those different bands right there?
>> JASON: Oh wow.
>> BRIAN: Those are individual transmissions from, we'll call them legitimate sources, right?
>> And it's so easy to use, because you can even put in the frequency.
>> Sure!
So this is "Radio1 (Umbria)" in Madrid.
[heavily distorted vocals play discordant]
>> This is a transmitter that was lowered into the deepest well in Siberia where they can
listen to the sounds of-- >>> BOTH: hell.
[man speaking in another language]
>> BRIAN: So some of these you have like, talk sport and so on, but
you can actually intercept
data transmissions over shortwave radio.
So right now, all of these fine lines indicate these are discrete stations transmitting non-stop.
These are like CNNs of radio, basically, right?
But check this out.
If we go to the less populated parts of the spectrum, the stuff where
stuff is a little more sporadic.
Like, let's just jump all the way up,
to some of this area.
So here we go, in this case we had something that was transmitting but then it stopped,
and now it's starting again.
So when we tune in over here,
we don't know what that is.
Something is transmitting, and then stopping.
So listen to this, and I bet you recognize it.
[a fast-pulse tone rings]
>> Is that a slow scan television transmission? >> Yeah!
This is data being transmitted over shortwave radio right now.
[chirp]
It's astonishing, just poking around in this thing has been a blast.
It's like a black hole, I could spend all day just--
>> This really helps you visualize all of the secret world that is all around us, all the time.
>> Well, and so much of the spectrum is being used at all times.
That's the part that blows me away.
[what sounds like a compressed recording of a wind tunnel]
[distorted vocals]
So haunting!
>> Is this when we start getting into the EVP frequencies where you can hear ghosts?
>> BRIAN: This tool alone is its own amazing wonderland.
I would love for people to post in the comments, anything of interest that we should check
out on the shortwave band.
>> Yes! There's probably so many cryptic, weird, and fascinating bits of information.
[cascading tones chime] >> BRIAN: So, as you tune in to stuff
you hear the tones change based on your frequency?
[Jason vocalizes affirmation]
It sounds as though they're broadcasting those as beacons to let you know you're getting
real, real close to the actual transmission.
>> JASON: Ah!
So we're very much dilettantes.
There are people who dedicate their entire lives to understanding
every little nuance to all this.
>> Dude, I'm going to dedicate the rest of my day to understanding what a dilettante is.
Oh!
[muffled low frequency hum] That's the other thing, you can set how specific you want the tuning to be.
Whether it's kind of wide-band...
>> So if you narrow in on it, it's going to get more clearer and distinct?
>> BRIAN: As long as it's a precise signal that you're receiving, yeah.
[signal chirping]
[Brian whispering] So weird.
[a deep, bass-y oceanic noise]
[kind of like a deep space fax machine]
>> BRIAN: Oh my god, it's like you're tuning in an alien transmission.
[a light mechanical hum that drops into a bass heavy submergence, transitioning into higher pitched chirping]
>> JASON: I feel like my nose is about to start bleeding.
>> Across shortwave, you've got legitimate broadcast stations doing content of all varieties,
whether it's talk or music, or propaganda.
You've got these slow scan television, little data pulses going out,
and if you're very, very lucky,
the right place at the right time, you can run across a number station.
What do they actually sound like?
>> If you go back to the HF Underground spy numbers forums, >> Sure.
>> -you can find where they've archived them,
because a lot of people will regularly listen to stations because they have the schedule,
they know what frequency and when they're going to broadcast, and they'll wait and listen,
and then they'll record what they hear, document it, and post it up on soundcloud or youtube.
>> BRIAN: In fact, the most recent post here has an archive.
>> JASON: This is an archive of S11a.
>> WOMAN: [in Russian with Polish accent] Тройка, нуль, нуль, пятерка, [English: three, zero, zero, five]
тройка, черта, нуль, нуль. [English: three, line, zero zero]
>> And sometimes it's not even numbers, sometimes it's nursery rhymes or
weird phrases, like in the movie Red Dawn
when they're out in the woods and you hear them say--
>> "The chair is against the wall."
>> Exactly!
>> "The chair is against the wall."
>> Now let's find out what S11a is.
>> BRIAN: Oh look at this, at priyom.org, S11a is called "Cherta."
It's got several frequencies, it's active.
It's a female automated with Polish accent voice.
This is amazing.
>> If you are prone to getting obsessed with unraveling mysteries--
>> Hold on, here's another audio sampling.
[more clearly than last time] >> WOMAN: [in Russian with Polish accent] Внимание, восемь, тройка, четвёрка, семь, двойка [English: Attention, 8, 3, 4, 7, 2]
>> That's so weird!
>> Are we going to do any more Modern Rogues?
Or are you just going to be obsessed with this forever?
>> No, I'm just going to dive in!
I want to live in the shortwave wonderland, this is incredible stuff!
This is the haunting reality of being connected in a visceral way to the rest of the world.
We understand, theoretically, on the Internet that, yeah I guess we're all talking to each other,
but this makes me feel it.
When you can just tune in and listen to everyone.
>> This makes me feel that there are dangerous secrets happening all around us at all times.
>> Uh, yes!
Yes!
Awesome secrets, like this.
[a guttural tone fluctuates]
>> Didn't we hear this when we used the Ouija board?
>> Yes. [tone continues]
I could do this all day.
>> Yeah. >> I could do this all day!
Get out!
Get out of my basement!
I'm moving into shortwave land!
I'm going to get a ham radio license, call me KDK512 from now on!
>> JASON: All right, KDK512, I'm going to go shoot the rest of the episodes for today.
>> Bye!
-- CC BY BIZARRE MAGIC -- [branding furnace hissing]