Number Stations On Shortwave

What have 5.301, 5.630, 5.745, 10.180, 5.205, 4.270, 5.130, 5.371, 7.871, 12.167, 13.533, 17.410, 10.715 (not another one of his lists) 6.849, 6.688, 4.822, 14.750, 10.125, 13.920, 7.740, 14.622, 10.970, 9.130, 10.820, 6.853, 10.255, 15.682, 6.270, 4.665, 4.880, 6.959, 8.127, 11.545 and 11.072 have in common?

They are all Number Stations, so we get to keep the prize.

Fine, but what are they? After years of speculation as to what the endlessly repeated chains of numbers mean, it can now be revealed that the codes are for the benefit of "agents in the field", the decode coming from a "one-time" pad, no doubt to be got rid of in the time-honoured fashion with a little salad and a pert white wine. So it is according to Spycatcher, the book that rocked the world a few years back.

The return of the number stations may have a lot to do with conditions, but the routines suggest mere testing of old equipment, a lot of transmissions being in AM and riddled with modulation hum, a sure indicator of superannuated kit.

So, please, don't blame AOR if they sound rough or off-channel. We can only faithfully reproduce the audio they send. Classics include "The Lincolnshire Poacher" on 9,251 and 11,545. The old folk tune interrupted by groups of numbers, heard here in the early evenings.

Some other explanations include weather information expressed in five-figure groups. These transmissions are disappearing as NAVTEX on 518kHz becomes the standard. I first heard Number Stations around 4MHz on a 52 Set in the early Sixties. They came with a stage German accent, all I needed to get the impression I was Onto Something Big.

Whatever they are for, the spy theory is my favourite and by far the most evocative.