/cyber/ - Cyberpunk & Science Fiction

Also, the conspiracy of "webdriver torso" and these mysterious 11,000+ videos uploaded every minute for the last 5 years

>>35298

Thanks for a decent thread, user.

I have generic rtl-sdr and with new drivers now I can receive 10MHz-30MHz. One week ago I've received and even recorder a short transmission of number station. I can upload the recording if you are interested. Signal was pretty strong, although weather was surprisingly clear for October. It could be from around 150km to 3000km, no clue where it came from.

Supposedly, number stations are used by undercover agents - they transmit short codes encrypted with one time pads (code are in phonetic alphabet and read aloud with most common speech synthesizer). It is also believed that most of the traffic is just a cover for really important transmissions.

Through my life, nothing has creeped me out to the point where I had to sleep with the lights on… until I heard this fucking thing and imagined that thing in the picture outside my window speing numbers at me while staring at me with those horrible souless eyes

>>35300

> I can upload the recording if you are interested.

Please, always worth catalouging with timestamp. There's a fairly large community for this sort of thing (on the the internet) if you didn't know already.

I also found one once, -before- I knew what numbers station were, by complete accident

> volunteering at charity shop

> one of my jobs was to test donated electrical items

> receive old dusty radio, very robust for what it was though

> FM AM Shortwave etc

> Start hearing numbers station

> 2spooky4me like >>35301

Of course I have no recording of it but I was fascinated by it.

>Supposedly, number stations are used by undercover agents

We know at least the czech ministry of defence used it:

http://priyom.org/blog/czech-intel-confirms-it-used-to-run-a-numbers-station

The fact that these channels are still running today is interesting. Of course people can ham out their own broadcasts, but one in the range your describing would mean a sway set-up. One-time pads are essentially unbreakable- a low-tech clandestine way to communicate while we-all-digital-now?

>>35299

I found that way more soothing than it should have been.

>>35303

>Please, always worth catalouging with timestamp.

Here you go: http://b.1339.cf/aqoxbna.flac

Recorded at 3-rd of October 2015, 0725 UTC; 18142kHz, modulation - USB. Please note that recording is noisy - I have crappy antenna and had no noise suppression plugins back then. There are two voices and it is the best except I have.

I'm fairly certain that it was a spy because of USB modulation, which requires much less power to transmit, and transmitter could fit into a suitcase. I imagine that person going out on top of abandoned high building, quickly setting up antenna and radio, plugging in laptop and hitting play on pre-recorded audio file made a day or two before.

>The fact that these channels are still running today is interesting.

You do understand that spies never magically disappeared after the end of Cold War, do you? Never break something that works.

>>35301

>nothing has creeped me out to the point where I had to sleep with the lights on… until I heard this fucking thing and imagined that thing in the picture outside my window speing numbers at me

>being afraid of qt3.14 porcelain doll

>/cyber/

>>35311

00:20-00:55

What accent is that? Also interesting because I think its a live reading as opposed to computer-generated. The enunciation varies between repeats.

Sugar

Five

Eight

Tango

then

Sierra

Five

Eight

Tango

Interesting. Despite being the same letter "S" is alternately "Sugar" and "Sierra", which is not the case for "T". Why?

1:38-1:54

Delta

Zulu

Five

Review (Radio?)

Delta

Queen

Did you change the frequency? Cos normally this stuff is one way w./ number pad, and the different voice makes it seem like a conversation. Also sounds like the typical voice But maybe two from the same source. Or. more oddly, the frequency is taken over by the responding party, which doesn't seem typical for a numbers station.

Tango

Sierra

Five

Eight

Tango

Then it's back to the starting ones. He repeats it for longer this time.

I think you're onto something user. This isn't typical number station practice. My interpretation: If it's a two way conversation, it sounds to me like the commands are being sent out to someone, who then responds in a somewhat hurried, voice-disguised fashion asking for clarification.

> Never break something that works

True enough. One time pads are unbreakable as long as the physical pad isn't compromised (which happened with the Czech spy in London). The fact that this is a conversation is unusual because, even if two pads are used each way, the intent and manner can be more easily guessed. I'm not in2cryptography but it might also comprise the cypher?

I've mostly just described it really but good stuff.

>2spook4me

>>35314

>What accent is that?

I'm not that good with discerning accents. My country is not english-speaking and not in NATO. But phonetic alphabet _is_ NATO, right? How exactly that accent sounds?

>Despite being the same letter "S" is alternately "Sugar" and "Sierra", which is not the case for "T". Why?

My guess is that he uses both of them to make sure its audible and articulated enough. One can't misinterpret word "sugar", its short and sharp, but sierra is more common.

>Delta Zulu Five Review (Radio?) Delta Queen

I think its [Delta Lima Five Radio Delta Queen]. Also thank you for "Queen", because I thought he was saying "Free" (that is, for "three" because no "th" in my language and it is often misspelled that way)

>Did you change the frequency?

Now that you mention it, I remember I've changed modulation. You see, with USB there is one floor frequency, but modulated sound is asymmetric and facing right (to higher freq.) Reply voice came in LSB, that is sound is asymmetric and facing left (to lower freq.). I've switched modulation but base frequency stayed the same. In this manner, they won't interfere with each other. I became sloppy and forgot to switch, that's the whistling heard at 1:40-2:30

>If it's a two way conversation, it sounds to me like the commands are being sent out to someone, who then responds in a somewhat hurried, voice-disguised fashion asking for clarification.

And I could have missed half of conversation as I was monitoring other frequencies.

>The fact that this is a conversation is unusual because, even if two pads are used each way, the intent and manner can be more easily guessed. I'm not in2cryptography but it might also comprise the cypher?

It won't compromise anything as long as they use different "gamma" for reply. Typically, they have a book with lots of gamma material - just remember to destroy used one. They also have second book with code description (suppose that S58T decrypts to AX8U, he looks it up and it means "kill the target").

Pretty damn good material for a cyberpunk book if you ask me. This dude (me :3 ) gets this messages, buys more sdr dongles, setup a triangulation and find that source of the signal originates from desolated place in a megapolis 200km away. He goes there, finds antenna and wait. What happens next is worth a good novel.

>I think you're onto something user.

You think so? Wait, there is a black helicopter above my house, I'll go take a look relax, just kidding

>>35314

I heard 'radio' not review. Sounds like a Russian accent.

>>35298

OP, this may interest you.

http://priyom.org/

and this

uvb-76.net

Numbers stations are like, so cold war era. They are still around but we have a fair few else too

I have a shortwave radio from kaito in my uni dorm. What can one do to increase its recrption?

>>35373

Find a proper shortwave antenna. Or move radio higher to the roof.

>>35378

I could buy an antenna but there is no port to connect external antennas on.

I built my own shortwave when I was a kid, it was a kit but I learned some parts were modifiable. So, I could dial down into the CB band.

One of the neighborhood kids was into computers and BBSs too. First we ran a phone wire between our houses. We then could take phones off the hook in the houses and wait for the "hang up and dial again to go silent" then

+++

ATD

(Attention: Dial [but omit tone|pulse, and number])

on one end, then

+++

ATA

(Attention: Answer [manually initiate handshake])

on the other. This tied up the lines but didn't count as a call.

Then we figured out we could just supply voltage with a battery on the link between houses and not tie up the phone lines.

Eventually we managed to wire phone handset connections to our walkie talkies, then we were able to hook our modems together wirelessly long before consumer wireless modems were available (military had them).

His dad was in the Air Force, and put an end to our wifi fun so we didn't violate FCC regs. Still today you can't use family band for persistent store and forward packet radio. They don't want just anyone building a wireless replacement for the Internet (harder to spy on every link). They'd much rather you have to send your data through an ISP chokepoint / tap.

Nowadays… well, we have wifi routers and directional antenna now. That's really why the FCC wants to outlaw router mods. I hope they succeed in making firmware mods illegal because then we'll just hook SDRs directly to our PCs to do our custom wifi, like in the good old days.

LIRC is also pretty cool for "low tech" infrared coms links. You can build your own IO with a couple of resisters, a couple of LEDs (RX, TX) hooking the serial or parallel port right to a bread board. Bonus, you can control your AV gear with it too.

In other words: Short range coms are also desirable in addition to long range coms (esp. since you need a damn license to play in fun spectrum, or else it's heavily regulated to prevent you from doing anything cool).

Getting a HAM operator (tech) license is pretty easy, so you can transmit as well as receive, but it puts you on the radar so to speak. There are some pretty neat repeater networks, like D-STAR.

>>35299

That's busted long ago.