This site is dedicated to the preservation and study of Cold War-era numbers station recordings. Numbers stations were (and some still are) shortwave radio broadcasts of spoken numbers, letters, or Morse code, used by intelligence agencies to transmit one-time pad messages to field agents. They are one of the strangest and most enduring artefacts of the Cold War.
I've been collecting recordings since 1997, when I first heard something unexplainable on 7812 kHz at 2200 UTC. This site is my attempt to catalogue everything I've found, and everything sent in by the community. All recordings are provided for historical research and educational purposes.
New here? Start with the Station Guide for background, then browse the Full Archive. If you have recordings to contribute, see the About page.
| Station ID: | UVB-76 (variant — pre-standard format) |
| Date: | 14 October 1961 |
| Time: | 21:47–21:49 UTC (approx.) |
| Frequency: | 1420.405 MHz |
| Duration: | 47 seconds active signal + 14 seconds noise tail |
| Source: | Anonymous donation, received 2019 |
| Format: | WAV, 44.1kHz mono (converted from original magnetic tape) |
| Date | Station | Frequency | Duration | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14.10.1961 | UVB-76 variant | 1420.405 MHz | 0:47 | ⚠ Anomalous |
| 06.08.1977 | The Lincolnshire Poacher | 11.545 MHz | 18:40 | MI6 / GCHQ format |
| 12.03.1969 | M8a (Soviet lady) | 9.040 MHz | 4:22 | Standard 5-fig groups |
| 29.11.1982 | Cherry Ripe | 14.920 MHz | 8:15 | Australian origin |
| 03.07.1973 | E5 (Czech lady) | 6.995 MHz | 11:04 | OTP format confirmed |