August “B-sides,” Vol. 3: Tracking the Lincolnshire Poacher
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A word of warning: you may not want to listen to this podcast alone, in the dark and late at night. This “B-side” edition of The World’s Technology Podcasts explores the strange and slightly spooky world of the number stations. This originally aired on the BBC a few years ago. During the Cold War, shortwave radio enthusiasts (iPod Kiddies…look left. I included a picture of a shortwave radio for you) noticed something a bit odd. On certain frequencies, at regular intervals, you could pick up a series of tunes, morse code, and automated voices (in various languages) reading off a series of numbers. Popular theory has held that these were coded messages for spies. But suffice to say there is enough of a gray area to make number stations a very good trope for science fiction and fantasy; television’s Lost and Fringe have both made interesting use of number stations. So, take a listen and decide for yourself. Oh, and why Lincolnshire Poacher? Well, it’s an old UK military march that featured on one of the stations…
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(Photo: Junglecat)
This entry was posted on Friday, August 19th, 2011 at 3:17 AM and is filed under Technology Podcast. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
