Numbers stations are pirate shortwave radio stations that broadcast messages at preset times; sometimes at preset times other times at random times. The station may be silent for several hours or even days and suddenly jump to life blasting out anything from Morse code, short songs, nursery rhymes, even what sounds like gibberish. Some Numbers stations can be downright creepy. But the odd fact is that most of these can have significant meaning to the right listener who has the key to decrypting the information being transmitted. If you ask the FCC or government agencies about them they will normally deny that these broadcasts are taking place at all.
Shortwave number stations are a perfect method of anonymous, one way communication, characterized by unusual broadcasts, reading out lists of numbers. The voices are often created by speech synthesis and are transmitted in a wide variety of languages. The voices are usually female although sometimes men's or children's voices are used. Spies anywhere in the world can be communicated to by their masters via small, locally available and unmodified shortwave receivers.
In the 1960's Numbers stations appeared shortly after World War II and were imitating a format that had been used to send weather data during the war. It is widely assumed that these broadcasts transmit covert messages.
This has not been officially acknowledged by any government that may operate a numbers station and with only a few exceptions have QSL responses been received from numbers stations by shortwave listeners.
It has been reported that the United States used numbers stations to communicate encoded information to persons in other countries. There are also claims that the State Department operated stations such as KKN50 and KKN44 used to broadcast similar numbers messages or related traffic.
Encrypted messages, high tech technology, spies probably use them to communicate...but sometimes the most effective way to hide something is to hide it in plain sight. It's true...right now there are anonymous shortwave AM radio stations transmitting automated signals that governments won't even acknowledge that they exist much less explain. The majority of these started out transmitting cryptic numbers; thus they were dubbed "Numbers Stations".
That being said you can make your conclusions if you have access to a shortwave AM radio. Almost any will do. "But where do look for these broadcasts?" Several online sites lists these Numbers station frequencies. Spynumbers.com and numberstations.co.uk are 2 well used sites. Also be sure to check out The Conet Project.
The posted coords will lead you to an area reported to have a Numbers Station of a different sort where you will need to tune any broadcast FM radio to the frequency 101.7 and listen for your coordinates. The string you are listening for ends in 3 "roger beeps" indicating end of message. If you miss it wait and it will be repeated. I urge you to listen to the full cycle for the maximum experience. The parking coords were taken where the signal seemed to indicate being the strongest. You may have to wander around a bit to get best reception. Be patient as broadcasts sometimes include multiple data transmissions. Have pen and paper handy to records your findings. To cater to a wider range of geocachers we opted to keep the difficulty level fairly low ;therefore no actual decoding is necessary for the purpose of this geocache ; those "other" transmissions will be meant for other ears. If you see any government officials or spies please proceed with caution. The message should be secured as well as the contents.
About the actual cache hunt. You will be looking for a regular sized cache container. Heavy brush and/or thorns may be present. Please locate cache, sign your name to logbook and then place back exactly as you found, then go to geocaching.com to write online log
We hope you enjoy your Numbers Station experience.