God this is like candy for me.
Numbers stations, historically have been used to commune with spies in foreign countries, most notably in the cold war, because it is impossible to crack without the key on the other end. If you want to know how to decode it, I’ll put the method in a spoiler break so I don’t eat up the thread with one of my signature Giant™ posts.
[details=Numbers Stations]In order for this to work, the country with the spy sends him with a one time use key.
He can have multiple of them, but they usually consist of strings of large numbers.
When the spy is in the country, he gets a shortwave radio and listens in on a specific frequency for these stations, copies down the numbers/songs/beeps or whatever he hears, and subtracts the broadcast numbers from the key he has to produce a number. He then correlates those numbers to letters of the alphabet (also known as a Cesar Cypher) to acquire his special secret message!
Anyone could listen in on these radio stations, because they were just broadcast on shortwave, so you can hear it from almost anywhere in the world. They’re particularly eerie because you have no idea what info is being transmitted. They are still in use today, because it’s impossible to crack.
Interesting bit of trivia, there was a group of people that recorded these numbers stations (or the more famous ones, anyway) and sold them on CDs, known as The Conet Project. Later, when they were sued for copyright infringement (They didn’t make the content, they just gathered and sold it), they said “If the original creators step up and say something, I’ll credit them.” so they sent letters to the governments of Russia, the US, Sweden, and a handful of others, with no response from anyone.[/details]
Honestly, the songs and numbers have always been traditional, as well as the beeps, but I am eager to see what the visual aspect will bring.
It seems to be a loop of the same thing, over and over again. I wonder who is listening? best to monitor this station and see when/if it changes.
I MIGHT ALSO ADD: This is likely a genuine numbers station. In order to find new ways to commune with spies, since broadband radio is easy to make but a bit antiquated and would be notable if someone were to be found with one, numbers stations have moved to social media and other platforms on the internet.
Take a look at Twitter accounts @googuns, @numberstations and @xzv-94. They all transmit a garble of letters and numbers every few minutes to every few hours. I think it’s likely that Twitch might be used in the same fashion as shown here.
