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- On the Serving Pancakes podcast, conversations about volleyball go beyond the court. - Today we have a little best friend compatibility today. - Okay, how long have we been best friends?
This is a daily mat. - As the lead one volleyball season heads towards its final stretch, there's no better time to tune in. You'll hear unfiltered analysis behind the scenes stories and conversations with leaders,
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to uncover a disturbing pattern. Two more men who'd been through the same thing. - Greg Olespiand, I command Cheney. - My mind was blown. - I'm Stephanie Young.
This is love trapped. - Laura, Scott State Police. - As the season continues,
Laura Owens finally faces consequences.
Listen to love trapped podcast on the Eye Heart radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. - Hey, happy Saturday, everybody, Chuck here. Hope you're enjoying your weekend. I hope you're enjoying your year, your month.
I hope you're enjoying the very hour in which you are coming across this. It is the select episode for the week.
“And I'm picking this one 'cause I honestly don't remember”
much about it, and I gotta listen to it. So maybe I'll learn it all over again. It's about number stations, and it's called, what is a number station? - Welcome to Stuff You Should Know.
- A production of Eye Heart Radio. (upbeat music) - Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark with Charles W. Chuck Bryant, and this is Oh Jerry, and this is Stuff You Should Know.
- Seven, four, two, five, eight. - Can you say it in German? - You speak German, don't even jog me. - It's five, three, boom. Oh, it's even.
- Now, can you do that in a little girl voice? (laughing) You're just telling me. - Come on, do it.
No, you always make me play St. Pauli Girl,
I'm tired of it. St. Pauli Girl, now this is apparently even younger than the St. Pauli Girl. It's like a little girl, and it was a live little girl. Who?
In the Swedish Rhapsody conversation. It was a young, a little girl reading out numbers and letters in German, which makes it even creepier. - Yeah, this is a very neat subject. So Kudos to you for tossing this one out there.
- Well, I've been waiting for a to publish. - Yeah, I'd seen it in the calendar coming up and coming up and coming up, I'm like, come on and publish. And I think it published on Friday. - This is Brandon Tuesday.
- Right out of the oven. - Yes. And we're talking about it just as they are completing their decline. So we are on top of this.
- Well, I think that, well, we'll get into it.
“I think that's what makes it even more interesting”
is that it's still happening. All right, numbers, stations. - Number stations. - Yeah, like you said. - Number.
- Both words are pluralized. - It's a little clumsy. And number stations are, we should just come out and say. - Yeah. - There's short wave, radio transmissions,
or transmitters, making really weird baffling is the best word for it. Transmissions. - Yeah. - And have been doing so.
Apparently, since at least World War One. - Oh, really?
- Yeah, supposedly the first mention of a number station
- Yeah. - came from a German magazine in World War One. And World War Two, they were in full swing, sure. But apparently, they somehow popped up first around World War One, which makes them
some of the earliest short wave transmissions in the world. 'Cause short wave radio didn't come around, at least into commercial use until about 1920. World War One was a few years before that, if you'll remember correctly.
- Yeah, that's why I didn't even think that that was possible, but like you said,
World War Two is when they were full swing.
- Yeah. - They really peaked in the Cold War. - Yeah. - And they've been dying out slowly ever since,
“but I think one of the neatest things is they are still,”
if you have a short wave radio, you can tune into a frequency and here, beep, one, two, seven, five, eight. - Yeah, it's usually like some sort of tone. - We should mention to Jerry of the future. - Yeah.
- You're supposed to leave that beep in. 'Cause it's part of the number station. - Yeah, we beep Jerry to signal when we want something edited,
but yeah, a number station, it's not always a beep,
but we'll just have some sort of, sometimes it's a bit of a song. - Yeah, like this Swedish rap city, or the Lincolnshire poacher, a British English UKish folk song. - Yeah. - And it's so secure to the number number, I see stuff like that.
- And the reason that the transmission starts off with a tone or a beep or a song is so you can, it alerts, like, here comes the transmission. - Right. - To your station, hone in, make sure you get some good reception.
- Yeah. - Because the secret code is about to be revealed. - And that's exactly what everyone is pretty much in consensus on that what comes after this and what is broadcast over these numbers stations are secret codes.
- Yeah. - Again, like for the Swedish rap city station, it is a little girl in speaking in German, reading numbers and letters, random seemingly random numbers and letters, and then the transmission is over.
And that happens like, or it used to happen, that's a defunct number station now. But it happened on a fairly regular schedule. There's other ones, the attention station is a woman saying attention on and then reading Spanish numbers.
And then repeating them over and over again and then going on to the next set. And everybody, no one can say for certain, but virtually everyone in the world from Cecil Adams at straight dope to the head
of the UK's trade and industry agency. - Say, these are secret transmissions for spies. The whole basis of them was for espionage. - Yeah, and the reason why everyone is speculating that that is absolutely the case,
which it almost certainly is, like we said, is because no government to this day has come forward and admitted this or own this. It is all still technically speculation because you cannot point to a factual statement.
The closest we've ever come is they finally got someone from the United Kingdom, a spokesperson. - That was the dude from the trade agency. - Oh really? - Yeah. The exact quote is, people should not be mystified
by them, they're not shall we say for public consumption.
“- Yeah. - And that's the only thing on record”
that any government has ever spoke about what these transmissions are. - Right, so the idea that they are government transitions are the reason we have to speculate
is because the governments never claimed them.
- Yeah. - On the flip side, the reason everyone thinks that they are government backed, clandestine transmissions is because these are pirate radio frequencies,
pirate radio transmitters. - Yeah, my first thing was like just fine one of these and look it up and find out what the deal is. - Yeah, you would think so. - Yeah, they're totally unlicensed.
Nobody knows exactly where they are. - They're illegal, technically. - Yes, they're very illegal because they transmit over air traffic control frequencies. Well, that's a big one.
And no one investigates them. There's no investigation into these number of stations, whatsoever. So the fact that the government won't say anything about them and the fact that the government is an investigating
these very blatantly out in the open, weird baffling transmissions, suggests that everybody's right, that these are government backed transmissions used to communicate anonymously and in one direction, two spies embedded in foreign countries.
- Yeah, I was about to call it a conversation,
“but it's early nine, it's, I think on the BBC”
Dr. Maria saw they call it a monologue. You're just sending it a one-way message. - Exactly. - All right, right after this break, we're gonna talk a little bit about
shortwave radio technology. The secret key to sending these messages. (upbeat music) - Two percent, that is the number of people who take the stairs when there is also
an escalator available.
I'm Michael Ester, an on my podcast, 2 percent.
I break down the science of mental toughness, fitness,
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We'll be speaking with writers, researchers,
“and other health and fitness experts and more,”
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on the I-Hart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever. You get your podcasts. - On the serving pancakes podcast, conversations about volleyball go beyond the court. Today we have a little best frame compatibility test.
- Okay, how long have we been best friends for? - Since the day we met, as the lead one volleyball season heads towards its final stretch, there's no better time to tune in. - We really are like Yin and Yang, vodka and Tukula.
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- Jordan Thompson had that microphone out.
God forbid we'd make mistakes or cuss at our coast, like when talking more to each other. - Open your free, I-Hart Radio app, search serving pancakes and listen now. - This has been serving pancakes,
and we'll catch you on the flip side. - Okay, presented by Capital One, founding partner of I-Hart Women's Sports. - In 2023, former Bachelor Star Clayton Eckard found himself at the center of a paternity scandal.
- The family court hearings that followed revealed glaring inconsistencies in her story. This began a years-long court battle to prove the truth. - You doctor this particular test twice in silence, correct? - I doctor the test once.
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- Ladies and gentlemen, breaking news at America, for County as Laura Owens has been indicted on fraud charges. - This isn't over until justice has served in Arizona. - Listen to LoveTrap podcast
on the I-Hart Radio App, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. (upbeat music)
“- All right, the key to this whole thing”
is sending a short way. Like you might think in this day and age, why not just send a tele-fax? (laughing) No, why not send an email or, you know,
there's surely, surely there are safer ways to send espionage, this information, highly classified instructions to go kill the leader of a country perhaps. - Right, like if you wanna activate Reggie Jackson
to kill Queen Elizabeth, kill Norberg. - Yeah. - Yeah, that's, how would you do it in this day and age? You'd think an email would do it. No, and you wanna know who proves definitively
that that is not safe or secure? - Who? - Jay Fallon. - Everyone, Edward Snowden. - Yeah.
- There are, if you use a computer, you leave a trace. - Yeah. - It's virtually impossible to erase anything on a computer. - Yeah, if you think you have, then you haven't. - Plus, if you are, say, emailing somebody,
you're transmitting what's supposed to be highly sensitive, even encrypted information over a network, that stuff can be captured. The goalless indoor is your employer spying on you episode. - Yeah.
- You can't do it, like you can communicate like that, but you're leaving digital traces everywhere. The beauty of the short wave radio transmission is that, again, it's anonymous and it's one directional, but if you get caught with a short wave radio,
at least say back in the '60s or the '70s or something. - Yeah. - It wasn't weird. It didn't prove that you were a spy. - Yeah, you don't just turn an end to my, to my stories.
- Exactly. Just listen to the BBC World Service. - Short wave energy, radio energy. It's all determined by the power of your transmitter. So if you've got a humongous transmitter,
you can send, and it didn't need to be that big, but you can send a message one way message to the other side of the world, and the reason
I can travel across the planet is because it's bouncing off
of, it literally is bouncing off the ionosphere of the earth,
or of, well, yeah, of the earth. - 50 to 375 miles up above our surface, it's in the upper atmosphere, and solar ionization creates an electrical charge, and that charge reflects that signal right back down to earth.
It's called Skywave or Skip. - Skywave. - Skywave? - Yeah, and that's why you can, with a seemingly pretty simple piece of equipment,
I can send a message to the South Pacific. - Yeah, from my bedroom. - Well, I don't know if I'd have one big enough, for my bedroom, it's pretty big. I wanted to see how big these things were, actually.
You know, like, if they say it really big ones
“to send them further and further, like how big do they get?”
- They get very huge, they can cover scores of acres. - Oh, okay.
- A big, shortwave antenna, which is why
I can get very expensive. - Got, so that's bigger than my bedroom. - You can also use one set or the size of your bedroom. It depends not only, like you said, on the size of the transmitter,
it depends on the atmosphere conditions too. So probably shortwave transmissions are received best at sunrise and sunset, and no one's 100% sure, but it has to do with the ionosphere. - Yeah.
- And because that's where the northern lights are happening. - Yeah. - That's where solar rays hit the Earth's atmosphere. And the atoms loose their electrons, I believe, so they become ions forming the ionosphere.
And because this is constantly changing, you can't predict exactly how a shortwave radio wave will act, but you can kind of guess, well, this time the Sun's least active
or most active, whatever.
It has some impact on that sky, what's it called, the sky what? - It's guy with. - The sky wave, yeah, effect. - So you can communicate with somebody
in a foreign country, right? And not only can it not be tracked, it's very difficult to trace who sent that, where that transmissions coming from. - Yeah.
- It's impossible to trace who's receiving it. - That's right. - So you have no idea who in your country is getting this, which means that you're broadcasting to anybody and everybody who feels like listening to this.
- Yeah. - A secret code, but the fact is,
“if you use the right kind of secret code,”
no one can crack it. - All right, that brings up an important point because you would think also, you can hack into the most secure computer system on the planet if you're good enough as a hacker.
- Right. - So how in the world could sending a coded key like it's 1955, and you're trying to get your decoder ring, you know, from the red, was it the red rider? - No, no, no, no, that's way off.
- No, what was it? - It was the red horse for Nanny. - No, no, no, I'm talking about it in the Christmas story. - Yeah, it was the little orphananny. - That was the show?
- Yeah. - I didn't think it was eating. He didn't care about pirates and all that jazz. Pirates and smugglers and all that jazz. He listened to a little orphananny.
- All right, I'll take it wherever I remember now. - Do you? - No, but I'll take it where it for it. - Dude, I'm telling you, it's a little orphananny. - I won't, let's have him take it with me.
- My hat, I don't have a hat on right now, but I would eat it if I were wrong. At any rate, you're not a little Ralphie decoding the message from a little orphananny, but it is actually the most secure way
that you can send a secret message is by creating a unique code that you know and have written down on a piece of paper and your buddy knows who has written down on a piece of paper. You only use it once, that's the kind of the key here.
- Yeah. - And then you destroy it afterward, that is still the most, it's unbreakable. So what it's called is a one-time pad, the old one timer, 'cause you only use it once.
And it is old, it's from the 19th century. - Yeah, and it's still uncrackable. - It is, and the reason why it's uncrackable is because you each have, like you said, you each have a copy of this code.
- Yeah. - But it's randomly generated, right? So let's say you have the sheet of paper and the other person has the sheet of paper and the sheet of paper says,
it's just like strings of random numbers, like four or five numbers long. - Yeah. - Totally random, and it just covers several sheets of paper. Well, you guys start at the same place,
and when the person transmitting the message wants to encrypt it, they run their message. So say you guys have agreed, like zero is A, B is one, C is two, et cetera. So you take that, and you get really bad.
- I know, dude, it is mind-boggling.
“- I think this is about as simple as cryptology gets,”
and it makes me bleed from my ear. - Well, 'cause all you have to do is agree on what's what?
- Right.
- You know, it could be anything. - Right, so you're agreeing on what's what? But you also have this randomly generated code, your key, right? So let's say I want to say, what a chuck,
that's W-H-A-T-U-P-C-H-U-C-K. So that's 11 letters, right? So if you have your key and you're encoding it,
you would use these first 11 numbers to encode
what's already encoded. So the W is say, (laughs) says it's the number 22, okay, right? And then so on. So like there's a number assigned to each letter.
- Yeah. - So you have that, and then you run it through this code, this randomly generated code. So you add that. And then so you have 20, what do I say, 22?
- Yeah. - And then say the first letter, or the first number of this code is seven. So you have 29, yeah.
“So that's what the little German girl reads on the air.”
29, yeah, 52, 37, 18, yeah. It means nothing to anyone else in the entire world, except for you, and the person who has the other copy of this code, since there's only two copies, and you're only using it once.
- And you're gonna eat it afterward. - Yeah. And the key is that it's randomly generated numbers. - Yeah.
- Then it'll, it's theoretically, it will never be broken.
- Yeah, but I mean, that's just one example. You could have five pre-code rules to confuse someone trying to correct this code. - Right. - And they don't, it's not like,
the simplest code is this letter represents this number, this number represents this letter. It gets more complex than that. You could both have agreed upon a book. You have to kill a mockingbird.
I've got to kill a mockingbird. For eight, 12, 90, 13, four means go to page four. 13 means, now you're really going to page 13, ignore the four, then look at the twelfth line, then look at the eighth word on that page.
- Right. What a one time pad would do is take that, already agreed upon code, and encrypt it even further. - Yeah, but the point is it doesn't have to represent letters. It can represent full words and attacks.
- Right. - That you've agreed upon. And it's basically like thumbing through this book, picking out all these various words to make it sense. - Right.
The problem is that's its vulnerability as well.
Like to get a copy of the randomly generated key that's used to encrypt this message, right? - Yeah.
“- You have to have some sort of contact with somebody.”
- Yeah. - So that's one vulnerability of it. - Yeah. - The thing is, it's like depending on how long this is, as many numbers as there are,
as as long as, as many transmissions as you can transmit. - Yeah. - Does that make any sense? - No, say it clear. So I said what up Chuck, yeah.
That's 11. That uses the first 11 numbers on this key, right? But say there's 50,000 numbers on the key. Well, we have a lot more messages. I can send to you that we're going through the pad.
Eventually, though, we're going to use up this pad and we need to meet again so I can give you another randomly generated key. - That can cause. - That's the vulnerability of it.
- Well, the other thing, I'm not a failsafe, but the thing that makes it even safer, is a lot of times they would send
“and presumably are still sending dummy messages.”
So you don't even know if it's real to begin with and there are only so many person hours, you can dedicate as a government to code crackers and they might be working on a code that's not even real. You know what transmissions are legit.
- And then that is a proposal by a group called Enigma and we'll talk about Enigma right after this message 'cause they're pretty awesome. (upbeat music) - Two percent.
That is the number of people who take the stairs when there is also an escalator available. I'm Michael Ester, an on my podcast, two percent. I break down the signs of mental toughness, fitness, and building resilience in our strange modern world.
I'll be speaking with writers, researchers, and other health and fitness experts, and more. To look past the in-practical and way to complex pseudoscience that dominates the wellness industry. - We really believe that seed oils
were inherently inflammatory. We got it wrong, many of the problems that we are freaked out about in the world, are the result of stress. - Put yourself through some hardships
and you will come out on the other side,
To get a happier, more fulfilled healthier version.
- Listen to 2%, that's TWO percent on the I-Hart Radio App, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. - On the Serving Pancakes podcast, conversations about volleyball go beyond the court. Today we have a little best frame compatibility test.
- Okay, how long have we been best friends for? - Since the day we met, as the lead one volleyball season heads towards its final stretch, there's no better time to tune in. We really are like Yen and Yang, vodka and tequila.
- You'll hear unfiltered analysis behind the scenes stories and conversations with leaders making an impact across the sport. Today we have Logan LeMeki. - I feel like our fan base in general is very connected.
It was like a comforting feeling getting to play at home. Whether you're following the final push of love season, or just love the game, Serving Pancakes brings you closer to the action and the people shaping the future of volleyball.
- Jordan Thompson had that microphone out. It's got to make mistakes or cuss at our coach. Like when time works, you tend to open your free. I heart radio app, search Serving Pancakes and listen now. - This has been Serving Pancakes
and we'll catch you on the side. - Okay, presented by Capital One, founding partner of I Heart Women's Sports. - In 2023, former Bachelor Star Clayton Eckard found himself at the center of a paternity scandal.
The family court hearings that followed revealed glaring inconsistencies in her story. This began a years-long court battle to prove the truth.
“- You doctor this particular test twice in selling, correct?”
- I doctor the test once. - It took an army of internet detectives to crack the case. - I wanted people to be able to see what their tax dollars were being used for. - Some like the greatest disinfectant.
- They would uncover a disturbing pattern. Two more men who'd been through the same thing. - Greg Olesby and I command Cheney. - My mind was blown. - I'm Stephanie Young.
This is Love Trap. - Laura, Scott State of Police. - As the season continues,
Laura Owens finally faces consequences.
- Ladies and gentlemen, breaking news at America for County as Laura Owens has been indicted on fraud charges. - This isn't over until Justice has served in Arizona. - Listen to Love Trap podcast
on the I Heart Radio App, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. (upbeat music) - So Chuck, we were talking about a Nigma. I mentioned a Nigma and a Nigma is this group
that of basically amateur radio people. Short way of radio and thusiest or they really get into this. - Yes, it's a thing. - And they started, this is pre pre internet days.
“I think it was in the '80s, the late '80s, early '90s”
that a Nigma first came around and kind of coalesced. And a Nigma stands for European Numbers Information Gathering and Monitoring Association. And basically it was just a group of these people who had all been dispelling Nigma.
- Yeah, right.
- Who had all, I think they reverse engineered that they always do.
But they had all kind of started to talk or find each other and say, have you heard these weird transmission and they're like, "Yes, I've heard that one." And you should check out this frequency on Tuesday, '90, 8 p.m.
because it transmits this. And they suddenly realized there's this whole community of people out there. So they set up a newsletter. They started a naming convention.
And they started assigning, collecting and assigning names to these different things. So like E designated an English speaking trans number station. - Right.
- S was Slavic. V is various, which encapsulates everything from like French to Spanish. - Right. - And Nigma really took this thing
and put it into understandable terms.
And they are basically Eavesdropping, or they were.
- Yeah. - Eavesdropping on the spy community. - Oh, they not doing that anymore. - So Nigma disbanded, I think, in 2000. And then almost immediately another group came
and said, "Well, we're in Nigma 2000. "We're gonna carry this on." And that's pretty fortunate because they were around to put all this on the internet. Before it was like you had to like subscribe
to newsletters and have a short way of radio. Now it's like you can just go on the internet and listen to all sorts of archives of these defunct number stations as well. - Yeah, I mean, they're creepy sounding,
I don't like it's kind of cool. I've got one for you. We talked about it before.
“Do you remember the Yosimity Sam transmission?”
- Yeah, I'm convinced that that's just a person haven't fun. Well, let's play it. (upbeat music) - All right, I'm on the wall, y'all, y'all!
- I like that one. I think it's full of info. (laughing)
It's cool, it's coming from somewhere out in Albuquerque
in the desert in New Mexico.
And it's been going since what like 2004. - Yeah. - And what makes this one interesting is that it's not a code. It's just Yosimity Sam saying that thing.
- Well, then it's followed by that data burst. - Yeah. - Which they think is some sort of compressed information. - Yeah, see, I don't believe it. I think this is a short way
than Thusia's having a good time. - Well, he's been doing it like, it's pretty sophisticated. It does it like over and over again,
“I think for 40 seconds and switches to the next frequency”
and it just goes through the band. - Yeah. - And then he's got a computer doing it for him. - Maybe.
- If it is just some dude, but either way,
I like the use of Yosimity Sam. - No, it's cool. - But it's pretty, it's exemplar of a number station of a number's transmission. There's something that indicates that this is about to happen.
And then there's the happening, the transmission of the secret code, whether it's digital in nature, or whether it's spoken. And then it is ended by Yosimity Sam again or something like that.
- Yeah, it's saying, here's the beginning. Here's the information, here's the end. - Now go kill Nortberg. - Right. - One of the other cool things about this is,
and you know, when we were talking about, surely there's better ways and the government could theoretically shut down the internet.
“They could zap a satellite transmissions,”
they could shut everything down. This is almost unstoppable. You can't shut down shortwave radio. I mean, I guess you could cut power, maybe. - Yeah, well, no, supposedly, no, I mean, yeah.
And then I guess, if people had batteries though, in their shortwave radio, the one way to combat it is called jamming, frequency jamming.
And basically it's just broadcasting on the same frequency
that these other transmitters, the number stations are transmitting on. And so if you're broadcasting within your country, you're probably gonna reach those shortwave radios better than somebody on the other side
of the planet's transmission well. - Yeah, and so apparently Russia spent billions, or the Soviet spent billions of dollars during the Cold War, jamming frequencies from all sorts of different transmissions. And they play things like the sound of seagulls
or random beeps or whatever. And it was just to prevent people from transmitting into Russia. - Yeah. - But even with all of that money and technology
mustard or marshaled against it, they still weren't entirely successful. Like shortwave radio transmissions get through. - It's just too big to fight. - Yeah, you can't jam the entire frequency
of all shortwave, like every single frequency. If you've ever heard the Wilcoe, remember Yankee Hotel Fox Trot, that album? - Yeah. - That was, on the album at some point,
I can't remember what song it. Yankee Hotel Fox Trot in a woman's voice. And that is a famous code. - Was that from the Connet Project? - No, I don't think so.
But we should talk about that for sure. That was a project. And it was also, I guess in the Wild West days, where you're talking about pre-Internet, people wanted to hear this stuff.
Some people got together and put together a greatest hits sort of on CD with a lot of accompanying material about what you're listening to. And none of them obviously can't break these codes. That's the thing I find interesting
is people sit around and listen to this stuff. But with no aim of cracking the code.
“- I think some people do attempt to crack the code.”
It's impossible. Well, it's not impossible. And we should say with the reason why it's not impossible is because if you're using a computer-generated random number, a computer is not capable of truly
of generating a truly random number, because computers run on algorithms. The algorithms are designed to follow patterns, so they're just incapable of it. So you could, especially today,
a hacker could conceivably crack one of these, especially old transmissions. But you still don't know what those numbers stand for. Even if you find a pattern of numbers, they're still in a greed upon thing
that you would have to figure out. But it makes it possible. If you could crack that one time pad key, then you have a real chance at deciphering the message itself. - Well, yeah, if you know what they stand for,
but I still maintain if only you and I know what those numbers represent. - Right, to kill a mockingbird pages. - Yeah, exactly. - Well, you were saying the content project thing.
- Yeah. - So it's a 4CD compilation. And apparently I read an article from the time when it came out, which is the 90s. It was like perfect timing, because there was Y2K going on.
There was millennium angst.
There was the X files. And this thing came out in 1997. And Solon wrote an article on it. And this guy who wrote it was like, a music concrete, aficionata.
- Oh man. - So people appreciated it, not just for the fact that it's like recordings of real life spy transmissions. But some people like the kind of avant-garde noise that had going on too.
- I'm sure the flaming lips are currently planning an album composed of nothing, but messages. - Right. - From number stations. - Number eight.
- There's a movie that exists that I had never heard of.
Called the number station. - Yeah, I hadn't heard of it either. - Yeah, I don't think it was released. - Really? - It's set of from 2013, I know most movies
that are released. It's probably went straight to video or something. - Right. - But I watch the trailer today. It's John Kusak and Millenacriman.
And they work at a number station and he's to protect the number station. But something bad happens and they're compromised. - Right. - And is who he says he is.
And is she, who she says she is? - Right. - Who knows. You'll have to write that turkey to find out. Did it look bad?
- Yeah. - Sure, it's look pretty bad. - Sorry, John Kusak. - Yeah. Sorry, John Kusak.
“- So, I think one of the most interesting things”
about number stations is that like you said, they peaked during the Cold War right when the Berlin Wall fell and then in the few years after that, the number of transmission supposedly just dropped off dramatically.
Although I did see in at least one place that supposedly they increased, but I didn't see that supported anywhere else. But the idea that they're still around it all in 2014 that there are still number stations
transmitting gibberish really says a lot. So it says a couple of things. And you've already mentioned one. It's possible they are just transmitting gibberish to throw off anybody listening.
- Yeah, that's one.
- To basically just kind of snap their resources.
- Right, like Keith and Ruski's busy listening to our gibberish. - Sure. Another one is that they're keeping them going in case they need to use them again.
- I think that's totally the reason. - In which case, that's pretty smart because you're not showing your hand like where all of a sudden an inactive radio station suddenly starts up again.
Indicase activity. Or it's been doing the same thing for 10 years
“and on year seven, it actually transmitted a real secret message”
but it seemed just like everything else in those 10 years. - You're doing some pretty good spycraft there. - Yeah, or just to keep that, like you may not be actively using it
but just to keep that a method relevant. - Right. - Like, you know, if you quit doing something
it's gonna die off and no one's gonna know
how to do it anymore. - Sure, yeah. - So, you know, just keep those people working and you know, they may not even know if they're transmitting real messages or not.
- I would guess if you're just saying, oh yeah, if you're just saying the machine you're a paper and a system, yeah. - In fact, that may be a pretty safe way to do things. - Sure.
- It's like the person with the nuclear key. - Yeah. - It's a test. - Who knows? - This is for games.
- We'll find out in 30 minutes. - There are also other theories that they are and I think some of this does go on, maybe drug runners, using stuff like this because some of 'em are less than professional.
Apparently the ones from Cuba or Cuba, sorry Jerry, are a little comical? - Well, they were renowned for just having really bad slip ups, especially during the Cold War. - Like, you'd hear people talking and laughing
in the background or an accidental transmission of a radio station. - Right. - Radio Havana, right? - Yeah, so they were kind of known
for not being too skilled at it, but I imagine the drug runners at the same. - Yeah, that's virtually the same thing. And I mean, there's absolutely no reason why drug runners couldn't have also,
couldn't also use this alongside the espionage community too. - Yeah, there's might be A, it's one, B is two. - Right. - And they get the message that's chipmen of kilos coming in Miami Beach tomorrow night.
- Right, let's go get 'em. - Kill one, I'm one. (laughing) - But I do think there may be a little bit of that.
“I think it's a mix bag of why they're still being broadcast.”
I think there are enthusiasts that are probably just doing their own thing for fun. - Yeah, that'd be fun, man. If I was in Guam, and I could send you a private message to be a shortwave.
- Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, I thought you meant people who are just doing it just to mess with like the enigma community or something like that. - I think that probably happens too, but it's all kinds of things.
- Yeah, I'm sure you're right.
There's one guy out there, trust me.
- There have been some actual spies
“who have been busted in this century long after the Cold War”
who had shortwave radios and one time pads in their apartment surhouses. Apparently, in 2011, in Germany, a couple who'd live there since 1988, and we're spying for the Russians,
we're caught in the act of receiving a number's transmission in their home when they were apprehended and busted for spying. - I can see that scene. He's got one headphone up and he's holding out this hand
and he's writing something down in pencil and his wife's trying to eat it really quick. - Right, it's been out, spit it out. - In 2001 Anna Montes worked for the U.S. civil intelligence agency and she was convicted of spying for Cuba
and when they searched her home, they found a shortwave radio and a code sheet. And so yeah, I mean, it's still going on, man.
I think it's pretty neat.
- Yeah, I do too. Like it's old school, but almost full proof. - Yeah, the big vulnerability is getting the random, randomly generated key to the spying. - Yeah, and they also point out in the article,
who wrote this one by the way. - Nathan Chandler.
“- Nathan points out that these days you're likely,”
your one time or might be sent to you, maybe digitally somehow, but it doesn't like tip anyone off necessarily. - Yeah, I'm not quite sure how. - Yeah, I would think if you're being watched
then an email with a lot of random numbers might tip someone. - Right, well, it used to be, they'd printed them on that kind of paper that like dissolve quickly or burned in life, no ash or whatever.
- Right. - They were on such tiny piece of paper yet
to use a really good magnifying lens to read it.
- Yeah. - And you could hide them in like a walnut shell or something like that. - Oh, wow. - Who knows what they're doing now?
- Yeah. - But they are doing something. - Yeah. - I'd like to, I thought about getting a short, I was a little bit inspired,
but then I thought, man, I've got so many other things to do, I don't know if I could do falling to their rabbit hole. - So that's numbers stations. If that picture interest just type in numbers stations into your favorite search engine
and it will lead you down the rabbit hole of shortwave radio. Did you see rabbit holes that right got that from? - I said rabbit hole, but I didn't invent it. - No, I know, but it just popped up in my head.
- Yeah. - It was in my own invention.
“- And I think if you have a shortwave radio,”
you probably tune into these anyway 'cause you're just into that lifestyle, but I think there's a website called spy numbers where you can actually find the frequencies and just go right there and you don't want to search for them.
- Right. And if you want to read this article, you can type the words numbers stations in the searchparthouse.forst.com. And since I said searchparts, time for listen or mail.
(bell ringing) Now I'm gonna call this a bit on sushi from someone in Japan. Hey guys, and Jerry, he's built Jerry right as well. Man, it's Jerry's day. I enjoyed the sushi episode quite a bit
and I have something to add as a result of modern food production following World War II in Japan. And of course, the US and elsewhere, the quality and traditional methods of making show you, Miso, and other Japanese food items
sadly plummeted. For example, Miso can be fermented in aged a matter of weeks with the use of temperature controlled tanks, where traditional dark Miso would age up to two years.
Same goes with other fermented products like show you, Miren no longer a sweet rice cooking line is practically sugar water. Speaking of sugar, modern Japanese food wouldn't exist without it.
Bumi Boshi, the sour salty pickled plum. - Does it good? - It's lousy with artificial color, sugar, and refined salt. - It's okay. - As much as I loved Japanese food and culture,
it's quite heartbreaking to see these centuries of traditional food processing supplanted by the Japanese version of a Twinkie, chemically made in process. As an alternative, there are good quality Japanese products
to be had, particularly those imported from Eden foods, which is high quality organic and widely distributed. - Is this the president of Eden food? - No, are they based in Alameda, California? - Sounds like it.
- That is from Leary and Alameda, California. I meant to mention to you, I had the worst sushi I've had in my life the other day. - Oh no, where? - I'm not gonna say it, but I'm not going back.
I'll tell you off air. - Yeah, I'm pleased too. - I don't think you wouldn't go there anyway, but it was the rice was gummy and really gummy to the point where I ate it, just because I was starving
and I ate it really fast. And I was like, oh, this kind of gummy, then afterwards I was like, man, that was terrible. - Yeah, like you say that to yourself and like you smiled and then you hold the mouth
as I cut it in rice. - It was gross, man.
I was ticked off afterwards after I paid the bill
and complained the whole way home to Emily.
“I was like, I actually really should have said something”
'cause that was like, they should have known, they shouldn't have served that rice. - Well, why didn't you say something? - Because like I said, I just-- - Oh, things shoved it in my face hole in left
and complained afterward, which is used, that's how I do things usually. I don't like to make a scene, I just like to play the martyr afterwards. (laughs)
- I've talked about that gummy sushi for two days. - Yeah, oh, it was that bad.
- Yeah, the fish and stuff was good,
but that rice was just very subpar. They should have known better. - Okay, well tell me where it is afterward. - I will. - Okay.
If you want to, I guess inadvertently you're quietly clandestinely promote your business like Leer did with his Eden food. - So first of all. - So first of all.
- Yeah. You can send us an email to [email protected] (upbeat music)
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