Comments on: Comments on 13260

Post number 13260

skwm — Wed, 19 Dec 2001 16:58:40 -0800

The CONET Project. A 4-CD documentary of Shortwave Number Stations, which consist of nothing but an unidentified human voice reciting a long list of seemingly random numbers. Some speculate that these signals are used for espionage by the likes of MOSSAD, the CIA and the former KGB.
There's also a great NPR feature on Number Stations (html page w/links to real audio broadcast)

By: corpse

corpse — Wed, 19 Dec 2001 17:05:20 -0800

Best box set ever. I recommend it to anyone with a foot.

By: hulette

hulette — Wed, 19 Dec 2001 17:10:44 -0800

I bought this CD set last year when the excellent Aquarius Records in San Francisco had second press copies for sale. Amazingly wonderful and hypnotic. The creepy feeling you get while listening is part of the fun. The amount of legwork that must have gone into compiling this collection is rather stunning, and indicative of the mania that can be induced. 9...3...9...4....2...4...

By: y2karl

y2karl — Wed, 19 Dec 2001 18:05:10 -0800

Excellent post, Daniel, and typically generous. A cut from the White Album comes to mind, too.

By: starduck

starduck — Wed, 19 Dec 2001 18:12:00 -0800

Every time I hear these broadcasts, I become amazingly frightened for some reason. It could be the strange background noise, or the non-sensicalness of the whole thing, but it just REALLY creeps me out. I can't listen for more than a couple seconds before I freak out and go back to my soothing downtempo.

By: skwm

skwm — Wed, 19 Dec 2001 18:13:14 -0800

Gosh, thanks, karl (sincerely, no sarcasm meant)! Unfortunately, I have to admit that I haven't heard it. I came across something about it, somwhere or other, a while ago and I've been pretty intrigued by it ever since. Can anyone help me find a copy? I've checked quite a few places, it's out-of-print and really hard to find.

By: mimi

mimi — Wed, 19 Dec 2001 18:48:25 -0800

they give me goosebumps... heard the NPR story driving alone on a country road at night - not recommended unless you like to get totally freaked out.

By: crankyrobot

crankyrobot — Wed, 19 Dec 2001 18:57:59 -0800

per hulette's comment above, aquarius records seems to still have some copies. after reading the descriptions and the like I had to ftp into work and snag all my "einstein on the beach / knee play" tracks to listen to whilst zoning out this evening; this could become a habit. great link - now I just have to decide whether or not to buy this before year end - I can deduct this, right? ;)

By: eriko

eriko — Wed, 19 Dec 2001 19:30:06 -0800

Agreed, starduck, on the incredibly creepy feel I get listening to these. The absolute creepiest, however, has to be this mp3 of an Emergency Action Message(EAM), apparently broadcast from Andrews AFB. A message very much like this may just hearald the end of the word -- or, for those with a biblical bent, the seven trumps may just be read out in phonetic alphabets.

By: apollo

apollo — Wed, 19 Dec 2001 19:31:02 -0800

Thanks so much for that great link... and for reminding me how much cool stuff there is on the NPR site. I've added the 4-cd set to my holiday wish list, and spun off into my own memories of lying in bed at night and listening to all manner of weird and pulsating signals on the radio.

By: skallas

skallas — Wed, 19 Dec 2001 19:32:19 -0800

Err, these things aren't much of a mystery they're just ciphers for one-time pads or something like that. Yes, there's probably a spy in your country right now! The only interesting part is that some of these sound like kids. Maybe the intelligence community decided it couldn't trust adults and got some 8 year olds to start reading the slips of paper.

By: onthestereo

onthestereo — Wed, 19 Dec 2001 20:20:33 -0800

oo! oo! i can tie this to semi-indie rock... at one point, the voice reads "yankee... hotel... foxtrot." this bizarre little clump of words became the title for the new (well, as-yet-unreleased, but probably my favorite album i've heard this year) wilco album. true stories.

By: skallas

skallas — Wed, 19 Dec 2001 20:25:53 -0800

From the onion: Wilco, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot Wilco has already gotten tons of press for Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, a mesmerizing album that the band's label rejected as too weird to release. But just as intriguing as its experimental airs and shadowy Internet-only availability are its little-discussed allusions to The Conet Project, a four-disc collection of recordings from so-called "number stations." The source of Wilco's eerie sample of a little German girl intoning "yankee... hotel... foxtrot," The Conet Project is full of seemingly nonsensical recitations of numbers and words heard on mysterious short-wave radio frequencies. Nobody seems to know why they exist or who's responsible for them, but that hasn't stopped Thomas Pynchon fans—or Wilco's Jeff Tweedy—from taking a little time to wonder.

By: quonsar

quonsar — Wed, 19 Dec 2001 20:43:18 -0800

i gave it a 97, dick. um, it has a good beat and you can dance to it.

By: Mid

Mid — Wed, 19 Dec 2001 21:25:30 -0800

Re: the Onion blurb. Where is this Internet-only availibility? Do they mean bootlegs?

By: AFrayedKnot

AFrayedKnot — Wed, 19 Dec 2001 22:29:11 -0800

I'm going to have to dig out and blow the dust off my old shortwave radio. I somehow had forgotten how fascinating shortwave can be.

By: elvissinatra

elvissinatra — Thu, 20 Dec 2001 06:02:35 -0800

Mid: Wilco had been streaming the album via Quicktime on its official site. But that was after they got dropped by Reprise. Now that they've got a new label and an actual release date, they took down the stream.

By: monju_bosatsu

monju_bosatsu — Thu, 20 Dec 2001 06:29:44 -0800

You don't really *fnord* think those broadcasts contain encoded *fnord* messages, do you?

By: straight

straight — Thu, 20 Dec 2001 07:23:01 -0800

"yankee... hotel... foxtrot." this bizarre little clump of words That's just the letters YHF in NATO Phonetic alphabet.