Lincolnshire Poacher (numbers station)
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The Lincolnshire Poacher is the nickname of a mysterious, powerful shortwave numbers station that uses two bars from its namesake English folk song tune as an interval signal. The station is believed to be operated by the British Secret Intelligence Service and emanates from the island of Cyprus. Most likely, one of several curtain antennae located at Akrotiri is used for transmission of the Lincolnshire Poacher. Amateur direction finding has linked it with the Royal Air Force base at Akrotiri, Cyprus [1]. It consists of an electronically-synthesised English-accented female voice reading groups of 5 numbers: e.g. '3-9-7-1-5', etc. Curiously, the final number in each group is spoken with a lifted voice. It is likely that the station is used to communicate to undercover agents operating in other countries (known as illegals), to be decoded using a one-time pad.
An MP3 recording of the Lincolnshire Poacher numbers station can be downloaded here.
The Lincolnshire Poacher has an Asian cousin, of identical format and believed to be broadcast from Guam, nicknamed "Cherry Ripe" as it uses several bars from the English folk song of the same name as its interval signal. [2]
[edit] Schedule
This schedule is accurate as of January 2006. All times are UTC, frequencies MHz. [3]
| Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday | Saturday | Sunday | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12:00 | 14.487 15.682 16.084 |
14.487 15.682 16.084 |
14.487 15.682 16.084 |
14.487 15.682 16.084 |
14.487 15.682 16.084 |
14.487 15.682 16.084 |
14.487 15.682 16.084 |
| 13:00 | 14.487 15.682 16.084 |
14.487 15.682 16.084 |
14.487 15.682 16.084 |
14.487 15.682 16.084 |
14.487 15.682 16.084 |
14.487 15.682 16.084 |
14.487 15.682 16.084 |
| 14:00 | 10.426 12.603 14.487 |
12.603 14.487 16.314 |
14.487 15.682 16.084 |
14.487 15.682 16.084 |
14.487 15.682 16.084 |
10.426 11.545 14.487 |
11.545 14.487 15.682 |
| 15:00 | 11.545 13.375 15.682 |
7.755 8.464 10.426 |
11.545 14.487 16.084 |
11.545 12.603 13.375 |
11.545 12.603 13.375 |
11.545 12.603 13.375 |
11.545 12.603 13.375 |
| 16:00 | 11.545 12.603 13.375 |
11.545 13.375 15.682 |
6.485 7.755 10.425 |
8.464 12.603 14.487 |
11.545 12.603 13.375 |
11.545 12.603 13.375 |
8.464 10.426 11.545 |
| 20:00 | 11.545 |
