Talk:Lincolnshire Poacher (numbers station)

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This article suggests that these broadcasts are targeted at field agents. I actually find it difficult to envisage a plausible scenario in which an undercover British agent operating in some hostile Middle Eastern country would reliably be able to receive transmissions from Lincolnshire Poacher.

The only reason we even know about these broadcasts is because they have been logged and reported over the years by shortwave enthusiasts using highly specialised receivers with large antennae. Even when listening with such equipment, the broadcasts are often indistinct and unintelligible (as evidenced by some of the Conet Project recordings).

Of course, a spy in the field is unlikely to have the luxury of setting up an esoteric shortwave rig with a large outdoor antenna. At best, he is probably limited to using a battery-operated "world band" radio (a more advanced shortwave receiver would be difficult to obtain, and would almost certainly arouse suspicion). Even in good reception conditions, these "world band" radios would be next to useless for picking up Lincolnshire Poacher, as most of the frequencies it uses are non-standard (try getting 10425KHz or 16084KHz on a typical 7- or 9-band portable set).

Numbers stations may well be used by intelligence agencies (for whatever purpose), but the notion of a spy crouched in a basement with his ear pressed to a little plastic radio is one I find rather hard to swallow. 217.155.20.163 20:48, 2 September 2006 (UTC)

OK, so let me help you envisage a plausible scenario. Our hypothetical agent is not a Brit crouching in a basement, but a mid-ranking local government official with a big house. He sets the antenna up once a month in the dead of night. He has no problem "obtaining" this equipment: a nice man from the embassy by prior arrangement places it in his car during a visit to a shopping centre. Furthermore, the equipment is rigged to look like a standard piece of equipment: you have to remove the case and flick a jumper to activate the shortwave circuitry. This is all standard stuff so far: try reading some cold war spy-ring memoirs.

If you're still having trouble, have a read through the main numbers station article. Cuban agents in the US, including a female defence analyst, have all been imprisoned and their messages from the Havana numbers station decrypted. The existence and key purpose of numbers stations is not in question.

Numbers stations are only useful to undercover agents: anything else can be conveyed through secure, dedicated communications channels. However inconvenient it sounds, it remains the only way to communicate encrypted information without revealing the location of the receiver (whether through easily-monitorable phone, emails or risky physical drops). Any technical difficulties are vastly outweighed by the secrecy afforded by this technique.

Additionally, the transmitter (on Cyprus) is directed at the middle east, which explains why it requires specialist equipment to pick up elsewhere.

It doesn't require specialist equipment... I'm sitting at home in Oxford, UK with a standard shortwave radio I purchased from a high street store and I can hear the Linconlnshire Poacher right now as I'm typing this. Good signal too! It's just a normal portable radio. If the signal is this strong here, imagine how strong it would be in the middle east where the transmitters are pointing.

Heh, thanks. I could have avoided hand-waving for three paragraphs if I'd actually bothered to check out the reception strength :)

Replace my original argument, then, with: "Spy purchases cheap radio. Listens to it anywhere. End of discussion." If anyone still has doubts about what these stations are intended for, perhaps we need to add references to the numerous cases of spies being busted in the act of decoding such transmissions - there were arrests in the UK in the 80s, and the recent one concerning the female analyst receiving instructions from Havana... (one time pads were recovered - albeit digital in the recent case - and messages subsequently decoded as evidence) I think it's safe to say there is consensus on this, especially since there are no plausible competing explanations.

[edit] Caught in the act

There was a spy masqueading as a Dutch antiques dealer who was caught red-handed by MI5 in the 1980s listening to a Czech numbers station and deciphering the message with a one-time pad. The name escapes me though. He was listening on a basic Japanese-made world radio. Using numbers stations to as a means of communicating with illegals easily can, has been, and no doubt still routinely is done by governments worldwide.BaseTurnComplete 16:53, 11 October 2006 (UTC)