numbers station

English

Noun

numbers station (plural numbers stations)

  1. (radio, espionage) A shortwave radio station characterized by unusual broadcasts, often of artificially generated voices reciting streams of numbers, words, etc., supposedly of coded messages.
    • October 1986, William O'Connell, “Get On The Air”, in Boys' Life‎[1], volume 76, number 10, page 35:
      The most common numbers station features a young lady reading the numbers in Spanish. Other stations have both male and female voices reading numbers in Spanish, German, English and Chinese. So far, nobody has been able to decode any of the messages!
    • 2012, Ripley's Believe It Or Not! (compiler), Ripley's Unbelievable Stories For Guys:
      Naturally enough, no government has actually admitted to operating a numbers station, but the suspicion is there.

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