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Thread: Number Station - A Source of inspiration?

  1. #1
    Knight of the Outer Void Nineteen-Delta's Avatar
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    Number Station - A Source of inspiration?

    Here’s a little known gem I found a week or two ago, I thought I might share….

    “Numbers stations are shortwave radio stations of uncertain origin. They generally broadcast people reading streams of numbers, words, or letters (often using a phonetic alphabet).

    It is not known publicly with certainty where these signals originate or what purpose they serve. The voices that can be heard on these stations are often mysterious: mechanically generated; spoken in a wide variety of languages; usually female, but sometimes male or those of children.”

    Source: Wikipedia entry “Number station”

    It sent a shiver down my spine, especially the ‘mechanically generated voices of children’

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_station

    At the bottom of the article, there is a link to a radio program, running time about 25 minutes, with examples, some background and conspiracy theories.

    Tracking The Lincolnshire Poacher BBC Radio 4 program on Number Stations - Streaming audio

    All I need now is to work it into a story, either DG or CoC. Any ideas anybody?

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    Super Moderator Lesser Independent GBSteve's Avatar
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    And you can get them in mp3 format here: http://irdial.hyperreal.org/

    About halfway down.
    The Armitage Files, now with added Ennie Award.

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    Super Moderator Lesser Independent WinstonP's Avatar
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    Wilco fans might enjoy:
    this one

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    Knight of the Outer Void
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    Woah, this one makes me think of the court of Azathoth.

  5. #5
    squashua
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    Sounds like Lost. The tv show.

    Dunno if you non-US get that show.

  6. #6
    Community Patron+ Master of the Silver Twilight banshee's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Squashua
    Sounds like Lost. The tv show.

    Dunno if you non-US get that show.
    Some of us poor European sods have been subjected to this plague too, yes...
    "I've decided to be a vacuum-cleaner. It's the easiest job in the world: Show me a vacuum, and I'll clean it."

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    Lesser Servitor ThothAmon's Avatar
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    Didn't the numbers stations get a Mythos-esque explanation in Tim Powers' 'Declare'? Memory failure...
    Cheers.

    Peter.

  8. #8
    Knight of the Outer Void Nineteen-Delta's Avatar
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    Numbers stations

    Thanks to all for all your hard work in research. In the game, maybe they're a Mythos chant of some kind, which has to be performed over many decades before it works?

    I'm still after some more ideas about how to work them into a story....

    Kindest Regards.

  9. #9
    Community Patron+ Master of the Silver Twilight banshee's Avatar
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    You could have some cult organize their operatives this way...

    Suddenly a new numbers station joins the odd choir. After a time a pattern becomes apparent: the station's transmissions are correlated with events of occult/Mythos significance.

    Or, a slightly more sinister version: Somebody is transmitting Mythos secrets by radio... secrets that are hardly encrypted at all. Why?

    To undermine the sanity of eavesdroppers? As a cover for something else?

    Who knows
    "I've decided to be a vacuum-cleaner. It's the easiest job in the world: Show me a vacuum, and I'll clean it."

  10. #10
    Full archive of CONET project recordings here:
    http://www.archive.org/details/ird059

    Stored as 64kbps MP3 files.

    Keep watching the skies...

  11. #11
    Master of the Silver Twilight Graham's Avatar
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    Another good source for numbers station recordings is the page set up by one Simon Mason

    http://www.simonmason.karoo.net/page30.html

    I'd especially recommend two recordings from the 'Mistakes Page'

    A Jamming Station in Trouble

    The final transmission of a Rumanian Numbers station
    "We are merely the stars' tennis balls, struck and bandied which way please them."

    -- Bosola, to Antonio after accidentally stabbing him. Act 5, Sc.4

    The Duchess of Malfi, by John Webster

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