Extraordinarily bizarre! Rapid Asian numbers station 7725kHz

[MichaelHansenFUN]

marilyn manson sampled sounds for one of his songs.

[MattExzy]

@MichaelHansenFUN Awesome, which one??

[MichaelHansenFUN]

@MattExzy i am only kidding but it sounded like it on "lunchbox" i think..

[Maestrp37388]

What is happening in this transmission, is it digital data which is to be decoded or what?

[MattExzy]

@Maestrp37388 It probably could be decoded if that's what I was tuning, I think it was RTTY or some other simple data mode.

[wojtuniakfrog]

Can you pick up numbers stations with just regular shortwave receivers?

[MattExzy]

@wojtuniakfrog Easily so. Even the cheapest of sets can receive a lot of stuff. Ideally though, a digital display and single-side band tuning allow for more listening opportunities.

[wojtuniakfrog]

@MattExzy About how much are the digital ones? I don't need some big-ass antennae either, right?

[MattExzy]

@wojtuniakfrog A minimally decent set would be about US$80. And no, not at all, just 10ft or so of wire strung up indoors can receive quite a few things.

[wojtuniakfrog]

@MattExzy Ok thanks

[Prizmatic0]

GW Dataplex

[urbex2007]

That's RTTY, you will need to use a more directional aerial and filtering as no one can hear the number station.

All you are getting in the background is interference from various other stations.

[sdruvs22]

It's amazing that people don't know what this is anymore... In the old days of amateur radio this was rather commonplace. What you're listening to is a transmission in FSK (Frequency Shift Keying), probably sending some image as slow scan TV. The poor selectivity of the receiver is causing the overlap with a regular voice transmission. Not at all eerie IMHO.

[BeeRich33]

@sdruvs22 NO, behind the RTTY.

[tengrigim]

@sdruvs22 No the voices underneath are speaking chinese

[Colombianit0]

is this bjork?

[tengrigim]

@Colombianit0 No its ambient jungle music from amsterdam.

[Mainsail76]

That's called the "Chinese Robot." There is a website that has a very clear audio sample of her, as well as some info, but I can't find it anymore.

[MattExzy]

Ahh yes, I actually have the same sample you're talking about, but I forget the site as well! It's existed on and off for a while I think.

[LikaLaruku]

@Mainsail76 , I think the sample sound is at a website called "Numbers & Oddities" in the sound samples section.

[MattExzy]

Thanks for the info! It's like the numbers have been programmed to be played with no spaces between them on whatever machine they're using... I actually found a similar recording several months ago on the net (I forget where now) on 8MHz, so it doesn't seem to be a one-off, just fairly rare.

It's definitely nicely hidden amongst all of that noise.

[LCduT]

Fascinating, and excellent catch - it's Mandarin Chinese numbers. To my ears it sounds like two voices, but it's hard to make out.

It IS fast, but not like sped up tape as the pitch is normal. To hear the numbers while keeping the audio at the right pitch you need to record to an audio editor, and lower the tempo (Audacity can do this, but the results are ugly).

Bear in mind the broadcast could also be in error as one of the voices seems to be saying most numbers twice (I think).

[matkovicha]

Sorry, I thought that you meant the data noise. I think what they could do is put it into a computer and use simple audio editing software to slow it down to the desired speed.

[MattExzy]

Yes, the voice underneath the beacon, I probably should've tried to filter the data sound out a bit. Nice theory about the slowing down of the audio! I wonder if that would introduce too much noise perhaps?

[GMSamuelRhine]

@MattExzy it shouldn't i do this all the time when the morse is going a little too fast for me too read and it works just fine

[matkovicha]

I think it sounds like some kind of beacon.