Put on your fedora and dark glasses, because you’re about to become a Cold War-era numbers station operator!

What is a numbers station, I hear you ask? A numbers station is a radio station in the shortwave frequency band that periodically reads out a sequence of numbers, popularly believed to be a secret code for intelligence officers listening for encrypted information. Numbers stations appeared during World War I and are likely to have become much more prevalent during the Cold War.

In the past, the numbers were often spoken in what sounded like a creepy voice, probably due to the poor radio transmission quality available at the time. You can listen to a few recent examples of numbers station transmissions on the Crypto Museum's website. Some numbers stations survive to this very day.

Since many people enjoy cracking secret codes, I thought it would be fun to show you …