The Bizarre Mystery Behind The Numbers Stations

Posted by Martina Birk on Sunday, May 5, 2024

As mentioned, many numbers stations operate on strict timetables. Sometimes they make seemingly random broadcasts. It can be impossible to know what the cause or reasoning behind a message might be, as everything about them is shrouded in mystery. So what if we take the opposite approach by looking at certain big events and see how numbers stations' broadcasts change?

Many times, this can be fruitless. Even with government changes, wars beginning or ending, and all the various events that happen throughout the years, many stations keep broadcasting all the same, which is why at least a few numbers stations are suspected to be "dead hand" systems, meaning that as long as they continue broadcasting, everything is a-okay. But if they ever stop, that means something has gone terribly wrong, according to Global News.

But occasionally, a major world event has marked a noted change in a numbers station's broadcast. In 1993, an attempted military coup in the former Soviet Union, then under President Boris Yeltsin, seemed to cause various numbers stations located in the country to change their broadcasts to repeat the number "five" over and over until the crisis was settled, according to Slate. No one knows what that means, exactly, but it's definitely very spooky, sort of like a real-life version of Emperor Palpatine sending out his Order 66 message to all of the clones in Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith.

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