My grandma was stationed at station A from the early 80’s until her retirement around 2005. I never took it too seriously until I got older, and would pester her with questions, where she always answered she couldn’t discuss it. When she retired, she had these little cia mementos (watch, flag, etc) that were displayed in the house. I picked up a knock off copy of the watch at a souvenir store in DC. When I showed it to her, she asked how much I paid for it and could she buy it from me. Sort of confused, I said sure, and she gave me the money and threw the watch in the trash. She told me please don’t wear anything like that, because someone may try and hurt me to get to her. She then told me never to tell others what her job was, which was pretty eerie to me. I finally realized how serious her job was, after 1-2 years in retirement and with early stages of dementia, they called her back in for “interviews”. That happened a few times, until she stopped driving, and then they came to her house to “interview” her. I lived close by and came by the day of the interview, and they were putting away a polygraph machine when I walked in. I found it curious they were polygraphing someone with dementia, but they had their reasons I guess. Lastly, she wasn’t the only senior citizen worker at the station. There was a group of older women who had been with the cia for decades. I knew my grandma had traveled all over Europe and North Africa in 60-70’s, and I think the WTC was a post for employees to live a more stable, normal life. She had a little cohort of coworkers, who all were mostly in their 60-70’s (my grandma was in her early 70’s). She was driving her coworkers back from a group lunch to station A, and apparently she was speeding down springs road. A town cop went to pull them over, but as he caught up to her, she was already pulling past the guard shack. She claimed she never saw him, but who knows the truth. The cop was so annoyed, he posted up outside the gate from about 1pm until about 4pm, until my grandma went to leave work. He pulled her over, told her she was speeding and it seemed like she fled. Being in her mid 70’s, she told him it was a simple mistake and she never saw him. He ended up giving her a ticket, and she said he was furious about the whole thing. It makes me laugh to think about this Buick Le Sabre loaded to the brim with women in their 70’s, seeing the cop coming, and saying “lets just see if I can get through the guard before he gets to me”. However when caught, just using the little old grandma card and getting out of trouble. Lol, amazing woman. RIP Ma

I personally live in this area, and these stations are well known to locals as secret government facilities. I have driven by all of these areas at one point in time, and I drive by Station D on a regular basis.

I used to live in Brandy Station, VA right down the road from Station D. The company I worked for was building a pole barn and inadvertently severed an underground communications line going to Station D and we had to shut down business operations until an investigation was done to show that it wasn't intentional and had FCC agents show up. They refused to comment as to what the purpose was of any of the transmitter stations were and were quite rude about it when asked. The underground cable was also not marked on any map and it's presence was not known to misdig. We checked with them to make sure there wasn't any gas, water or power lines. Each employee was required to be interviewed and background checks were done. I never could get a solid answer as to what the stations were but most of the people I asked said it was military and that the underground cable led to the Pentagon. This was back in the 90's and it would be interesting to know what exactly those stations are.

I miss Cynthia. I got a Radio Shack multi band receiver for Christmas in 1984. I was just a kid then, but had already started my life long fascination with radio. I remember slowly turning the analog dial of that big radio a couple of nights after Christmas, and Cynthia came in booming over the speaker. I of course didn't have a clue what she was about. All I could think of was that she sounded like an automated telephone "operator" that would tell you if the number you dialed was wrong or what have you. She was just another strange thing that I came across on HF. Shortwave radio was really at a peak back then! Needless to say, I would always be thrilled by her robotic number call. When you're young, things hold even more magic and mystery. I made so many cassette recordings of her, and other HF wonders, like crazy ship to shore conversations. Sadly, those tapes have been lost over time. It would be great to hear her again, but after twenty years, those days are over.

I Love Numbers Stations. So eerie and mysterious sounding. It's just a cool concept that you can listen to coded messages on a radio. As some one born in the 90s, it feels like they are using old tech because people just don't pay attention to it anymore. Then you learn how the hobbyists are all over this stuff and realize it is no secret but still, very cool lol.

The National Communication System function was handed over to the department of homeland security long ago. The "NCS" moniker used in the context of these facilities stands for National Clandestine Service. SIGINT training, covert transceiver development, and coded communication, and other training for the CIA takes place here.

I was stationed on a secret base that was a huge antenna itself. WW2 and through the Viet nam war. When I was there it was a training base for radio operators. It even tested new technology in communications. This was not far from this location in your video. There were huge loops of wire for extremely low frequency, these looped huge areas on the base. There were various microwave transmission antennas. Satellite dishes of various dimensions and some types I haven't seen since. I never knew their function. It was designated as a natural wildlife refuge on the maps but had an obvious military gate entrance at the end of a long road.

I have never been a radio geek and had someone suggested this channel instead of me finding it naturally I probably would've thought it would be boring But you genuinely have a way of making (even non-espionage) topics really engaging

The endless loops were used to give propagation, so When you know what time a broadcast is supposed to come you tune to the loop frequency and you make sure you can hear that loop broadcasting which will tell you that the frequency on that same band coming from the same place that you're going to need you will be able to hear otherwise if you can't hear it then you go to an alternate loop station from a different location or maybe a different band Once in a while on ham bands you will hear a tone being transmitted on one of the beacon frequencies that is specifically used to tune in the beacon to see if you can hear it from where you are in order to align antennas and to create a propagation map from any given location

Dang I recognized that pic before you said Culpepper. Used to live near there. The installation I lived at was shut down. Quite a while after a CIA agent was shot by a sniper. NOT where we were but three mile away at CIA headquarters. Soon after we were stationed elsewhere they removed active duty personnel that were . . . associated and shut the p;ace down. My kids were little when we lived there. Do no miss the drama.

Very cool! I heard numbers stations in the 90s. I don’t DX as much as I used to. This video makes me want to set up my set and have a listen!

This reminds me of two sites that were used as bases for the Ministry of Defence British, Cypriot and German network, based in Wakefield and Warrington. They mainly were used as a directory enquiries service for the MOD, where people on bases could ask for connection to another base or people on the civvy operator could ask to be connected to mil bases. The Wakefield site was hidden in a BT tower block, the bottom floors were a switchboard, storage and where BT engineers were based but people with the correct ID and fob could access higher floors, where the secret stuff was. The top of the building was, and still is to some extent, covered in various satellite and radio broadcast and receive dishes and antenna, part of this was for INMARSAT, used during OPTELIC operations in Iraq and Afghanistan etc. Wakefield also had a training ‘fishbowl’ like Warrington, both sites were part of a tri-service body run by the MOD as the Defence Communications Services Agency, for some time under Major Tony Raper. The Wakefield and Warrington sites certainly both had recording/playback facilities and were used as the ‘MOD Emergency Operator’ and Wakefield at one time linked up with sites down under too. They also had an autodialler facility, that got BT into lots of bother. Employees, a mix of ex service personnel and civvy, had strict protocols and scripts, if anyone asked where they were based or what they did etc, very similar to the wording you used in this video, funnily enough. Most of this became public knowledge over the years, likely except for the INMARSAT part, but I doubt if anyone ever got to the bottom of what the relays and antennas all did or what else was hidden, given that they successfully hid major military infrastructure in the cities disguised so well for years.

I remember the Yosemite Sam station. "Varmint, I'm a gonna blow you to smithereenies!" lol! xD

This is fascinating. I've been listening to numbers stations for some time and it's nice to see a location to connect some of them

At the VOA museum at the old Bethany VOA transmitter site during the tour they refer to number stations in part of their tour. They say that they did number stations from one of the transmitters there in Bethany Ohio.

Awesome video! Probably the most I've ever seen someone go into detail on the CIA's number stations. Also, besides E05 there are several other stations that were in the CIA's network. Those being G05, and V05 for agents likely in Germany and Cuba. There's also a few others E14, G14, and even a station where the CIA collaborated with the West German BND!

Alot of the numbers stations that have stopped transmission is because the USG switched to digital in 2003-4; and there are new more secure ways of transmitting information.

Very nice video. I live near these facilities and know them well, as do most folks that have been in the area for any length of time. Interesting to see familiar sites on here!

Great video Lewis makes a difference when it’s fresh information on number stations.

First rate Lewis ! Though our CG units didn't have any intelligence/counterintelligence involvement, we were trained as to the types of comms gear and other "paraphernalia" so we'd know what we were looking at if we found any of it on the foreign vessels we boarded everyday. The general consensus is that the numbers are part of a "one time pad" cypher system which at one time were the preferred method as only the two people who were sender and receiver could code/decode. In all the years I was in, only once did we come across a "spy ship", and it was so obvious with a myriad of antennae beyond that which is normal - a few vertical VHF, and a few HF long wire. Now today toss in some SATCOM... This thing had Yagi's, Discone's, Loops, Beams. And more than the obligatory VHFs and SSBs.

There's an 'abandoned' Naval station with huge arrays of HF antennas and old bunkers/buildings just outside of my town. I've always been fascinated with it and wanting to explore. Its gated up and still has signs of US Gov., but the land is now owned by a local farmer.. Quite confusing on how to go about exploring it.. But I would be willing to shoot some B-roll and photos if you ever felt like covering it @Ringway Manchester

If you want to find a military installation. Look for a fence and oddly perfectly cut grass that would improve sight lines from the building.

Great Video. Thanks for all the time you invested. I enjoy your channel. Keep them coming.

Love anything about number stations. thank you very much, a very well produced and informative video, will check out more...

We don't often get in-depth information about number stations. Even for the ones that have gone security remains tight-lipped..

So surreal to have a KZfaqr from across the pond talk about the area I live in.

Love your channel, I know nothing about radios, signals, or communications, but you have got me interested in learning. Thank you so much!

I bought a farm /land and inherited a huge govt antenna. Plugged in my Icom 7300 and Wizard Build 3CX15000A7. I got it from "BBI Amp builder". Going to talk around the world with that antenna and all the Kilowatts.

Great job once again Lewis!

Interesting that there is more than one facility Lewis brings a new meaning to number stations and again why? I always thought they were remote outback transmissions but clearly a more encrypted way to do these types of transmissions as we see here…. I like what you do and stand for ! 😎

Super great vid! Lots of info. Great job! I used to listen to "CynthIA" on my JRC NRD-525 all of the time back in the day!

Hi Louis. Brilliant again need more like this.

One of the sites, Vint Hill Farm, is now an air traffic control centre and electronic intelligence museum. Great report. Oh, know the Tyson's Corner tower well, used vhf and uhf networks. Oh, there are additional hf antennas in Arlington VA. Thanks for the video.

Hi Lewis, I found your channel because of number stations but I stayed for everything else that you produce. Thanks, Ian

I miss Cold War shortwave radio. It was amazing what you could hear.

That's mad. I live a short distance from Nauen and never knew the radio transmitter there was used as a number station. Cool!

Something in this video triggered my Google home to search for "Lumos from station Cindy"

Great video, Lewis. Did you consult the Enigma2000 group publications? I was a former 'lurker' in the group, as the son of a former 'Y' group (Beaumanor) operator & later civilian attached to 9th Signals Regt. Numbers stations were the reason I bought a Sangean AS909 multiband receiver some years ago. All the best, Rob in Switzerland

Take a look at the array of antennas on Embassy Row at Sheridan Circle (where Turkish street brawl occurred a few years ago). Look at all the antennas around the Romanian consulate/embassy.

Hi Lewis, This makes you wonder what they are up to these days, keep up the good work Cheers Dave.

Nice! I drove through here a few years ago and was disappointed to see not much left in the way of HF antennas; just two rhombics and a log periodic at station C. Station D was quite a sight will all the satellite gear, though.

Keep up the good work Louis 👍

Super! More on number stations please!

this place is what i've been snooping on for 2 years when i looked up where it was located, i would love for somebody to go there and see what they can see and find

No way! My family has a lake house not too far from there and I remember driving past that place a few times. That's crazy.

I remember clearly hearing the very last of the e05 transmissions in 2003 it felt just like 5 years earlier on hearing the very last of the Swedish rhapsody number station broadcasts ..... it made feel like the agent.in the field as we were hanging on to the very "end of ende " to those transmissions in the spring of 98 just above the 80meter amateur band on 3.825mhz ....back to E05 however ....I used to hear its transmissions in 1997/98 very very strong in s.e essex uk in the evenings beaming to Europe and beyond with that Iranian jammer clearly warbling underneath the dsb-am suppressed carrier...... "American foreign policy has never been welcome in terhan" ......many readers of and contributers to ENIGMA newsletter were sure the transmissions were emanating from the us transmission facilities at uk Air base at Barford St John in Oxfordshire....hence the monster 9mhz band signal to essex that had a groundwave swirl and feel to it...

Very interesting mate as always.

Dude these videos are so interesting, I have no idea why but they are.

LOL I commissioned all the power switchgear at these locations. And UPS systems for the data centers.

Great research on this. 👍

Fantastic. Great content always

Awesome work, pal.

Great vid, thank you 👌🏻👏🏻

I want to make a numbers station that just spams meme sound effects.

The area surrounding DC has some fascinating cold war era history associated with it. There's a bunch of facilities like this with very obscure and interesting history behind them. Some served as transmission sites but also doubled as fallback positions for key leadership of the military and civilian command infrastructure. While most the sites are no longer exactly a secret, many are still active though for other purposes like data centers, etc. Percievably they've been replaced with newer, secret locations or the government gave up the idea of having fixed hardened fallback positions all together.

America has radio bases here in central Australia, pine gap has a huge communication base.

Great piece!!!

Wow. This was an "edge of my seat" story the whole way through!

Great wee documentary! 👍

Fascinating as always

Enjoyed. How do I nicely write that audio example reference clips would have been fun during the exposition section of this video. My shortwave days are long over but I do recall some. It appears that KZfaq decided to share this to my main page with me.

Sister-site in the UK was collocated at Croughton's Barford St-John HF tx annex.

hearing all the mentions of culpeper virginia, I was literally just there buying some car parts and I never knew I drove right by all this stuff!

Man, I used to live in Culpeper and Warrenton, and our family drove through Remington all the time! Would have been cool to know about this, but back then I was just getting started in radios, and I had no idea about anything outside of the ham bands

The army had a satellite pointing tool available for their techs, this tool was on a public server but has since been moved into a private server. This tool showed where to point a dish no matter where you was. I followed the lines to where they pointed and it was a huge island out in the middle of the ocean covered in satellite dishes.

Lisstened to them many times back in the late '70's

I'ma let you in on a little secret... there's likely no stations A, B or both. Likely for the same reason there's only 5 SF Groups, and yet 2 of them are numbered 7th Group and 10th Group, with 10th Group being the oldest: good ol' PsyOps. Can't get further into that, for both lack of knowing and NDA, but it does present an interesting possibility

Also in Culpeper county is the "library of congress" its a hill that has an underground facility 6 foot lead walls and a tunnel that leads directly to the capital it was built in the 60's under Kennedy during the nuke crisis

Quality video Lewis

Thanks for sharing. I wondered what it was. What was that low frequency hum ?

All it takes is a home made yagi antenna tuned to the frequency of the transmitter to find the direction. I don't believe that nobody could find it if they wanted to.

Greetings from the area! Fauquier County - local pronunciation: "Faw-Keer".

Numbers stations are fascinating if not frustrating. I would like to learn more about them

You have the Norfolk Naval Base, The Dahlgren Naval Weapons Testing Grounds, The York Naval Weapons Base and the Wallops Island Space Center in this area, among others like the NSA, CIA, and others operating around the DC area as well as occlusion zones for prototype and expiremental weapons testing off of the coast of VA and N. Carolina.. They are developing the NGAD system there and I saw the diamond shaped fighter jet, escorted by two Chinooks and a few FA 18s at around 3am while lying in a pool at Corova Beach 3 years ago..

Interesting stuff!

NCS="National Communicatons System", established in 1963 to enable communications during a national crisis.

These stations are used to communicate messages to personnel all across the world. After my uncle died we found out that he worked for the CIA and at times my Aunt said he would get messages on shortwave in code.

Can't say I understand everything but what I did understand was very interesting

Finding out where they come from destroys the mystery. Some mystery in life is needed.

More great info, makes you wonder how much spy stuff is out there and no one really knows what they are communicating, very intriguing!👍 I hope you don't suddenly "dissapear" without a trace!😄🍻🙏

I grew up in remington... There were so many antennas in that field in the early 90s.

If you study the Tysons Corner image @7:25 note the number of white orbs that are present in the sky. (black / silver are also common) Experiencing or better still capturing a phenomena, normally boils down to being in the 'right place at the right time'. When your hobby or profession increases the amount of time spent in these 'phenomenal places', your far more likelier to be there at the 'right time' too - agreed? I'm hoping therefore that those of you within this specific community will have witnessed, experienced and perhaps even developed your own theories on what is behind this hitherto largely unexplained phenomena? If you've seen the orbs give this a thumbs up and at least we'll get a handle on awareness levels without folks having to elaborate now.

Civilians should always be informed, we pay for all this.

@1:30 hrmm what the heck of those? Looks like someone startd a mixed polcarity FM broadcast antenna but stopped half way :)

I lived near Tysons for my entire childhood. Always wondered what that tower near the interchange did.

Around the turn of the century I heard a few of these stations. Kinda eerie.

You forgot the other long wave signal that was broadcast from those locations as well. The long wave doomsday broadcast. That broadcasted the high altitude aviation weather for the US. Which would be used to determine the areas that would be affected by nuclear fallout in the event of a nuclear attack It went silent some time around the year 2,0000.

excellent report. much respect and 73-kb3aum

Nice to see an R-1000. I still use one. 😊

The gibson brothers knew about cuba.cheers bud have a good evening...

You know what I never understood? When someone is broadcasting to literal spies within your borders, why wouldn't you record that and play it over top of itself from your own towers? Maybe spend a week broadcasting a warning that you're going to do it to prevent Soviet era Deadman switches going off, but you certainly should shut that shit off immediately.

The Nauen station inspired the architect of Radio Kootwijk, The Netherlands, the resemblance is undeniable.

I find stuff like this fascinating.

JHC, everyone in Culpeper County knows what and where these facilities are!

While I assumed things like this had to exist it is fascinating to see the broad use of them around the world. I do wonder how these messages are repeated so that agents in remote locations can receive them and how the sender would know the intended receiver would be able to receive a given broadcast.

What do number stations purpose be? I mean numbers repeated over and over is not a code. I suppose

@Ringway Manchester - I know that area. The next time I am down there I will send you some photos of facilities in that area. I also have some really good photos of radio towers and places here in USA that you are welcome to use in your videos. I am the photographer and originator and you have my permission to use them.

I remember many years ago, our family went for a vacation on Cyprus. We drove around the island in a rented car. We drove up into the Troodos mountains, and there near the peak, close to the road, was at least one (memory a bit foggy) large radome. I was very surprised to see it there. I suspected it probably had something to do with sigint, although I didn't know that term then, because it had a great vantage point. I found out long after, that we saw RAF Station Troodos, and indeed that's exactly what the antenna were for. There's also a radar station.

Any possibility that WTC shortcut was mistaken in 2001 and wrong objects were destroyed?

Lincolnshire poacher is in Cyprus if anyone is interested...