@5.25 Portishead Radio (GKC) chirping away in the background, along with GKD, used for from ship traffic. At its peak (1979ish) QRY 100 plus was common requiring at least an hour monitoring one or other of the aforementioned channels 5:27 5:27 . So happened I was to be at GKA in an official capacity on or very adjacent to the day of closure, acquiring a Post Office standard key as a memento - buried in a cupboard somewhere

Growing up in the 80s and listening to short wave hearing the voices. sounds and music phasing in and out from places like Russia, and eastern Europe always seemed dark and mystical. Like you were listening to something forbidden from places you knew very little about.

I can recall listening to these as a kid in the 60s, 70s. Being a nerd from birth, I was given a shortwave radio receiver and spent hours at night scanning up and down the dial. I love this channel. Thank you.

I was stationed in West Berlin (U.S. Army) from 1984-1987 and had a decommissioned Collins R-390 receiver in my barracks room. I was able to string up a long wire antenna and could hear these numbers stations with no difficulty. Hearing the gongs and chimes brings back memories of those days.

The "transmission for the bright child" uses the German children's song "All of My Ducklings" as a coded political message. In the first verse, "all my ducklings swimming in the lake have their heads underwater and their tails in the air." In the second verse, "all my doves sitting on the roof lift up into the air and all fly away." In the third verse, "all my hens scratching in the straw find grains, and are happy." I think this song is used as a clever commentary by those who manned the Gongs and Chines station for so many years: Our agents (the little ducklings) should now all go "underwater" lest their "asses" be exposed; the transmitting staff members (the doves) are about to "fly the coop;" and everyone (the hens) can find new jobs, which will make us all happy.

"All my ducklings swim to the lake. Heads in the water, tails in the air." That means all agents are exposed. Everyone disappear and act uninvolved.

That final broadcast was very creepy. Great work! Thank you.

Very creepy sounds… but to me, even the completely innocuous WWV has always sounded somewhat creepy most of the time. That clock tick, when I’m in a bad mood, can make me feel as if my life is truly ticking away.

I didn't know what number stations were when I was a kid so when I heard "Oxygene Part II" on the shortwave suddenly followed by weird numbers, *that* was the scariest thing I had ever heard on shortwave.

This gongs and chimes are very scary!This channel is amazing,the content about rádio transmission is incredible!

Whenever scrolling through a feed full of unenlightend, cheaply engineered sensationalism, I can always count on Ringway Manchester to provide something entertaining and enlightening. Often times about something so inconspicuous you never thought to question it, or simply never thought it to exist. Very cool stuff!

I knew it would be some number station spy stuff, when I read "most terrifying short wave signal" and saw the Berlin tower in the thumb nail but I wasn't prepared for some spooky GDR chime and gongs for sure. That they didn't switched out the old tape really rounded it off. Great video and greetings from Germany :)

According to the memoires of Markus Wolf the Alle meine Ente was a code telling agents that they were no longer required - a goodbye/signing off-signal.

Lewis you've captured the essence of numbers stations for me in this one. The feeling of the void reaching into your ear and leaving a question.

Fun thing to do: Use Gongs and Chimes as your ringtone on smartphone. Here in Berlin. And then look how other people around you are reacting when you get an incoming call. It's really scary. BTDT. Very many people seem to know that sequence. Which leads to the question how many of them might have been active in GDR intelligence service.

It actually mildly upsets me that the ever growing advent of digital radio will end up with us losing common access to the more mysterious and interesting aspects of the EM spectrum. I remember being given my first multiband radio receiver and listening to all sorts of fascinating, squeaks, bleeps, languages and effects like phasing. Feels odd that many kids these days will never get to experience that.

I remember that one. Terrifying indeed. I couldn't read Morse back then but about 5.55 minutes in you can hear "de GKC" a couple of times. Presumably this was Portishead Radio announcing that they were listening for traffic and the East Germans were very naughtily broadcasting on a maritime band.

Living on the east coast of Scotland all my life, back in the 80's when I was a wee boy I had this huge radiogram in my bedroom with all sorts of bands (LW, MW, SW, ETC) on the dial. I used to pick up all sorts of weird and unsettling radio broadcasts wavering in and out from Europe and Russia/USSR. I remember hearing the Gongs 'n' Chimes one evening and feeling very creeped out at the unsettling sound more so than the other weird sounding transmissions which soft-triggered my 'fight - flight' reflex. I totally forgot all about it all and hearing it again 40 years later brought it alllll back, lol. Yeah the hair on my arms, legs and back all stood up the second that Gong/Chime sound started. Quite funny now how I react to hearing certain sounds and/or music _(the intro to the Beatles - Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds part before the singing starts, has the same effect on me)._ But it was quite fascinating to finally learn what that eerie sound was after all this time. *Cheerz Lewis, I appreciate your videos.* 👍🏼

My favorite station. and it's actually my ringtone and my morning alarm, very calming. Great video I've learned many things i didn't even know

New Subscriber. Listening to Shortwave since early 70s. Currently with surplus former military intercept equipment. Your channel is a rich vein. Thank You for doing this

That final message is kinda eerie considering those men are all drunkenly singing for what is essentially the death of the nation they'd known for so long, soon to be replaced with an entirely new world

Ahhh, them good old Cold War days. I remember this station very well. Especially the 'funef'🤣. I used to fall asleep listening to stations like this. Until this day I still do need a radio or video sound to fall asleep.

I was scrolling through stations on a basic ghetto blaster over 20 years ago (out of sheer boredom)...at one point through the static I clearly heard a human voice announcing that something was "holding at MACH 6.1". I know of no aircraft that can fly at such speeds, so I assume I'd momentarily tapped into some military/space frequency that probably wasn't for public consumption. As for number stations, I downloaded hundreds of individual clips years ago from "the conet project". Very mysterious and a genuine indication that the cold war never really ended.

A real Gong Show. I saw the shiny silver East Berlin tower from when I was in West Berlin in 1979, after we drive there through East Germany while on our vacation in West Germany, where as I had stated, my Father and Uncle were born south of Berlin in 1911, before that portion of Germany was divided. That children's song was awful sounding. 😮

Back in the 70's, I had my Grandmothers Nordmende stereo with Shortwave. We lived in Atlanta at the time and for Halloween I would set the radio in the window and play numbers stations and shortwave broadcasts. I fear I caused some nightmares with that radio. Since Halloween is my birthday, I took this very seriously, LOL!

I remember these along with sooo many others back in the day, the nact magnetic tape does add that eerie feeling many thanks for the capture to digital and sharing

Terrifying to some, sweet music to another... I once read an account about a family who had defected from East Germany during the 1970's with the help of West German agents. They described how their handlers would smuggle small micro-sized cypher booklets to them so they could decode their instructions via a numbers station. Apparently the cyphers were printed on very thin paper so they could be chewed and swallowed if they were ever caught with them.

At your Intro ,I noticed a Borden Dairy sign and Borden Dairy(as well as Dean's) started in Elgin,Illinois.....Many people in Elgin listened to Shortwave and we remember hearing the irrie German transmissions as well as the Russian jamming on other Frequencies --- My neighbors and I listened to The Voice of America and BBC Broadcasts--- Good memories

Number stations remain so chilling. A form of continual “physiological Cold War” 🫣

I've learned a new thing thanks to you today. When I heard in one of the recordings the number 2 pronounced as "zwo" instead of "zwei" I was puzzled because I seemed to remember that was the Bavarian pronunciation. So I did a quick search an discovered that in radio transmission zwo is preferred to zwei because the latter can be confounded with drei (3). So something I didn't know before. Thank you.

Very interesting research, thank you very much for that ! As a child I often sat in front of the radio. I found the chimes interesting, but I didn't know that it came from our class enemy. At 5:50 you can also hear Morse code like "de GKK, de GKD, de GKC". Maybe they come from English maritime radio stations? The children's song is translated as "All my ducklings... heads under the water" and probably means that the agents should go underground.

Your documentary style story-telling just gets better and better, Lewis. Congrats on a fantastic video which takes me back to all those signals I heard as a kid and didn't understand! 73

58 August-Bebel-Straße - on google maps you can see the old entrance to the station at Königs Wusterhausen, Looks abandoned but still secure with CCTV and lots of fences. Interesting watch

I remember these, most commonly it was swamping on an old valve radiogram, my father (ex WWII RAF Aircrew AG/Sigs) always told me they were frequency holding recordings, used to block frequencies to other users

The electronica album 'The Shortwaves' by Növö uses shortwave recordings on many of its tracks. Gongs and Chimes appears on the first track of the same name.

Like noted in many other comments this is very nostalgic to me. I have been tuning the bands from the Netherlands since the age of about 10 so I started in 1965. Thanks for sharing.

Yasss, I've been hoping for more coverage of Gongs and Chimes! The degradation of the tape has always fascinated me in particular.

I used to pick it up back in the day from Poland. I always thought that the numbers are some kind of code, but at the same time I was thinking who would send coded massages via lo-tech SW. Thanks for shedding some light and pointing to the source of the broadcast.

Brilliant. Was hoping youd cover this one, being a DDR cold war geek myself.

It's like they went out of their way to make it sound as creepy as possible haha.

I can remember listening to this on an old Codar CR70 with a wire antenna terminating in an old sprung bed frame. It worked better than a long wire. Happy days experimenting. 73's de G7WJJ

Great stuff. Really enjoyed this

It brings back memories. I’ve listened to all these signals. Thanks for sharing these videos. Now I have the explanations.

Those erie stretched tape preambles are appropriate for being near Halloween. I wonder if there are ghost signals in the ether out there just waiting to slip into a receiver for a whisper or two.

As a teenager in the '70s I had a cheap multiband radio with a long wire antenna. We lived in a rural area of central Kentucky....I remember hearing those gongs, along with " ratatatski" ...and had no idea what they were or where they were from.

I used to listen to short wave after dark when I was kid during the cold war etc. Have to say your videos have re-ignited my interest in this.

Wow another great video! Chock full of knowledge, research, and wonder! Great job!

I remember hearing this living in Germany in the early to middle 70s. Nice to finally understand what it was. Listening on Gründig receiver.

Well-researched as usual, and thanks for making the effort to pronounce the german words correctly - so many YT videos don't bother.

This I can remember! I have listen to shorwave since I was a young boy on my KURER-radio. It had shortwave and the fishingshortwave frequenses. This was in the 60 and 70'ts. Thank's for this video Lewis. It gave me some "flashbacks". The best from LB1NH. 🙂

There is an article about these number transmitters in the German-language Wikipedia. Accordingly, the transmission location was not near Königs Wusterhausen, but the “NVA radio office” (AFZ) near Angermünde. The transmitting point was in a forest area near Senftenhütte and the receiving point was near the town of Crussow. The transmitter near Angermünde had four powerful shortwave transmitters. Another transmitting point, although little used for spy radio, was between Dessau and Köthen near the town of Scheuder. For broadcasting operations, circular antennas with a height of over 34 meters, dipole antennas with spans of 40 and 70 meters and directional antennas were used in the agents' corresponding operational areas.

Awesome as a possum with a blossom video!! I love it! I used to listen to shortwave signals on my late mom's shortwave radio. Though I don't rightly recall ever hearing THESE signals presented here in this video. But this is so crazy interesting!! Thank you lots!! :) :) :) :)

Wander if the Gongs and Chimes inspired Goth music? Freaked me out first time I heard it on an old multi-band radio I bought at a jumble sale and repaired back in 78. The fact of tape degradation made a good one for Halloween.

Well that's me not sleeping for a month lol. I've only recently found this channel after you appeared on auto shenanigans and I'm loving your videos

Almost 50 years ago, before my Father, and my Uncle, his twin, born south of Berlin in 1911, needed their birth certificates for retirement to obtain Social Security and Medicare here in the US, in 1976, at age 65. I have my Father's still today, which came to the US through friends in Switzerland in 1974, being a neutral country. The certificate has the GDR symbol on it. 😮

I was fascinated by shortwave when I was a kid especially the woodpecker signal. Spent hours over many years just scanning and finding weird sounds and signals. Seemed like it was all coming from millions of miles away.

I got my first shortwave radio when in grade school. I heard gongs & chimes and have to say I was scared as hell!

Many thanks for show it. I guarded the station in Zeesen a few times, during my service from 1986 to 1989 with the Felix Dzierzynski Guard Regiment. And I often listened to the numbers station there on my small medium wave radio. No wonder when you stand right next to the antennas.

Oh, I remember all these number stations from my DX-ing youth. There was a debate among us. Most of us were rightly convinced these were transmissions to spies while some holdouts tried to convince us they were weather reports 😮😮😮

Absolutely loving your new intros man👌

Love studying about the DDR and it’s radio stations and transmissions. The Conet Project is an excellent resource for such. The fear people feel from this and other numbers stations is palpable and beautiful.

G03 was one of the more interesting number stations. As the preamble tape got stretched over time, the gongs turned into wonky gongs, just adding to the fun.

When I was a kid I accidentally discovered those NDB signals on longwave thinking there would be soldiers of WWII somewhere buried in a bunker transmitting signals

Ahh, the good old numbers... Are there any to be found, still? I got my 1st own radio 1978 and the airwaves were magic to me, I loitered around the am and sw bands as late as I could in search of strange language and music. We had so many interference producing devices less then. I like Your channel.

Lmao, I remember one day I played the G03 gongs off The Conet Project compilation from the balcony of a loft I rented at the time, and a neighbour's child listened to it & just cheerfully repeated BONG BONG 🤣

I lived in the Falkland Islands in the 70's and 80's and got into amateur radio, there was something called the Russian Woodpecker that would obliterate transmissions for hours on end. It was said to be an over the horizon radar array that caused this. I believe this was situated right next to the Chernobyl plant?

heard the gongs many times on shortwave great memories, many thanks.

Some nightmare fuel for the evening 😂 Cheers mate, on form as ever 👌🏻

This was my first time hearing German spoken with a British accent! :)

Intetesting and fascinating content Lewis..heard lots of numbers stations when I was posted to West Germany in the mid 70s..had a Yacht Boy SW Receiver..great bit of kit...sadly it got broken...

The end of the one of the most creepiest numbers stations is equally fun and disturbing, imagine listening to that back then!!! We are very fortunate that is was recorded.

We have a several clocks in our house that have what others might consider “spooky chimes”, including a large vintage Grandfather clock, two antique chiming clocks (one from the 1800’s and one from the early 1900’s) and a German Cuckoo clock. So this number station barely phases me. But based on comments, I should probably have some empathy for guests who come to visit us!

Never heard these, but like always interesting, must be terrifying if you are in the dark listening to that.

Very interesting video as always.

They organised some bottles for that last transmission, kind of a wake! 😀

Your videos really help me get to sleep. Thank you.

I used to have horrible insomnia. I uses to listen to Conet Project's recordings to get to sleep. Numbers stations are strangely comforting for me.

Yet another fantastic and informative documentary

Fascinating. Great video.

Another fascinating video. Back in the 70s/80s, I used to listen to a lot of short wave radio. I well remember the gongs, a more suitable choice for an intimidating ID signal I can’t imagine. Sometimes the signal strength here was very strong. I seem to remember another station which had an ID signal of four ascending electronic tones. The voice and number sequences sounded identical to those on the gongs station. Does anyone know anything of this station? Was it another DDR station, or a western one mimicking the gongs/chimes one to create confusion on the airwaves. I’d be interested to know.

Excellent insight to a shadowy world with a eerie sound track.

Gotta comment. Good story. Good presentation. Good narration. Thanks and always listening. Tom.

Love it! I was playing snippets of the East German woman over one of my own tunes - works well.

Great video, Lewis...👍

I heard these broadcasts as a teenager and the creepy nature of them stayed with me. I also remember the 4 note rising scale station, also broadcasting in German. Weird but fascinating in its way...

Nice one. Great vid.

shortwave gave the listener a lot of news not heard in the US it was hard to get some countries but the signal strength from Moscow could pin an S meter

Excellent episode, Lewis! I had always wondered what the truth was behind these broadcasts. It was assumed to be East German, but I don't remember anyone knowing even exactly where the transmitter was. Clearly, it was on the CIA's radar! I do agree that this was probably the creepiest numbers station ever, and this episode is quite appropriate for Halloween. Cheers!

I often find myself watching the official video for Kasabian's tune Club Foot after these Eastern Block stories.

Always a good watch Lewis...

another good video, Thanks

I'm trying to decide if a bunch of drunken Stasi officers is reassuring or scary. On the one hand, it makes them seem human. On the other hand, they were pretty bad when sober so things could easily turn nasty.

"Die Sendung für das aufgeweckte Kind" is most likely a reference to a skit by comedian Otto Waalkes, who was extremely popular in the 1980s and 90s. He was from West Germany himself, but was well-known in the East, too. To me, that would be in line with the idea of the staff goofing off a bit on the final transmission of their career, knowing that they wouldn't face any repercussions for it anymore.

Many thanks you have an amazing knowledge

I listened to these in New Guinea in the 80s..tuning in, in the middle of the night

I don’t remember the gongs and chimes but I do remember playing with the short wave band on a portable radio one Sunday and heading a disembodied German female voice repeating sechs sieben eins over and over - it came back to me when I heard the voice in this video

Bizarre stuff. I love the images.

Long one as short as possible. I lived in SE Berlin for a couple of years (2010 - 2013) in a place called Köpenick. A friend and I used to bike (peddle) all over the place, but more often than not we’d bike around a place called Müggelsee. A lake and forest area popular with locals. We came across a derelict viewing platform/tower with a great view above the trees for miles across the forest. Underneath it was an abandoned ice cream parlour which we explored. In the basement was a single prison cell. The door was open and there was nothing left in it except an old rusty bed frame. It looked as if it had been abandoned for a long time. There was a very weird atmosphere there and we didn’t hang about long. What got me though was why would there be a prison cell under an ice cream parlour? Back in the day I can imagine happy families out for the day buying their ice cream while right below them stood a cell, with god knows what going on in it. I seem to remember the viewing platform having the remains of some rusty aerial remnants on it too. So when you mentioned south east of Berlin, that place sprang straight to mind.

So, what was terrifying?

G'day to you, its been a long time since I have been to Ring Way Manchester , I used to go there in the 60s with me Pal Plane spotting, I will watch your interesting Videos from now on,ExPat Mancunian Perth Western Australia!