The Lincolnshire Poacher

This is a copy of The Numbers Racket CD-ROM, which I prepared back in 1998. I am presenting it here, unedited, for historical purposes. Obviously most if not all of the information is 'out of date' today, but think of it as a snapshot of what the Spy Numbers scene was like in the late 1990s.

Like what you see here? Help support my work by taking a look at my software , and buy something of interest :) It's all available for download before purchase, so you can try it out.

Enjoy!

Several Numbers Stations are known for playing signature tunes at the beginning of each transmission, supposedly as an aid for recipients tuning in the station. The Lincolnshire Poacher is perhaps the best known example of this type of station. It's signature tune is an old English folk song called "The Lincolnshire Poacher".

The tune is played at the beginning and end of each transmission, along with a five digit identifier - presumably the recipient of the message. A female voice is used, with a distinctly British accent. This station is believed to be operated by MI6, the British intelligence agency.

There is a sister station, The Cherry Picker, which transmits in the Far East.

Here's a typical transmission...

Lincolnshire Poacher tune		Rpt twelve times
50338					Identifier is repeated ten times
6 musical notes				Message about to begin (sent at ten minutes past the hour)
83840 83840 57389 57389 ...		Message text, always 200 five figure groups, each group rpt
6 musical notes				Notes played again at the end of the message
Lincolnshire Poacher tune		The tune is played once more

Transmissions begin on the hour, and can be heard throughout most of the day. Transmissions always end at 45 minutes past the hour. There is then fifteen minutes of dead air, until the next transmission begins at the top of the hour. Several frequencies are used from the following table, usually two or three are active at a time:

Not all frequencies are active, those marked with an asterisk * are presently in use.

Listen to The Lincolnshire Poacher (ENIGMA E3)

The transmitter site is believed to be on the island of Cyprus, with a target area in the Middle East.

The Lincolnshire Poacher is often subject to a powerful warble jammer. Since the station uses a fixed number of frequencies and a predictable schedule, it makes for being a very easy jamming target. The jammer facilities are believed to be in Iraq.
Listen to the warbler jammer

Sometimes (although rarely) Numbers Stations are jammed by pirate radio operators. Here's one example, a pirate QRMing The Lincolnshire Poacher on 6959 kHz. This is certainly not a very smart move by the pirate, since it is quite likely to annoy the radio monitors of the NSA, who are most likely monitoring and recording all Numbers Station activity. It's interesting to note that several pirates in the past who operated on frequencies frequented by Numbers Stations have been busted by the FCC, such as Voice of the Voyager on 6840 kHz, and several pirates which operated on 7415 kHz, which was used to relay traffic between Cuba and Moscow. 6840 Khz of course was at one time perhaps the single most active Numbers Station frequency.

Listen to a pirate jamming The Lincolnshire Poacher

Like what you see here? Help support my work by taking a look at my software , and buy something of interest :) It's all available for download before purchase, so you can try it out.