Wednesday, October 22, 2014

The Secret Machine Behind Soviet Number Stations

I recently learned of a series of YouTube videos that show a German machine that is alleged to be the voice behind Soviet cold war numbers stations. The videos, uploaded four years ago, show something that looks like a piece of electronic lab equipment that emits a sampled or synthesized voice rattling off a programmed sequence of numbers. According to the accompanying description, the voice comes from swappable program chips, and the machines are owned by a German spy-gadget collector.