JOEL JOHNSON — The Grundig Yacht Boy 400PE is ostensibly a portable marine device for tuning in AM/FM and shortwave radio stations (as the ‘Yacht Boy’ moniker might have tipped you off to.) For those that want to explore the darker side of radio reception, however, the Yacht Boy becomes a indispensable tool for discovering and monitoring ‘Numbers Stations’, the shortwave radio stations that broadcast mysterious streams of five-figure number blocks throughout the night. Although no one knows exactly what they are for, hobbyists poking about the edges have inferred that the broadcasts are the messages of various spy organizations, utilizing nigh-uncrackable one-time pad crypto. Since short wave can be bounced around the world without a repeater or an amplifier, it’s perfect for international communication where large transmitters or receivers could be a liability. There are better shortwave radios than the Yacht Boy, but few as portable (or as cheap.)
If that isn’t enough to spark your interest, according to Wikipedia, both Stereolab and Wilco have used excerpts from numbers stations audio in their music, while the Scottish bleep masters Boards of Canada were ‘influenced by numbers stations at an early age.’ [Thanks, Chris!]
