Didn't see a thread or forum for this so I thought I'd try here.

Here's my situation:
1) My radio is a Grundig YB400PE with the stock telescoping antenna.
2) I'm in the middle of a suburban area which is mostly open (e.g., not a bunch of trees).
3) I want to receive some numbers stations.
4) I've had no luck so far.

Can anyone recommend a better way to do this?

I also thought I'd share some frequency oddities I found in late November/early December:

2135 khz- very fast, off-pitch beeping (probably 6 bps)- complete mystery
10070 khz- kind of like above, but more watery-sounding (a search for 10070 yielded this: http://www.simonma...oo.net/page79.html . This is likely not related, since it lists a German frequency for KGB...)
4525 khz- sweeping monotone time signal (1 bps)- has a distinct beep, as opposed to other time signals, which just have a "pip"
4340 khz- rapid beeping, going off-pitch every few notes; sounds like Morse code, but this is not a MC frequency. EDIT: apparently it is the NATO submarine distress frequency.
4330 khz- low-pitched Morse code, but a search for this brought up nothing but a Spanish music station
4320 khz- every half-second, a very short lower-pitched note followed by a higher-pitched one about 5x longer; sounds like data
4210 khz- marine teletype, possibly "SAIO"? (o o o (pause) oo oo (pause) - - -)

I'll try to post a video of what I'm talking about. In the (Greenwich, ha-ha) meantime, does anyone know what these stations are?

http://www.youtube...atch?v=Q2RgKhCGdD4

Here's the video...

believe it or not i have had some luck with using wire antennas to pick up shortwave number stations, im near chicago now and last year i got a Spanish one, i cant find the damn recordings or frequency info, i think i lost them when i rebuilt my computer

Around 3.810? a spanish like version of wwv. There are others on other SW and Ham HF freq's. I scan the SW bands a lot too, mostly listening for pirates. I enjoy pirate radio, even more than ham radio!

it wasnt WWV, i think i looked it up and the interwebs told me that it was a cuban one, i dont know i may have been drunk when i was looking it up, but i also heard about drug runners using number stations for drops

and on the topic of pirates, and when i re-signed my lease for my apartment there was a part that said if i set up a pirate radio station and they find out they will evict me, it also said i couldnt raise goats

Time to set up a goat powered pirate radio station!

Posted by nohbdy believe it or not i have had some luck with using wire antennas to pick up shortwave number stations, im near chicago now and last year i got a Spanish one, i cant find the damn recordings or frequency info, i think i lost them when i rebuilt my computer

Interesting. I was considering building a Slinky antenna (metal Slinky stretched across the ceiling, alligator clip and wire with one end on stock antenna and other end clipped to Slinky) but didn't know if it would do anything.

Slinky antenna's work well i hear (pun not intended). The are great for loading antenna's in tight spots.

yea, i like slinky antennas for hf rx, i think you can find a 150' one on ebay for like $30

edit: found one http://cgi.ebay.co...aa61f#ht_972wt_882

Sweet, I just bought a few clips from RadioShack and a metal Slinky today. I'll solder it all up, attach it to the radio, and tell you guys how it works...soon!

I have been listening to the "spanish lady" once in a while. On fridays (utc), it starts on 5.883Mhz @ 7:00 UTC, and then on 5.898Mhz @ 8:00 UTC. "¡atención" message numbers, (sets of three then two) , repeated 3 times....then the message body with number sets of five....., then "final" repeated 3 times.

I suspect (as do a lot of others) a one time pad is used, and that the "¡atención" followed by the same number sets (three times repeated) are the pad designators, and the desired receiving station for the message, as well as message length. There are of course no formal call letters, nor any acknowledgement by any governments, or even the ITU. It is suspected (from what i have read, and seems credible) that the transmissions are from Cuba. Very loud here, usually 40Db over S9, on a G5RV antenna 50 feet up, pointed east west, here on Vancouver Island.

Posted by nohbdy believe it or not i have had some luck with using wire antennas to pick up shortwave number stations, im near chicago now and last year i got a Spanish one, i cant find the damn recordings or frequency info, i think i lost them when i rebuilt my computer

I haven't done any SWL'ing in a long time but when I did these stations were always strong, even when I used very simple antennas. I think they have to be strong in order to be heard by the people the messages are intended for. Those guys are using very simple antennas too..

It used to be easy to find numbers stations on the SW bands, but I've heard they are a lot scarcer now.

Here's one, 11.175. I know what it is. Gets boring after a few months, then a new war starts, and it gets interesting again. *sigh*