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Conet goes public

Wow, weird synchronicity today. I was working from home and was listening to the Conet Project all day, because I didn't have any housemates or workmates to tell me to turn it off. I like listening to it while I work, I find that it helps my ability to focus.

Then I was on Jeremy's page earlier tonight and saw this story about the whole Conet codex being put online for download. Check it out... The Conet project is a series of recordings of numbers stations broadcasts over the last 20 years. Numbers stations are used by the intelligence agencies of other countries to communicate with agents overseas. They transmit random series of numbers, which match up with "one time pad" code books used by the agents.

The way it works, overseas agents are given a "one time pad" with a series of messages, linked to numbers at the top of each page. The agent, using a standard shortwave set, tunes into a prearranged frequency at a prearranged time. He or she hears the number being broadcast, matches it up with the right page, and reads the intended message. Because there is no information besides a random number sent out in the broadcast, there is no way for the enemy country to discover what the message is unless they actually capture the agent with the one time pad (which does happen sometimes). From a cryptology standpoint though, one time pad systems are unbreakable.

So, many years ago, some amateur shortwave enthusiasts realized that someone, somewhere was sending strings of random letters or numbers on unused frequencies and strange times of night, in different languages. Something weird was going on. They began recording these broadcasts when they found them, and the result was half a dozen CDs of these messages released under the name "Conet Project." The codes are unbreakable, but you can listen to these voices in Russian, German, English, French, Spanish, and imagine that these are real broadcasts that were sent globally, but intended for one desperate spy, hiding in a basement somewhere, writing down the numbers and consulting their one time pad to learn the next assignment.