Lincolnshire Poacher (numbers station)

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The Lincolnshire Poacher was a powerful British shortwave numbers station that transmitted from HM Government Communications Centre near Gawcott in Buckinghamshire, England, and later from Cyprus, from at least the mid-1970s to July 2008. The station gained its commonly known name as it uses bars from the English folk song "The Lincolnshire Poacher" as an interval signal. The radio station was believed to be operated by the British Secret Intelligence Service. Amateur direction finding linked it with the Royal Air Force base at Akrotiri, Cyprus, where several curtain antennas were identified as being its transmitter. It consisted of a pre-recorded English-accented female voice reading groups of five numbers: e.g., '0-2-5-8-8'. The final number in each group was spoken at a higher pitch. It is likely that the station was used to communicate to undercover agents operating in other countries, to be decoded using a one-time pad. Cherry Ripe, a numbers station of identical format, is believed...

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