The Future of Radio Mystery

From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies, history is riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now. or learn the stuff they don't want you to know. Production of IiHarR radio Hello, Wlcome back to the show My name is Matt. My name is Noah. They call me Ben and you can too. We're joined as always with our super producer Dylan, the Tennessee Pal Fagan. M importantly, you are you, you are here. That makes this the stuff they don't want you to know. Beep beep, beep, beep beep beep beep beep That'll be funny later. I don't know what Morse code that may be Its It was the Nickelodeon theme song. Was it the Nickelodeon theme song? Fous inspres? Yes, sir. Guys, have you ever messed around with Ham radio? Whatere is this tw again Gosh, I had to learn hold Maybe it's just ham. I alwayss like a little crystal. It's just got like a piece of ham in there or a tiny sandwich. I like the concept of it. I like it as plot points in sci fi movies from the eighties, It's always fun. when like the protagonists have a ham radio and they inst intercept like alien signals or they us talk to their buddies U, but I never have. No. I had to learn a little bit back in the day, but I've forgotten most of it and probably All of us tuning in now thoseose of our fellow conspiracy realists who are most familiar with a lot of radio communication, you're going to be our trucker pals, right? You're going to be on a CB radio. guysuys, I'd love to hear from our trucking conspiracy realist about the strangest stuff you've heard on a CB radio That's gonna to be nuts The best HM radios exist in nineteen nineties conversion vans. I don't know if you guys remember these old vans that they look almost like an RV But it's a van And then if somebody is an enthusiast and has one of those radios in it, h. One of the coolest things you can do because you can just go up on a mountain or something, just turn that sucker on and just see what you get And just vibe, you know? seeB radio after and ham radio like after a certain time of night. is basically coast to coast A in with absolutely no censorship, just no crazy stuff. No brakes, no braakes on the truck or the van for that one. I mean, it's crazy We're all audio nerds here, I think. and we sort of take radio itself for granted. It's so fascinating. It's invisible communication across the planet into space Comem on. L humanity, I'm not going to say humanity's perfect But gosh, darn when humans get a home run, they really knock it out of the park. Radio is amazing. It's also neat like the way I think that certain frequencies that got kind of abandoned are ranges that were given over to like broadcasting high deff radio and high de TV. And I think there's like whole ranges of the spectrum now that are like a little more available or something? L I'm curious about where that went. L I think it almost I seem to remember it opened up some opportunities for some more like weird pirate uses of the radio spectrum. I love a pirate radio. This brings us this is an update really, folks to somethingomet that we have been pursuing and fascinated by for years We're re exploring the world of numbers stations because There is a new kid on the block Uh what do he say we take a break for a word from our sponsors and get into it This is an IHart podcast. guuaranteed human Alienwears's Back to School event is the perfect time to score top gaming gear with incredible features and advanced engineering to go beyond performance Start your Alienware journey with the Alienware fifteen Gaming laptop, featuring Intel core processors. Oh yeah, game, live stream and multitask for hours on end. Pair your incredibly smooth gaming experience with immersive visuals and sound by saving on sleek alienware monitors, headsets, and more This limited time sale awaits you now at alienware d. com slash deals This july fourth comes celebrate at America's Block Party hosted by America two hundred fifty. America's Block Party is a campt miss fourourth of July concert happening at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseseum. Experience music performances by major artists, patriotic tributes, and the kickoff to Giving Fth, helping to make july fourth the largest day of giving in American history. It's more than just fireworks. Join this landmark celebration and get your America's Block Party tickets now for seventeen dollars seventy six cents at America two fifty dot org slash L Hey everyone, it's Kell Penn. I'm inviting you to join the best sounding book cllub you've ever heard with my podcast, Earsay. Audible and IHart Audioobook Club. Every episode, I nerd out with amazing guests and dive into the best new audiobooks available on Audible. It's the book Cub for your ears Listen to EarsSay, the Audible and I Heart Audio book Club On the Arhartt Radio apppp or wherever you get your podcasts It's America's two hundred and fiftieth, but you deserve some presents too. Simon Malls, mills and premium outlets have can't miss sales july third to fifth. Join Simon Plus, our new rewards program for free and get two point five times the points in addition to extra savings, cashback and offers that also work at shopsimon. comot Grab the fam, head to a Simon center and make it a day for the books. It's a celebration thing. Sign up today at Simonplus d. comot Rewards program terms apppply, seeee Simonplus d. com for details Here are the facts. All right, said it once before, but a bearars repeating Shout out to Jack White. We covered num stations years years ago, so maybe just a brief Recap of the concept. U there Crazy complex in ideation and application but they're simultaneously Disturbingly simple create and run. like they're They're short wave radio from World War Ine Oh yeah Guys, I think we talked about this a little while back when we were mentioning Cuba and numbers stations in Soviet era Cold War era. And it was I can't remember the details here, but back in the mid twenty ten or around twenty ten actually. wereeren't there some folks arrested in the U. S who were specifically listening to numbers stations? Wasn't that a big story? Yes, yes, it was Matt. It was very was it was similar to the kind of fictional portrayals of sleeper agents that we would see in prestige television series like The Americans And it was actually happening. There was was coming fromom like Cuba. And people were in the US. listening to it and it was for purposes of a third country Yeah, exactly. Yeah. and that's brilliant because You know, okay, so World War one, this when number stations This when they blossom. att the height of the Cold War decades later, radios are increasingly affordable and available to civilians. And so you got a bunch of, you know, you got a bunch of guys in their vans on the hill, right? out in the prairie. They're radio enthusiasts, they're checking their headphones and across the planet they start paying more and more attention to these strange broadcasts, like odd specific snatches of melody or a series of beeps, like the the Nickelodeon thing, I guess I accidentally did And then messages, just really like off putudding, creepy pasta twwilight zone messages like a lady is slowly counting in German or there's a child. I don't know why a child reading creepy letters aloud is so a strange. I always think of the very deellightfully used number station sample from the also got the name Yankee Hotel Fox Trot, the Wokco record where it's like Yankee Hotel Fox trot. Yankee. Hotel. I mean, that's the perfect example. L these looping kind of messages. obbviously Yankee Hotel Fox trot is military, you know, terms through letters,? NATO alphabet. Yeah you go. Thank you is that a super common thing. I noticed The Cuban number stations also had a female voice reading letters and numbers, mostly numbers Ppaganda Yeah, it is, it is guys, propaganda propaganda and these kind of communications will trend to historically will trend toward a female sounding voice There's some psychology that goes into it, but I think there's also a lot of sexism., I wonder if it's What's the intelligibility like you can hear the numbers better for one reason or another. It cuts through certain frequencies better. I just wonder if Tone actually has something into the strategy or it is all psychological. I don't know. I don't know. Mbe maybe it's that in general Han beings tend to like the better half of the species. Maybe that's it. Or it seems less threatening maybe for some reason, somethingately. Like how script supervisors tend to be female identifying in Hollywood. Maybe I mean, that's a great question. We love your thoughts on it, folks. We also know Like if we put ourselves back in the mininds, all right, it's Cold War. I can afford some pretty nice radio equipment that was too expensive for my ancestors I am baffled Because these broadcasts with as we were saying, often creepy voices, they don't identify where they're coming from. Nobody's like Still in bed coming to you live from East Stain. Louis, Missouri. And here are the hits on infrastructure for this week They're not identify themselves. People discover more and more of these anomalous broadcasts. They share them with other people in b growing radio community as well as with the authorities. And they're like, hey, local police, hey, federal government, have you heard This child who sounds like she's eight, she just pops on the air, reads some numbers, sings part of Merary Had a littleittle lamb. and they got they got shuted out by the authorities. These amateure or I would say civilian is a better word, enthusiast and The radio users who found these stations because there was no official recognition of them They started giving them street names like Nancy Adam Susan The Lincolnshire poach her. and the Swedish Rhapsody or the Gong station, which all kind of sound like weird, weirdly specific sexual moves. Also again are like seventies music themes TV shows, The Gong station. was What was one before that thenen Oh, the Swedish Rhapsody and Swedish Rhapsody. Yeah. The Lincoln shirt Culture That sounds like a serial killer. It's like ye Yeah. It's an old English He doesn't just kill, he just poaches. He just poaches He's hunting humans out of season. Yeah pohing humans on the king's land. That's also true. Ben. I like that the idea that he's out there just poaching eggs. and he gets it perfect too. He knows exactly how to do it, right? Yeah. he's down to the minute. He's got a timer got to get that vortex going is the thing. Yeah Yeah a little bit of vinegar, make a whirlpool. You know the game. So the Lincolnshire poacher was called that because it would use a clip, like a very short clip, like two bars from a real English folk song as what we call an interval signal. As in a think of it like a comma or a semic colon In a sentence pause, listen. You know, again, we got to think what it's like to be these guys. theseese people, excuse me. We're going deeper and deeper into a rabbit hole. Oh yes, we are. I want to think about these intervals because It I in my mind, it's almost like The signal for you, the recipient, whoever you may be to get out your pad and your paper, because here comes a message R? I mean and I understand like you put the interval in there to separate whatever messages you're sending, but also If you know that sound, that specific thing, like in this case, this song, right? you as the recipient go, oh, crap. okay, it's time. Here comes, you get got to get ready because it's not like you can replay the message until you have to wait for it to play all the way through again Yeah. And if you don't have the ability to record it. which you probably shouldn't have just to be safe then you you have your one chance. So it's like an emergency alert. how you hear that weird sound right before This is a test or this is not a test. It's exactly that. Matt I would add to that by saying we cannot forget that the time or the duration of silence can be a message itself. Silence can also be a powerful message when we're talking about encryption. So these folks who are just like, hey, I love radios, I like hearing stuff as they get into this rabbit hole They realize this is not a bunch of other enthusiasts making cryptic radio clips for Fzies, they say there's only one reason someone would go to all this trouble. theseese numbers stations, whatever street names we give them. They're being used to send coded messages across long distances. And this is like exactly we're just talking about the encryption, right? dec coding U Can we talk about one time pad what that means because I know we've mentioned it in our video series and we've mentioned it on previous episodes of stuff They don't want you to know But now that we're on Netflix Like an encryption key Yeah, now that we're on Netflix, we got we gotta share it with the people guys. Okay.. So this is a one time pin. Is that what you meanant? A pad. Yeah. o, sorry sry on. I don't have one on me. No I was looking for what. Yeah' what of my old Here, So you got something like this, right? It's probably smaller than this, but something like this and you will you will have, like you were saying, Noel, an encryption key. This is the only way to decode whatever is in that broadcast. So think about it's a piece of paper. L we can't stress that enough. It is a It somethingomet that is disposable. It is not a digital version. Yeah. So you you use the bad, right? You're listening And you think, okay, I remember, this song means turn to page Or in this case, page forty three And then you'll say, okay, and now I'm listening Got my interval signal. I hear my three beeps, beep beep beep. So that's line three I hear the code phrase, Mary had a little lamb And that tells me my instructions. If you do and then like you were saying, Matt The natural thing is you get your instructions You memorize it getet rid of this and then you eat it. Yeah, like this one gota sh it. Yeah, seriously. This concept of burn after reading is super important because if you do it this way We're talking about one way communication to embedded assets somewhere, no matter who they are, where they are and that it is untraceable Right Y. Because there there is no physical way to track the person who receives a giant signal that's broadcast, right? Justmi Omni broadcast you never know where the person is that received it. You just have to make sure there's no trace left behind. And if you don't have your specific little nerdbook, your codebook, your cookbook for spine, if you don't have the specific one for that specific station, There's no way you can break the code. like even Alan Torine, one of the best cryptographers in history He would not be able to break this I So these folks are at a loss, right? And they're trying to They're trying anything they can to figure out what's going on with these ghost broadcasts, these ghostcast. All right, we'll keep it. That's a good term. They they said, wait a second. A lot of these ast theirir patterns can be tied to real world events, often very dicey stuff like conflicts or big, big deal diplomatic meetings. And this is where we know that It's the experts confirmed and have known for years exactly what you said, Matt Intelligence agencies are communicating with their agents in what we call denied areas, a territory where you can't give someone a phone call. And you can't say, hey, sleep agent in Alfaretta Now's the time to get the water station. Okay, talk to you later byye. Well, in a world where we know every single phone call, at least the metadata is being tracked, if not the audio, right in a world where we know that's real as a spy This type of communication is m, chehef's kiss Right. Yeah, because short of Physically hunting down the location of the signal which is much more easily done today than in the past. World governments were at a loss. the most important, powerful, dangerous fits on the planet said, Okaykay, look, the best we can do is Make sure we have some of these toys. We can monitor broadcasts, We'll try to learn what we can A couple of us, the big dogs, we can evolve technology to jam some of these signals Is it worth the effort? you know, it becomes a it becomes a thing where It's like a curiosity. It's like a novelty for most people and it Sacks of the Cold War. So it became a team of quiet intntel guys and like hardcore civilian enthusiasts, like an outfit we love called Pam Uh, they just listened until quite recently eararlier this year There's a new development in town We've all heard of UB seventy six But what about this V thirty two And why is it in fourC? A. U oh guys, forgive me. I don't know about UB seventy six. I don't quite remember. What is this again Oh, let's play a clip. You wantanna hear a clip? I'm looking at it on YouTube and it's like a spectrum analyzer or anything. Let's seeay it out here. And here we go, We'll do a radio voice This w goes out to all the assets. Stay war Be safe, Drovia And we'll stop it there Absolute banger Right So ye What's the context of that one So this comes to us immediately after a fairly recent conversation between Vladimir Putin and current U. S. presresident Donald Trump. What we heard there was staticky shortwave and the repetition of four names. The message goes on. that's Nikolai Zena Tatana Ivan So if you have your little pad, You know what that means. You know which page to go to, which line to go to, right? Also, you know which encryption key to use It gets so crazy. it's old, but it's still happening now. And there are plenty of other examples. Oh yeah, you can find so many of these online. This same Pom source Pom. org PRY oM You can find all kinds of different number stations. And if you go down those rabbit holes One of the stations I was most interested in was one that was being broadcast from the island of Cuba into the United States. And I think this is one of the things that people often don't think about guys, just how powerful a radio broadcast signal can be and how far that signal can travel I, you know If you travel around the United States at all listening to MFM radio or something, you know if you go a certain distance, you lose signal, you can't hear it anymore because where being from where it's being broadcast, that signal is too weak for your receiver to like get it, right But with some of these number stations, the signal is so powerful. It can travel all the way across the water from Cuba into, let's say Florida or something like that and someone who's in Florida can hear it just fine And it's good to go So here's just one more as an example before we get into the primary one we're examining today Here's just a quick sample of one titled HM zero one, which was first heard in twenty twelve. in November Fadal, Uo, quadriro, quadro, Oo Face Ao thinkinking through those There you go. just a little bit it's just some numbers, right? It doesn't seem that scary when you're just hearing it like that and you don't know what it is I don't know, man. I find it all a little scary Well just the repetition of it, it almost has this quality of an incantation in a way to me. too my ears. Like there's something spooky about it And that's why I think that Wilcoo sample is so neat because on the one hand, it's like The way it's deployed on the record, it' sort of during this moment of like chaos that's sort of in the middle of a song when it goes into this kind of noise section and it just gives this kind of sense of like unease And there's something about the repetition of it and the s sort of monotone delivery that makes me feel like there's some S spooky gol I'd understand aggreed. And this is this brings us to the heart of our episode tonight All this Cold War stuff did continue in the modern day. Maybe the larger public wasn't paying as much attention to it This brings us to our biggest question, what is the so called V thirty two and why is it in Farsi? We'll be back afterwardd from our sponsors Alienwa's Back to schoolchool event is the perfect time to score top gaming gear with incredible features and intel core processors to go beyond performance save big on gaming desktops, laptops, and more. Start your Alienware journey with the Alienware fifteen gaming laptop featuring Intel core processors smoothly game, live stream and multitask for hours on end Plus, play through every game exactly how you want with the customizable alien FX lighting across your alienware ecosystem creating your very own gaming profile and more. And finally, you can pair your incredibly smooth gaming experience with immersive visuals and sound by saving on sleek alienware monitors, headsets, and more. This limited time sale awaits you now at alienware dot com slash deals That's alienware d. com slash deals This july fourth comes celebrated at America's Block Party, hosted by America two hundred fifty. America's Block Party is a camp miss Fth of July concert happening at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseseum. Experienence music performances by major artists, patriotic tributes, and the kickoff to Giving forth, helping to make july fourth the largest day of giving in American history. It's more than just firework Join this landmark celebration and get your America's Black party tickets now for seventeen dollars seventy six cents at America two fifty dot org slash LA. It's America's two hundred fifteth, but you deserve some presents too. Simon malls, mills, and premium outlets have can't miss sales july third to fifth. Join Simon Plus, our new rewards program for free and get two point five times the points In addition to extra savings, cashback and offers that also work at shopsimon. com Grab the fan, head to a Simon center and make it a day for the books. It's a celebration thing. Sign up today at simimonplus d. comot Rewards program terms apppply, see Simonplus dot com for details I turned off news altogether. I hate to say it, but I don't trust much of anything It's the range bait It feels like it's trying to deivise people. If we got clear facts, maybe we can calm down a little NBC News brings you clear reporting Let's meet at the facts. Let's move forward from there NBC News orting for America Here's where it gets crazy. Terifying Yeah Thed cadence. It's like It reminds me of to your point about incantation there. Well, it reminds me of the film skeleton Ky which made great use of a creepy recording We're also our Our old story about the Hungarian suicide song, you know, there's something creep like you're saying, there's something creepy about that repetition and the uptick. what you just heard there folks is a clip of V thirty two V thirty two is played in the Farsi language you're going to hear a male voice, which is, as we said, an interesting anomaly already, recites seemingly random numbers in the Persian language in Farsi. We have no discernible pattern of the cluster of numbers, the order of numbers, any purported mathematical relationship between them. We know that it started on february twenty eighth When' twenty six about twwelve hours after the U.S and Israel began bombing Iran. After you hear the numbers Then you'll hear a voice the same the presumably the same male voice See All right Tavago Excuse our Fari, we'll say it three times. Sorry I had it in the notes as twice, but it's thrice. Can we hear that Ben I'd love to hear what that sounds like For sure, here is here's where he said it. So we think he say this word three times over the length of the of the broadcast It sounds like this numumbers There we go. We seing in numbers A. So it's like again, it's like a comma or a semic colon I' going go in record That thing you're talking about as an anomaly as a male voice, I think it is harder to understand. In the frequencies coming over the radio with so much white noise and l things tends to be, you know a little harder. They get a little more garbled, high crisp kind of like literally higher pitched things are just easier to clock, you know, easier to interpret Oh, and this is seven hundred seven nine one zero K eight That's that's the old frequency. Yeah, that's the old frequency It's on a different frequency now as far as we can tell Oh it changed. Yeah, it's very easy to switch it. Yeah. Oh and we should tell you this folks that that word that we were spending some time on It is the Farscy word for attention So it's like random number, you know, five, nine, eight, eight, eight, seven, zero, three, one Attention And then the same thing Gz, That's ominous. It's like Jill said, it's like an incantation. And it is It been an assumption that many of the world's experts and we as well are making that we're connecting this to the Iran conflict, right? We're Because of the timing, we have to think that it is connected, right? Absolutely. Isn't that just confirmation bias though too. I mean, like don't we don't really know Right but don't. It's almost like if you don't make that connection and believe that it's somehow connected I would say the thinking is you're going to miss something if you don't at least pretend like it's connected. And guys isn't the whole deal with these number stations and the history of them and the thing that we've discussed is that they're all kind of a mystery box or what's like like there's not it's not like it's one to one where like we know exactly what this transmission was connected to and you know, it's because it's all encrypted. Right So you can you could have any number of motives And really, even now in twenty twenty six with massive breakthroughs in surveillance technology, there's still a lot of tea leaf reading, a lot of black box guessing.. We don't know what V thirty two calls itself or its operators call it The name V thirty two is from another group of civilian enthusiasts, a British based group called Enigma two thousand. Enigma two thousand They're the ones who started calling this V thirty two on march third, like a few days after it after it emerged in the world And like you were saying, no, We have to look at the correlation and maybe there is confirmation bias here pattern and template of this station, the way it broadcasts generenally in the early morning and generally in the early evening. so usually about twice a day or a little less than twice a day This feels exactly like a number station straight out of the Cold War But Things didn't go well, like on march fourth They started getting jammed M They're already's hard to hear, but Now they're impossible. You can I don't know can you guys see this image? I totally see somebody getting home from their day job They live alone, they're single, they just go down into their basement where they've got a giant setup with different radios and different like signal interpreters and things like that. And they just turn all the stuff on. It's all analog and old And they're just down there sweeping through signals This is what they do and they just make notes on what they're hearing on different signals and then they hear this Right? And then they send they send a signal out to other folks who are like also into this kind of thing. say, Hey, did anybody is anybody else picking this up? getting this And then they get to hear it for a couple days and all of a sudden I guess you just hear like static noise that on that same frequency if it's being jammed. Oh, it's yeah, it's it's worse dude because it's the They're using what we call a bubble jammer. so it makes not just static, not just a se of noise. It makes a hophous caterwall, the kind of stuff where if you heard it, it's like when we log on and one of our microphones is too high, you'll hear it and you'll be like, o, scrap o Yeah. So it's essentially your Instead of stopping the signal, you're overwhelming that channel with more signals. Yeah. Okay. Yeahah. And you're kind of attacking the people who are for one reason or another listing. and Dylan, thanks for the beep on that S word. So we we know bubble jammers are a Cold War relic, right? Because in the heyday of the USSR Everybody in the Soviet sphere of influence be familiar with this technology. It's what the authorities use to stop people living in in the Soviet realm from hearing uncensored or unapproved messages from the West, like hearing U. S. reports or British reports and they also voice of America. Right, Voice of America, radio free Iran, etcetera. they were censoring these international news ops and also rock music So like Elvis Presley fell to the bubble jammer. This is a wild time. It always reminds me guys of our A ridiculous history episode about St Yagi. Yes, the still Yagi being the what is it? Polish U like hipsters and their weird bone records. Matt, youd love this. L literally Yeah, they the X rays X rays discarded X rays from hospitals and they would like use a lathe to cut bootleg vinyl recordings into these that could be played a handful of times because the material was so thin and crappy. they aren't most records bone records? indndeed giveive you a bone tool We'll keep it in better the. So okay, so they got jammed, right? cacophonous, terrible stuff. Y ears are bleeding when you hear this bubble jammer the transmissions get stymied for a second, but not permanently because whomeever is transmitting this Eventually just hits the hits the dial, hits the knob, and they switch to a different frequency. This time it's seven eight for two. hert yeah ye. You could just change your broadcast frequency. And then I guess if you've got somebody on the receiving end and they know that your signal is coming, you just now Spin your dial until you get to the right one I I mean, I'm sure they have a contingency plan. That's how it actually works. likeike if not this, then go do go to this one, if not A and B and so on to Z. But I love picturing you guys the most effective way for them to get the new signal out is to have L like a cropduster airplane, those little skkyrider guys And they've just got, you know, a flag or they they put out the vapor and all of a sudden for a few hours, it just says seven eight four two in the sky That would be cool. I've been getting really into have you guys Matt, you live a little north of Nola myself. So in your neck of the woods, do you see a lot of airplanes with signigns No beaches of the Florida Panhand. I was going gonna say the same thing free city, man. Yeah. sign city planes draggon the sign. Also, have you ever been to the beach where you see literally a billboard on a ship? Yeah like that's a lot of fun. I like times. Yeah. like these trucks that are just a flat screen basically on both sides in the middle.'s Yeah, there's nothing in it. It's just it's very common in Atlanta And we should look into advertising with them now that I think about it. why not? Maybe they let you drive the truck too. That's got their causeing wrecks.. So I still I haven't looked into this. This is going to be the weekend for me, but as I'm pursuing this pilot license stuff I got to figure out how those planes land with the sign dragging behind them I dude, Pen, look, did they just as your friend Careful, getting yourself in and around any small prop planes. I don't know if you've seen Frequency of small prop planes go in down A Sorry. you said frequency and I was thinking radio stuff. No, yeah, there it does seem like that's been in the news a lot. Unless you are in full control of that plane the entire time You know what I mean? The cessna has ever been a fickle mistress. Yesoy Tking about people finding your sesamea while it's parked somewhere and then smoking sigs in it, ripping dart. This is taking is it for a joy ride that dropping it off, but also doing some routine maintenance. Yeah, That's what I' talking about. Yeah a thoughtful Joy rider. This is radio warfare in the case of V thirty two becausecause we we know that experts, people like Back in Fernandz, I was writting tons about this. We know that the Bffins, the smartest folks we know, at least in the civilian feere have immediately clocked this as an adversarial situation, meaning One party is making the signal and another party is jamming it and the question becomes who has that Jelly jam technology. the U.S could do it. That would maybe mean that the signal was coming from Iran. R But then it could be that the U.S is transmitting it and Iran is jamming it We don't know Oh, that's an interesting I simply because it's in Farscy Perhaps I stupidly imagine that it would be coming from Iran But it would make sense We know how important the role of translation has been, especially when we hear stories about the war in Afghanistan, right back in the early two thousands, and just how important that role was And now if you imagine that it could be the U S transmitting signals into Farsi speaking forces, even perhaps to translators are then giving signals to the military. but It doesn't make as much sense to me None of it really does. That's the that's the sticky wicked. That's our bag of badgers here because We're asking who's responsible, right? Who's transmitting this? Wh's trying to jam it up The issue is that the jammers and the transmitters who we're assuming are two different groups, right? And that's itself an assumption. they have committed themselves to secrecy. So we're not going to have any official confirmation from any government until a lot of time has passed because if you reveal your hand on either side of that table, you're endangering the success of your operation. And that's why the civilians come in, like prem or is GPa which I am not pronouncing correctly, Briam These guys have a widespread network and They're super dedicated. They are the people who, like you were saying, get home from work go immediately to the basement or the attic and get with all their toys and start scanning scan in the airwaves, they said that because of the spread of their voluntary network, they were able to triangulate the origin of V thirty two to quote somewhere in an area encompassing northern Italy. Switzerland, Western Germany, Eastern France, Belgium and the Netherlands. Yeah, and then other the these other like these Isokaba guysys, IzZ weird O KBA They say it comes from Israel or the Red Sea area or maybe yeah, Germany Wa! Right. How we is that That me that means it's that means one thing for sure being Farsi language, it is not originating on Iranian soil Oh that's funky. Could it I haven't imagined that this could be another form of disinformation or, you know purposeful misinformation or Hey, look over here, spend some time and resources trying to figure this out while the side' really Yeah L weking out the resources Yeah, because then if it's If we're aad and we're not doing this and We arere getting in trouble with it then we have to dedicate finite limited resources of our own R to try to u disentangle this this ball of yarn. Well, but couldn't it also be like, let's say from Germany and meant to signal groups that maybe cells that exist throughout a bunch of European countries that do speak Varsi That's a possibility. in any country, right? a group that speaks whatever that language is or uses that language at least for their key because it could be a group that does not speak Farsi, but they have a key in Farsi. Right, because we're just saying the word attention and then we're reading numbers. And the words for numbers are some of the easiest things to memorize in almost any language. If not pronounce, If not pronounce So This this gets It's so weird. So let's takeake another pause for a word from our sponsors. be beep, beep beep beep And we'll be it is Nickelodeon. An it. And we'll be right back Alienwaars's backack to schoolool event is the perfect time to score top gaming gear with incredible features and intel core processors to go beyond performance saave big on gaming desktops, laptops, and more. Start your Alienware journey with the AlienWare fifteen Gaming laptop featuring Intel core processors Smoothly game, live stream and multitask for hours on end Plus, play through every game exactly how you want with the customizable alien FX lighting across your alienware ecosystem creating your very own gaming profile and more. And finally, you can pair your incredibly smooth gaming experience with immersive visuals and sound by saving on sleek Alienware monitors, headsets, and more. This limited time sale awaits you now at alienware dot com slash deals That's alienware dot com slash deals This july fourth comes celebrate at America's Block Party, hosted by America two hundred fifty. America's Block Party is a Campt miss Fth of July concert happening at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Experience music performances by major artists, patriotic tributes, and the kickoff to Giving forth, helping to make july fourth the largest day of giving in American history. It's more than just fireworks. Join this landmark celebration and get your America's Block Party tickets now for seventeen dollars seventy six cents at America two fifty dot org slash LA It's America's two hundred and fiftieth, but you deserve some presents too. Simon malls, mills, and premium outlets have can't miss sales july third to fifth. Join Simon Plus, our new rewards program for free and get two point five times the points in addition to extra savings, cashback and offers that also work at shopsimon d. com Grab the f, head to a Simon center and make it a day for the books. It's a celebration thing. Sign up today at Simonplus d. comot Rewards program terms apply. See Simonplus d. com for details that I turned off news altogether I hate to say it, but I don't trust much of anything. It's the range bait feeles like it's trying to divide people If we got clear facts, maybe we can calm down a little NBC News brings you clear reporting Let's meet at the facts. Let's move forward from there NBC News. orting for America We've returned curiouser and curiouser. So experts at first are doing the logical thing and they're saying, this is obviously Iranian intelligence. The Middle East is beefed up again Just because like you were saying earlier, just because the station does not appear to be based in Iran doesn't mean They couldn't still be running it because the U.S. does stuff like this all the time, radio free insert here, right? Voice of America, voice of Yada, yada. The issue is the bubble jammer guys because Other and I say this with such great respect and profound affection. O very serious radio nerds pointed out that the jammer and the techniques of the jammer are quote exactly the same kind of bubble jammer that is used against Radio FADa, Voice of America Fi, Iran International TV Shortwave relelay, and BBC Farsi. These things, these broadcasts have one aspect in common The Iranian government doesn't like them and they bubble jammed them. Right. So if it is coming from Iran, Why would someone take an established Iranian approach to stopping it H. It's almost as though Iran doesn't want the signal there. Which makes you think, right? I mean, this goes to the theories. We love the theories folks U Plain part out loud The United States. The popular theory. Uncle Sam activated the station to as we said earlier, to deploy it as a way of sending coded messages to assets in Iran or in fararsi speaking communities. That's totally possible. L we've talked about in the past Uncle Sam's human or human intelligence networks. been seriously devastated. especially in the past the newest presidential administration because of compromises spy We do have Russian agents in high levels of government policy changes, budget cuts, but we can't make the mistakes A beat up giant is still a giant. Uncle Sams spy game is razy. It's tough to find a word for how M Sohisticated this operation is so the U S and some allies including Israel. do probably have assets in various levels of the Iranian government. I don't know. It's a question for you guys. do you think They're highly placed officials or are they more like those deep cover Soviet spies a la the show The Americans. Do they just live a normal life And then they realize, you know, two o'clock UTC, I have to check in my secret radio. Ben I finally did it. I started introucing the Americans. I was good to ask you all F, what do you think so far?ope's great. Yeah, it's great. I'm a couple episodes in and ye boy, oh boy, that fellow is Young young lad. What was his name? Jonathan Rese? Rese R Matthew Reeese anyway, he's great. And I really dig the show. Som looking forward to digging further into it might not be one to watch with the kiddo as the show contined. just it Have you seen that show Mat Yeah Yeah ot one pretty pretty kid is. It's just a little Iess The intrigue and espionage and lying and all that other stuff. I don't know. a for a while there, it left a bad taste in my mouth, but it is like againgain, Matthew Reese, I think that is his name. And some of the some of the characters the actors on that show are like suuper convincing. It's there are a lot of Sy shows nowadays, they're so ubiquitous. I don't buy a lot of it. It's two zero z seven sometimes to like Yeah Yeah. when it's gritty in the way that Americans often is, I very much appreciate it. People are digging this show the Bureau. It's a remake of a French show, but they also say that it's a little Tayor soldier spy where it's kind of slow and icy and not necessarily quite as you know high energy and action packed as something like the American. So, you know, whichever one you're into. I just remember being like to the point where I got uncomfortable watching that with the girl I was dating at the time Uh because they spent u they they have flashbacks where they talk about training and the make it real Sex Yeah is Oh gross. That's Agreed. wholeheartedly been and I know exactly where we're talking about you' feeling in that moment. Stay with both of us Uh o. Oh, But the thing we learned in our spycraft exploration a long time agoess been that long time. We did multiple part series just on the craft of it all And one of the things we learned in that exploration is the best spies you can possibly have donon't look like anybody, you wouldn't notice them in a crowd. You wouldn't notice them in a crowd of three people. They would be the person that your eyes just kind of glaze over or you don't think about that person Somebody in those three people is going to be more interesting and stand out than your asset you want a slub. We all want a slub Yes. And it's like it's the best part, you know. But I know exactly what' say, right? The blending end thing, it's It's been mythologized and glamorized so often that we do forget. It is based on fact. It is happening now. human is still very much a real thing for some countries more than others We like the US for this, right? Maybe the U.S is doing this for some reason to communicate with their assets or their operators or their whomevers Except that on march ninth, again, just a few days after V thirty two came into being ABC News over on our side of the pond reported that the U. S. government had sent a But we use the was that word earlier Omnicast, basically message to law enforcement raaising concerns about intercepted encrypted communications And the implication here not to be to Dennis Reynolds about it. is that Uncle Sam believed Iran was operating this station V thirty two, and that they were doing so to activate sleeper agents abroad That's what they seemed to be concerned about and we always have to, you know, we have to be cautious with American news. Because you know, our government purposefully leaks stuff like this all the time. but you guys remember We heard stories of how hard Israel was pressing the United States to attack Iran, right? Yes. So visits from Benjamin Netanyahu from other you know, associates and government ministers attempting to sell this concept that you have to attack Iran something that has been attempted to be sold to the United States for forty longer. And and there needed to be that proof thing There was that whole proof thing that the U.S government was grappling with before we invaded Afghanistan in Iraq You remember the yellow cake of it all and you know, where's the proof What is the thing that would cause Congress in the United States to be convinced we have to go to war I wonder if this kind of thing this potential imminent threat could be weaponized against U. S. lawmakers and an administration pressure them into going to war or at least taking that first step of hot action. It's a great question. and it's totally within the bounds of doctrine too. as crazy as it may sounds. You're absolutely nailing it there becausecause the other theory is, of course, you got US as one, but the next theory is Israel? I mean Oh, Yeah, longt time arch nemesis in the region, both Israel and Iran. have deeply controversial reputations in the Middle Eastern theater Both of those governments hate each other forever and both ultimately want to be the sole superpower in the region They attack each other through all manners of paths. You know, we know about the drones, we know about the missiles, we know about U spy level stuff like, u what was that cyberware? Stuck dead Right Yeah. And they say mean things publicly And they say to me they're so rude. each other guys Both countries arguably sponsor You know, the T word is used terrorists, but they sponsor third parties that Txy Hary proxies that carry out actions against each other And that is both sides, we have seen this So just if you forget like There's just a lot of stuff happening that nobody sees the actual hand. Rockstick Gado was hoping I was hoping would do it. Great.. But you don't see the actual, you know, the government agency or the government entity coming through and setting those actions in motion. You see the effects afterwards. Right. And then maybe you hear cryptic performative statements like it's no secret uh that the These governments have attempted and successfully carried out assassination operations on each other, you know Isra We have an entire episode about this Israel openly assassinating politicians, military leaders, civiliian scientists. And it's their greater good argument is that they have to do this because Iran is so close. Decades, they've been so close to building. a nuclear weapon And we don't have any Sampson U yeah, tune in for that episode if we could keep the show going.. Oh Mordecaai. I would watch that show. I would watch a sitcom spy thriller Boo. Dude, it's stoping. I love it so much. It's his real name. So is it like monk Yeah, I don't know. I don't know why the name just gives gets giving monks Yeah, N. Oh, Mordecaai. So like these guys Uh, history is proven. They make sense from both countries perspectivive, subjectively because history is proven onnce you get a nuclear bomb Even if you can't really deploy it successfully like North Korea evenven if it doesn't work that well, like some other countries test, Other world powers are going to treat you extremely differently and they will give you. some real sloppy butt kisses. if they canead if that means they take the bomb away from you. Right. They'll they'll do a lot of st. Fluffy butt kisses or something different. That's the secret. That's another thing. Yeah. Another thing Satan makes you do. Sloppy butt kisses. I think it is. We're coming up with a lot of weird kiss. R words guys. Yeah. So the R word. Rimming. It's a Yeahep, that's a rim shot. anotherother b.. So it's a different thing. Yeah a r That's a secret third thing. It's the other thing It's the real Swedish Rhapsody. U So Iran, of course like any other country says their nuclear research is totally peaceful. And if you don't agree with them, then you're lying because you want to justify further aggression against us. But like the US, there's a lot of motivation for Israel to to run V thirty two because they are more than capable of doing the transmitting and the jamming if they wanted to do so. but we still don't know. I mean, like guys, people are saying maybe Turkey is up in the mid And someone says, why? they're like, I don't know, they're in the neighborhood. they don't like Iran I don't trust her to. How much get a radio cost It could be a third party alliance of some sort Um Yeah man, it's weird. And it is weird too there's such a large conflict happening right now in Ukraine, right? And just that happening simultaneously and how large U war is and the conflict is and then how far spread that has become when it comes to third party states, countries, even, you know, massive organizations stepping in and providing weapons or providing defense and all these other things There's just so much at play. Ben, I gotta tell you I'm I am now more and more convinced that it's some kind of false