Lincolnshire Poacher, Numbers radio station in Akrotiri, Cyprus.
The Lincolnshire Poacher was a numbers station in Akrotiri, Cyprus, that broadcast encrypted messages over shortwave frequencies. Transmissions consisted of a female voice reading groups of five digits, with the final number in each group spoken at a higher pitch.
Operations began in the 1970s from the Royal Air Force base in Akrotiri and continued until July 2008. The British government never officially acknowledged the existence or purpose of this broadcast station.
The station used an English folk melody from 1776 as its interval signal, which played before each number sequence and helped receivers locate the correct frequency. This musical introduction became the defining feature of the broadcasts and made it recognizable among shortwave listeners worldwide.
Broadcast times occurred between 12 PM and 8 PM UTC and repeated multiple times daily on rotating frequencies. Shortwave receivers could pick up the transmissions worldwide if they scanned the correct frequency bands at the appropriate times.
The speaker used a natural English accent that differed markedly from the robotic voices of other numbers stations. This human quality of the recordings made the station particularly well known among radio enthusiasts and researchers.
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