ONE of the most bizarre mysteries of broadcasting - the hundreds of secret "spy" radio broadcasts made from Britain and across the world - have been captured on a new CD, now on sale in the high street.

Dozens of so-called "number stations" broadcast in obscure parts of the radio spectrum. They transmit coded messages in English, Russian, Polish and other languages, allegedly to and from spies around the world. The stations - receivable by anyone with a standard short-wave radio - are never publicised, but a small group of radio enthusiasts illegally monitors the transmissions and has now compiled the £27 CD, The Conet Project.

"I kept running into short-wave stations and hearing women barking out numbers," said Akin Fernandoz, the publisher of the new CD. "They were the most fantastically weird robotic female voices. There was no mention of these stations in the frequency handbook."

The actual content of the broadcasts does not make for riveting listening. Most consist of warbling voices reciting apparently random lists of numbers, combined with signature tunes reminiscent of such Forties' radio shows as Housewives' Choice and Family Favourites.

Nobody is sure what the stations' purposes are. "They are too elaborate to be a joke," said Mike Gauffman, editor of Enigma, a Bradford-based magazine dedicated to logging the stations. "There are hundreds of stations and the resources needed to keep them on the air must be fantastic." The only explanation, the enthusiasts say, is that they are coded communications between espionage services.

Most of the broadcasts come regularly every day in bursts typically lasting 45 minutes to an hour, but some occur weekly. The announcers speak in any number of languages, including many from Eastern Europe.

Two relatively well known British number stations, Lincolnshire Poacher and Cherry Ripe, are included on the four-side CD.

Mr Fernandoz, who refuses to give his full-time occupation, says he has pressed 500 CDs - at a cost of £10,000 - and sold three-quarters of them.

16 December 1997: Spies like US