Dr. Alfred Tomasin, an eminent French physician and hearing specialist, maintains that it is via the ear; the first of our sense organs to develop in utero, that we form our primary connection: first with the inner, and then the outer world. In an elaborate metaphor rigorously supported by years of clinical research, Dr. Tomatis suggests that our very body is a kind of cathedral (meaning that is sounds, from inside, like a cathedral). It has been demonstrated that the “stones” (bones) of the quintessentially sacred edifice selectively amplify and conduct the frequencies most vividly experienced in the womb. Moreover, throughout our adult life the tuning of attention to these (relatively higher) frequencies leads to a sense, literally and physically, of being drawn to a “higher” (both literally—posturally—and figuratively) place in and beyond ourselves. John Leonard, former chief correspondent for The New York Times, catches the same sense in a secular, Platonic image: “Radio out to be our refuge. Radio is the cave of the imagination, and that’s where the stories started—with language in a cave, playing with the shadows on the walls, swimming in sound.”
— Tim Wilson, “Acoustic Architecture,” from Radiotext(e)
“Worldwide directory of clandestine broadcasting—shortwave, medium wave and long wave. The directory includes a complete frequency list, time-order list and database. Listen to secret station broadcasts that governments don’t want people to hear. This book, with its comprehensive listings, has value for journalists, media scientists and historians in addition to radio buffs.” MC
Publisher: Tiare
Paperback: 60 pages
“This pamphlet details how to build your own radio station. Discusses freedom of communication, getting away with it, studios, transmitters, antennas, mobile operation and finding parts.”
Publisher: See Sharp
Paperback: 47 pages
Illustrated
Find out what those sirens are all about. The author explains how to use scanners to monitor local police department and other law-enforcement communications, including how to find frequencies, what equipment to use for monitoring, how to set up scanner banks and a guide to often obscure police jargon. Also discusses responsible monitoring and includes police radio codes and common nationwide frequencies. MC
Publisher: Tiare
Paperback: 79 pages
Illustrated
“The focus of this manual is on simplicity, operational security and expedient execution so that an unconventional warfare team, using limited resources and personnel, can quickly, covertly and aggressively attack the opposition’s radio communications during an attack.”
Publisher: Paladin
Paperback: 247 pages
Illustrated
The enigmatic numbers stations, with their seemingly random announcements of numbers, are something of mystery, with their true purpose most likely being the transmission of briefings for the world’s most covert operatives. To the average outside listener, these long lists of numbers, often on exotic frequencies and in foreign tongues, may be an interesting phenomenon but are ultimately just too dull for sustained listening. Surprisingly, or perhaps inevitably, there is a small group of dedicated listeners obsessively documenting such broadcasts. Here are catalogued such classics as: 1920- 019 Gr. 19 1925- 001 Gr. 12 1930- 281 Gr. 14 1940- 154 Gr. 17 1945- 993 Gr. 14 1950- 231 Gr. 13 — “The Russian Woman” March 20, 1991 in AM mode on 4425 kHz. These books give detailed lists of frequencies, times, and language and phonetic alphabets used, with example transmissions. BW
Publisher: Tiare
Pamphlet: 12 pages
For he who watches the watchers, a comprehensive list of the communication frequencies used by each federal government agency, including but not limited to the DEA, Customs, Secret Service, Coast Guard, Forest Service and IRS with a brief synopsis of each department’s operations. An interesting curiosity for the casual listener, and an indispensable gold mine for the serious eavesdropper. BW
Publisher: Tiare
Paperback: 105 pages
Despite its subtitle, Pirate Radio is international in its scope, covering high-powered ‘60s legends like Britain’s off-shore Radio Caroline and contemporary pirates like Russia’s Romantic Space Radio (the voice of whose groovy DJ can be briefly heard on the accompanying CD). Most of the focus of this well-documented history and survey dating back to 1925 is on North American pirate radio, ranging the spectrum from AM and FM to shortwave illegal broadcasts. Some surprising FCC-baiters include the bluegrass station WHBH (“Hill Billy Heaven”); WEED (guess the format); Black Liberation Radio operated by an unemployed and blind black man from a housing project in Springfield, IL; WKAR (“Wisconsin Kick Ass Rock”) emphasizing Christmas parody music”); WXZR (“Meontological Research Radio”) featuring industrial music and sound collage; the neo-Nazi “Voice of Tomorrow” with its distinctive wolf-howl interval signal; and WYMN (“Testosterone Free Radio”) with a female folksinger format which has been broadcasting sporadically since 1984. Pirate Radio provides valuable resources such as a worldwide address list of mail drops for pirate operators and leads on where to obtain monitoring equipment and technical information. The CD which accompanies the book reveals to the neophyte just how strange and intriguing the ephemeral realm of pirate radio might actually be. Includes CD. SS
Publisher: Hightext
Paperback: 256 pages
Illustrated
Radiotext(e) is a thoroughly enjoyable compilation which examines broadcast sound both in its wildest implications and specifically as a method of cultural insurrection and mass-consciousness alteration. Nearly devoid of the customary academic theory-speak oppressiveness that typifies this type of effort, it is an inspiring call-to-arms for Radio Rebellion at the moment when all media-corporate pundits’ eyes are firmly on the lumbering information superhighway. Texts range from the internal documents of the Muzak corporation to accounts of anarchist pirate radio in Amsterdam. Contributors include: Leon Trotsky, sound-collage agitators Negativland, trance music pioneer La Monte Young, Dadaist Kurt Schwitters, and the infamous brain-implant researcher José Delgado. SS
Publisher: Autonomedia
Paperback: 350 pages
This book is written with an unabashed enthusiasm for making technological eavesdropping available to us all, despite the latest federal government efforts to legislate it away. Eisenson is a specialist in covering electronic “gray markets” wherein it is legal to make, buy, sell or own the products but illegal to use them. Until 1983, it was perfectly legal to purchase and use scanners that could receive cordless or cellular phone calls or even listen to baby monitors. Now that all this is technically illegal, it seems like the right time to find out what you aren’t allowed to do anymore and just what these Radio Shack “hobbyists” have really been up to. Besides the exquisite pleasures of monitoring your neighbors’ sleaziest private phone moments, the possibility also exists of tuning in Air Force One air-to-ground communication, frequencies for armored truck companies like Brinks and Wells Fargo, and even a specially designed band for evangelical operations where one can listen to the internal organizational machinations of Sun Myung Moon, Jerry Falwell or the Church of Scientology. The writing style of Scanners and Secret Frequencies is far from dry: “For instance, if you hear a rumor about a reactor meltdown, switch to 165.6625 MHz. That frequency is shared between the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and Airport Security Nationwide, so if the nuclear inspectors start calling ahead to bypass airport security, it’s time for you to hire a Piper Cub and scoot.” According to Eisenson, today’s “hobbyist scanner” is technically superior to scanners built for the NSA “not that many years ago,” and he would be in a position to know. Scanners and Secret Frequencies explains the basic principles of radio transmission, tells which brand of scanner the three-letter agencies are actually ordering, gives step-by-step instructions on how to hotrod specific scanners by brand name and provides instructions on computer-assisted scanning, frequency list sources and other essential info for the budding surveillance freak. SS
Publisher: Index
Paperback: 320 pages