Lincolnshire Poacher Station

The most apparent of Number Stations is the Lincolnshire Poacher Station.

thumb|296px|right|The Station itself. A mysterious, powerful shortwave station that used two bars from the English folk song 'The Lincolnshire Poacher' as an interval signal believed to be operated by the British Secret Intelligance Service and emanated from the island of Cyprus.

The Lincolnshire Poacher (also known as the E3) is the nickname of a powerful and mysterious shortwave number station that uses two bars from an old English folk song called “The Lincolnshire Poacher” as an interval signal. The Lincolnshire Poacher is believed to be operated by the British Secret Intelligence Service (Mi5 / MI6) and transmits from the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. Amateur direction findings have linked it with the Royal Air Force base at Akrotiri, Cyprus, where several curtain antennas have been identified as probably being its transmitter. It plays an electronically synthesized female voice with an English accent reading groups of 5 numbers. The final number in each group was spoken with slightly more lifted voice. It is most likely that the station was used to communicate with undercover agents operating in the Middle East, and decoded using a ‘One Time Pad’.