
The spy with no name - DiabloD3
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-38261956
======
JoeDaDude
The means of receiving orders from his superiors, via shortwave transmission
of a code consisting of numbers, has been in use for decades by spy agencies
from around the world. Radio enthusiasts have been listening to these stations
since the end of World War II.

[http://www.spynumbers.com/](http://www.spynumbers.com/)

[http://priyom.org/number-stations](http://priyom.org/number-stations)

[http://www.numbers-stations.com/](http://www.numbers-stations.com/)

[http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-24910397](http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-24910397)

~~~
danielvf
Even more interesting is that old radio receivers would give off faint
sidebands when listening. This, you could drive around with the right gear and
find radios listening to a numbers station.

[https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superheterodyne_receiver](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superheterodyne_receiver)

~~~
keithpeter
Do you mean that you could tune into the local oscillator in the spy's
receiver that would be displaced from the transmitted frequency by the value
of the intermediate frequency?

E.g. number station on 6000Khz and IF 465KHz so local oscillator 6465KHz?

What happened when receivers went over to up-conversion and frequency
synthesis?

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MarcusBrutus
The story doesn't explain how a spy working as a waiter, purchase manager or
"artist" can gain access to military secrets.

~~~
bfuller
Extortion, blackmail, etc

~~~
MarcusBrutus
For a man, a brothel operator, a private detective, or a drugs purveyor would
make more sense for blackmail. How would a waiter in a nondescript location
gain access to information that would allow him to blackmail? It's not like
the hotel was placed near a military base or was frequented by diplomats or
generals. Not to mention placing tapping devices in the Queen's furniture. The
story, as presented, does not compute.

~~~
swatkat
_> >>> Not to mention placing tapping devices in the Queen's furniture._

They didn't actually placed tapping devices in the Queen's furniture. From the
article:

 _One of his first ideas was to try planting listening devices in the Queen 's
furniture, he recalls, though he and his bosses realised it was technically
unrealistic._

~~~
quirkafleeg
I think he knows that, but that part you quoted didn't make sense to him,
since how would Van Haarlem even be in a position to access the Queen's
furniture, merely working down the road from Buckingham Palace?

(At least that's what I thought when reading it anyway.)

~~~
MarcusBrutus
Yep, obviously.

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donretag
Fun read. I must admit, I would have never predicted the ending. Amazing if it
turns out to be true.

~~~
Lordarminius
Yeah it reads like a Leclair novel.

The spy was probably burned from the beginning; an informant could have warned
the Britsh(?) of his coming deployment and they in turn set the 'mother' on
him.

~~~
blinddev
The fact that the real Erwin van Haarlem seemingly vanished is suspicious. I
would assume you would only want to assign an identity of someone who is known
to be dead, yet the orphanage apparently sent many letters to the mother.
Assuming that's true, of course.

~~~
Lordarminius
I assume he may have died later in life, maybe late childhood

~~~
pvitz
Spoiler: The real one was adopted and met Johanna later. Source: The story can
be found on Kindle Singles, but the BBC article contains basically everything
interesting already.

~~~
sulam
So why weren't there two of them? Or were there and it never became an issue?

~~~
pvitz
The real one got adopted when he was four years old and his new parents
"raised him as their own." He found out about the adoption a long time later.
Therefore, it is safe to assume that he also had a different name.

