Cherry Ripe (numbers station)


Cherry Ripe is the nickname of a discontinued shortwave numbers station that used several bars from the folk song "Cherry Ripe" as an interval signal. The station, which appears to have commenced transmissions in the 1970s, is believed to have been controlled by the British Secret Intelligence Service. It is thought to have originally broadcast from a base on Guam, but moved to Australia in 2009.
Broadcasts from Cherry Ripe consisted of an electronically-synthesised, English-accented female voice, reading groups of five numbers, e.g. "3-5-7-6-1". The final number in each group was spoken at a higher pitch. It is likely that the station was used to communicate messages to undercover agents operating in other countries, to be decoded using a one-time pad.
A better known and more active counterpart,
known as the Lincolnshire Poacher, also after an English folk song used as its interval signal, was broadcast from the eastern Mediterranean from the early 1970s until 2008. Many aspects of both stations' broadcasts were identical. The Lincolnshire Poacher used the same synthesised female voice and was also suspected as being operated by the UK government. From unofficial triangulation, its location was determined to be RAF Akrotiri, on Cyprus. Cherry Ripe appeared to assume at least part of the role of the Lincolnshire Poacher, after the latter ceased transmission.
In September 2009, the transmitter for Cherry Ripe was moved to Humpty Doo, in Australia. However, in December that year, Cherry Ripe also ceased transmissions.

Schedule

This schedule was accurate as of January 2006. All times are UTC, frequencies in MHz.
Sunday–Friday
00:0018.864
21.866
01:0019.884
21.866
10:0020.474
23.461
11:0018.864
23.461
14.730
12:0018.864
23.461
13:0018.864
21.866
14:0018.864
20.707
22:0018.864
24.644
23:0018.864
21.866