Lincolnshire Poacher (numbers station)

The Lincolnshire Poacher was the designation given to a numbers station believed to have been operated by the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6). It was characterized by its distinctive interval signal: the first two bars of the folk song "The Lincolnshire Poacher," played on a recorder or similar wind instrument.

The station broadcast messages, typically encoded using a one-time pad or similar encryption method, to presumed intelligence agents operating in foreign countries. The messages themselves were often sequences of numbers read out in a monotonous, artificial voice.

The station was notable for its longevity, having been reportedly active from the 1970s until its apparent cessation of transmissions in 2008. Its broadcasts originated from Cyprus.

While the existence and purpose of numbers stations are generally acknowledged, specific details about their operation, including official confirmations of government involvement, are rarely publicly released. The attribution of the Lincolnshire Poacher to MI6 is based largely on circumstantial evidence, analysis of broadcast patterns, and the distinctive Englishness of the interval signal.

The station's deactivation coincided with significant technological advancements in communication methods, potentially rendering older systems like numbers stations obsolete.