The Conet Project

The Conet Project: Recordings of Shortwave Numbers Stations is a four- and later five-CD set of recordings of numbers stations and noise stations released by Irdial-Discs beginning in 1997. Numbers stations are shortwave radio stations believed to be operated by governments to covertly communicate with deployed spies under nonofficial cover. The collection of recordings is primarily the work of Irdial-Discs founder Akin Fernandez, who began recording the transmissions of numbers stations in 1992. The original 4-CD set was released in 1997 and reissued in 2013 with an additional 5th CD.

The recordings have been sampled in various artistic projects, most famously in the 2001 film Vanilla Sky and Wilco's 2001 album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, along with the 2022 survival horror game Signalis. In keeping with its “free music” policy, the label made the entire collection available for free to download as a collection of MP3 files (along with a PDF version of the included booklet). Irdial-Discs has since discontinued the hosting of said files, but still provides links to alternative active hosts.

The title derives from a mishearing of the Czech word konec [ˈkonɛt͡s] (lit. 'end'), heard on the recordings.