# A strange message from space?

I was listening to AM radio (frequency 1480) the other day and an odd message came through in what seemed like an infinite loop.

Drop 5.

Echo 0.

Negate 0.

Split 4.

Enter 1.

A few hours later, my friend stopped by in disbelief of this message; I turned it back to the radio station and the message had changed and repeated itself every second.

S

I can't seem to figure it out; maybe you can help?

## Hints

I listen to that station once a day to listen for new messages; and each time it seems a new message is playing. Maybe these are clues?

Take all.
No light.
What's my name?
Supermassive!
There exists, a list of extraordinary objects.

Following Astralbee's conclusions:

Starting with the "negate 0", we simply drop it completely. That leaves us with the following number at completion: 11475

If we straight up convert that to possible letters, we have two options: 11 4 7 5 and 1 14 7 5

Using basic numerical substitution, the former gives us K D G E and the latter gives us A N G E

Now we add "S", which gives us K D G E S and A N G E S. While I can't do anything with the former, the latter can be rearranged to spell AGNES

I think the message may be about:

A black hole.

Firstly...

The acrostic of your puzzle's first clue spell DENSE. Black holes are believed to have a region of infinite density.

Also...

Your subsequent hints: "Take all" may refer to the fact that black holes draw everything into them, and "no light" exists in a black hole.

Secondly...

I believe the lines are telling us to modify the AM radio frequency 1480 to either form a message or possible "spell out" a word. I just can't quite figure it out.

My working so far:

- If you "drop 5" from 1480 you get 1475
- If "echo 0" means add a 0 on the end you get 14750 but I'm not sure that is what it means.
- If "negate 0" means make the 0 a 'negative' you get 1475-0 but again I'm not sure that is what it means.
- If you "split" the number at the number 4 you get 1 475-0
- If you "Enter 1" into the gap you just made you get 11475-0

If you look at that number backwards the last 3 digits "411" look rather like the word "ALL", and the first hint is "TAKE ALL". Also the remaining digits 7, 5 and 0 all look a bit like alpha characters - L (or possibly T?), S and O; and we are also asked in the final clue to "Add S" which suggests that we are meant to view the numbers as alpha-characters.

• ROT13(V jbhyq fnl 7 ybbxf zber yvxr n G guna na Y. Nyfb, lbh sbetbg gb nqq na F, gubhtu V'z abg fher jurer vg jbhyq tb.) – JR_M Oct 24 '18 at 14:55
• So you're diving down a rabbit hole; the acrostic is simply DENSE; the knowledge tag is included for a reason. You are correct in using the frequency; but you're going to need to utilize the lateral-thinking with its relationship to that message. I wouldn't say all of the instructions are correct. ;) – PerpetualJ Oct 24 '18 at 16:33
• You are correct on what the message is about, and that you need to modify the frequency. Added a hint. – PerpetualJ Nov 12 '18 at 14:10