Thanks for all the replies: my phrasing was indeed bad I guess!

A "public channel" is a very broad definition, and most communication channels, including those used for encrypted communication, are by design more or less "public".

Situation with GPS that feels similar to "number stations" (which I only know about thanks to Boards of Canada's album "Geogaddi", tbh^^) is that encrypted messages are deliberatily broadcasted, not that the channel is in some way "public". The latter also applies to all encrypted internet traffic, I guess.