“The Buzzer” (UVB-76)
Tuesday, 21st July 2009 by Alex Turnbull
Around 25 times a minute, 24 hours a day, this Russian shortwave radio station emits a short, monotonous buzz tone1 on the AM frequency at 4625 kHz.
The station's callsign is "UVB-76", but is known amongst enthusiasts as "The Buzzer", and the sound it transmits has been on an almost continuous loop since it was first observed in 1982.
No one knows for sure what the purpose of the signal is, and in 27 years the buzzing has only been interrupted on 3 occasions.
At 21:58 GMT on Christmas Eve 1997, 15 years after it was first observed, the buzzing abruptly stopped; to be replaced by a short series of beeps, followed by a male voice speaking Russian who repeated the following message several times:
"Ya — UVB-76. 18008. BROMAL: Boris, Roman, Olga, Mikhail, Anna, Larisa. 742, 799, 14".
On September 12th 2002 another voice was heard, this time so distorted that only part of the message could be recognised:
"UVB-76, UVB-76. 62691 Izafet 3693 8270".
Finally, on February 21st 2006, a third message2 was transmitted which said:
"75-59-75-59. 39-52-53-58. 5-5-2-5. Konstantin-1-9-0-9-0-8-9-8-Tatiana-Oksana-Anna-Elena-Pavel-Schuka. Konstantin 8-4. 9-7-5-5-9-Tatiana. Anna Larisa Uliyana-9-4-1-4-3-4-8."
The names used in the message are used in some Russian spelling alphabets, and although some people speculate that UVB-76 is a specialised Numbers Station, used to transmit encoded messages to spies, the messages have never been decoded, and the actual purpose of this station remains unknown.
There's more information about the mysterious UVB-76 at WIkipedia. Thanks to Best of Wikipedia.
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Which you can listen to on Youtube ↩︎
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Someone managed to make recording of this one, so you can have a listen yourself. ↩︎
There’s some poor schmuck in there hitting the buzz button over and over again. If he doesn’t press it 25 times a minute the island will disappear.
awesome
Anyone who’s interested in this sort of thing should check out the Conet Project: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conet_project
“No one knows”? Or maybe they’re just not saying!
Obviously someone knows (probably at least a few people).
I’m curious as to why no one hasn’t actually stopped by there and knocked on the door (and lived to tell about). According to WP, you can occassionally hear Russian conversations behind the beep, showing that the radio station is operating with a working microphone and is staffed at times.
Agreed. Just send someone over there. to ring the doorbell! 😀
I am intrigued to know how someone managed to record it. That would imply someone records the bloomin thing 24-7 in the vain hope of catching something out of the ordinary?
We are the 4-5-6.
We’ve come for your children.
At least whoever it is that operates this station has an Ikea nearby.
https://www.googlesightseeing.com/maps?p=&c=&t=h&hl=en&ll=56.103401,37.086689&z=16
For what it’s worth, the view is better in Bing Maps.
http://www.bing.com/maps/default.aspx?v=2&FORM=LMLTCC&cp=56.082666~37.090074&style=h&lvl=17&tilt=-90&dir=0&alt=-1000&phx=0&phy=0&phscl=1&where1=56.0827051%2C%2037.0891356&encType=1
Actually, someone doesn’t have to be listening 24/7. There are various high-end receivers out there, SDR and otherwise, that’ll record hundreds of frequencies at once, and will allow you to “zoom out” and look for anomalies.
More on this here – http://www.starbacks.ca/uvb76/index.html
Tourchwood?
Maybe it’s tied in with Perimetr, the real-life Soviet/Russian version of Strangelove’s Doomsday machine. Maybe the buzzing indicates that the system is operational, or on standby.
Here’s what I’ve got from the supposed phonetic alphabet: BROMAL I KTOAEPS.K.TALU
Does that mean anything in Russian?
Actually it has been said that this station is a “dead man’s switch”…meaning that as long as that buzzing is heard, then everything is fine. If the buzzing stops, then there is a problem…such as a war and the station has been destroyed. Supposedly the voice transmissions were to bring new stations on board who are tied into the station.
Supposedly the station is in an area that during a war, would most likely be a target. In the event of that, all stations tied in would transmit on that frequency to let them know if they are still operational. Of course this is all theory…
Does that mean anything in Russian?
No. Im from Russia and its doesn`t mean anything on russian.
“I KTO” mean “and who” but I dont think that it really mean that. Military encryption really difficult to break
А я живу по соседству xD
Hi,
I am Vladimir, perestroika from Russia to all of you dear friends!
The station is kept operational because we are all unionised employees. The government can’t just make us redundant and close the station.
There have been talks to sell it to the BBC, and make it BBC-76 for a short time before closing it due to poor ratings. The severance package offered by the BBC is much better than that of the Russian Government and we back a British takeover.
The BBC has also expressed a desire to use the nuclear nukes currently siloed under the station as props in the new Dr. Who series.
Vladimir.
this explanation on wikipedia made the most sense:
Another explanation for the constant buzzer is the High-frequency Doppler method for ionosphere research described in the Russian Journal of Earth Sciences, in which radio waves are reflected from ionosphere inhomogeneities. Changes of an ionosphere state can be caused by solar geophysical or seismic events. This method involves comparing a continuous radio transmission which is reflected by the ionosphere with a stable basic generator. The continuously transmitted carrier frequency currently used for this research matches that of the Russian Buzzer (4.625 MHz).
Smells of communism…
No one is wondering why it stopped?
All the theories on what this may be (or had been, since it ceased transmission apparently on the 6th of June) are interesting. Though, I cant help but wonder why, if used for ionosphere research or even a ‘dead man’ switch, such a primitive method of input was used for the tone. It is thought to have been transmitted by use of a continuous open mic placed near the source of the buzzing sound. One would think that a setup used for any continuous transmission would have the source built right into the transmitter or at least wired in, not the use of an open air mic placed near the source. Thats like a radio station transmitting music by placing a mic near a stereo.
its still broadcasting , it paused for few days , now its on again
Here is a link that has a live stream, some inthusiast has a shortwave hooked to a server and you can listen live 24/7, kind cool, thought I’d share:
http://uvb-76.blogspot.com/