“The Buzzer” speaks! (Voice transmission confirmed at UVB-76)
Wednesday, 25th August 2010 by Alex Turnbull
Regular readers may remember our post from 2009 about a Russian shortwave radio station, UVB-76, that has been emitting a short buzz tone on the AM frequency almost continuously since 1982. In the following 28 years the buzzing had only ever been interrupted on 3 occasions ... until 2 days ago.
On August 23rd 2010, for the first time in over four years, the tone was once more interrupted – to be replaced with a Russian voice that said:
UVB-76, UVB-76 - 93 882 naimina 74 14 35 74 - 9 3 8 8 2 nikolai, anna, ivan, michail, ivan, nikolai, anna, 7, 4, 1, 4, 3, 5, 7, 4 - (repeated twice)
While it is believed that UVB-76 is a specialised Numbers Station (used to transmit encoded messages to spies) the messages themselves have never yet been decoded – although perhaps all that is about to change…
The names used in the message are used in some Russian spelling alphabets, and spell out the first word - "naimina", which one commenter at the UVB-76 blog translated as "on names". Another commenter suggests that "74 14 35 74" could be interpreted as longitude and latitude coordinates: 74.14N 35.74E.
So why would UVB-76 be broadcasting a geographical location in the middle of the Barents sea? How about a Russian anti-aircraft missile launch revealed on the same day:
The Russian Air Force is together with Air Defence units preparing a shooting exercise with the S-300 anti-Aircraft missile system from the island of Kildin in the Barents Sea.
Although, that all seems a bit ridiculously obvious, doesn't it? The Russians are well aware that there are people continually monitoring this broadcast - so why is it so easy to connect the broadcast with the activities of the Russian armed forces?
In the last 2 days, more voices transmissions have come from UVB-76, as well as grumbles, knocks, shuffles, beeps, and a completely new buzzing noise, that nearly drowned out the sound of the original buzzer altogether.
So what does it all mean? Is someone just checking the system still works, or is this the precursor to impending total annihilation?
There's lots more information about the mysterious UVB-76 at Wikipedia.
Thanks to uvb-76.blogspot.com via @rodti.
Conspiracy theory time! Mine is it’s broadcasting to spies/mercenaries, and here’s my thinking: The last time this thing was “active” Alexander Litvinenko was murdered a few months later and this time a potential British spy has been murdered his London flat. Sadly too young to have any idea what may have happened on the occasions previously (December 1997 and September 2002). Please feel free to share your own/call the men in white coats 😉
The missile test and activities surrounding its coordination don’t necessarily warrant secrecy. Russian armed forces have revisited a number of procedures for training purposes in recent years, and the station may be a part of that.
well, if you eat some grapes
then enjoy them
for when do they arrive
you’ll blister
Why doesn’t someone just rock up to the place transmitting the signal and have a peek through the window? Is it guarded or something?
I think this is inside some military thing so it wouldnt be recommended to just walk around there.
I think the previous poster is correct that this is contained in some sort of military complex (or what was formerly a military complex), so peaking in a window might not be possible. That said, this is adjacent to a community and it seems that someone would take note that activity is occurring.
Notice all the trails radiating away from the building?
There is only 1 road (maybe a dirt track) at 2 o’clock, all the rest look like walking tracks
Gathered together some info on the site, found a ground level photo, and a nice overlay, just thought you guys might want to know. http://www.gearthhacks.com/dlfile34959/UVB-76-The-Buzzer.htm
http://www.panoramio.com/photo/31006332 has a horizontal image from faaar away, also available at Google Streetview View Placemark,,0,5&photoid=po-31006332
“a pronounced Jewish accent”
Really? What exactly does “a pronounced Jewish accent” sound like. How does it differ from any other accent from any gentile in the same area. BTW, I’m born and raised in Seattle…and yet I’ve never had anyone comment on my “Jewish accent.”
I expect more than grotesque stereotyping from this site.
Stereotyping?! Get off it. Just because the author said the voice had a Jewish accent, does not mean he is stereotyping. Anyway, if I remember correctly, he’s not the only one who said the voice had a “Jewish accent”, a few other articles on the web also said that.
And think for a minute, if the author of this post, or any of the other stories about this on the web had said that the man had a slight… Irish accent, would that be classed as “grotesque stereotyping”? I don’t think so.
So get off your high horse, realize that nothing everything is written in an offensive manner, and get over it.
I actually checked against several sources while I was writing the article, and in Russian at least, a Jewish accent is quite recognisable apparently (at least to native Russian speakers).
However re-reading my post, I acknowledge that the widely reported accent of the speaker is irrelevant, and I’ve deleted that it from the post for that reason.
@Jacob OK, I’ll grant you that the word “stereotyping” may have been too strong a word, but my point was that any labeling of the “accent” of the voice at all was ridiculous as is your point regarding an Irish accent. If a near dormant shortwave radio station in Ireland suddenly began broadcasting, would the article have stated that the broadcast in a Protestant or Catholic accent? Of course not.
But perhaps labelling of the accent isn’t all that ridiculous to native Russian speakers. As Alex said, several of the articles he checked stated that the voice had an accent. And to the Russians, that might be an important thing.
@I Got Nuthin’ – as previously stated, I agree that the accent of the speaker is irrelevant, which is why I deleted it. Thank you for pointing this out.
@Jacob – You’re right, it may be of importance to Russian speakers, which may be why it was reported and why I initially included it here – however, as I Got Nuthin’ has made me realise, it has no relevance on this site.
Thank you both for taking the time to comment.