UVB-76: The Buzzer

[Bagnew]

Theories range from a Dead Man's Switch ((liaising with other stations such as "The Squeaky Wheel") where if the transmission is stopped for a certain amount of time, it will be assumed that Russia has attacked by nuclear missiles from another country, and so the Russian missiles will launch) to the back up channel for encoded military orders, and the buzz is just a placeholder so no one else takes the frequency to an aural computer clock calibration utility. The strange thing is that it is not a recorded noise, but it is actively generated by an oscillator or similar, as frequently, distant conversations and other background noises can be heard behind the buzzer which suggests that the buzzing device is behind a live and constantly open microphone (rather than a recording or automated sound being fed through playback equipment). One such occasion was on November 3, 2001, when a conversation in Russian was heard: "I'm 143rd. I don't receive the oscillator [generator]." "That's what the operating room is sending." or "Those are the orders from operations.").

The station's transmitter is located at Povarovo, Russia (56°4′58″N 37°5′22″E), and it is broadcast on the frequency 4625 kHz.

So, thoughts? Opinions? Conspiracy Theories? Anyone here tuned in?



This shows a small audio clip of a message (the 4th to be recorded/noted in the 23 years of the station's operation), "9-9-8-8-4 - Анна - Семен - Анна - Семен - Дмитрий - Николай - Вера - иван краткиЙ - 4-2-6-7-2-8-1-7"
the "Анна - Семен - Анна - Семен - Дмитрий - Николай - Вера" is a message, in the Russian Version of the NATO Phonetic Alphabet. We can only speculate on what they mean, though.

[Bagnew]

Sorry about the ads at the side, but they seem to be Automatic

[coutelier]

One explanation I've seen is that it's a numbers station broadcasting messages to spies in the field. Some Russian spy would hear the numbers, translate them using a codebook and then throw the code book away; the code changes after that so that it can't be cracked; this might be some variant of that.

There are lots of such 'numbers stations' around the world; short wave radio is great for the military/spies because it has a long range and is easy to use. Technically it's illegal to listen in to them... but since militaries usually deny that they exist its, well, kind of hard for them to arrest anyone for it

[Bagnew]

Yes, the Numbers Station theory makes sense, albeit it's a station not often used; which leads to the theory of it being a Back up station.
One Time Pads are often used in conjunction with Numbers Stations, I believe.