New radio vs The Buzzer - UVB-76

After toiling on analogue I finally got an upgrade - a Degen DE1103 radio. It's pretty good, sensitivity a slight improvement from the Kaide cheapie I had, and has all the features I need including full frequency coverage.

This means I can present the monotony that is UVB-76 - The Buzzer. This Russian station serves an uncertain purpose, but blares an alternating tone sequence almost 24 hours a day, from 4625 khz.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• numbers
• station
• radio
• shortwave
• espionage
• spy
• code
• cryptography
• intelligence
• buzzer
• noise
• russian
• miltary

[carrotpicker]

Where were you when you got this signal?

[LCduT]

@carrotpicker London, UK

[badnewswade]

Apparently if it ever stops, that means that the Russians are about to launch all their nuclear missiles!

[ihatecrazyfrog]

It's stopped right now 01:45am GMT 8TH November Also i heard voices and music 2 nights ago on it

[chronius9]

@DanielChristy19 Yes I noticed. But translations are quite rare given the fact that it is constantly under watch. These type of the broadcasts are made live from existing sound samples, probably. A year ago when I was interested in this, I'd found somewhere explanation of thoose cryptic messages, by former Soviet military radio engineer (now Lithuanian Radio and TV employee). Thought I can't recall his name, he wrote that these messages were to test readiness of operators. (Not only in UVB76)

[insanecobra]

IT JUST STOPED !! OMG

[LCduT]

Precisely. Anyone can copy the signal. So the dead man's hand could come alive again!

[Mynameisnotooo]

i have no clue what you're talking about except that it can be hijacked or something meaning that if the shit hit the fan then the fan wont hit the shit back

[LCduT]

There is quite a bit of confusion about the role of UVB-76. It certainly could function as a very decent channel marker for a rarely used channel. It is also quite useful (from a Dx-er's point of view) as a propagation beacon. As anything else though, I worry that it could be easily 'spoofed' - i.e. a copycat signal could make it very unreliable as a dead man's hand.

[Mynameisnotooo]

True, though it's already stopped several times. It was intended to be a Dead Man's Hand in case the shit hit the fan and they couldn't confirm manually in time.

[chronius9]

@badnewswade It stopped 3 times already in 1997 2002 and 2006. But then happened something strange: messages were sent 1996: "Ya — UVB-76. 18008. BROMAL: Boris, Roman, Olga, Mikhail, Anna, Larisa. 742, 799, 14." 2002: "UVB-76, UVB-76. 62691 Izafet 3693 8270."

2006: "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."