Life At Random - At Home

A Video Short by Nova Sound Laboratories. The radio voice in the background is a clip from UVB76, a radio station in Russia.

It has been nicknamed "The Buzzer" by shortwave enthusiasts because, for the most part, the radio station transmits a continuous buzz. What's interesting isn't the buzz, but what happens when it stops: a voice will come on reading off a list of numbers and then a list of phoenetic letters.

This has only happened three times to anyone's knowledge: that's three times since 1982.

The radio clip was recorded 21 February 2006 with the following message (translated from Russian):

"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 station's transmitter is located at Povarovo, Russia which is about halfway between Zelenograd and Solnechnogorsk and 40 kilometres (25 mi) northwest of Moscow, near the village of Lozhki. The location and callsign were unknown until the first voice broadcast of 1997.

Its purpose is unknown - and the Russian government isn't saying anything.

As of January 17, 2010 at the latest many available map viewing services that provide satellite imagery have the UVB-76 station darkened or removed entirely. Of interest to note is the fact that seemingly unrelated buildings in close proximity are also blacked out.

Shortwave operators can listen to the broadcast on 4625 kHz.

Category:

Film & Animation

Tags:

• Nova
• Sound
• Laboratories
• UVB76

[bosunbilly]

@commissarusa I've seen them. They are blurred.

[commissarusa]

The satellite images on Google Earth don't have UVB-76 blacked out. You would think that they would. The image is just a little bit hard to make out. So they probably tried but failed.