https://hackaday.com/2023/04/08/russias-new-mystery-shortwave-station/ Skip to content Logo Hackaday Primary Menu * Home * Blog * Hackaday.io * Tindie * Hackaday Prize * Submit * About * Search for: [ ] [Search] April 9, 2023 Russia's New Mystery Shortwave Station 22 Comments * by: Al Williams April 8, 2023 * * * * * Title: [Russia's New Mystery] Copy Short Link: [https://hackaday.com] Copy [buzz] The Buzzer, also known as UVB-76 or UZB-76, has been a constant companion to anyone with a shortwave radio tuned to 4625 kHz. However, [Ringway Manchester] notes that there is now a second buzzer operating near in frequency to the original. Of course, like all mysterious stations, people try to track their origin. [Ringway] shows some older sites for the Buzzer and the current speculation on the current transmitter locations. Of course, the real question is why? The buzzing isn't quite nonstop. There are occasional voice messages. There are also jamming attempts, including one, apparently, by Pac Man. Some people think the new buzzer is an image, but it doesn't seem to be the same signal. The theory is that the buzzing is just to keep the frequency clear in case it is needed. However, we wonder if it isn't something else. Compressed data would sound like noise. Other theories are that the buzzing studies the ionosphere or that it is part of a doomsday system that would launch nuclear missiles. Given that the signal has broken down numerous times, this doesn't seem likely. What's even stranger is that occasional background voices are audible on the signal. That implies that buzzing noise isn't generated directly into the transmitter but is a device in front of a microphone. We've speculated on the buzzer and the jamming efforts around it before. Not exactly a numbers station, but the same sort of appeal. * [share_face] * [share_twit] * [share_in] * [share_mail] Posted in Radio HacksTagged number stations, UVB-76, UZB-76 Post navigation - Mechanical GIF Animates With The Power Of Magnets Web Server Like It's 1998 With This Restored Internet Appliance - 22 thoughts on "Russia's New Mystery Shortwave Station" 1. PWalsh says: April 8, 2023 at 1:42 pm I keep wondering why it's so hard to identify the locations of these things. GPS time sync signals are accurate to 40 ns. If you have 2 receivers at different locations that time stamp the start of a particular artifact in the data, you can get a distance. Do this multiple times, and you can triangulate on the origin. I understand bouncing signals and ducting within atmospheric layers, but would that really be a problem if receivers in different countries is used (with different atmospheric effects)? How hard is tracking these things down? Report comment Reply 1. Naxes says: April 8, 2023 at 3:11 pm Their locations are known, it's their purpose that is the mystery Report comment Reply 1. patrick joubert says: April 9, 2023 at 1:31 am Cela me fait penser a un bruit electromagnetique de chargeur a inpulsion. Report comment Reply 2. Guan Yu says: April 9, 2023 at 2:55 am They're not a mystery as such. They're part of a larger Russian military commandment network; the Buzzer specifically represents 6-ia obshchevoiskovaia armiia, or Sixth Combined Arms Army, and the repeating sound is indeed a channel marker. Depending on exercises or combat, they will occasionally transmit Monolit messages, or other Russian military radio formats. The meaning of those messages during any given period of combat is generally derived from a codebook distributed to the force in question, like a poor man's OTP. Report comment Reply 3. RobotToaster says: April 9, 2023 at 9:47 am I'm guessing those locations aren't places you can just knock on the door and ask? Report comment Reply 2. Brad Granath says: April 8, 2023 at 1:52 pm Ha! What if these are just broken equipment that is accidentally broadcasting out-of-band/unintentionally and/or is unintentionally MICROPHONIC? (unlikely, but it was a silly thought) Report comment Reply 1. John Terry says: April 8, 2023 at 2:49 pm Sort of like in On the Beach Report comment Reply 1. Mike Chenery. says: April 9, 2023 at 10:28 am Good film. Time it was broadcast again! Report comment Reply 2. Garth Bock says: April 8, 2023 at 4:53 pm Wasn't there a story (maybe here) about one of those solar powered portable AM transmitters that was used to broadcast something like traffic information? Seems that it continued to transmit for something like a year but no one could find it. It was finally located at a municipal garage in storage and being solar powered it would come alive during the day. (Someone refresh my memory). Report comment Reply 1. AKix says: April 8, 2023 at 8:35 pm If I recall correctly, it was a transmitter in a trailer intended for traffic assistance around the time of an inauguration, and so that solar power let it live for many years afterwards, broadcasting the same date and info as when it was set up. Report comment Reply 3. CRJEEA says: April 8, 2023 at 2:14 pm Maybe it's like a dead man's switch, if it stops broadcasting, someone or something knows the power was lost to the transmitter. Then again, there was odd repetitive radio Interference near me a few years ago, taking a broad spectrum radio, with a directional antenna, for a walk around the block soon lead me to a house, the garden of which was illuminated by Christmas lights all year round. The pwm and long lengths of wire made for a rather crude but effective transmitter. Report comment Reply 1. DXer says: April 9, 2023 at 10:36 am Lewis [Ringway Manchester] has already covered why this is not the case on his channel. Report comment Reply 4. John says: April 8, 2023 at 3:36 pm Well, given that that buzzing is being recorded be microphone, my guess would be that it's tob verify that the microphone is operational, or it's a mic that must be kept on and the noise is to block out voices from being transmitted Report comment Reply 5. Garth Bock says: April 8, 2023 at 4:56 pm If it's text interlaced with the video signal of Hitler opening the Olympic games better get Jodie Foster and her team to help! Report comment Reply 6. Timo says: April 8, 2023 at 5:34 pm What if it actually is a dead man switch for nuclear wepons, but not that well maintained (like all the other russian stuff). Who said that stoping transmitting from time to time is intentional? Maybe it just take a week or so after the signal stops, but until now every time somebody noticed the transmitter stoped and just gave it a good smack and voila... its working again. Report comment Reply 1. Vlad says: April 9, 2023 at 1:18 am If the signal is a dead man's switch then there's nothing stopping someone else from copying the signal and replicating it thereby making it look the same to whatever device may be monitoring it. Report comment Reply 1. David says: April 9, 2023 at 12:48 pm I like the dead man switch use. Just because it has another use doesn't mean it can be part of a dead man system. BBC R4 is part of the british dead man switch/ system. Report comment Reply 7. Reggie says: April 8, 2023 at 5:35 pm I think its purpose is to help the receiver to check the radio device is operational and the signal is receivable even there is no command in transit at the moment. Report comment Reply 1. rsoia says: April 9, 2023 at 1:30 pm Correct answer. One can invent fancy scenarios involving spies and nukes. In reality it could be as simple as conscript serving in Muchosransk-46 military base located somewhere deep in Siberia. For half a year that place is accessible only by plane. Every day when he starts his shift, he has to check the radio and make an entry in a log book, same thing at the end of the day. If the radio is broken they take the reserve one and use sat-phone to call Moscow for a replacement. Report comment Reply 8. Facie McFaceboat says: April 8, 2023 at 7:18 pm JJ Abrams is laying the groundwork for a new TV series he is hoping to sell to Hulu, called Brother of Buzzer, about the hilarious antics of a ragtag crew of soldiers who operate a numbers station, and are unaware of the fact that, for decades, the microphone has been transmitting an annoying sound instead of the intended spy transmission. A storyline every Russian citizen can empathize with. Report comment Reply 9. Vincent says: April 9, 2023 at 4:18 am Do one knows since when the new buzzer is operating ? Report comment Reply 1. Ar says: April 9, 2023 at 8:59 am Since at least 2021. We did some investigation on it and the conclusion was that 4612 are some pranksters / pirates. Just like those who transmit music, sound effects and images over 4625. The marker is out of sync, and fading patterns are different to those of 4625. Report comment Reply Leave a Reply Cancel reply Please be kind and respectful to help make the comments section excellent. (Comment Policy) This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. 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