Apologies for the delay. I slept a lot last night and felt ill most of yesterday. And there was double XP weekend on Overwatch during the anniversary, so I was grinding levels all day for loot.
Here's an inherently less sinister mystery, that probably warrants a shorter discussion based on how little we know about it. Which is fine since you got less time than the typical 7 days of sleuthing.
Mystery #2: UVB-76
Also known as "The Buzzer"
Callsigns: УВБ-76, МДЖБ, ЖУОЗ
Broadcasted in Russia, UVB-76 is the name of a mysterious shortwave radio station that broadcasts at 4625 kHz; apparently at all hours of the day, it broadcasts a buzztone that repeats at 25 tones/minute. A few instances have been observed where this grating noise is interrupted and someone speaking cryptically in Russian will come on the broadcast.
Audio sample:
[video=youtube]
[align=left]Although it's uncertain for how long the Buzzer has been active for, the first widespread reports of its existence began in 1973: the sound was initially a "repeating two-second pip" but changed to the Buzzing tone in 1990. The
earliest known recording dates back to 1982. Of other note, this briefly changed to a higher tone of longer duration (20 tones per minute) on January 16, 2003, but it has since reverted to the previous tone pattern. Up until 2010, the station identified itself as UVB-76 since its first known vocal transmission on Christmas Eve of 1997:
[21:00 UTC on December 24, 1997]
Ya UVB-76, Ya UVB-76. 180 08 BROMAL 74 27 99 14. Boris, Roman, Olga, Mikhail, Anna, Larisa. 7 4 2 7 9 9 1 4
Aside from this message, however, the nature of the station nor its purpose was outright identifiable. The tone continued as usual, with very rare voice messages of no importance until 2010;
[June 5, 2010]
UVB-76 went silent for approximately 24 hours, resuming the usual buzzing on the morning of June 6.
[13:35 UTC on August 23, 2010, Voice Transmission]
UVB-76, UVB-76. 93 882 NAIMINA 74 14 35 74. 9 3 8 8 2 Nikolai, Anna, Ivan, Mikhail, Ivan, Nikolai, Anna. 7 4 1 4 3 5 7 4
Transmissions were found to even include snippets of Swan Lake, a female voice counting from one to nine, a question mark transmitted in Morse code, and strange telephone conversations overheard by the receiver. No further notable activity until later in 2013, with a direct order issued.
[January 4, 2013, Voice Transmission]
OBYaVLENIYA KOMANDA 135 / "Command 135 Initiated."
[October 17, 2016, The Buzzer broadcasted at least 18 different messages in less than 24 hours:]
Other Notable Observances:
- Similar to what you hear in the video of the buzzer, others have noted white noise in the background during the broadcastings. Reports of unintelligible distant conversations, TV static, and so on have been noted. Sometimes the pitch/frequency of the buzzing shifts. These noises suggest that the buzzer emits noise into a live microphone rather than direct broadcast.
- The former Minister of Communications and Informatics of the Republic of Lithuania Rimantas Pleikys has written that the purpose of the voice messages is to "confirm that operators at receiving stations are alert". Additionally, it is implied that the broadcast is constantly being listened to by military commissariats, although no confirmation from the Russian government or broadcasting officials is available yet.
- There are two other Russian stations that follow a similar format, nicknamed "The Pip" and "The Squeaky Wheel". Like the Buzzer, these stations transmit a signature sound that is repeated constantly, but is occasionally interrupted to relay coded voice messages.
- The first location of the buzzer's transmitter was traced to a military bunker near Povarovo, Russia (56°5′0″N 37°6′37″E): halfway between Zelenograd and Solnechnogorsk and 10 kilometres (6.2 mi) northwest of Moscow, near the village of Lozhki. The location and callsign were unknown until the first known voice broadcast of 1997.
- The Buzzer changed locations September 2010 along with its callsign from UVB-76 to MDZhB/МДЖБ. Supposedly, in 2010 "One night a dense fog rolled in ("The storm"), and the military outpost was evacuated within 90 minutes," as told by a local who was living in the original area they thought the Buzzer was stationed in. According to the exploring group, after making their way across the site and past the guard dog stationed outside, the groups found the bunker and military buildings in a state of abandonment. Possessions and equipment were strewn across the base. Icy water had filled the bunker, yet they still found some clues. A now defunct blogsite described the Povarov military bunker as “a quiet and lonely dark place, something like a maze with lots of corridors and rooms.”
- The bunker contained a book that appeared to serve as a message log for UVB-76: they were convinced it was indeed run by members of the Russian military. [BOOK ARCHIVE]
- The station used a new callsign in December 2015: ZhUOZ/ЖУОЗ, pronounced "Zhenya, Ulyana, Olga, Zinaida."
- Apparently you can actually listen for the radio station via iTunes if you download a certain file. Wonder if they ever broadcast Britney Spears on it...
The new location of the Buzzer was presumed to be in Saint Petersburg, near the village of Kerro Massiv: coincidentally, the Russian military was reportedly undergoing a reorganization. It has reportedly changed locations based on triangulations, so nobody knows its exact location yet. But there were different locations traced over the years:
- the small Russian village of Kirsino, which has a registered populace of just 39 people. One signal can be traced here.
- Pskov Oblast. This is currently the most likely source of UVB-76, due to the multiple triangulation attempts that lead here.
- "One location that appears during triangulation attempts is very close to a transmitter array southeast of Kolpino that is reportedly used by the Russian government to transmit state radio across Russia. As UVB-76 settled into the new location, Dance of The Little Swans from Swan Lake was played. Instrumental passages from Swan Lake are a favorite of Voice Of Russia."
The closest thing to an official explanation for the signal’s purpose comes from an academic paper published by the Borok Geophysical Observatory. This state-funded organization describes itself as a “branch of the Federal state budgetary institution of science.” They explain that the signal originates from an observatory using the 4625 kHz frequency to measure changes in the ionosphere.
This does not explain the military bunker, or the voice messages. Nor does the paper detail how successful the research has been. A signal on the 4625 kHz frequency would have suffered from extreme interference, rendering it nearly unusable for researching the ionosphere.
Further Reading:
[video=youtube]
It's a bit creepy to find information about this, so I wanted a nice gentle voice to hold my hand while I went down the rabbit hole. Informative and has more content.
This article! It also offers a few theories which you may agree with or may not. Feel free to pick them apart here!
The Wikipedia article: features various technical specifications of the Buzzer, possibly interesting to you. Good summary.
Possible Questions:
- What the heck are the tones for? Is it merely white noise or something more?
- What is the purpose of the station? What do the direct messages imply?
- If the original station is long abandoned, who's been running the station the past 20 or 30 years? (Nosferatu?)
- If it really was Russian-operated by the military, and is no more important than a mere soundwave ghost station, why haven't they dispelled any rumors and simply confirmed that the purpose of the station is merely for testing or scientific purposes, or that it's just something that fell out of necessary use other than signal testing?
- Do you have some crazy tinfoil hat crackpot theory about the station that may or may not hold water!? THINK IT'S RUSSIAN MIND CONTROL TO MAKE US VOTE FOR HILLARY CLINTON, THE REPTILIAN LEADER!!?! Blab it out HERE!!!
- Who's the poor sap running the broadcasts that lacks the technical know-how to put the buzzer in front of a mic instead of directly broadcasting the noise? This is the Cold War equivalent of filming an episode of Family Guy playing on your TV with a camera in front of it. For shame...
In retrospect it isn't all
that mysterious if you dig enough, but we like to creep ourselves out by letting our imaginations fill in the gaps for us.
@ Russian government: pls dont hurt me for being curious about your weird radio station, I'm just a person who likes spooky things
