It would seem UVB-76 went active again last night.
Also known as The Buzzer, this shortwave radio station has existed since the late 1970s, usually broadcasting nothing more than a repeating buzz tone. But sometimes, like last night, that tone is interrupted, replaced with a mysterious voice transmission.
It broadcasts on the frequency 4625 kHz. No one really knows why. It’s thought to originate from somewhere in Russia, and you can listen to it online, if you want (here or here). Nothing too exciting at the moment, just those short, monotonous buzzes.
But last night, like I said, another voice came across the station.
Theories about what the broadcasts mean are innumerable. Are they secret messages transmitted to Russian spies? Maybe. It’s often called a “numbers station,” after all, and that’s their purpose. Or perhaps it’s just an innocuous radio station with some very eclectic programming.
The broadcast on September 1, 2010, for example, was interrupted by a short fragment of Tchaikovsky’s “Dance of the Little Swans.” From Wikipedia:
“At 2225 UTC on September 1, 2010, the buzzer was interrupted by a 38-second fragment of “Dance of the Little Swans” from Tchaikovsky’s ballet Swan Lake. Four days later on September 5 at 1230 UTC, a female voice was heard counting from one to nine in Russian; just over an hour later, at 1339 UTC, the buzzing silenced for a quiet male voice to read a voice message.”
Weird.
To listen to other recent UVB-76 voice transmissions, they’ve been logged over at Priyom.org. There’s definitely something creepy about those messages…
