For over 4 decades in Russia there has been a radio station codenamed UVB-76, better known by radio amateurs and short-wave listeners as "the Buzzer" or жужжалка (žužžalka), which transmits uninterruptedly a monotonous series of humming and shrieking, of which no one has ever claimed "paternity". The first transmitted signals date back to 1973, during the Cold War but, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the transmissions were even enhanced by further, disturbing the listeners who tune into the relative radio channel. The radio was named so because, until September 2010, the station self-identified as UVB-76 (Cyrillic: УВБ-76) but subsequently, the broadcast site was moved and the callsign from that time used within the voice messages was MDZhB (Cyrillic: МДЖБ), since the end of 2015 a new callsign, ZhUOZ (Cyrillic: ЖУОЗ) has been used and from March 1, 2019, the station appears to be using ANVF (Cyrillic: АНВФ).
According to the coordinates, the enigmatic signal -similar to the sound of the reception problems of horror movies or of a sonar- which in the past came from a village near Moscow, now moved into a complex of abandoned radio antennas, power plants and dilapidated buildings not far from Saint Petersburg.
The station usually transmits a short and monotonous buzz, repeated 25 times per minute without stopping and only on some occasional occasions the white noise stops giving way to a male voice declaiming sequences of proper names of people, apparently meaningless numbers and words (probably encrypted voice messages in Russian), which almost always follow the same pattern.
The trasmission uses AM with a suppressed lower sideband but it has also used full double-sideband AM on the frequencies of 4.625 kHz and, since 2015, also of 6.998 kHz.
The mystery surrounding the existence of this radio wave has inevitably tickled the curiosity of conspiracy theorists.
Among the more "rational" explanations is that the Buzzer could be a radio spy station similar to the British and no longer active "Lincolnshire Poacher" or the Australian "Cherry Ripe": widespread during the Cold War, these stations for 007 work on low frequency waves that can transmit the signal over long distances.
This type of signal is therefore also used by ships, submarines and aircraft and can be picked up even in the other hemisphere.
All these stations appeared more or less in the same period, during the temporary detente between the Soviet and American blocks and it seems that they use the same principle of cryptography: who sends the message invents a code that only the recipient knows, while for random listeners it is indecipherable (nonsense).
The transmission would therefore be part of a secret interaction network used by Russian intelligence to communicate with both the military and spies around the world.
For the aforementioned characteristics there are those who claim that it is a communication system for Soviet submarines.
It was also thought that the transmitted signals were part of a system of control of nuclear warheads by the Russian armies, introduced in the Holocaust period but also active during the Cold War, which would be part of the Soviet "Perimeter System" and known in the West as 'The Dead Hand' too: in the event that such a theory is valid, if the buzz should be interrupted, a nuclear attack would break out.
If there are any signs of a nuclear explosion, the Buzzer must immediately verify this by monitoring a network of sensors. At that point, the system sends a signal to the General Staff and, if it doesn’t get a response, it assumes that the individuals in charge of giving the orders are all dead, and the day X has arrived, so it sends a signal to submarines and airplanes to carry out a nuclear attack... it is not by chance that it was hypothesized that it was a remote control station belonging to the nuclear power plant of Chernobyl
Then there is the most accredited theory: transmission is a communication system that the army would use in the western part of Russia.
As "Russia Beyond The Headlines" explains, the coded announcements would be the orders of the military departments, while the monotonous humming only a marker to fill the frequency so that no one can use it.
The mystery is heightened by the fact that, in conjunction with significant events in world history, the signal is intensified by transmitting indecipherable messages.
That’s what happened when Crimea voted to join the Russian Federation: after 24 hours the voice of the ghost radio said the following words: “Terrakota. Mikhail Dimitri Zhenya Boris. MDZhB. Mikhail Dmitri Zhenya Boris. 81 26 T-E-R-R-A-K-O-T-A”.
All this rationality however does not satisfy the lovers of the paranormal who have advanced hypotheses ranging from the radio lighthouse for the UFO's navigation to our planet, to the signal able to control and reprogram our mind, to supernatural entities'interference from the afterlife, to the instrument with which the Russians are trying to contact extraterrestrial life forms.
Whatever the explanation of the existence of The Buzzer is, it continues to fascinate many fans: on the internet there are many discussion forums and the site from which you can listen to the UVB76 streaming radio is quite popular.
"When I was bound apprentice
In famous Lincolnshire,
Full well I served my master
For nigh on seven years.
Till I took up to poaching
As you should quickly hear,
Oh, ’tis my delight on a shiny night
In the season of the year.
Oh, ’tis my delight on a shiny night
In the season of the year."
-"The Lincolnshire Poacher", traditional English folk song
Resources related to The Buzzer, the Russian ghost radio
- BBC
- Pryiom.org
- WIRED
- RUSSIA BEYOND
Cover Image by StockSnap
Article Image by Janm67
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