Slashdot Mirror
Mysterious Radio Station UVB-76 Goes Offline
leathered writes "Tinfoil hatters around the world are abuzz that UVB-76, the Russian shortwave radio station that has been broadcasting its monotonous tone almost uninterrupted since 1982, has suddenly gone offline. Of course no one knows what the significance of this is, but best brush up on your drills just in case."
Another explanation for the constant buzzer is...radio waves are reflected from ionosphere inhomogeneities. Changes of an ionosphere state can be caused by solar geophysical or seismic events. This method involves comparing a continuous radio transmission which is reflected by the ionosphere with a stable basic generator. The continuously transmitted carrier frequency currently used for this research matches that of the Russian Buzzer (4.625 MHz).
If the ionosphere can change state from seismic events, why couldn't seismic events be changed through manipulation of the ionosphere? It is indeed possible to control large-scale events with small-scale signals with phenomina such as resonance. What of all of the earthquakes which seem to hit the people we don't like, providing opportunities to rebuild and sieze their resources as part of the growing trend of disaster capitalism, the ultimate way to make money and spread influence without declaring war?
And why is there no comparison to HAARP in that article?! From the HAARP wiki:
The High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) is an ionospheric research program jointly funded by the US Air Force, the US Navy, the University of Alaska and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).Its purpose is to analyze the ionosphere and investigate the potential for developing ionospheric enhancement technology for radio communications and surveillance purposes (such as missile detection)...The current working IRI was completed in 2007, and its prime contractor was BAE Advanced Technologies.
Which is a big, big military industrial comglomerate.
Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to change the state of my tinfoil hat into a pipe, so I can put some more weed into it and smoke out of it.
It's a conspiracy! Damn them! This means something, but WHAT COULD IT MEAN?
"Maintenance"
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
Heard about this on 4chan's science board pretty much as soon as it happened. Couple people checked on it, and either it was only down for a very short time or it wasn't down at all, because it was up when people checked.
Maybe it won't down [again?], I don't know. Has anyone thought to double-check this?
So the main article comes from a discussion board on a conspira-blog-forum. And the description of the station in question is from Wikipedia, followed by a YouTube video in the third link. Now, don't get me wrong, I am not questioning the journalistic capabilities of the submitters, but holy-jumping-jeebus can we get an article with some legitimate [CITATION NEEDED] please. Perhaps this one was a tongue-in-cheek submission facetiously posted for the TFH crowd.
'We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.' RPF
Russian media says the station is switching to soft rock.
I dialed into 4625 KHz and I can hear the buzz, Guess it was just a maintenance down-period.
It's a countdown to WAR! OMG, the Russians are coming, the RUSSIANS ARE COMING!!!!!
j/k
Life is not for the lazy.
Simple as that.
I man stepped into the boxing ring
His name was Sock'em Dazer
He took a look around and said...
Where's my Occam's Razor?
I judt got a nre Kinesis keybiartf so please excusr ant egregiou typos.
They found it really disappointing, and figured there was no reason to push their button every 2.5 seconds. They thought the numbers had to mean something for sure, but no, not really.
All your monotonous tones belong to us
The sky sure is blue this afternoon...
maybe the record finished?
In Soviet Russia, signal transmits you!
Or something like that.
Entropy just isn't what it used to be.
I think this is pretty obvious.
Maybe this is just the longest viral marketing campaign ever. We'll soon find out about the game/movie ralated to this buzz... :P
It was a count down. Now the aliens will attack.
WWV All the time, all the time
What one fool can do, another can. (Ancient Simian Proverb)
Maybe this has something to do with the light seen over Australia. Astronomers said it bared identical characteristics to Russia's new MIRV. If Russia is prepping to do more nuclear tests, especially live tests, it would make sense to disable a deadman's switch.... especially considering if it's incorporated into modern technology observing radioactive particles in the atmosphere.
There's still a freaky buzz on 4644kHz. And there's something that sounds like a movie ray gun on 4666.
FOUR SIX SIX SIX
Plenty of freaky shortwave left...
Comment removed based on user account deletion
[discussing the Doomsday machine]
President Merkin Muffley: How is it possible for this thing to be triggered automatically and at the same time impossible to untrigger?
Dr. Strangelove: Mr. President, it is not only possible, it is essential. That is the whole idea of this machine, you know. Deterrence is the art of producing in the mind of the enemy... the FEAR to attack. And so, because of the automated and irrevocable decision-making process which rules out human meddling, the Doomsday machine is terrifying and simple to understand... and completely credible and convincing.
What one fool can do, another can. (Ancient Simian Proverb)
I can confirm I hear nothing on that frequency.... I doubt I should be able to hear a 10kW station near Moscow at 4625kHz this far after sunrise there though, so that's not saying much.
If anyone here can understand German, take a listen and report back what it says!
http://media.abovetopsecret.com/media/6950/UVB-76_06052010_2030_MP3/
Fast-forward to the end... sounds like a news broadcast to me.
They didn't receive their stimulus check...
I just asked the folks at QRZ if anyone can confirm this. Hopefully someone there has good gear for checking on it.
Matthew Walker
http://www.tweeterdiet.com/ - My Diet Tracking Tool
In Capitalist West you watch weather satellite orbits fail.
In Soviet Russia BP oil expertise funds a new communications network for you.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Maybe someone just opened the electric bill...
This issue is a bit more complicated than you think.
"So we cut the power to that computer over in the corner. What was it doing, no-longer Comrade..."
"I don't know, fellow Capitalist, the guy who put it in drank himself to death"
"Ah, nothing important then I'm sure"
Russia and Iran ended a day of talks on Iran's nuclear program without any apparent breakthrough.
That was Feb 21 2006
Search Results
1. ... ... Iraq's government openly praised the attacks of September 11.
CNN.com - President Bush's address to the United Nations
Sep 12, 2002
The transmission on Sept 12, 2002
Dec 24 1997
hmm
American Charged With Spying Allowed to Leave Russia
or
Iran Holds Russian Aid Shipment Bound for Iraq
My guess is that it relays messages to spies, and hopefully that's the end of it, and not as suggested a signal to that dead man system.
Otherwise the countdown has begun.
Of course no one knows what the significance of this is, but best brush up on your drills just in case.
I know what it means: the guy who broadcast that frequency from his garage died. He was 41 when he started, it has been 28 years since he started, he died of congestive heart failure and liver disease at the age of 69, and his electricity was later shut off due to non-payment. Which just serves to prove my point: when something trivial happens, or ceases to happen, after 28 years, there is probably not a huge conspiracy involved. And Germans love David Hasselhoff.
This is a hacked account, for which the owner can not be held responsible.
Let us know. While everyone is saying it down, no one has really confirmed that it's true.
~ Mooga
Come now, not a single hunk of wire laying around, no gutters, no bedsprings?
Strange things are afoot at the Circle-K.
The RIAA got them. The buzztone was already under copyright by Britteny Spears.
I can. I can confirm it's true.
For one thing, you'll notice that the conspiracy nuts are, well, always wrong. They have an abysmal track record throughout history and in modern times. Well, with a trend like that, it is pretty safe to say that they'll continue to be wrong. Same sort of thing with any crackpot thing that has been wrong time and time again. I mean just because ESP has failed every test doesn't prove beyond any and all doubt that it doesn't exist in some form... But it gives really strong evidence of that fact, and thus makes it pretty safe to say that indeed it's BS.
The other thing is that the people who are in to conspiracies seem to have extremely poor logic skills. They ignore obvious evidence, jump at tenuous connections, straight out make shit up, and place more faith in that which can't be proven than that which can. As such, the conclusions they draw are very likely wrong. When you use a bad logical process, your conclusion usually isn't right. That's just how things go. The scientific method, logical principles, and so on aren't random. It is the stuff that works reliably for separating truth from fiction. So when you fail to use it, well your results are probably incorrect.
So yes, just because you are a paranoid, psychotic nut job who thinks there's a conspiracy probably DOES mean there isn't a conspiracy. If you bet against them, you'd make plenty of money.
The last sentence on http://sites.google.com/site/stationuvb76 states: "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." I cannot find any verification yet, however. Weird.
Some odd noise on one of the buzzers old simulcast frequencies... 3877khz Very faint, but it's there. Various noise filters aren't doing much justice.
This is clearly an ionospheric sounder, same as the numbers stations. These things are used during communications planning for a military exercise.
Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
So um... Has anyone thought about going out there to ask what it's been doing for 28 years?
Comrade,
Fear not- our transmitter is down but we have now regained contact with you.
Message body follows:
Schuka-4-7-1-2-9-4-0-2-Anna-Anna-Pavel-Larisa-Konstantin. Uliyana-9-3-3-8-0-2 Oksana-Pavel 9-3. 1-6-4-4-0-Tatiana
0-0-0-0
http://www.khaaan.com/
I've lost track; how many years has Kirk been yodeling into the ether like that?
-FL
The court subpoenaed my hard drive and RIAA lawyers representing the KGB found a compressed audio file of the station's entire broadcast history in my Kazaa folder.
maybe Sealab really blew up for good this time.
Monstar L
Or that's what you would like us to think.
Relax... that was the last Russian Usenet feed shutting down -- the spawn of the Arpanet finally got 'em.
Long live American technology!
This is pretty spooky, I mean the conspiracy theories are kind of warranted considering this station's eerie history.
Someone must have been funding a station that has lasted since 1982 and is powerful to be heard world wide. I have done a little bit of amateur radio and I know that in order to do that you need some serious power, a huge antenna, and quite a bit of constant maintenance. It is definitely not a stretch to think that this station was/is run by the Russian Government as at the very minimum for some sort of testing or maybe as an emergency broadcasting system during a disaster.
However, I really doubt its part of the Dead Hand system. I would think they would use something more secure if the dead hand system was under automatic control. If there is any possibility that it is part of the Dead Hand system than the Dead Hand system is certainly a system that requires some sort of human intervention due to possibilities of interference, false positives, or someone over riding the system to send a the activation codes.
Just my 2 cents, I am certainly no conspiracy theorist but it is always fun to think about the possibilities. There is plenty of stuff that we simply don't know about; however, I do hope that the some of the theories are real because than at least I would know that our government has a high enough level of competence to actually keep fool us in a significant way.
It's not down, I just checked 4625 kHz in Finland and the buzz is there.
Maybe they finally finished typing out the message in morse code?
I hear the translation was something like:
Hi Mom! The camp counselors insist we learn to use ham radio to communicate with you. Hope this reaches you before you die. Love, Junior.
"If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
Before I read this, I had no idea this thing existed.
Now, I am consumed with an overwhelming need to discover the reason for this transmission. I will not be able to rest until I have discovered the secret. This transmission is now the most important thing in my life.
DAMN YOU!
I don't believe in time. It's a grand conspiracy designed to sell watches.
some body forgot to push the button.
The matter of ESP is wether you are open to it or not.
How can you investigate something if you are not open to it? Well, for ESP it is almost impossible for reasons that are totally logical and explainable.
You can EXPERIENCE ESP though, and I increasingle experience more and more of it. Especially with a girlfriend living in another city, you can experience it beyond any statistical doubt, and no it's not just a matter of training eachother to think the same either.
Not everything can be tested rigorously though, but that doesn't mean it doesn't exist. Actually, being a scientist doesn't entitle you to be a closed-minded prick..
It is obviously the Dharma Initiative, that is running out of funds.
Assume the nuclear protection position: put your head between your knees and kiss your ass goodbye.
Listens to (and often records) these stations non stop to know the 3 or 4 times in 20 years that something actually happened.
...to describe something that never happens.
did you hear that sample at wikipedia? what an annoying sound to be broadcasting over the air! as an avid shortwave listener am glad it is gone, i also like listening to pirate broadcasts (unlicensed radio) which broadcast with low power and are on the air for short periods of time so they are hard to catch but with a good radio & antenna and a little spare time it can be done, but shortwave listening is a love/hate relationship when it comes to trying to catch that elusive pirate broadcast, what i hate is when they do something lame like play music because DX SSB is scratchy with lighting crashes and static, tolerable for two-way communication or monologues or dialogs (voice) but terrible for music, and most of the time the same music i can find on a local FM broadcast station or your average music CD collection, i would rather hear something rare and interesting, informative & insightful.
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
I guess someone forgot to push the button every 108 minutes
In Soviet Russia, memes keep YOU at bay!
now that the Russians are our friends...couldn't we just ask them? They might need our Space Cowboys help putting their Global Annihilation satellite back in proper orbit....and Clint Eastwood only has so many years left.
i hear some voice communications, i can barely hear it, its down in the noise floor, but it is in there.
spring time is a bad time for HF radio, all the thunderstorms make a mess out of the airwaves, especially on the lower half of the spectrum
Politics is Treachery, Religion is Brainwashing
For one thing, you'll notice that the conspiracy nuts are, well, always wrong.
That's only because when a conspiracy is proven its no longer considered to be in the realm of "conspiracy nuts."
I'm sure there are hundreds like that, I can think of a few off the top of my head - COINTELPRO, Watergate, Iran-Contra. Tuskegee experiments, Greek Wiretapping Scandal.
ECHELON:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echelon_(signals_intelligence)
crap, Desmond Hume must have left the building! We're fucked.
You can't handle the truth.
It was on the internet!
Yeah, in the West you give radio stations a buzz. But in Soviet Russia, radio stations buzz YOU!
Waltzing Matilda, Waltzing Matilda...
Radio transmitters do not go "offline". They go "off the air".
...by the 1.3 second period modulation. This is the worlds slowest CW Morse code transmission. The last 'dit' lasted 28 years.
Have gnu, will travel.
Mark my words, somebody will click on this link and regret it.
Commander Zwirk: Still no answer from earth?
Corporal Nyuk: No commander!
Commander Zwirk: We have waited more than enough foofars for even the most primitive species, such as one based on burning oil for energy, to reply. It is time! Point the antenna array at another galaxy!
Corporal Nyuk: Yes commander! It is done!
Just a few seconds later, back on earth at SETI ...
Astronoboss: WOW! We never plugged the antenna cable in when we built this sonofabitch! Do it now!
Astronolackey: Done sir!
Astronoboss: Nope. Shit - still nothing.
You assume their goal is to be right more often than wrong. That may not be true. Many "nuts" may accept the fact that each case is a long-shot, but tolerate long-shots to get at the few rare juicy nuggets of real conspiracies.
You are comparing it to basketball, where each attempt has a roughly 45% chance of succeeding. However, it may be more like soccer, where the vast majority of goal attempts fail, yet games are won by that rare lucky hit. Despite the lower hit rate, it's still the most popular sport.
Some enjoy those kind of ratios. That does not make them "irrational", for they are doing it for the emotional payoff, not as a day career. They would rather have rare but high-value hits than many hits of low value.
Look at it this way: if you are a video gamer, even if you are better than everybody else you just get trophy and some money at best. If the conspiracy fan hits right, they can change the world, the actual politics and governments that run the world.
Table-ized A.I.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McFRonD-sjg
Table-ized A.I.
Why not just triangulate the transmitter, then walk to the source, and say "hey there, what's all this then?"
A slashdotter who didn't build his own computer is like a Jedi who didn't build his own lightsaber.
It is on air, nothing to see here. Ionosphere propagation issues are to blame. As usual, slashdotters demoed how shallow they are.
Hey Just heard the buzzz.."on the phone". The source is Tzachi an experience Radio amateur from the center of Israel. Time in Israel 23:49
Ami b.b
Talk about jumping the gun, it's still there and as someone mentioned it was probably taken offline to replace a transmission line feeder or something got fried (it happens).
I reckon this is the Military's (Russian or otherwise) equivalent to the HAM's WSPR Net (Weak Signal Propagation Reporter Network).
They were bought by ClearChannel. They will return as a Classic Rock station playing Hotel California and Stairway To Heaven seven times a day.
Definitely up and running, although people say it's been a little inconsistent.
Matthew Walker
http://www.tweeterdiet.com/ - My Diet Tracking Tool
It's just A major...it's simply a tuning tone for orchestras.
Looks like one bit every 28 years so far.
> No, no... that's spelled correctly in the native language of 4chan.
I didn't know that Moron was a language these days?
Also don't forget the American streetcar scandal, in which several corporations--including GM, Firestone, and Standard Oil (now Chevron/Exxon?)--were convicted in court of conspiracy. Ever wonder why you jump in your 2000+ pound car to travel in the US while pumping out greenhouse emissions, when Europe has trains and trolleys? It's because of a conspiracy.
Also, it could be that the UVB-76 buzzer was designed to make people wonder what it did, to make big goofs write comments on slashdot /*looks at self*/, instead of pursuing more useful inquiries. Kind of like the slow release of JFK shooting materials to occupy those particular, uhhh, conspiracy theorists.
When you use a bad logical process, your conclusion usually isn't right. That's just how things go. The scientific method, logical principles, and so on aren't random. It is the stuff that works reliably for separating truth from fiction. So when you fail to use it, well your results are probably incorrect.
Wow. You've obviously never had an argument with my girlfriend before. And lost.
K.
>And it has been shown [salon.com] that gay men have larger cocks.
http://twitter.com/search?q=%23shortwave
natalinoPT I don't know about you, but tonight, "The Buzzer" is buzzing on 4625 as usual. #shortwave
(Inside joke) - NMCI simply took it over, that's all.
Does this have anything to do with the end of the "Lost" series?
SOLDIER 1: "Hey Nikolai, how come this room is locked?"
SOLDIER 2: "Always been that way. Since back in the USSR. Must have lost key."
SOLDIER 1: [brandishing crowbar] "I have universal key right here."
FX: Sound of thick metal door being pried open.
SOLDIER 1: "Holy cats! It's a radio station."
SOLDIER 2: "It's still on. What's it broadcasting?"
SOLDIER 1: "Sounds like test signal."
SOLDIER 2: "Huy boy. Kremlin not gonna be happy about this."
FX: Sound of switch being thrown and electrical equipment powering down.
SOLDIER 2: [IN PANIC] "Nikolai, you idiot! Now they now we find it. It's our fault."
SOLDIER 1: "No problem. I just turn it back on...."
FX: Sound of switch being thrown many times.
SOLDIER 2: "You is in big trouble now."
I think someone tripped on the cord and pulled it out of the socket.
I loaded up my apartment's gutters on 80m back in the early 90's and had phones ringing for miles. Oops!
Tiller's Rule: Never use a word in written form that you've only heard and never read. You will end up looking foolish.
After nearly three decades the source of an annoying buzz emanating form the center of Russia has been determined. Radio operators at a secret military base have been broadcasting the buzz of their fluorescent lighting for nearly 30 years.. "We couldn't stand the blasted environment that they kept us working in." says an unnamed soldier. "We've been here since the friggin' Cold War listening to this crap, while the whole country changed around us. To protest we simply switched on the radio and let her go." As part of a cost saving effort by the Russian military, all military buildings are being converted to high efficiency lighting, replacing the original noisy ballasts with compact fluorescent canisters. "The lighting quality is still crap, but at least the noise is gone."
Transmission info from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UVB-76:
Transmission 1:
At 21:58 GMT on December 24, 1997, the buzzing abruptly stopped to be replaced by a short series of beeps, and a male voice speaking Russian announced: "Ya — UVB-76. 18008. BROMAL: Boris, Roman, Olga, Mikhail, Anna, Larisa. 742, 799, 14."[5] The same message was repeated several times before the beep sequence repeated and the buzzer resumed.
Result 1:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/December_27 - Protestant paramilitary leader Billy Wright is assassinated in Northern Ireland.
Transmission 2:
A similar voice message was broadcast on September 12, 2002, but with extreme distortion (possibly as a result of the source being too close to the microphone head) that rendered comprehension very difficult. This second voice broadcast has been partially translated as "UVB-76, UVB-76. 62691 Izafet 3693 8270."
Result 2:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/October_2 - The Beltway sniper attacks begin, extending over three weeks.
Transmission 3:
A third voice message was broadcast on February 21, 2006 at 7:57 GMT. (recording of the third voice transmission) Again, the speaking voice was highly distorted, but the message's content translates as: "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."[6] These names are found in some Russian spelling alphabets, similar to the NATO phonetic alphabet.[7]
Result 3:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/February_24 - Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo declares Proclamation 1017 placing the country in a state of emergency in attempt to subdue a possible military coup.
Transmission 4:
On June 6th, 2010, the broadcast goes offline.
Result 4:
PROFIT!!!
This is iron-clad, irrefutable evidence of... (I forget. Oh well. Nevermind.)
Sincerely,
Conspiracy Nut
I'm listening to it currently.
Keep in mind, due to recent solar activity, signal propagation has been HORRIBLE. Im listening to it on a receiver out of Slovakia and the signal quality is wavering. It is currently NOT AUDIBLE in the US. However, verified, the radio never actually went off the air.
That's freakin' awesome. I always wanted to try the couple miles or so of electric fence we had back on the farm, but never had a tuner back then.
Strange things are afoot at the Circle-K.
Anyone whos interested of hearing realtime what it's all about, there is a temporary streaming feed from 900km NW of that station:
http://uk3-pn.mixstream.net/8026.m3u