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."

Comments

The reason

[girlintraining]

It's a conspiracy! Damn them! This means something, but WHAT COULD IT MEAN?

"Maintenance"

Article Quality.

[cosm]

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.

Re:Article Quality.

[binarylarry]

Remember, just because you're a paranoid psychotic nut job crank doesn't mean there isn't a conspiracy.

Re:Article Quality.

[gad_zuki!]

>but holy-jumping-jeebus can we get an article with some legitimate [CITATION NEEDED] please.

In the 1980s the US was eager to test the resolve of the Soviet's glasnost policy of open relations with the West. A drunken Caspar Weinberger, the current Secretary of Defense, decided to ask the Soviets to work closely with experimental music artist Brian Eno after reading an article about him in the Post. Brian was supplied with the best drugs Iran/Contra could supply. After months of negotiations and late night stoner brain-storming sessions, Brian finally got the approval for his epic 10,000 year song which is to be broadcast by the Russians. The break from today was simply the start of the chorus.

Shortly after the Soviets got revenge by allowing Yakov Smirfnoff passage into the US and then "losing" his paperwork for return.

They're changing the format

[Renderer of Evil]

Russian media says the station is switching to soft rock.

Re:They're changing the format

[jimmydevice]

UVB-76 AM 4625 THE BUZZ! THE BEST BUZZ ALL THE TIME, SINCE 1982!!!

28 Years is a hell of a long time to be stunting.

Re:They're changing the format

[cosm]

Russian media says the station is switching to soft rock.

It would be redundant. The uncreative repetition of top 40's these days is no different than "a buzzing sound that lasts 0.8 seconds, pausing for 1–1.3 seconds, and repeating 21–34 times per minute". Mainstream must all wear tinfoil hats, because they already took a page out of UVB-76's book.

Re:Heard about this on 4chan

[game kid]

Your doing it wrong.

...

Re:Explanation:

[danny_lehman]

maybe the guy pushing the button every 1-1.3 seconds figured out he didn't need to..?

Re:Explanation:

[Z00L00K]

This signal may well have been a check signal of some kind for various defense services - something like a dead man's grip but now it has been obsoleted. (At least we can hope that it has been)

As long as there is a carrier there is no real problem. Of course there has had to be other channels too, so this was probably a last resort when/if all other means of communication did break down.

All related to the M.A.D. doctrine. We can all hope that this is a sign that Russia no longer needs this transmitter because the warheads that were involved are no longer active or are rearranged to a setup where this is no longer necessary or useful.

Re:Boxer Rebellion

[Dr. Eggman]

Burma-Shave

Don't worry...

[n3umh]

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...

Maybe

[NotQuiteReal]

Maybe someone just opened the electric bill...

Actually it usually does

[Sycraft-fu]

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.

Re:Actually it usually does

[Sycraft-fu]

Has nothing to do with profit motive, just simple statistics. Supposing you could find a place that would give you even money on conspiracy theories, well you'd make a ton betting against them. Reason is because they are wrong all the time. It is just a way to illustrate the extremely bad track record.

One of my favourite recent ones was that the US was cutting communications lines to Iran in preparation for an invasion due to the opening of the Oil Bourse. The media noticed that undersea cables were getting cut and reported on it, without reporting that this happens all the time and there are ships who do nothing but fix cable breaks. The conspiracy theorists on /. came out of the woodwork and said that this was a precursor to attack (the cuts were happening in the Mediterranean) and it was a "sure thing" that the US would invade shortly.

Well, of course, that didn't happen. The cuts were repaired, life went on, and cables continue to get cut by various sources (careless ships, natural phenomena, etc) all the time and the media pays it no mind.

It was a completely ridiculous theory, with no good evidence, yet it was a "fact" to the nuts, until it didn't happen. They of course never came out and admitted error or anything.

So sorry, but you aren't convincing me by making vague references to "disinformation". Simple fact is that conspiracy nuts suck at logic. Their track record is abysmal. Thus, when they make a claim, my default position is to assume it is wrong.

Re:Actually it usually does

[BikeHelmet]

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.

That's because they aren't remembered as conspiracy nuts once they prove their case.

And the ones that are nutty get a whole lot more attention.

Re:It's no mystery

[dgatwood]

Chances are, it's a power failure. The area reportedly had a significant storm yesterday. It's possible that the power failed and that they didn't have enough fuel or battery capacity or whatever to keep it running during an extended outage. That would also neatly explain why it reportedly came back and has reportedly died again.

Re:It's back up

[MichaelSmith]

Its been slashdotted.