UVB-76 Broadcasts New Voice Message

Doug52392 writes "Following days of increased activity, the Russian numbers station UVB-76 has sent out a new voice transmission. The transmission, sent out on August 23, 2010 at 9:35AM PST, recited the following in Russian: 'UVB-76, UVB-76 — 93 882 naimina 74 14 35 74 — 9 3 8 8 2 nikolai, anna, ivan, michail, ivan, nikolai, anna, 7, 4, 1, 4, 3, 5, 7, 4' The station, believed to be a part of the former Soviet Union's dead man's switch system, has been continually broadcasting for over twenty years, and its purpose has never been fully explained."

Comments

It is well known where it is

[Sycraft-fu]

The thing is, "where it is," is in Russia. They might object to the US breaking in, rather violently in fact.

Re:It is well known where it is

[icannotthinkofaname]

Yes. Russia might object in the same way that the RIAA might continue its piracy litigation campaign, no matter how absurdly expensive it becomes or how absurdly high the judgments are.

Re:It is well known where it is

[Anonymous Coward]

The Russian government almost certainly knows exactly what this is, they're just not generally in the habit of sharing their military secrets.

Re:It is well known where it is

[mbone]

Russia owns it, Russia operates it, and Russia has a lot of men with guns who will kill you if you get too inquisitive about it.

Re:It is well known where it is

[Anonymous Coward]

You're 0 for 1 there. Nobody gives a crap about her any more.

Naked pics or she never existed!

Re:Location

[Wyatt Earp]

Its Russia. You can't just hike across it to wherever you want.

It'd like a radio transmitter in northern Canada or Alaska, there aren't roads, not many airfields, its going to be out of helicopter range, the weather sucks and for added difficultly, there is an integrated air defense network.

And bears. And wolves, alot of wolves and bears.

Re:Location

[ksandom]

The broadcast is not the bit of interest. It's the thing recieving it that's interesting.

Re:Location

[click2005]

If its outside helicopter range (doubtful as another post says its 40 miles from Moscow) then I bet theres some kind of road.
They'd need some way to get the 10kw transmitter & other equipment there.

Re:Location

[h00manist]

Shouldn't it be possible to triangulate the position based on signal strength from multiple points, and just locate the tower, break in and see what the hardware attached to the transmitter does?

Geesus effing sheist. Yep, that's it. By the way, the hardware attached to the transmitter may not do anything at all, just accept and retransmit codes to the receiving stations.

4, 8 , 15, 16, 23, 42

[sizzzzlerz]

We have to go back!!

Re:unruskie(%s) yields

[Sponge Bath]

Maybe the Russians are just fucking with everyone's mind for laughs. They know people are speculating, and perhaps they got the urge to feed the "I want to believe" crowd some raw meat. I would not be surprised if there is a hidden joke that will be revealed in a decade or so just so they can say "gotcha!".

Re:Unexplained?

[tverbeek]

I thought [Fox News] was there to counterbalance NPR.

Excactly. Disinformation counterbalances information.

Re:Location

[MichaelSmith]

The clear picture is odd: can't distinguish ANY antenna shadows from all the building shadows.

Maybe the lighting is too diffuse for fine shadows to be obvious. Vegetation under the antenna could make shadows hard to see as well.

Re:unexplained??

[glwtta]

Assuming they got writers that can write an ending.

Or a middle...

Re:Location

[valeo.de]

In Soviet Russia... that tired joke is fucking boring.

Notice that the previous posting was down-modded.

[Ungrounded Lightning]

One of the downsides of the slashdot moderation system is its vulnerability to abuse by dishonest politically-motivated people who happen to have moderation points.

As is typical: A straight (and not {deliberately} biased) response to a cheap shot from the left wing gets dinged by a (no doubt) left-wing moderator.

But feel free to ding this one, too. B-)

Just a guess, It's a salt.

[N1tr0u5]

You can pick this thing up from anywhere with the right equipment, right?

Re:"Dead man's kill switch"

[leathered]

I agree.. Ionospheric research is the most likely explanation. But..

UVB-76 has been broadcasting for 28 years. That's one hell of a long time to do research. It's also survived the collapse of the Soviet Union, a time of great economic turmoil where you'd expect a project like this to be first for the axe. A transmitter like that is not cheap to run or maintain.
The transmitter is located in the military district of Moscow.
There are two other sites in Russia that are purpose built for Ionosphere research that operate on much higher power, if they have such facilities then why the need for UVB-76?

Still lots of food for thought..

Re:Sure they can.

[ShakaUVM]

Yep. Pretty much explains it exactly, and in a non-biased way. Rather silly moderators modded it down because in the Slashdot Groupthink, it is unacceptable to speak of Foxnews with anything but the strongest derision possible, ideally by spelling it "Faux" News, which is incredibly clever and original.