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The Ghostly Radio Station That No One Claims To Run (bbc.com)
Zaria Gorvett, writing for BBC: In the middle of a Russian swampland, not far from the city of St Petersburg, is a rectangular iron gate. Beyond its rusted bars is a collection of radio towers, abandoned buildings and power lines bordered by a dry-stone wall. This sinister location is the focus of a mystery which stretches back to the height of the Cold War. It is thought to be the headquarters of a radio station, "MDZhB", that no-one has ever claimed to run. Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, for the last three-and-a-half decades, it's been broadcasting a dull, monotonous tone. Every few seconds it's joined by a second sound, like some ghostly ship sounding its foghorn. Then the drone continues. Once or twice a week, a man or woman will read out some words in Russian, such as "dinghy" or "farming specialist". And that's it. Anyone, anywhere in the world can listen in, simply by tuning a radio to the frequency 4625 kHz. It's so enigmatic, it's as if it was designed with conspiracy theorists in mind. Today the station has an online following numbering in the tens of thousands, who know it affectionately as "the Buzzer." It joins two similar mystery stations, "the Pip" and the "Squeaky Wheel." As their fans readily admit themselves, they have absolutely no idea what they are listening to.
Careful, you'll end up with robot legs on an alien ship.
It doesn't run for free. It has power lines that someone pays the bills for the power usage. No doubt Russia has an FCC equivalent that all radio broadcasters must be licensed with. If it isn't officially licensed, then the government is allowing it, meaning the government is ultimately running it.
As I understand, it's almost certainly used to send coded messages to Russian agents in case of emergency. The Russians are probably broadcasting a constant tone to reserve the frequency, so other people don't start using it. They say as much in the article.
...when everything else fails.
Hidden in plain sight.
What this world is coming to - is for you and me to decide.
Where does the time go?
What? You never know what or who may be relying on those occasional contrasting tones and words.
Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
In case you're wondering, this article is about the very famous UVB-76 station.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
When I used to visit my parents in Sacramento in the late 1990's, a country radio station played 1940's and 1950's country music between midnight and 5AM. Guitar strumming and praising God. Very interesting.
One more nonsense, i guess just to fuel current trend about "those strange russians". This is typical (post-)apocalypse radio, that will coordinate militaries and probably civilians in case of extraordinary disasters. Note: most probably non-war related, because sites of transmitters are known, and easy to destroy.
AM receivers for such frequency usually very robust, they are installed in many cities in military enlistment office(voenkomat) and easy to make.
Buzzing and etc is just making sure noone else occupy frequency, sometimes(rarely) it is used for other communications, but nothing extraordinary.
P.S. Old transmitter side abandoned in 2010, there is several new, at least 3.
If you are interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCC8Xb7K0c8
Is this it?
http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/?tune=4625
If so, then when the summary describes it as a "dull, monotonous tone", it isn't kidding!
This is not rock and roll. This is a test! Time to rustproof your tractor and your trusty dinghy!
Zaria Gorvett, writing for BBC:
In the middle of a Russian swampland, not far from the city of St Petersburg, is a rectangular iron gate. Beyond its rusted bars is a collection of radio towers, abandoned buildings and power lines bordered by a dry-stone wall. This sinister location is the focus of a mystery which stretches back to the height of the Cold War. It is thought to be the headquarters of a radio station, "MDZhB", that no-one has ever claimed to run.
>middle of Russian swampland
http://www.sigidwiki.com/wiki/The_Buzzer_(ZhUOZ_MDZhB_UZB76)
"At least two transmitters exist for MDZhB. One is confirmed to be at 6018’40.1N 3016’40.5E where it sends radio relay and phone lines directly from Moscow via St. Petersburg’s command hub on Palace Square.
The other site is claimed to be located at Naro-Fominsk, Moscow district at 5525’35N 3642’33E where the 69th communications center is located, which serves as the main staff headquarters of the Western Military district in Moscow. "
I guess wooded areas with nearby lakes and that have modern 4 lane highways near towns and cities counts as "swampland" to the idiot BBC.
>rectangular iron gate. Beyond its rusted bars
It's not rusted. It is, however, rectangular. See for yourself.
>This sinister location
Yeah, its real sinister looking just a few yards off the A-121 highway. Just look at the street view of it in Google maps. Spoooooky.
I really enjoyed that movie. It's amazing given the limited budget.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
In Soviet Russia, radio buzzes you
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
Be. Sure. To. Drink. Your. Ovaltine.
#DeleteChrome
I used to live in Arlington, Washington. At times, I could hear Russian language broadcasts bleeding into some cheap audio gear I had. I imagine that they could tune up from their VLF frequencies and pump out quite a bit of power (around a megawatt) to talk to our people stationed overseas. Smart to broadcast in Russian. That way the neighbors don't inadvertently hear our agents in Moscow listening to what in the 1980's would have probably been suspect material in English.
Have gnu, will travel.
If the radio signal stops, then something is seriously wrong. It doesn't take a lot of power and it broadcasts far enough to alert anyone. And because it doesn't broadcast anything specific, it remains up to interpretation with no legal recourse.
That's some really boring shit to listen to.
http://SDR.hu
website which hosts links to about 150 (as I write this) individually owned receivers all over the world. Can be better reception from different locations.
Heisenberg may have been here.
Nyet, tovarishch, you're the only one saying that.
His ignorance covered the whole earth like a blanket, and there was hardly a hole in it anywhere. - Mark Twain
A clear tone does not carry much information, but buzzes and squeals have a lot of sideband components and could be carrying a lot of data.
If you have equipment, try manually tuning in a digital signal sometime. It's all buzzes and squeals... ;-)
Not to mention old Faximile, Teletype and other tone-keyed signals. You could tell with an HP packet analyzer, or maybe just a good Trigger-sweep Oscilloscope.
But nobody wonders about the bears.