, russian: МДЖБ, label=none, russian: ЖУОЗ, label=none, russian: АНВФ, label=none
, former_frequencies = 4625 kHz
, owner =
Russian Armed Forces
, name = UVB-76
, area =
Russia
Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eig ...
,
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
(Former)
, frequency = 4625 kHz
shortwave
, language =
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
, coordinates =
, sister_stations =
The Pip
The Pip (a nickname given by radio listeners) is a shortwave radio station that broadcasts on the frequency 5448 kHz by day, and 3756 kHz during the night. It broadcasts short, repeated beeps at a rate of around 50 per minute, for 2 ...
,
The Squeaky Wheel
, city =
, embedded =
UVB-76 (russian: УВБ-76; see
other callsigns), also known by the nickname "The Buzzer", is a
shortwave radio station that broadcasts on the frequency of 4625
kHz.
It broadcasts a short, monotonous , repeating at a rate of approximately 25 tones per minute, 24 hours per day.
Sometimes, the buzzer signal is interrupted and a voice transmission in Russian takes place.
The start date of broadcasting is disputed. However, it was allegedly reported to have started broadcasting in the late 1970s, possibly 1976.
Name and callsigns
The station is commonly known as "The Buzzer"
in both
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
and
Russian
Russian(s) refers to anything related to Russia, including:
*Russians (, ''russkiye''), an ethnic group of the East Slavic peoples, primarily living in Russia and neighboring countries
*Rossiyane (), Russian language term for all citizens and peo ...
(russian: Жужжалка, link=no). From at least 1997 to 2010, the station identified itself as UZB-76 (russian: УЗБ-76, link=no). The
callsign UVB-76 was never used by the station itself, but is rather a mistranscription of UZB-76.
However, the station is still often referred to by that name. In the following years of transmission, the main callsign of the station changed regularly.
})
, 1997 – 7 September 2010
, -
, MDZhB (russian: МДЖБ, label=none)
, 7 September 2010 – 28 December 2015
, -
, ZhUOZ (russian: ЖУОЗ, label=none)
, 28 December 2015 – 1 March 2019
, -
, ANVF (russian: АНВФ, label=none)
, 1 March 2019 – 30 December 2020
, -
, NZhTI (russian: НЖТИ, label=none)
, 30 December 2020 – present
In addition to these main callsigns, The Buzzer also uses other "side callsigns" which are being used less frequently than the main callsign. Whenever the main callsign changes, all previous side callsigns are also discarded.
Instead of being limited to one single callsign, any amount of callsigns can be used in a message.
Format
The station transmits using
AM with a suppressed lower
sideband
In radio communications, a sideband is a band of frequencies higher than or lower than the carrier frequency, that are the result of the modulation process. The sidebands carry the information transmitted by the radio signal. The sidebands c ...
(USB modulation), but it has also used full double-sideband AM (A3E). The signal consists of a buzzing sound that lasts 1.2 seconds, pausing for 1–1.3 seconds, and repeating 21–34 times per minute. Until November 2010, the buzz tones lasted approximately 0.8 seconds each.
One minute before the hour, the repeating tone was previously replaced by a continuous, uninterrupted alternating tone, which continued for one minute until the short repeating buzz resumed, although this stopped occurring in June 2010.
Since the start of broadcasting, The Buzzer broadcast as a repeating two-second pip, changing to a buzzer in the late 1980s/early 1990s.
It briefly changed to a higher tone of longer duration (approximately 20 tones per minute) on 16 January 2003, but has since reverted to the previous tone pattern. These buzzes have gotten longer in duration and deeper in pitch over time, and breakdowns have been more frequent, suggesting the possibility of the buzzes being mechanically generated.
Voice messages
Sometimes the buzzing sound is interrupted and a voice message is broadcast. These messages are always given in Russian by a live voice, and follow three fixed formats:
Monolith
A message in the Monolith format always consists of the following parts:
* Callsigns, each of which read out twice in the readout. A callsign always consists of four symbols, each symbol being either a Russian letter or a digit
* Five digit ID groups (amount of items usually follows the amount of callsigns)
* Message blocks, each consisting of one code word and eight digits
Example of a Monolith message sent on The Buzzer with exactly one callsign, one ID group and one message block (most common type):
Monolith messages can however contain any amount of items from each part:
Uzor
A message in the Uzor format always consists of the following parts:
* Callsigns, each of which read out twice in the readout
* Message blocks, each consisting of one code word and four digits
Example of such a message:
Nowadays, Uzor messages are rarely sent on The Buzzer.
Komanda
Komanda is the most uncommon type of voice message. Since it has not been heard for years, messages of this type are most likely not being sent on The Buzzer anymore. They consist of a callsign (read out twice), russian: ОБЪЯВЛЕНА КОМАНДА, label=none (: OB'YaVLYeNA KOMANDA), and a following number.
Example of such a message:
Unusual transmissions
Distant conversations and other background noises have frequently been heard behind the buzzer, suggesting that the buzzing tones are not generated internally, but are transmitted from a device placed behind a live and constantly open microphone. Because of the occasional fluctuating pitch of the buzzing tones, it is supposed that the tones are generated by a
tonewheel
A tonewheel or tone wheel is a simple electromechanical apparatus used for generating electric musical notes in electromechanical organ instruments such as the Hammond Organ and in telephony to generate audible signals such as Ringing tone. ...
as used in a
Hammond organ. It is also possible that a microphone may have been turned on accidentally.
One such occasion was on 3 November 2001, when a conversation in Russian was heard:
(: I am 143. Not receiving the generator
scillator.. that stuff comes from hardware room.
)
In September 2010, several unusual broadcasts were observed; these included portions of the buzzer being replaced with extracts from Tchaikovsky's ''
Swan Lake''.
On 11 November 2010, intermittent phone conversations were transmitted and were recorded by a listener (at 14:00 UTC) for a period of approximately 30 minutes. These conversations are available online, and seem to be in Russian. The phone calls mentioned the "brigade operative officer on duty", the communication codes "Debut", ''"Nadezhda"'' (Russian for "hope", both a noun and a female name), ''"Sudak"'' (an alternate name for the
Zander
The zander (''Sander lucioperca''), sander or pikeperch, is a species of ray-finned fish from the family Percidae, which includes the perches, ruffes and darters. It is found in freshwater and brackish habitats in western Eurasia. It is a popul ...
, and also
a town in
Crimea
Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...
) and ''"Vulkan"'' (volcano). The buzzing tone can also be heard very faintly in the background of these calls, further suggesting the buzzing is generated externally. The female voice says:
(: "Officer of the duty station 'Debut', ensign Uspenskaya. Received a test call from Nadezhda... understood.")
On 17 July 2015, the station broadcast what appeared to be a
RTTY
Radioteletype (RTTY) is a telecommunications system consisting originally of two or more electromechanical teleprinters in different locations connected by radio rather than a wired link. Radioteletype evolved from earlier landline teleprinter o ...
signal in lieu of the buzzer.
In January 2022, various signals with
spectrogram
A spectrogram is a visual representation of the spectrum of frequencies of a signal as it varies with time.
When applied to an audio signal, spectrograms are sometimes called sonographs, voiceprints, or voicegrams. When the data are represen ...
-encoded images, visible through a
spectrum analyzer
A spectrum analyzer measures the magnitude of an input signal versus frequency within the full frequency range of the instrument. The primary use is to measure the power of the spectrum of known and unknown signals. The input signal that most co ...
, were broadcast on the same frequency. There have also been reports of various songs airing on the station's frequency, many of which were connected to
internet memes such as the 2012
K-pop song "
Gangnam Style";
a ''
Vice
A vice is a practice, behaviour, or habit generally considered immoral, sinful, criminal, rude, taboo, depraved, degrading, deviant or perverted in the associated society. In more minor usage, vice can refer to a fault, a negative character t ...
'' article attributed these broadcasts to
pirates hijacking and spamming the frequency. The nationality of the pirates has also come into question by ''Vice'' in relation to the
2021–2022 Russo-Ukrainian crisis
In March and April 2021, Russian president Vladimir Putin ordered the Russian military to begin massing thousands of personnel and equipment near its border with Ukraine and in Crimea, representing the largest mobilization since the anne ...
and
2022–2023 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Location and function
![Uvb76antenna](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/Uvb76antenna.jpg)
The purpose of the station has not been confirmed by government or broadcast officials. However, Rimantas Pleikys, a former Minister of Communications and Informatics of the Republic of
Lithuania, has written that the purpose of the voice messages is to confirm that operators at receiving stations are alert.
Other explanations are that the broadcast is constantly being listened to by
military commissariat
A military commissariat is an institution that is part of military service or law enforcement mechanisms in some European countries. As part of the British Army in the 19th century, military commissariats were used for organisational, accounti ...
s.
There is speculation published in the ''Russian Journal of Earth Sciences'' which describes an observatory measuring changes in the
ionosphere by broadcasting a signal at 4625 kHz, the same as the Buzzer.
The most likely purpose is that the voice messages are some sort of Russian/Soviet
military communications. The station being a
numbers station for intelligence agencies such as the
FSB or the former
KGB
The KGB (russian: links=no, lit=Committee for State Security, Комитет государственной безопасности (КГБ), a=ru-KGB.ogg, p=kəmʲɪˈtʲet ɡəsʊˈdarstvʲɪn(ː)əj bʲɪzɐˈpasnəsʲtʲɪ, Komitet gosud ...
of the
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...
is extremely unlikely as messages occur at seemingly random, unpredictable times, while numbers stations use a fixed schedule which changes rarely. In addition to that, the non-changing frequency of 4625 kHz and the low transmitter power are unsuitable for reliable communication from Russia to Europe, where spies would be stationed.
The buzzing functions as a "channel marker" used to keep the frequency occupied, thereby making it unattractive for other potential users.
The signature sound could be used for tuning to the signal on an old analogue receiver. The modulation is suitable to be detected by an electromechanical frequency detector, similar to a
tuning fork
A tuning fork is an acoustic resonator in the form of a two-pronged fork with the prongs ( tines) formed from a U-shaped bar of elastic metal (usually steel). It resonates at a specific constant pitch when set vibrating by striking it agains ...
. This can be used to activate the
squelch
In telecommunications, squelch is a circuit function that acts to suppress the audio (or video) output of a receiver in the absence of a strong input signal. Essentially, squelch is a specialized type of noise gate designed to suppress weak s ...
on a receiver. Due to the varying emission properties on shortwave bands, using a level-based squelch is unreliable. This also allows a signal loss to be detected, causing an alarm to sound on the receiver.
Another theory, described in a
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC
Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
article, states that the tower is connected to the Russian 'Perimeter' missile system, and emits a “
if the signal is interrupted as a result of a nuclear attack against Russia.
This theory is also very unlikely, due to The Buzzer stopping / breaking down regularly, potentially triggering the Dead Hand by mistake.