Russia's Ghost Radio Station: What is the Mysterious Sound Heard on UVB-76?

No one knows for sure what is being heard when tuned into radio frequency 4625 kHz. Secret, coded messages sent across airwaves between governments and spies? A signal ready to sound an alarm? Or a mysterious transmission tuned to interact with the ionosphere? Known to be of Russian origin, though this has never been confirmed by the Russian government, the signal was a continuous broadcast of repeated pip that has since become an unsettling looping and buzzing tone.

- As images and footage of actual events are not always available, we sometimes utilizes similar historical images and footage for dramatic effect. All content is researched, produced, and presented in historical context for educational purposes. -

For decades, the source of the broadcast was entirely unknown, until suddenly and unexpectedly, the first spoken words on the station identified it as UVB-76, broadcast from a military bunker in Povarovo, a small town 19 miles outside of Moscow. This interruption was soon followed by new strange and unsettling additions: rustling of someone moving around nearby, a harsh voice reading a series of names and numbers, and faintly eerie music playing in the background…

[kenarnold]

Every older apartment building in Russia has a special connection where you can connect a special radio. It's designed for emergency broadcasts. Most Russians have long since discarded this radio, but the broadcast system is still maintained as some type of radio station that plays old music, and older russians still listen to it. Theory was, if the electrical power stations were destroyed, the radio would still function as it gets it's power via phone lines I believe.

[Tim]

The buzzing sound is so you know you are tuned in on the right freq and are receiving it well. That is why you need it to be a steady signal buzzing at a rhythm. The buzz lets you measure the quality and power you are receiving the signal.
Nothing sexy or mysterious about it. Just a very effective low tech way to send messages.

[AliensDoCare]

My little brother just heard the recorded message from across the room. He just stood up and just walked out of the house and hasn't been seen since.. He muttered something in a Russian accent before he left. Weird.

[williamcharles]

As a kid back in the early 60's and living in Florida, the Cubans had flooded the AM band with all kinds of Cuban music and number stations. The music stations were purposely placed right next to "Clear Channel" American AM stations so that their signal would bleed over. The FCC had granted certain 50, 000 watt stations, located around the country, a clear frequency at night so that isolated portions of the country could receive radio broadcasts. The Cubans operated stations that were in the range of 150, 000 watts, reputed to be transmitters of Soviet Bloc, Romanian origin and set up in Cuba. The range of these transmitters was immense; far stronger than the strongest American AM stations. It got to the point that you couldn't tune in to a Clear Channel station anywhere at night without Cuban Music being heard in the background. This was Castro's way to harass America while also broadcasting his communist propaganda in both Spanish and English, between songs.


Thanks for the informative video, Dark Docs.

[SK]

I wish more people would get into Ham radio, there are some crazy numbers stations out there.

[weedwhacker]

You fall asleep listening to this station... you wake up in a room with TVs
You’re strapped to a chair
A voice from an unknown location yells at you
*THE NUMBERS MASON WHAT DO THEY MEAN*

[hornet]

the UVB-76 is not abandoned nor a ghost station, its still actively used today and is most definitely used for military communication and or communication with spies in other nations

[thisistiktokhellooo]

"Dragovich, Kravchenko, Steiner, ALL must die." That's what I heard.

[MisterN]

Radio is a pretty good way of transmitting secret messages because not many people play with radios these days. It's out of the mainstream and for all we know this message could be something really interesting

[deathwarrior]

Man, relax. Its just Stalin accidentally sitting down on the broadcaster and the DJ saying out lottery numbers.

[matthewlee]

"Darn it Pavlov! Did you leave that broadcaster on again?"
"No sir! That's the off light."
"Okay. I'm just going to ignore this for the next 50 years. And if I find out it's been left on all this time, you're fired!"
"Yes sir. Now if you don't mind, I'm going to flip the channels on our TV until it stops broadcasting static. Also I'm going to play some records and read off the numbers for our office raffle."

[zudemaster]

" This is 4625KHz playing your favorite classic hits from the 70s and 80s!"

[carolinawestern]

A guy I knew that used to be some sort of civilian contractor for the military, told me it was simply a
"Low tech" version of an equipment monitoring system. Similar to the ones used on all locomotives to prevent you from falling asleep. Where every few minutes, the engineer has to push a override toggle to prevent a piercing alarm from sounding, to wake you up.
This one however, is intentionally left repeating itself, via the radio, on a otherwise unused frequency. With what I'd assume to be some kind of direct audio line or "dead key"to monitor remotely.
It sounded logical, but it must have one hell of an amplifier, and must not be a big deal either. Or you'd think it would be scrambled or encrypted! Like those annoying ones a scanner locks on to.

[Trek]

Pity I didn't know about this chanel before last week because I could have helped you on this one with my own notes over a 9 year monitoring period (so far) along with recordings of the very well known - amongst Buzzer Enthusiasts - argument between at least two people.

If anybody is especially interested, enthusiasts such as myself have been able to identify several persons speaking known as "Olga", "Dmitri", "The Major", "The Professor" and "The Trainee" - "The Major" is female with "The Professor" and "The Trainee" both being male. There did used to be another male voice "Boris" but seems to have left the station after a number of strange mistakes made in simple messages. "Olga" seems to be the primary female voice used with "The Major" being used when "Olga" is either ill or otherwise unable to make the transmissions. It is interesting to note that "The Major" seems to be more in an oversight position as she has been heard on a small speaker box inside the transmission booth when others have spoken the messages.

The famous argument was when Dmitri was sending the message and made a mistake with two numbers. He voided the message by sending the "Boi-nyet" phrase three times and restarting. As he starts the seconding of the numbers and codeword - the numbers and words are always spoken twice to ensure reception - "Dmitri" is interrupted by "The Major" over the speaker box and he pauses for a moment, tries to resume and is interrupted again. A VERY audible sigh is heard from him before trying to finish it but "The Major" interrupts him again. "Dmitri" snaps, pushes his chair back and storms out the booth and has a good two to three minute argument with "The Major" about not interrupting in the middle of messages. "The Major" replies that "Dmitri" should send the messages without mistakes to which *he* replies with "What does it matter...?The only ones listening are Unit Vulkan and those lot". This is believed to be the first time the station announcers had acknowledged the fact we listened in 24/7. After using a very rude phrase to "The Major", "Dmitri" returned to the microphone and started to finish the message in a hugely angry tone. In the background to the recorded argument, another female voice was heard and we think it might well have been "Olga"

Another time we were sort of acknowledged was we noticed that "Olga" seemed to have vanished off the channel which upset a lot of people because her voice was very beautiful and pleasant sounding. Around that time, it was noticed that the online website and chatroom was getting a significant increase in traffic from Russian IP addresses so, one day, we actually addressed the "lurkers", as we called them, and asked for "Olga" to return to the airwaves. One of them made a comment that "Olga" was ill before suddenly logging off and never returning. A few days later, and suffering from what sounded like a bad case of flu, "Olga" returned to the station and, unusually, started the transmission with a 'Zdravstvuyte' which means Hello before starting sending the normal traffic. As this was in the middle of the day when the maximum amount of people would have been hearing it, this can only be "Olga" stepping over the line and greeting us personally.

The last transmission of particular note was during Spring 2012 when "The Trainee" was on and made a mistake twice and the sound of the transmission booth door was heard before the mic cut off. About twenty seconds later "The Professor" came on, muttered about not letting children do a man's job and started sending the entire message again from the beginning.

[dbo]

STATION?
NUMBERS?
**BO1 FLASHBACKS**

[TheRealCaptainFreedom]

UVB-76 is easily my favorite Soviet industrial metal station. Even their morning show with Senior Ensign Uspenskaya is great. In Soviet Russia, metal rocks YOU.

[kagendranusantara]

"Blyat, sergey what is that sound"
"Its your babushka baking pie"

[sasandabirian]

I cracked the code:
" dragovich... kravchenko... Steiner... all must die" - comerade reznov

Ps. Thanks for your likes!
Ps. Ps. Wow thank you! Any luck finding those 3?

[fallwoods]

That was possibly the best and most easily understood description of how the ionosphere affects HF transmissions. Well done!

[maxbrandt]

Interesting, the number station is still transmitting despite being discovered and long abandoned?