UVB-76 - The mysterious Russian broadcasting station

Pav89

Pav89

Pav89

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So I found out about UVB-76 a fair few months back, but I am still very intrigued by its purpose. Nobody seems to have any idea what this Russian station is all about.

Observed since 1982, the station transmits 25 beeps per minute, 24 hours a day, except in the last minute of each hour, makes a 'nawwwww-neeee' noise.

Click here for the Wiki page

Click here to hear what the transmission sounds like


Then on some extremely rare occasions, someone begins to talk, reading what seems to be some co-ordinates. Here's the most recent one.


One of my favourite sites, Englishrussia, managed to get a glimpse inside of the station. It does seem kinda spooky!



So, does anyone have any idea what on earth the purpose is for this station?
Nothing has been confirmed by the Russian Government as to what it does. It is very mysterious/spooky. Perhaps it could have been something to do with the Cold War? :eek:
 
spy network, one time pads and number stations. Just about everyone had / has one. The UK's was based in Cyprus and was nicknamed the Lincolnshire poacher

 
Number stations were the theme behind one of the latest episodes of Fringe. Apparently the numbers are supposed to tell us the locations of parts to build a super weapon that has the power to destroy the other universe.
 
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And someone is trying to stop people from diciphering that secret by transmitting a broadcast within the number broadcast that kills the listeners who get close!

Damn those shape shifters!
 
LOAM, cheers for that, never heard of the Lincolnshire Poacher! Just researched it and it seems to be offline now, overtaken by 'Cherry Ripe' station.

So yeah, what do the numbers tell us? That is the question! Haha, nice try on the bingo!


I think someone is having a laugh here...Hehe
 
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its thought (although you will never know) that before the days of easy communication IE the internet that many nations communicated with their agents using one time pads. The pads would be simply letters or words assigned to random numbers and each page / pad was different (if they were found they were therefore useless). An agent in the field would listen to the numbers broadcast then destroy the pad, job done.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-time_pad
 
That's pretty interesting!

Why though, does UVB-76 run for such a long time without any codes being sent, beeping for such a long time?
 
Pav89 said:
That's pretty interesting!

Why though, does UVB-76 run for such a long time without any codes being sent, beeping for such a long time?
Click to expand...

To show the station is actually still broadcasting, rather than just silence which mean it could be down. Just a guess anyway.
 
Russia has many listening stations for intelligence purposes. They use uvb 76 as a test to make sure the others are listening all the time. Kind of like a mystery shopper type thing. Sorry to put an end to your theories...
 
Pav89 said:
Hmm, what if I structure that better...why are codes sent so rarely? :D
Click to expand...

As with all old military comms of that type, even in old days the codes were most likely just a fallback for those very, very few units that couldn't receive communications in any other format. So if your theoretical Dolph Lundgren or Sean Connery found themselves in such place on earth that they couldn't contact anyone, couldn't broadcast, couldn't call into special phone numbers with their pin codes to listen to recorded messages, use satellite feeds, pick envelopes from trench coat men on park benches, or whatever crossword puzzle codes in Sunday edition of Pravda were scheduled for use at the time - they would tune in to receive their Xmas greetings from HQ via one of those odd stations. I like "mystery shopper" scenario a lot tho. It would be very Russian - pump many years of work and few million dollars into perpetual infrastructure - to check if those who were supposed to be listening are still listening, why do they need to listen? So we can check if they are listening to us checking if they are listening.

Judge Mental said:
Reminds me of the old Soviet 'Woodpecker' signal you could pick up on shortwave radio, back in the 80s.
Click to expand...

That was the Duga early warning system broadcasted from Chernobyl, wasn't it?
 
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