Radio amateurs around the world have been wondering what the hiss, names and numbers have been broadcast since the 1970s by a radio station believed to be located near St. Petersburg. Some believe that the wave is coordinating the actions of Russian intelligence, others think that it can launch nuclear missiles if necessary. Nobody knows the exact purpose of the radio station, like many others similar to it located in different parts of the world.
A mysterious radio station, broadcasting from a frequency of 4625 kHz, presumably from a swamp near St. Petersburg, has put the whole world at a standstill. Anyone can listen to the mysterious wave, but for a longer period of time it is hardly possible to catch something more meaningful than white noise. It happens that words in Russian like “agronomist” or “inflatable lifeboat” break through the air, but this happens very rarely.
According to the BBC, the radio station, nicknamed "Buzzbox", has been broadcasting since 1970. Since then, many people from different parts of the planet have included it from time to time, but no one can say for sure what is happening. On YouTube, you can find many recordings of various moments of her broadcast, for example, this one with a strange sound.
But the radio station didn't always broadcast the buzz. According to radio amateurs, earlier the broadcast was filled with a series of tones, occasionally interrupted by numbers or a list of Russian names - Anna, Nikolai, Ivan, Tatiana, Roman. The first voice broadcast, as the listeners of "Zhuzhzhalka" write, took place in 1997 and sounded like this:
I am UVB-76, I am UVB-76. 180 08 BROMAL 74 27 99 14. Boris, Roman, Olga, Mikhail, Anna, Larisa. 7 4 2 7 9 9 1 4.
The callsign of the radio station "UVB-76" gave it a second name. There are people who constantly follow the broadcast, and they even unite in a kind of fan-clubs on social networks.
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There are many different theories about the purpose of the radio wave, according to the BBC. The most common is that this station was created during the Cold War for military purposes. The Buzzbox uses short wavelengths, which allows its signal to travel over great distances, almost all over the world. This means that the frequency may well be used for transmitting secret intelligence data, coordinating submarines, or some other not very peaceful purposes.
But there is an even more frightening assumption related to the possibility of a nuclear strike on Russia. According to the investigation, some think that in this case, the radio wave will serve as a kind of guarantor that our country will strike back. If all other communication lines are damaged and there is no one to give the order for a nuclear attack, then the cessation of the broadcast of the "Buzzbox" will become an automatic signal to use nuclear weapons.
There are also those who doubt that the radio station is broadcasting something secret now. For example, encryption expert David Stapples expressed his doubts to the BBC.
If the messages were encrypted, then this could be understood by the signal. But nothing like that can be heard on this wave.
From such a statement it follows that, perhaps, now nothing special is happening on the radio wave. Constant noise is broadcast so that no one occupies the frequency, and at the right moment the buzzing will stop, and some kind of military command will be given.
Radio amateur Maris Goldmanis, who regularly tunes his receiver to the Zhuzhzhalka frequency, claims that in 2013 the Russians already tested such an emergency use of the wave.
In 2013, they sent a special message "ORDER 135", possibly a command of full combat readiness.
Zhuzhzhalka is not the only mysterious radio station supposedly broadcasting from Russia. On YouTube you can find recordings of "Squeaky" or "Squeaky Wheel" broadcast.
But if on these radio stations it is rarely possible to catch something other than noise, then the "Lincolnshire Poacher" wave was much worse to listen to. At the beginning of each hour, she played a portion of an English folk song 12 times. After that, a synthesized female voice read combinations of five numbers. No one knew why this radio station was needed, which existed from the 70s to 2008, although some suspected that it was being used by British intelligence.
Unlike Britain and Russia, North Korea does little to hide the transmission of encrypted messages. In 2016, strange inserts with numbers began to appear on the air of the country's state radio station. Not all encryption experts believed that Pyongyang was so obviously giving signals to its scouts, but decided that in this way North Korea wanted to intimidate the rest of the world.