Russian number station UVB-76 went active last night.

reply to post by rbkruspe


Hi I was at 369.0kHz at the time of my post. It was repeating, so I grabbed it. It's only a few seconds long but it was pretty clear.
I was scanning the band and tuned into it. I like the fact that we can record onthe fly.

Do we hve an easy way to upload a clip directly here, or does it need a host?

Operating a numbers station seems like it would be a dream job for those that wish they could work for an intelligence/security agency and don't fantasize of being James Bond. Relatively low risk (many nations seem to operate stations within their own borders) compared to say a field agent, and high intrigue.

I remember reading about UVB-76 a few years ago, its wiki says that non-buzzing transmissions are somewhat a rarity (the last listed radiogram was almost a year ago), so it's very interesting that there was one as this Ukraine stuff went down.

shadow watcher
reply to post by rbkruspe

 

Hi I was at 369.0kHz at the time of my post. It was repeating, so I grabbed it. It's only a few seconds long but it was pretty clear.
I was scanning the band and tuned into it. I like the fact that we can record onthe fly.

Do we hve an easy way to upload a clip directly here, or does it need a host?

Did a quick search and it's a beacon. Non-directional beacon 369khz

Beacons can be fun too. I came across 2 just a few hours ago.

reply to post by Agent_USA_Supporter


How, Kiev hasn't been allowed to do anything.

Flyingclaydisk
Cool find! S&F to the OP.

For many years I have been fascinated by Numbers Stations and have done a considerable amount of research into them, and the philosophies behind them as well. Even without knowing what they're saying, it's still a quite interesting area of research.

Here are ten interesting facts for those interested...

1. As another poster noted, the reason you can receive the signal one hour and not the next is because of the way High Frequency, or "HF", broadcast signals propagate through the atmosphere. It is for this same reason these stations are difficult if not impossible to accurately locate. The signals from these HF stations bounce ("skip") off different portions of the atmosphere so reception is not a matter of line of sight. An HF signal can be heard anywhere in the world. Sometimes, a signal originating on the other side of Earth can be heard better than one originating just 50 miles away.

2. Through the use of a 'One Time Pad' on the remote end, the same numbers can be broadcast over and over again for years, but mean something completely different each time they are broadcast. There are slight variations in the number sequences on some stations which just heighten the intrigue. If implemented correctly, the code associated with a true One Time Pad cannot be deciphered, not even by the multi-billion dollar code cracking computers of the NSA and MI-6. Each pad is different, and is never repeated (ever).

3. Numbers Stations are as much 'mind games' as they are official communications mediums, and this is part of the strategy using them. The listener has no idea how many people the number sequences are being broadcast to. It could be thousands, or none at all, but the numbers just keep on going...forever. Today the numbers could be being broadcast to 200 people, tonight just 5 people, tomorrow morning none at all and that afternoon to 3,000 people. You can't tell from just listening.

4. Numbers stations can be used to play mind games on an adversary. Let's say I start broadcasting sequences of numbers which can be heard in your country, does that mean I now have spies deployed there...or is it that I just want you to think I do?

5. Consequently, I can make my adversary spend time, resources and money on trying to figure out what I'm up to, when I might be up to nothing at all other than trying to distract my adversary...and make him spend time, resources and money. However, because I keep doing broadcasting, relentlessly, day after day, month after month and year after year I might equally be saying something really important. I might be setting up an elaborate underground network for an uprising, an attack, an assassination or a coup d'etat...and because you don't know, you can't ignore it.

6. As Numbers Stations evolved most countries employing them moved to automated voice generators. These remove any potential for unintended give aways like having a sense of urgency in your voice, etc. The numbers are just an endless string of monotone sequences of usually (5) numbers, but sometimes (4) or (3). Generally never more than (5) numbers at a time though.

7. Numbers Stations don't turn on when there's a message and then turn off when there isn't a message because this would be a dead giveaway.

8. Numbers Stations many times do broadcast other things like music and sounds (the buzzer in the OP's example etc.). More recently there are also squeeks and squawks which are clearly bursts of digital data (but for what?).

9. Strangley, most Numbers Stations are broadcast in English. There are some in other languages like Spanish and Chinese, but the vast majority are in English.

10. There are other mysterious radio stations out there which broadcast all sorts of other weird stuff like odd sounds over and over again. They have some purpose, but no one really knows for sure what that purpose is...only the originator knows the purpose and the audience. The rest of us just have to sit and wonder.

edit...BTW, there are lots of resources out there on the Interwebz where you can find out more about these mysterious radio stations. It's a very fun and intriguing thing to look into.

edit on 3/19/2014 by Flyingclaydisk because: (no reason given)

Great post.
8. The stations broadcast music and sounds other than numbers I think to help the listener find the frequency before the actual numbers transmission? Sort of a beacon, so that even with an older radio or one that isn't calibrated correctly the station can be found.

reply to post by SuperSeeds


The only purpose of such a signal is to tell far away units (especially at sea) is that C&C is functioning.

It does not seem like a way to send commands.

Long time lurker, 1st time poster - cool stuff OP!

I appear to be some kind of Luddite - all I'm getting is silence

Help.....anyone?

reply to post by D4rk5t4lk3r


No worries D4rk, signal has been inactive for the last 6 hours or so.

Thanks Logic....I'll keep trying throughout the day

fenson76
reply to post by Agent_USA_Supporter

 

How, Kiev hasn't been allowed to do anything.

Of course not they the fascists in power in Kiev know whats going to happen if they try to pull something stupid.

Cuervo

Dragoon01

Cuervo

kako187

Cuervo
reply to post by SkepticOverlord

 

Would it be possible to broadcast a broken message on more than one frequency that would then require a person tuning into those frequencies simultaneously in order to hear the actual message?

What you are describing is called "Broadband"

Yeah but a manual broadband. Like you would broadcast several sequential bits of audio on different frequencies and I would listen to all of them, collecting the information. Meanwhile, maybe you would also flood about 100 other frequencies with noise during that broadcast so I would have to know exactly which combinations of frequencies to listen to in order to even understand the message.

Just a thought. This has been going on since the 70's so I'm just trying to think of ways a pioneer in the field may have been clever. That one piece of word I got while listening is what made me think of it in the first place.

Mrs Lamar got there way ahead of you. What your talking about actually is what is called Spread-spectrum or Frequency hopping. Although you are describing a manual version of it. Most modern military radios and many civilian radios task a processor with the jumping from one frequency to another following a complex pattern to prevent simple evesdropping on a signal. Combined with encryption it's very diffcult to break. Even civilian radios using a digital signal but non-encrypted are difficult for civilians to pick up and monitor.

So... do you think that's what this is?

No I think you just picked up a clipped message. If your listening over an IP service there is a lot of delay and potentially dropped packets that are there. I think your connection just dropped some portion of the message that was present. If your listening over the air with a real receiver then its also possible that your connection jsut clipped part of the signal and you missed the total message.

Agent_USA_Supporter

fenson76
reply to post by Agent_USA_Supporter

 

How, Kiev hasn't been allowed to do anything.

Of course not they the fascists in power in Kiev know whats going to happen if they try to pull something stupid.

Too bad the fascist in Moscow weren't able to stop Putin from doing something stupid.

Signal seems to be weak right now. I was getting something just a few clicks above 4625 but that has since stopped. It sounded like a voice in the background but the signal was not strong enough to hear anything and has since ended. Just an update for those looking

Iv'e always found number stations to be eerie. Reminds me of a radiated ghost town.

Cuervo
reply to post by SkepticOverlord

 

I'm replying to you, specifically, because you have experience in this. I just tuned in to this about 5 minutes ago and only heard an intermittent buzz. Until I heard a voice. It sounded like only a part of a word, like it was cut off.

Riddle me this, Overlord: Would it be possible to broadcast a broken message on more than one frequency that would then require a person tuning into those frequencies simultaneously in order to hear the actual message? Sort of like old-school encryption or like a radio paper shredder?

Yes - I used to be on the "CB" radio years ago and we used to rig them up with different frequency crystals beside the standard FM range of 27.60125 -27.99125.

You could mix and match "Side Band" and "Midnight" for instance so TX went over one frequency and RX would comeback over another. To someone without the knowledge of the combination they'd only hear one half of the conversation....

WTF I was just going through the frequency's when I landed on 4724 and got loads of chatter like , delta, alpha, etc etc. It was a woman's voice, it sounded like an American accent, dose anyone know what could be ? I did manage to record a little bit. Anyone know how I can upload it here ?

It's started again so if anyone wants to listen go there now, 4724 now with a man's American accent. I'm recording again.

Ok so I've saved the audio to my PC, anyone know how I can upload to here, I've tried youtube but it won't let me, saying it's audio only ?
And it's started again!
I'm currently uploading to youtube now. Is anyone else getting this ?
Ok guy's listen to this and let me know what you think, here's the audio, but I'd like to know why this is being broadcast, if I hadn't landed on this frequency I'd have missed it as there's no buzz like the UVB-76 ?


And this is the second one, very strange indeed,

reply to post by scrog77


Yes, I've been listening and heard what sounded like a man's voice repeating Russian letters/numbers. Didn't sound to me like a real human, but rather a computer generated voice. Is that what you were hearing as well? (It's stopped now.)

reply to post by schweizer


It dose have a computer voice sound to it but I'm sure it's a real voice, and they are American without a doubt.

Scrog77, I've just watched your recordings and can confirm that I was NOT hearing those voices.

I was on 4727 (LSB, I think) via websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901...

I'm still tuned in and will try to update as soon as I hear anything.

As for the Russian Buzzer... this site has some great information: priyom.org... Specifically, this PDF provides an excellent summary of the topic: priyom.org...

Toward the end of that PDF, there is a great link... well worth a look.

"The old Buzzer transmitter site, however, is well known and has even been visited by urban explorers who brought back some transmission logs. Expedition pictures bydunai.livejournal.com..."