The buzzer

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The Buzzer (volcano)
ANVF
Image of the object
Former antenna field from ANVF on a satellite photo, before January 23, 2009
Basic data
Place: probably near Naro-Fominsk , approx. 80 km west of Moscow , ( Russia )
Oblast: Moscow
Country: Russia
Coordinates: 56 ° 4 ′ 57.4 ″  N , 37 ° 5 ′ 24 ″  E
Use: Military use
Accessibility: Transmission system not accessible to the public
Data on the transmission system
Waveband : SW transmitter
Further data
Operator: Russian military
Position map
The Buzzer (Volcano) (Moscow Oblast)
The Buzzer (volcano)
The Buzzer (volcano)
Localization of Moscow Oblast in Russia European part
Channel marker of the station in August 2010
Sample recording with voice signal

The Buzzer ( German: The buzzer) is one of amateur radio operators assigned name for an originating from Russia shortwave signal on the frequency 4625 kHz (corresponding to 64.86 m wavelength), which in single sideband sends (USB). The Buzzer is presumably operated by the Russian armed forces, it is assumed that this station belongs to the western military district.

The official name is volcano . Its currently most frequently used callsign has been ANVF (АНВФ) since March 1, 2019 , after ZhUOZ (ЖУОЗ) had been used since December 28, 2015 . In the past, the station IDs UZB-76 (УЗБ-76) , MDZhB (МДЖБ) and 94ZhT (94ЖТ) and others were in use. In the meantime, the shortwave transmitter also broadcast on other frequencies .

The purpose of the station has not yet been officially confirmed. However, a rough classification of the purpose can be recognized from many records.

Callsigns and transmission frequencies

UVB-76

The origin of this name is the first confirmed identification of the station, UZB-76 . Since callsigns were not spoken using the Russian Phonetic Alphabet before the change to MDZhB 2010 , but instead only the letters were read out individually, "Z" was confused with "V" due to the similarity of the two letters. This led to the fact that the Buzzer is also called UVB-76 to this day, although the station has never identified itself that way.

Callsigns used

Until September 2010, the station used the callsign UZB-76 (УЗБ-76), which was replaced on September 8, 2010 by the callsign MDZhB (МДЖБ) . This callsign was in operation until December 28, 2015, when the callsign ZhUOZ (ЖУОЗ) was received. In the meantime other callsigns could also be heard. As of March 1, 2019, the callsign ANVF (АНВФ) has been the most commonly used callsign. However, others (e.g. VZhTsKh, 217O and 87OI) are also used in the voice messages.

The callsigns used are most likely not the buzzer's own callsigns, but group callsigns. This means that the messages are sent to a group of stations, each of which reacts to a specific identifier

Frequencies

The Buzzer broadcasts around the clock on the frequency 4625.0 kHz. Due to problems in the transmission technology that have arisen in the meantime, this station was also often transmitted on other frequencies. The frequency 4625 kHz is outside the internationally agreed meters bands for round , amateur , maritime and aeronautical radio and time signal transmitters .

Broadcast schedule

Most of The Buzzer's airtime consists of a short, monotonous humming sound that repeats about 25 times per minute. Because of this incident it got its name "The Buzzer". This tone forms a channel marker which (similar to the dial tone on a telephone) signals that the frequency is busy. It should therefore ensure that other stations do not use the frequency so that the recipients of the voice messages can clearly understand them.

The broadcast lasted 23 hours and 10 minutes a day until 2015, from 07:50 to 07:00 UTC the following day. Maintenance work on the transmitter was likely carried out during the inactive period. At the end of 2015, it was found that the station was broadcasting during the earlier break in operation. It could not be determined whether the pause was postponed to a later point in time, as the signal is difficult to hear after 08:00 UTC due to the special propagation conditions in Central Europe.

One minute before every hour on the hour, the repeating tone was replaced by a continuous tone of changing pitch for one minute until April 2009. Then the repeating tone was sent again. Since then, this continuous tone, inserted every hour, has not been heard any more.

If there is a message, the channel marker is interrupted and a voice message is sent in Russian .

Deviations in broadcasting

On June 7, 2010 the broadcast stopped and after the resumption of broadcasting on June 8, 2010 the sound was changed again: the marker was slower and deeper.

On September 2, 2010, operations were stopped again for several days. When broadcasting resumed, a piece of music - namely a piece from the ballet Swan Lake by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky - was played for the first time in the history of the station .

On September 24th, 2015 another piece of music could be heard, namely “Zhuravli” by Mark Naumowitsch Bernes .

On May 15, 2020, The Buzzer was interrupted by a third-party broadcast, probably broadcast by French fishermen.

On May 17, 2020, The Buzzer was disrupted again by an unknown transmission, it is assumed that these are the same people as on May 15, 2020.

Channel marker

Representation of the "buzzer" marker using a spectrum analyzer .

Since the start of broadcasting in the 1970s, a repetitive, short beep at an interval of two seconds has been sent as a marker, which was changed to the typical buzzing tone in early 1990. From January 16, 2003, the signal briefly changed to a higher tone with a longer duration (approx. 20 tones per minute).

You can often hear conversations or other noises in the background of the marker. Such a conversation could be heard on 3 November 2001 in Russian: "Я - 143. Не получаю генератор." "Идёт такая работа от аппаратной" (German translation: ". Here Einhundertdreiundvierzig I do not receive the generator!. " - " The is what the operations room sends! ”) On September 2nd, 2010 someone was heard saying in the background:“ They should work, but are weak. "

These noises indicate that the marker is played permanently on the same pitch by a tone generator and is picked up by the signal generator via a microphone that is always open .


Location

Georeferencing Map with all coordinates: OSM | WikiMap

Until about 2010, the transmitters were located near Powarowo in Russia , about halfway between Zelenograd and Solnnogorsk in a forest area near the village of Loschki , about 40 km northwest of Moscow . The geographical coordinates are 56.083 °  N , 37.09 °  O and 56.083 °  N , 37.11 °  O .

This system is no longer used for broadcast purposes. Earlier photos show that the facilities have been largely destroyed and the property is visibly deteriorating. Obviously, the buildings in Powarowo were no longer used.

Current recordings (as of August 2018) show that a car factory has now been built on the site.

The broadcasts can still be received, however, so the broadcast is from a new location. Priyom.org reported that two transmitter locations could be found using triangulation : One (referred to as "Communication Hub # 69 (" Iskra ") by priyom.org ) in a military facility near Naro-Fominsk with coordinates 55.43 °  N , 36.71 °  O , about 80 km from central Moscow, and another ( "Communication hub # 60 (" Irtysh " )") near St. Petersburg . The station at Naro-Forminsk was identified as the main station, the one at St. Petersburg broadcast occasionally. In 2015 it was found that the station no longer broadcasted near St. Petersburg.

Transmission technology

At the old location near Powarowo there were transmitters of the type Molniya-2M (PKM-15) and Molniya-3 (PKM-20) as well as a Viaz-M2, which apparently served as a reserve antenna. The antennas were horizontal dipoles VGDSh, which were arranged at a height of about 20 m above the ground.

It is still unknown which broadcast technology will be used at the new location. For technical reasons, however, it can be assumed that a similar configuration exists there as at the old location.

Reception possibilities

The transmitter can be received with any standard shortwave or world receiver . In Western Europe, the monotonous humming can be heard particularly well in the evening and night. The transmission frequency is 4625 kHz. You can also receive the buzzer online on the Web SDR of the University of Twente.

Purpose and function

According to the Priyom.org project, The Buzzer is used to transmit encrypted messages to other broadcasting and radio receiving stations such as The Pip and Squeaky Wheel in a so-called "monolith format". The buzzer forms a kind of "distribution center" within the monolith network because, unlike its sister stations, it sends messages with different callsigns.

Other theories do not seem credible.

Media interest

A lot of speculation and rumors about The Buzzer are circulating on the internet. The uvb-76.net site, for example, offers recordings from UZB-76. A map with bearings can also be found there.

There are a large number of videos on YouTube about the station, some in the form of short journalistic contributions, others as actual or fake recordings of the broadcast. In particular, alleged voice or music transmissions by the sender are distributed there, many of which, however, are fakes.

Since November 20, 2019, there has been a live stream on YouTube that plays the buzzer live from a WebSDR

Interest on the radio or in newspapers is comparatively low; the Südwestrundfunk has on 7 January 2013, the series SWR2 reported pulse briefly on the transmitter. Also NDR 2 themed UZB-76 early 2014 briefly in the column "Right?". In the series 8:51 in Bavaria 1 was also just above the station reported (on the occasion of music transfer on September 2, 2010), here also that was theory called that the shortwave transmitter acts as a kind of control of former nuclear missiles of the Soviet Union . Accordingly, as soon as the channel marker stops broadcasting, a circuit would react and trigger a wave of nuclear attacks against other countries (mainly against the USA ). This theory also leaves questions unanswered, such as what the voice messages are for or why the missiles cannot simply be deactivated. It can be viewed as refuted, as broadcasting was interrupted several times in the past without any obvious consequences.

On January 30, 2014, DRadio Wissen (today: Deutschlandfunk Nova) reported on the station.

On January 1, 2015, the television station N24 (today: Welt) reported on its website about the phenomenon.

On April 29, 2015, the second program of Swiss radio SRF dedicated a 10 minutes 41 seconds long program to the station.

Disruptions

Due to mostly technical problems in the transmission and recording technology, there are often disruptions.

For example, on the night of December 20-21, 2013, the signal was disturbed: the marker was heavily distorted and interfering noises, so-called splatters, were also transmitted in the marker pause intervals. This is probably due to a defect in the transmitter. In the early morning of the following December 22nd, The Buzzer was completely silent until about 13:20 UTC. Sometimes there were short interruptions in reception and background noises.

On February 17, 2017 at around 19:30 UTC, the signal was disrupted several times and was interrupted about 15 times.

On June 5, 2017, the signal became duller at 20:01 UTC and completely disappeared at 20:04 UTC until it could be heard again at 20:09 UTC. In the meantime, you could hear noises in the background, which are most likely due to work in the recording studio.

For several years now, in addition to the buzzer tone, a mechanical sounding humming has been heard, which also shows fluctuations in pitch when the buzzer occasionally "crashes" ("breakdowns"). It was also often observed that the buzzing tone before the restart of the buzzer, similar to a starting electric motor, becomes continuously higher. According to speculations, it could be an electric motor that was connected to an electromechanical sound generator for the characteristic buzzer sound.

See also

Web links

Commons : UVB-76  - collection of images, videos and audio files
items
Data

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Priyom.org: Russian Military Stations. Retrieved June 27, 2020 (English).
  2. ↑ Boender, Ary. "Numbers and Oddities" Newsletter 157, October 2010. ( Download page, PDF in the zipped annual archive 2010)
  3. ^ UVB-76 Internet Repeater . Retrieved April 9, 2013.
  4. ↑ Youtube (User: itaRomeo): UVB-76 The buzzer - Primary and Secondary frequency . Retrieved April 9, 2013.
  5. ↑ UVB-76 Activity Channel: UVB-76 MDZhB [08/23/2010] [13:35] (93 882 NAIMINA 74 14 35 74). In: YouTube. UVB-76 Activity Channel, July 5, 2014, accessed on July 14, 2020 ((example of a message before switching to MDZhB)).
  6. ↑ a b The Buzzer. In: priyom.org. Accessed August 7, 2017 .
  7. ↑ a b http://wiki.utdx.de/index.php/S28
  8. ↑ Radio Station UVB-76. Archived from the original on January 29, 2008 ; Retrieved July 21, 2009 .
  9. ↑ Youtube: recording from the late 90s . Retrieved April 9, 2013.
  10. ↑ Slashdot: Mysterious Radio Station UVB-76 Goes Offline . Retrieved April 9, 2013.
  11. ↑ Recording from September 2, 2010. http://uvb-76.net/2010/09/uvb-76-playing-music.html
  12. ^ Activities of The Buzzer in 2015 on priyom.org
  13. ↑ UVB76 (The Buzzer) - Strange Unknown Voice 5/15/20 . Retrieved May 15, 2020.
  14. ↑ Strange Voices on 4625 kHz (The Buzzer, UVB76) on May 15, 2020 . Retrieved May 15, 2020.
  15. ↑ Unknown transfer to UVB76. May 18, 2020, accessed May 18, 2020 .
  16. ↑ Radioscanner.ru: Военная "Жужжалка" на частоте 4625 кГц. "Buzzer" UVB-76. . Retrieved April 9, 2013.
  17. ↑ Ary Boender: Numbers & oddities: Column 1. Retrieved on 21 July 2008 .
  18. ↑ Enigma 2000: Enigma 2000 Newsletter . Retrieved April 9, 2013.
  19. ↑ Incorporation of the sentence
  20. ^ Telephone conversation (audio), transmitted by UVB-76 on November 11, 2010 . Retrieved March 19, 2013.
  21. ↑ wiki.utdx.de . Retrieved April 20, 2019.
  22. ↑ | Photos of the former UVB-76 location in Powarowo, Russia
  23. ^ A Trip to Powarowo . Retrieved April 26, 2013.
  24. ↑ Source: Google Maps
  25. ↑ Bearings of the new UVB-76 location
  26. ↑ http://www.radioeins.de/programm/sendung/medienmagazin/radio_news/beitraege/2014/wolga.html
  27. ↑ priyom.org: Buzzer is not transmitted from Kerro anymore, new military marker on 4525 USB. August 4, 2015, accessed August 7, 2017 .
  28. ↑ [1]
  29. ↑ http://uvb-76.net/
  30. ↑ http://uvb-76.net/p/triangulation.html
  31. ↑ The SWL Channel: UVB-76 / The Buzzer (4625Khz) LIVE. In: YouTube. Retrieved May 24, 2020 .
  32. ^ SWR: SWR broadcast plan on January 7, 2013. Accessed on January 13, 2013 .
  33. ↑ ARD Mediathek: Numbers station plays music. (No longer available online.) Archived from the original on February 18, 2015 ; Retrieved November 5, 2014 .
  34. ^ Priyom.org: The Buzzer Primer. Priyom.org, p. 12 , accessed August 7, 2017 .
  35. ↑ Monika Ahrens: Secret Signal from the East. In: DRadio knowledge . January 30, 2014.
  36. ↑ Mysterious Russian Radio Station Does Nuclear War Begin When The Humming Stops? N24 , January 1, 2015, accessed January 3, 2015 .
  37. ^ The white listening: «Buzzer» by Annette Scheld. Radio SRF 2 Kultur , April 29, 2015, accessed on April 29, 2015 .
  38. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9DL3x82KbGk