Cryptic messages have been broadcast on what has been dubbed “doomsday radio”, a shortwave station in Russia that has been active since the Cold War.
The mysterious radio station UVB-76, thought to be linked to Russia’s military, has been broadcasting since the 1970s on 4625 kHz and is occasionally interrupted by voice transmissions which prompt speculation about their meaning.
The white noise came to life again on Monday when cryptic voice messages of numbers and letters were heard, sparking a lively discussion on social media.
Why It Matters
Active for five decades, UVB-76 is widely believed to be a numbers station operated by the Russian military although this has not been confirmed.
Theories abound ranging from its role as a “doomsday station” which can trigger nuclear launches to an outlet that transmits secret messages.
There have been a number of these over the course of the war in Ukraine and the latest broadcast is likely to prompt speculation about Moscow’s intent at a time of high tensions with the West.
What To Know
Known also as “The Buzzer,” UVB-76 broadcasts a monotonous buzzing tone, repeating roughly 25 times per minute. On Monday, the usual buzzing was interrupted with messages in Russian, consisting of numbers, names or codewords.
In a 64-second clip widely shared on social media, a male voice can be heard saying “Nicolai, Zhenya, Tatyana, Ivan”, whose initials NZhTI form a call sign the station has used before, according to independent Russian outlet Meduza.
The voice then says the numbers 38, 965, 78, 58, 88, 37 in the clip and then the names Olga, Tatiana, Elena, Leonid, whose initials spell OTEL (hotel) are then read out. The speaker then says, “soft sign, 78, 58, 88, 37.” The soft sign is a letter of the Russian alphabet with no sound of its own which softens the preceding consonant.
Social media users speculated about the mystery, suggesting that the numbers represented coordinates “for unknown listeners far from the motherland.”
Another suggested the codes were signals for Russia’s nuclear submarine fleet intended to scare President Donald Trump before he makes decisions on sanctions.
Back in May, the station broadcast the same code ‘NZhTI” as well as 89905 BLEFOPUF 4097 5573’ before the phone call between President Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump
On December 11, 2024, the radio station sent out 24 messages in a day, making it the “most verbose broadcast in its history,” according to a group on the social media platform vKontakte that monitors the station.
That day, 30 words were broadcast, some of which were nonsensical. As of Tuesday afternoon, the group had not reacted to the latest broadcast.
The radio station is thought to be operated by the Russian military from one of the country’s western regions although neither its location nor its purpose have been confirmed.
It earned the Doomsday Station nickname due to a theory it’s part of the Soviet-era Dead Hand, or Perimeter system, a nuclear fail-safe mechanism that would trigger a launch of nuclear weapons if the broadcast were to stop.
The newspaper Rossiyskaya Gazeta reported that the station’s activity increased after the collapse of the Soviet Union from once every few years before 1992 to messages weekly or even daily by the 2000s.
It fell silent on June 5, 2010 for 24 hours and has broadcast sounds ranging from fragments of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, to shuffling footsteps and even a woman’s scream.
In the lead-up to Russia’s February 24, 2022 invasion of Ukraine the station was quite active with codes sent in the days leading up to the war.
David Stupples, professor of electronic and radio engineering at the City University of London, told Popular Mechanics in May 2024 that the Russian government was almost certainly behind it and as such, it was unlikely to be for peaceful purposes.
What People Are Saying
The journalist Chay Bowes on X: “Russia’s UVB-76 ‘Doomsday Radio’ makes its second cryptic broadcast today. Codewords ‘NZHTI’ and ‘HOTEL’ spelled out for unknown listeners far from the motherland.”
David Stupples, professor of electronic and radio engineering at City University of London told Popular Mechanics in May 2024: “It is almost certainly the Russian government that is using it. If it is the Russian government, it wouldn’t be for peaceful purposes.”
What Happens Next
The spike in broadcasts since the start of the war in Ukraine is likely to continue to fuel speculation about the purpose of the radio station, which remains unconfirmed.
The post Mysterious Russian Radio Station Makes Rare Broadcast appeared first on Newsweek.
