Mysterious Radio Station UVB-76 Goes Offline

leathered writes "Tinfoil hatters around the world are abuzz that UVB-76, the Russian shortwave radio station that has been broadcasting its monotonous tone almost uninterrupted since 1982, has suddenly gone offline. Of course no one knows what the significance of this is, but best brush up on your drills just in case."

Heard about this on 4chan

[Anonymous Coward]

Heard about this on 4chan's science board pretty much as soon as it happened. Couple people checked on it, and either it was only down for a very short time or it wasn't down at all, because it was up when people checked.

Maybe it won't down [again?], I don't know. Has anyone thought to double-check this?

Don't worry...

[n3umh]

There's still a freaky buzz on 4644kHz. And there's something that sounds like a movie ray gun on 4666.
FOUR SIX SIX SIX
Plenty of freaky shortwave left...

Listen to the last words transmitted

[Anonymous Coward]

If anyone here can understand German, take a listen and report back what it says!

http://media.abovetopsecret.com/media/6950/UVB-76_06052010_2030_MP3/

Fast-forward to the end... sounds like a news broadcast to me.

Probably signals to spies and whatnot

[Bruha]

Russia and Iran ended a day of talks on Iran's nuclear program without any apparent breakthrough.

That was Feb 21 2006

Search Results

      1.
            CNN.com - President Bush's address to the United Nations ...
            Sep 12, 2002 ... Iraq's government openly praised the attacks of September 11.

The transmission on Sept 12, 2002

Dec 24 1997
hmm

American Charged With Spying Allowed to Leave Russia

or

Iran Holds Russian Aid Shipment Bound for Iraq

My guess is that it relays messages to spies, and hopefully that's the end of it, and not as suggested a signal to that dead man system.

Otherwise the countdown has begun.

Re:Explanation:

[inKubus]

This reminds me a lot of my monitoring systems for servers. Of course, I use an active check for most stuff, but there are also passive checks that listen for a SNMP trap. Probably that's what this is. There's something important that someone wants to monitor. When it drops out, probably the monitoring device starts recording the message. We have something similar in the U.S. called the Emergency Broadcasting System. Interestingly, the EBS uses a non-automated system (at least it did when I was in radio). So basically you receive a signal from your upstream provider and then you send it out to your downstream people, and then whatever payload there is you send out on the air. It's all manual, the operator in the control room has to know how to do it. This sounds like something similar. The odd thing is the constant carrier. That can get expensive. So it must be something really important, or they use it for other calibrations or orientations.

Obviously, it could be a spy thing also, it wouldn't be surprising at all. If it's stopped, it's not a big of a problem as if there were a lot of messages ;) Anyway, rest assured the NSA is hard at work and knows much more than you.

Re:Explanation:

[Z00L00K]

If you like some ELF and history I suggest that you go here: SK6SAQ [n.se]

Ionosperic sounder

[flyingfsck]

This is clearly an ionospheric sounder, same as the numbers stations. These things are used during communications planning for a military exercise.

Re:The reason

[jabithew]

I have an alternate conspiracy. I reckon they're doing it for a laugh. Every now and then they stop it and broadcast gibberish, just to see what the reaction is. That sounds like the Russians I know.

Re:It's back up

[Anonymous Coward]

I just listened to 4625 kHz in Southern Finland with my portable shortwave receiver. I've heard the buzz signal earlier while scanning the frequencies but didn't really pay any attention to it. The signal is still there today, but they might have switched on SSB modulation, since it was much clearer when the radio was in SSB mode.

Re:Actually it usually does

[w0mprat]

It's a fallacious argument to assert that just because one has been wrong before one is therefore wrong now, without addressing the actual facts of the argument. It's a common tactic that cranks use themselves.

Another nut job fallacy is.. Absence of evidence is not proof of absence. Well we've all heard that one. In reality absence of evidence is indeed evidence of absence. Is it not that lack of evidence one was at the murder scene is indeed evidence one is not guilty?

Oh and I do love the saying "correlation is not causation" often said here, which is where crackpot anti-logic spills over into the /. group think. Correlation is in fact a prerequisite of causation, certainly a lack of correlation is evidence against causation? Once possible correlations are eliminated this way, whatever remains is the best hypothesis.

I love the argument skills of crackpot conspiracy theorists almost as much as the wild stories themselves. Logical fallacies are underrated.

Re:Actually it usually does

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

For one thing, you'll notice that the conspiracy nuts are, well, always wrong.

That's only because when a conspiracy is proven its no longer considered to be in the realm of "conspiracy nuts."

I'm sure there are hundreds like that, I can think of a few off the top of my head - COINTELPRO, Watergate, Iran-Contra. Tuskegee experiments, Greek Wiretapping Scandal. [ieee.org]

Re:No satellite imagery?

[jones_supa]

I noticed it too. Abovetopsecret had this station information link [freenet6.net] posted which has a Google Maps thingy embedded. Mostly black when you zoom in, some faint borders can be seen though.

Re:Actually it usually does

[dave420]

Nearly all of the "conspiracy theorists" I've spoken to online (including on Above Top Secret) aren't actually conspiracy theorists (akin to investigative journalists of days gone by), but seem to actually be paranoid fantasists. They don't have, or seem to require, actual evidence of a conspiracy before they will accept it as fact, and get rather upset if others don't believe it too.

Re:Actually it usually does

[CAIMLAS]

Yep. Hit this one on the head.

Something I think the so called "conspiracy theorists are nuts" mentality is hurting is America's ability to accept evidence of boring conspiracies, or to not think much of them when they come out. So-and-so embezzled a million bucks with custom software? Meh. Such-and-such company has been stealing from the population for decades? Meh. The NSA/FBI/ATF/IRS/whatever has been with their funding that's illegal? Meh. Oh, but if there was evidence that the government has puppet Presidents, or something like that... people would be interested.

Public Transport Conspiracy

[manaway]

Also don't forget the American streetcar scandal [wikipedia.org], in which several corporations--including GM, Firestone, and Standard Oil (now Chevron [wikipedia.org]/Exxon [wikipedia.org]?)--were convicted in court of conspiracy. Ever wonder why you jump in your 2000+ pound car to travel in the US while pumping out greenhouse emissions, when Europe has trains and trolleys? It's because of a conspiracy.

Also, it could be that the UVB-76 buzzer was designed to make people wonder what it did, to make big goofs write comments on slashdot /*looks at self*/, instead of pursuing more useful inquiries. Kind of like the slow release of JFK shooting materials to occupy those particular, uhhh, conspiracy theorists.

Re:Who . . .

[Anonymous Coward]

Who listens to (and often records) these stations non stop to know the 3 or 4 times in 20 years that something actually happened.

Software. Humans when the spectrum analysis of the raw signal indicates human voices. Doable with 80s technology.