Buzzer "UVB-76" Up Again on 4625

Good/readable signal, with heavy fading, into the web repeater's receiver somewhere in Europe at 16/1858 UTC.  Band conditions seem to have deteriorated somewhat.

The buzz is same as always, except for a slow warble at maybe twice per second.

4625 kHz Buzzer Up Today

On the Internet reflector right now (2118 UTC) with QRM from an off-frequency broadcast.

Military Net on 4625 kHz "Buzzer" Frequency

The Buzzer is still gone again, but there is still Russian Military activity on the frequency.

Here is some kind of daily CW net that has a roll call at 1900 UTC, as copied over the Internet UVB-76 blog's stream on September 13. These are tactical callsigns, which change periodically.

Previous operators have sounded pretty good, but this one got flustered, big time.

Here we go:

V
VVVVVV
VVVV V V (error dits)
VSJX DE FIN Q K
R K
KMMN DE F INQ K
R K
8OB5 DE FINQ K
V JIP DE FINQ ---- (possible Cyrillic character, four dahs) (error dits)
VJIP DE FINQ K
R K
E4LU DE FINN (error dits)
E4LEU DE FINQ K
R K
W4YM DE FINQ K
R K
U AR (error dits)
4G9G DE FINQ K
4G9G DE FINQ K
4G9G DE FINQ R K
VDZO DE FINQ R K
L6MM DE (error dits)
L6MM DE FIQ (error dits)
L6MM DE FINO AR (error dits)
L6MM DE FINQ K
O42M DE FINQ K
H (error dits)
L6MHM DE FINQ K (error dits)
L6MM DE FINQ K
O42N DE FINQ K
L6MM DE FINQ K
2X2M DE FINQ K
L6MM L6MM DE FINQ FIN (error dits)
L6MM L6MM L6MM E DE FINQ FINQ K
O42M O42M O42M L (error dits)
O42M O42M O42M DE FINQ J (error dits)
O42M O42M O42M DE FIINNN (error dits)
O42M O42M O42M DE FINQ K (error dits)
O42 (error dits)
O42M O42M O42M DE FINQ FINQ K
R K
[About an 8 minute pause, perhaps to regroup]
[missed-fading]
FINQ R K
[-end of work-]

Is UVB76 Gone Again?

All channels on the Internet repeater have only static for 4625 kHz. The PVO air defense transmissions at 3 kHz are still there, though much weaker. The Internet link works, though at greatly reduced volume. The Buzzer is simply not there.

???????

Yesterday was quite an interesting day. It is apparent that The Buzzer was using two different transmitters, and maybe two different call signs. It's hard to know for sure. UVB76 is at least a standard international call from Russia's alphabetical block. The other one heard yesterday, MDZhB, is Cyrillic. Cyrillic has appeared in Russian station IDs before, but as tactical calls. So the possibilities are:

Two transmitters, using different call signs.
Two transmitters, one sending a message using a tactical ID.
Two transmitters, both using message-specific tactical IDs.

One interesting possibility is that the second transmitter, which has truly world-spanning capability, was activated specifically for the three messages sent over it, then shut down again. All of this indicates a high degree of human intervention in what was assumed to be an automated transmission, which in turn would indicate that it's more than just an old Cold War system no one ever turned off.

This would tend to support the commonly offered theory that UVB76 is a military alerting station for some kind of command control comms. This would resemble a far less active version of the USA's Emergency Action Message (EAM) broadcasts, which are coded military orders with priority traffic status.

?????????????????

UVB76 Leaves Air, Human Species Survives

There's been a lot of Internet buzz surrounding UVB76, the supposed call sign of a mysterious, Russian station whose marker is The Buzzer (formerly XB, now S38). It's usually on 4625 kHz. Conspiracy sites have gone crazy since it broadcast a voice message on August 25, and then left the air shortly before 0000 UTC on September 1.

Right now, the only verifiable fact is that the station is still off-air, except maybe for a weak carrier. There have been a lot of pirate transmissions, some of which indicated a familiarity with the "numbers" hobby. A couple of these even addressed two well known Internet mailing list members, by name.

Mary Villano in L.A. reports that even "Adult Swim," a Cartoon Channel program block after the kiddies are in bed, did a bumper with a scope screen type of graphic and words about how UVB76 was off-air and we should all be afraid. This is fun stuff.

Also interesting is the very dark cloud shadow on Google Earth over what is purported to be the UVB76 transmitter building. It's almost as if the site was deliberately redacted. If the surrounding area wasn't more dank than a gloomy Russian novel, and if the images weren't from 2009 and earlier, even I might think someone said something. But I don't. It's just more strangeness from a seemingly endless source of same.

We'll try to sort all this out in the November column. I don't usually advertise, but you'll want to read THIS one.

Vietnamese Numbers Translated!

A native Vietnamese speaker, who has worked as a translator in the United States, has listened to my recording of the 10255 kHz ~1600 UTC "numbers" station.

This translation contains some new information. It also corroborates other details that were posted to the ENIGMA 2000 group.

Here's her report. Italicized numbers are for my own footnotes.

I just listened to the audio. It sounds like they were making an announcement using coding. And I don't know exactly where it comes from but it's a Northern Vietnamese voice. [1] Here's the translation:

Sơn Ca gọi Hải Đăng năm hai năm ba (x9)
"Son Ca [2] is calling Hai Dang [3] 5253"

Số điện sông năm tám hai hai (x3)
"Phone number: 05822" [4]

Số nhóm bảy một (x3)
"Number of groups: 71" [5]

Ngày [?] ba chín số một trong (once)
"Date: 3/9/2010" [6]

Nội dung của đầu (x3)
"Content's beginning:"

[message in 5F groups, no repeat] 05711 21249 05433 56985.....12289

Sơn Ca gọi Hải Đăng năm năm năm eigh
"Son Ca is calling Hai Dang 5558." [7]

[1] The translator used by an ENIGMA 2000 member also said the voice was in a Northern dialect.

[2] Possibilities:
Đảo Sơn Ca, an island in the South China Sea.
Generic for Cay or Key (small island in a group).
Popular Vietnamese record label.
Someone's name, perhaps a singer.

[3] Google translates Hải Đăng as "Lighthouse."

[4] She translated it as "phone number." A colloquialism? Or is it really a standard "numbers" callup signifying a group or message router?

[5] There are indeed 71 groups in the message. I counted. Twice.

[6] This transmission was recorded on March 18, 2010. This is a further indicator that recorded broadcasts are repeated on subsequent days until the message changes.

[7] You have to listen carefully, and the number at the end really is different than the one at the beginning. I wonder if this is true for other broadcasts.

Vietnamese Numbers Mystery Continues

The latest ENIGMA2000 newsletter #EN58 has some great stuff in it regarding the mysterious numbers station that broadcasts short 5F messages daily around 1600 UTC (plus or minus three minutes), in Vietnamese.

ENIGMA2000 notes, on page 3, that their Vietnamese speakers have been unavailable.  One is in Viet Nam.  Funny they should bring that up.  That's where mine is too.  There's a big Vietnamese community in SoCal, and so I'll keep at it.
 
(A post on UDXF mentioned that a different (as in available) Vietnamese speaker has listened to one of the many recordings in existence. They thought the radio announcer's dialect sounded northern, maybe the Hanoi area.)


Page 11 has an excellent research result sent to ENIGMA2000 by a California listener who goes by Token. He's done a lot of grunt work on this one.  He's out on the (quiet) desert with good equipment, knowledge of how to use it, and my dream antenna - a rhombic pointed at Asia.  I could sort out the Japanese fishery fax in a hurry with one of THOSE puppies up in the air, dominating our entire suburban neighborhood, with poles sunk into neighbor's flower gardens, keeping lightning away from everyone's houses... but that's not important now.

He mentions that a shipping company might not have a lot of reasons to repeat a broadcast 30 times.  I tend to agree that, until we get something definitive, it's safest to assume it's some kind of encrypted transmission sent to or from Viet Nam, for the purpose of passing coded information of a highly sensitive nature to an unknown person or persons whose identities are not for public knowledge.

Either that, or someone who listened to Conet once too often.

More when we get it.....

10255 Vietnamese Numbers Continue Daily

The Vietnamese numbers station on 10255 has settled into something of a routine. First callup is usually right at 1558 UTC. Perhaps someone's clock is a bit off. Transmissions are repeated, but on an irregular schedule. Today, we had three repetitions right together. This seems to be the most common.

The signal is very strong (S9 +10 dB today) on the West Coast, conditions permitting, and weaker in Europe.

This is one of the more compelling "numbers" finds in quite a while. It's daily, on 10255 kHz USB. We really need a speaker of Vietnamese to hear the recordings and figure this out. My own recording has been sent to Monitoring Times and will appear on the magazine's web site at some unknown time in the future.

So Who Is GM-11F?

"GM-11F" is the identification on mysterious radiofaxes apparently coming from the Ukraine, perhaps the Russian Navy in Sevastopol, on 5103 and 7090 kHz USB. These have been seen in Germany for at least a year. Content is the usual marine weather information. One transmission occurs daily at 1430 UTC.

7090 kHz is in the 40 meter amateur band, but other Russian military stations also operate there. This includes one of those single-letter beacon clusters (ENIGMA designator MX). "D" (Sevastopol, 7038.7) and "C" (Moscow, 7039.0) are especially loud pretty much 24/7 in central Europe.

V2x Is Again Nine-Less

Haven't heard any at all since that one transmission.

Oh, well.

Meanwhile the digital SK01 transmissions continue.

SK01 Has 9's

As many people have noticed, the number "9" is rarely (if ever) heard in the V2a Cuban voice numbers broadcasts. If the encryption is random, it seems odd that there wouldn't be any 9s. Why would this figure be excluded? Why is it present in filenames/headers for SK01 (the digital file transfers)?

One more mystery wrapped in a riddle shrouded in an enigma, no pun intended. (After all the German ENIGMA code had 9s.)

New Drippy Pirate Beacon

A pirate beacon on 6626.0 kHz (dial freq in USB mode) has been reported. It produces a low chirping noise approximately 3 times per second. It is said to sound like a quickly dripping faucet.

The beacon is audible here right now, way down in the noise that has been S5 ever since yesterday's wind storm. Propagation points to the usual SW US location, perhaps the California or Arizona desert.

UPDATE 15 Apr: All bets are off on this signal. It's being heard in places where propagation would simply not happen from the SW US at that time of day on 6 Mhz. One person suggested it's a Link-11 that is so weak all you hear is the pong, pong, pong tone of the bursts. However, most Link-11 has different burst lengths, and this one's regular.