As fall and Halloween are a spooky time of the year, I had to share this creepy spy story I read.
A couple of years back the BBC posted a really fascinating article on a shortwave radio station that has been broadcasting since the Cold War. It plays a mysterious droning noise which is only broken occasionally to say a few innocuous words in Russian. Notably moments have been when one time a random conversation was broadcast and another when the broadcast stopped and sent conspiracy theorists running for their fallout shelters.
It’s frequency, 4625 kHz, can be heard all over the world and has originated from two locations in Russia, both rumored or confirmed Russian military bases.
Shortwave aficionados have nicknamed it “The Buzzer” or UVB-76. No one knows for sure what it’s for but multiple theories have been floated, some more nutty than others. Some say if it stop broadcasting nuclear missiles will be launched, others think it would be used in the event of a war to send messages to spies or the army around the world, the more wacky among us think it’s used to communicate with aliens. Of course my guess would be that it has something to do with spies.
Whatever it is, the noise is super creepy, all the more so for it’s apparently unknown purpose.
The original story is well worth reading and can be found here.