The MYSTERIOUS Radio Station That NO ONE Claims to Run

Nowadays, video is all the rage, but radio has proven itself to be an indispensable tool for communication, especially in times of war. During the First and Second World Wars, for example, radio technology enabled military forces to communicate with their troops on the ground, their fleet in the open water, and their flying fighter planes in the sky. When transmitted messages ran the risk of getting intercepted by enemy forces, uncrackable ciphers were then devised. What's more, coded radio transmissions ensured that all information remained secure.

Outside of the battlefields, radios became a staple appliance inside every single household in the U.S. and the rest of the world, keeping the public updated about news, especially at that time, news about the war. Nowadays, radio stations are more about playing music or talk shows. I mean, there are newscasts out there, but predominantly music is what we listen to.

In the past, radios were primarily used for national security purposes during wartime. While this is no longer as critical, government and military organizations still operate a few radio stations around the world. Some of these stations have gained notoriety, including one called "the buzzer." This station broadcasts on the frequency of 1625 kilohertz and has been operational since the 1970s. It continuously plays a monotone buzzing sound that repeats every 25 to 30 minutes, 24 hours a day.

The noise that plays on this frequency may have slightly changed over the years, but it always features this familiar buzz tone. A rare instance is that the noise is interrupted, and a voice can be heard speaking, reading messages that really don't seem to make any sense. For many years, whenever a voice is broadcasted through this frequency, listeners will be greeted at first by a thick Russian accent that reads out the station's identification, UVB-76, before a list of code words and numbers is enumerated.

During that span of time, it is believed that the transmissions have originated from a town named Pulver Revolt, which is situated near Moscow. However, in September 2010, the radio station transferred to a different location, possibly somewhere else in western Russia. From then on, its callsign changed to MD ZHB, only to be stretched again in 2016 to ZHUOS.

As a shortwave radio station, UVB-76 sends signals at a low frequency, in contrast to those coming from local radio and television stations, as well as mobile phones. This allows the station to send messages at far-reaching distances, making it an open channel that can be listened to by anyone from almost anywhere on this planet. It is for this very reason that many regard the buzzer radio station as an enigma because people may be able to hear the messages sent through this frequency and even maybe guess the location of its source, but it's really next to impossible to figure out who these communications are for and what they actually contain.

So, here are some theories about this ghost station. Ever since the public has been made aware of the existence of this radio station, several theories have been put forward, speculating on its true purpose as well as the identity of the organization that runs it. In the strangest and arguably the most unlikely theory about the buzzer, it is being used as a means to detect and communicate with extraterrestrials.

But the theory that is gaining more ground than any other is the speculation that this radio station may be a number station. If you don't know, number stations are shortwave radio stations believed to broadcast encrypted messages to intelligence agents who are covertly operating in foreign nations. These stations usually transmit encrypted numbers instead of words, and they can presumably only be decoded by the intended listener of the message who holds the keys to cracking it.

Number stations are said to date back all the way to the First World War. Today, the governments of the United States, the UK, and other countries like Cuba, and North Korea are rumored to be still running several number stations of their own. The most well-known of these is the Lincolnshire Poacher, which is suspected to belong to the MI6.

However, other shortwave hobbyists hypothesize that UVB-76 may not be a number station after all. They believe that the buzzer belongs to the Russian military and that its purpose could be to transmit encrypted orders to military units within Russian territory and really not outside of it.