SeeingSpots
NAXJA Forum User
- Location
- Bend, OR
Since it's Blizzarding outside on this Sunday morning, I figured I share with you guys my second obsession next to Off-Roading.
I am obsessed with the Cold War. Not so much because of the threat of nuclear war, but because of the espionage and exchanging of secrets amongst both sides.
One item that I've been obsessed with for a number of years is the Russian radio tower UVB-76 AKA "The Buzzer" that is located in an abandoned military base just outside of Moscow. The tower has been emitting a coded message (randomly) since 1982. Some believe it was used to activate Russian spies in the US - that was just left on after the war ended. Other believe it was just a benign public service access station for short wave users.
Underground shortwave radio operators have known about this station for years, but it wasn't until Wired Magazine in 2010 broke the story about it, that people starting getting REALLY obsessed with it. In fact, there's now a live stream that can accessed via the internet. If you listen often enough, there have been voices (live voices) that will randomly come across the air that uses code words like "Tania, Takarov, Nikki." And most recently in December of 2012, there was a 2min segment where two voices where heard conversing with each other in Russian, and then ....silence....for the first time in decades.
Even more interesting, the Russian government denies its usage of the tower. Yet, when the Journalist from Wired magazine went to investigate the triangulated position of the tower, there was a very healthy German shepherd tied up outside of the front door and smoke emitting from the chimney. Very strange.
So what is UVB-76 and what's its purpose?
Like I said, I find the Cold War and the Russian culture in general to have a clouded mystique surrounding it. I think it's so neat that something like this still exists in 2013. I just hope that its purpose isn't something more sinister.
Live stream:
http://uvb-76.net/
Youtube video of latest correspondence:
http://youtu.be/YatKCf42TrM
Jim
I am obsessed with the Cold War. Not so much because of the threat of nuclear war, but because of the espionage and exchanging of secrets amongst both sides.
One item that I've been obsessed with for a number of years is the Russian radio tower UVB-76 AKA "The Buzzer" that is located in an abandoned military base just outside of Moscow. The tower has been emitting a coded message (randomly) since 1982. Some believe it was used to activate Russian spies in the US - that was just left on after the war ended. Other believe it was just a benign public service access station for short wave users.
Underground shortwave radio operators have known about this station for years, but it wasn't until Wired Magazine in 2010 broke the story about it, that people starting getting REALLY obsessed with it. In fact, there's now a live stream that can accessed via the internet. If you listen often enough, there have been voices (live voices) that will randomly come across the air that uses code words like "Tania, Takarov, Nikki." And most recently in December of 2012, there was a 2min segment where two voices where heard conversing with each other in Russian, and then ....silence....for the first time in decades.
Even more interesting, the Russian government denies its usage of the tower. Yet, when the Journalist from Wired magazine went to investigate the triangulated position of the tower, there was a very healthy German shepherd tied up outside of the front door and smoke emitting from the chimney. Very strange.
So what is UVB-76 and what's its purpose?
Like I said, I find the Cold War and the Russian culture in general to have a clouded mystique surrounding it. I think it's so neat that something like this still exists in 2013. I just hope that its purpose isn't something more sinister.
Live stream:
http://uvb-76.net/
Youtube video of latest correspondence:
http://youtu.be/YatKCf42TrM
Jim
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