Still buzzin' after all these years- a discovered Numbers station

Photo: Chrissy Brand

Decades have now passed since the frequency of 4625kHz in the shortwave bands was first occupied by a repeating two-second pip. That was back in 1982. In 1990 the sound emanating changed to a strange buzzing sound, in short blasts. 

Its source was a mystery for a long time, but numbers/spy station experts tracked it and discovered the transmitter was located near Povarovo, Russia. Although not strictly a numbers stations, being a buzz most of the time, it still falls into that category of strange and mysterious signals. Occasionally the buzzing would stop and codes would be read out. One that was noted at 2100 UTC on 24 December 1997 transmitted the following message:

"Ya UVB-76, Ya UVB-76. 180 08 BROMAL 74 27 99 14. Boris, Roman, Olga, Mikhail, Anna, Larisa. 7 4 2 7 9 9 1 4."

Self identifying as UVB76 (Cyrillic: УВБ-76) , in 2010 things got a little spookier. Buzzing temporarily stopped, the sounds of phone calls were transmitted , what could have been engineers were heard, dismantling equipment.

The station then relocated and last autumn (2015) it was believed to be situated near St Petersburg. It also added another frequency to its armoury, that of 7000kHz. We still don't know what its real purpose is, so the mystery continues... Tune to 4625 and 7000kHz for yourself.