UVB-76 'The Buzzer' station

Case summary

Broadcasting a continuous buzzing tone on 4625 kHz shortwave for decades, UVB-76 is occasionally interrupted by voice messages reading Russian names and number groups. The station is strongly assessed to belong to a Russian military communications network; its exact function has never been explained. Listener communities have logged the broadcast for years.

Timeline

1. 1982The first logs of the buzzing broadcast date to this year.
2. 1997-12-24The first known voice message was recorded.
3. 2010-06A period of unusual outages and activity; global interest surged.
4. 2010-09The station was assessed to have moved from its old Povarovo site; the callsign changed.
5. 2022-03Message frequency was logged rising during the invasion of Ukraine.

People and connections

• 4625 kHz

  The broadcast's primary frequency; USB modulation.

• Povarovo

  Transmitter site used until 2010; later abandoned.

• Priyom.org

  The volunteer community logging and indexing messages.

• Povarovo to 4625 kHzPre-2010 direction-finding tied the transmitter to this site

Findings

• The broadcast's existence, frequency and message format have been independently verified by listeners for decades.

  Assessment: VerifiedSource: priyom.org logs1997–2026

• That the station is part of a Russian military network is supported by site findings and message structure.

  Assessment: ProbableSource: WIRED site visit and DF bearings2011

• The 'dead hand trigger' claim has never been supported by any document.

  Assessment: UnverifiedSource: Literature review2026-05

• The explanation of the buzz as a channel marker is widely accepted but officially unconfirmed.

  Assessment: ProbableSource: Signal-analysis communities2020

Documents

• Audio recordBuzzer and voice-message recordingsDated recording archive with message transcriptions.
• PhotographPhotographs of the abandoned Povarovo siteThe transmitter building and logbooks documented in the 2011 site visit.

Sources

1. 01

   UVB-76

   Wikipedia, 2026, Encyclopedia entry

   Open
2. 02

   The Buzzer (UVB-76) message logs

   priyom.org, 2026, Listener log archive

   Open
3. 03

   Inside the Russian Short Wave Radio Enigma

   WIRED, 2011, Field investigation

   Open

Locations

• Povarovo (former site)56.08°, 37.09°
• St. Petersburg bearing (post-2010)59.86°, 30.32°

Researcher's note

Interpretation: UVB-76 is the ideal training file for open-source signals work: distributed listeners' dated logs extract a pattern no single recording could. It also teaches how to separate speculation (the dead-hand myth) from logged data on 'mystery' topics.