

The Buzzer - tshtf
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UVB-76

======
ErrantX
I know quite a few interesting Wikipedia entries get posted here but this was
a particularly fascinating one! I've spent the best part of an hour learning
about numbers stations and fail-deadly game theory :)

Great submission.

On topic: does anyone have anything extra (link wise) about "The Buzzer",
Google searches are mostly leading to conspiracy sites...

~~~
marcusbooster
If you haven't heard it, The Conet Project
[<http://www.archive.org/details/ird059>] is a collection of the numbers
stations recordings. Pretty neat and eerie.

~~~
mr_justin
The Buzzer can be heard on disc 4, track 32 of the Conet Project. The entire
collection is a free download.

Wilco's Poor Places uses a sample from track 4 of disc 1, which also gave the
title to the album, Yankee Hotel Foxtrot.

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petercooper
The article speculates that its use as a way of communicating regular
instructions to the military is _"unlikely considering the station transmitted
the simple buzz tone for at least 15 years before any words or numbers were
broadcast."_ Yet: _"The station transmits a buzzing sound that lasts 0.8
seconds, pausing for 1–1.3 seconds, and repeating 21–34 times per minute."_

Given that the transmission even of the "buzz tone" isn't entirely regular,
couldn't messages merely be modulated into these varying patterns? The rare
portions of speech could just be a red herring.

~~~
DisposableAcct
There are a dozen ways to encode a message in that buzz if you don't mind the
bandwidth being poor. That is, it will take a long time to send a message of
any length. The buzz might also be a cover for the message.

There are other considerations. First, it's essential to have a variety of
media for transmitting messages. They need to be set up well in advance, so as
to be readily available when an operation is set up. By staking out a
multitude of such options, an agency is planning well for the future.

Next, by spreading their operations out over more channels of comm, they also
minimize the risk when one is compromised. One never knows when a channel will
be compromised, and at some point some of them will be.

By using a variety of channels, including radio, packages (diplomatic and
not), tourists, etc., and each channel having sub channels, such as different
radio frequencies, different encoding methods, breaking one such method
doesn't afford much understanding of the others.

~~~
DisposableAcct
The end result is a plethora of channels with little real traffic on them,
mostly "reserved for future use". But to avoid traffic analysis (
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Traffic_analysis> ) dummy traffic fills them.

------
th
Looks like either someone decided to play a prank or by some odd coincidence
The Buzzer went offline just now:
[http://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/06/06/032235/Mysterious-
Ra...](http://tech.slashdot.org/story/10/06/06/032235/Mysterious-Radio-
Station-UVB-76-Goes-Offline)

~~~
pyre
"Chances are, it's a power failure. The area reportedly had a significant
storm yesterday. It's possible that the power failed and that they didn't have
enough fuel or battery capacity or whatever to keep it running during an
extended outage. That would also neatly explain why it reportedly came back
and has reportedly died again."

[http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1676500&cid=324...](http://tech.slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=1676500&cid=32473652)

Sounds like it might not be a dead-man's switch if it just takes a large storm
to knock it out.

~~~
thorax
When I heard about this long ago, I assumed it was just a mechanism they used
to remotely monitor some equipment was still running without having to have
staff on premises there. Probably remotely detecting power outage or damage
was precisely what this is sort of thing was for.

------
icefox
"On June 5, 2010 Chuck Norris breached the compound's walls and shut down the
transmitter"

don't be a vandal

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retube
This is for ionosphere research, leverages doppler shifting of the broadcast
signal.

<http://elpub.wdcb.ru/journals/rjes/v10/2007ES000227/2.shtml>

Scroll down to "Doppler Radio Sounding of the Ionosphere", note the broadcast
frequency.

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Scott_MacGregor
You are assuming it is a "Buzz" because that's what your ears "Hear" after it
comes out of a speaker and after being processed by radio receiving equipment
of a certain design.

Perhaps the "Buzz" is not meant to be a sound anyone hears. Maybe it is
something more like a dialup modem tone that is acted upon by something other
than a shortwave receiver. Maybe there is more to this noise than just
buzzing. Maybe the buzzing is a spurious side effect of some other process
going on.

Old dialup in audio and visual waveform:
<http://www.freesound.org/samplesViewSingle.php?id=16475>

Do you guys have any thoughts on this?

~~~
cfpg
Aphex Twin style? <http://www.bastwood.com/aphex.php>

~~~
Scott_MacGregor
Very interesting. The old transmitters used to work on AM only, then they came
up with SSB. Maybe there is an even deeper layer available that can be
encoded. Like putting the entire Cat-In-The-Hat book on one of the cats
whiskers in "Songs about my Cats". Isolate just one whisker and then run
another process on it. Maybe use shades of color vs soundwaves. This is
intriguing.

------
cool-RR
What happens if you try to knock on their door? Did anyone try this?

~~~
decadentcactus
Yeah I thought the same thing. It's not terribly far from major cities and
it's been there for 30 years, somebody must have tried.

------
Tawheed
Clearly they ditched the radio transmission and switched to transmitting
secret messages over the Buzz API.

------
dzuc
<http://www.archive.org/details/ird059> is a great archive of numbers station
recordings

~~~
dzuc
<http://www.irdial.com/conet.htm> is the official page - note the challenge a
bit down the page

------
fookyong
this sounds like viral marketing for JJ Abrams' new movie.

------
bradgessler
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communication_with_submarines> is so bad ass.
The US and Russian Navy were using the Earth an antenna to communicate with
their submarines.

~~~
sp332
You can also transmit usable amounts of electrical power using the ground as
part of the circuit:
[http://events.ccc.de/congress/2009/Fahrplan/events/3696.en.h...](http://events.ccc.de/congress/2009/Fahrplan/events/3696.en.html)

------
yread
for more info see <http://www.brogers.dsl.pipex.com/page5.html>

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tmsh
i remember coming across conet before via wilco, fwiw. curious subject.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yankee_Hotel_Foxtrot>

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blackswan
It will be interesting to see whether use of these stations declines over the
next few decades. Surely global adoption of the internet has made it the
easiest place to hide clandestine communication?

~~~
rlpb
It's a question of where connectivity is available and how easy it is to
track. For example, how do you replace a submarine surfacing somewhere to
receive a pre-scheduled radio transmission?

~~~
ruslan
They use VLF/ELF to send "message pending" and/or some other very short
predefined signals. Russian military transmitter (ZEVS) is still operating on
82Hz frequency and uses Earth as an antenna.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extremely_low_frequency>

------
anujseth
This is the sort of stuff that makes hacker news awesome. Thanks for posting.

~~~
anujseth
Why does this keep getting downvoted ? I was fascinated by this article, I've
never heard of this before and was expressing genuine excitement.

~~~
nkurz
If you like the article, vote it up. If you have something interesting to say
about the article, write a comment.

Comments praising the article without adding anything interesting to the
discussion are frequently downvoted.

Telling _why_ you liked the article will likely to get a better response than
merely affirming your fascination.

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itistoday
Another fascinating, possibly related link based on the hypothesis that this
is a dead-man's switch:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dead_Hand_(nuclear_war)>

~~~
ebiester
So, which of you wise guys did this? <http://imgur.com/HIJCj.png>

~~~
phreeza
In the comments everyone is civil here on HN, but as soon as they're on
Wikipedia...

~~~
icey
Or anywhere else for that matter. I've talked to a bunch of people who have
posted apps for review here and had to spend the better part of the next 2
days filtering out obscene submissions on their sites.

------
shareme
did you see this in the description:

On June 5, 2010 Chuck Norris breached the compound's walls and shut down the
transmitter.

~~~
bajsejohannes
Yes. It's someone trying (and failing) to be funny. It has been reverted a
couple of times already.

~~~
jrockway
No, it's clearly some conspiracy involving spies and movie stars.

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sabat
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnRPZOUVhJ4>

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john2x
L O S T

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ck2
Have there been sightings of a polar bear wandering around?

Maybe a crazy French woman?

