
A ghostly radio station that no one claims to run - rubenv
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20170801-the-ghostly-radio-station-that-no-one-claims-to-run
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wichert
For the lazy who were hoping to find an audio clip in the article: you can
find some here:
[http://www.sigidwiki.com/wiki/The_Buzzer_(ZhUOZ_MDZhB_UZB76)](http://www.sigidwiki.com/wiki/The_Buzzer_\(ZhUOZ_MDZhB_UZB76\))

~~~
besselheim
The WebSDR at
[http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901](http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901) (based
in the Netherlands) can be used to hear the station as it is broadcast. Set to
4625 kHz, USB.

~~~
criddell
Neato - it's picking up the buzzer station right now!

~~~
KGIII
If you're unfamiliar, search for 'number station.' They are kinda neat and
still in use.

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criddell
I read this article last weekend and after reading it, I put batteries in my
shortwave radio to see what was out there. Turns out, there's pretty much
nothing.

I couldn't hear anything on 4625 kHz. I let my receiver scan and when it was
done I checked out what it detected and found absolutely nothing interesting.
The most powerful signals were Christian broadcasts that had a kind of
doomsday feeling about them.

It seems like there's a lot of underutilized spectrum.

~~~
tuxxy
Were you in a good spot? I can hear a lot of stuff with my shortwave receiver
and I'm in SLC, Utah. Occasionally, I get to hear pirate transmissions and
whatnot.

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PappaPatat
"pirate transmissions" I am surprised. Only a month ago I met a guy who (as an
"art project") has actually started to transmit on the shortwave. Bought an
old army radio and was now jumping all over the country with the installation
and transmitting... well, arty stuff. He claimed he got responses every now
and then, now I think he might be right. Is that a thing? I bailed out of the
radio waves 30 years ago when I got access to data links...

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jankotek
> _the Buzzer operates at a relatively low frequency known as “shortwave”.
> This means that – compared to local radio, mobile phone and television
> signals – fewer waves pass through a single point every second. It also
> means they can travel a lot further._

Nice explanation.

~~~
sillysaurus3
Is it? If you imagine a fixed point in space, a short wave would mean more
waves pass through it every second, not less. Short waves have more energy
(they have bounce up and down more quickly) which allows them to travel
further.

~~~
tmearnest
Shortwave, as in short with respect to "mediumwave" transmissions, like
regular old broadcast AM radio, or "longwave" which can be used to communicate
with submerged submarines.

It's a really old term...

~~~
KGIII
IIRC, subs use ELF or ULF. My understanding is that some of the older subs
could trail a long wire antenna behind them.

It'd seem to me that the bandwidth for such would be abysmal.

Is this correct? I did take some EE courses but that was like forty years ago.
All I have ever done with that is receive. I should probably learn more.

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andyjohnson0
If you're interested in Number Stations the you should check out the Conet
Project [1].

[1] [https://www.irdial.com/conet.htm](https://www.irdial.com/conet.htm)

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askvictor
What's to stop an adversary from broadcasting the same tone on the same
frequency and overpowering the signal in certain areas? It strikes me that if
the conjecture (of it being a reserved frequency for war time command signals)
is correct, it would be relatively easy to break. Perhaps the weekly random
words are some kind of authentication mechanism, but that seems like a long
time to have to wait to authenticate the signal.

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PascLeRasc
This is very very cool. Feels like something out of Half Life.

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anfractuosity
It sounds from the article they likely do know where the antennas are based?

If not, is it possible to use direction finding to obtain the location of
antennas propagating shortwave frequencies?

(I assume this is more difficult due to the use of the ionosphere)

Also is there any remote chance the hardware attached to the aerial (power
amps etc) could pick up unwanted RF or other interesting electrical
interference and re-broadcast it, which may give some useful information.

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linuxguy2
Who pays the power bill?

~~~
trendia
The ghosts.

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ajmarsh
Neet, I used to listen to machine sent morse code number stations as a kid on
my shortwave.

[https://lifehacker.com/5961035/how-to-listen-to-real-spy-
bro...](https://lifehacker.com/5961035/how-to-listen-to-real-spy-broadcasts-
right-now)

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gregmac
This reminds me of a numbers station.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_station](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_station)

~~~
khedoros1
It reminds me of a number station because the article had a long section
talking about numbers stations, and speculating on where "the Buzzer" fits in,
given the assumed typical uses for those stations.

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11thEarlOfMar
Any speculation that it's as mundane as a test tone for a specific radio
device? Is your radio working, is it calibrated properly...

~~~
westbywest
As mentioned in the below comment, the author buried the probable lede: most
of the time transmission is a placeholder to discourage others from using the
band. During exceptional circumstances (as defined by the station's operator),
it will transmit coded messages to global/regional operatives. E.g., to
coordinate espionage when conventional communications are offline.

~~~
jpalomaki
That constant sound is also useful for the spies. Without that it would be
hard to know you have tuned on the right frequency (I'd assume they would use
some pretty simple and low tech radios).

~~~
wbl
They would use commercially avaliable radios in the place they live to deter
suspicion.

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ipunchghosts
otp22

