

Inside the Russian Short Wave Radio Enigma (2011) - yitchelle
http://www.wired.com/2011/09/ff_uvb76/all/

======
awakened
UVB-76 is a number station transmitting one-time pad encrypted messages. Old
transport technology (radio) sending old, unbreakable crypto technology (one-
time pad encrypted messages) at the speed of light all across the world. These
technologies (as old as they are) will never be replaced with new
infrastructure dependent technologies. The key is that they allow for
decentralized, secure comms at the speed of light. No satellites or fiber
required. It only takes a handful of guys to do it too. You can even run them
from solar panels and battery packs from caves in Timbukto. Take that, nation
state controlled Internet.

The Great FireWall of X, does not stop radio. Try to jam omni-directional
NVIS. Better yet, try to locate the guys receiving it.

~~~
cbd1984
> The key is that they allow for decentralized, secure comms at the speed of
> light.

Until someone sends in a drone with a radio-seeking attachment on it and a few
hundred pounds of high explosives strapped to its ass. It's hardly
infrastructure-free when the infrastructure it relies on has just been blown
to Hell.

~~~
hessenwolf
The sentry gun is always going to re-aim faster, because it does not have to
travel along as large a circumference to be at a different angle.

------
kens
"But no one has been able to triangulate exactly where the broadcast is coming
from." \- How difficult and expensive would it be to build a system to exactly
triangulate these stations? It seems if you had three receivers many miles
apart and precisely synchronized, and you timed the signals at nanosecond
resolution, then you could correlate and find the location within a foot. I'm
sure it's much harder than that, but it seems with SDR you should be able to
do much better than primitive triangulation based on approximate direction.
Does anyone know how to do high-accuracy triangulation.

On a different topic... "If you drop a rock in this hole, it will take about a
second to reach the bottom—whatever is down there is at least 32 feet below
ground." \- I've been thinking about high-school physics a lot lately so I
feel obligated to point out that 1/2 A T^2 would be 16 feet.

~~~
shoegumfoot
Part of the problem with that technique is that the waves are effectively
propagating in a waveguide (between the surface of the earth and the
ionosphere). So the characteristics of the waveguide (such as the conductivity
of the ground) influence the speed of propagation. It's certainly important
for things like LORAN, and I'd be surprised if it wasn't for this.

------
bane
Side note: there's something really beautiful about the way analog radio
degrades compared to digital transmission technologies. A couple years ago I
got back into listening to golden age radio shows, some of them have gone
through several layers of analog degradation before finally being digitized
and there's a certain kind of beautiful quality to the way they sound.

I remember as a kid when my grandmother bought me a cheap multi-band radio
that could received shortwave and spending hours finding stations just to
listen to the texture of the sound.

Even the static can be soothing.

I often times remember songs being _better_ sounding under the distorting
effects of AM radio than when I hear them in full digital glory.

------
sanoli
There's a 5-CD set released by a British label with only recordings of number
stations. This guy obsessed with them has been recording for a long, long
time. Check it out:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Conet_Project](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Conet_Project)

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

~~~
scottlocklin
Or, you could just download them.
[https://archive.org/details/ird059](https://archive.org/details/ird059)

------
CatsoCatsoCatso
BBC Radio 4 did a good, enjoyable documentary on the subject of Numbers
Stations, "Tracking the Lincolnshire Poacher" \- though more focused on the
British side of affairs.

You can listen to it here
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wvr6o7fBcTY](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wvr6o7fBcTY)

They play a lot of the recordings and go into a fair bit of detail. It is a
good listen, highly recommend.

------
apaprocki
FWIW, I came across this. Apparently there are updates very recently which
claim to shed light on some parts of the mystery and has plenty of tech
detail:

[http://shortwaveradioworld.blogspot.com/2014/07/uvb-76-buzze...](http://shortwaveradioworld.blogspot.com/2014/07/uvb-76-buzzer-2014-new-
facts-and.html)

------
majke
For the curious, you can listen here [http://uvb-76.net/](http://uvb-76.net/)

And compulsory link to wiki
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UVB-76](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UVB-76)

------
damian2000
Reminded me of the webdriver torso youtube mystery...

[http://www.engadget.com/2014/06/06/this-is-the-truth-
behind-...](http://www.engadget.com/2014/06/06/this-is-the-truth-behind-
webdriver-torso/)

------
te_platt
Such is the power of a mystery. A simple repeating beep captivates thousands.
And yes, I had to read the whole article to the end.

------
bnjs
I hope it's not the command and control signals to a Russian fail-deadly
nuclear deterrent system.

~~~
kjs3
_Dr. Strangelove_ : Of course, the whole point of a Doomsday Machine is lost,
if you keep it a secret! Why didn't you tell the world, eh? _Ambassador de
Sadesky_ : It was to be announced at the Party Congress on Monday. As you
know, the Premier loves surprises.

------
lotsofmangos
We must set up a steak and biscuits drone airdrop for the doggie.

------
mongrol
Everyone knows that this transmission is for containing the power of a demon
possessed victorian doll in a cylindrical display case.

