Broadcasts from the mysterious Russian military radio station UVB-76, also known as «Doomsday Radio,» were temporarily suspended after a Ukrainian UAV attack disabled a nearby electrical substation.
Broadcasts from the mysterious Russian military radio station UVB-76, also known as «Doomsday Radio,» were temporarily suspended after a Ukrainian UAV attack disabled a nearby electrical substation.
This was reported by United 24 Media, citing Russian media and a Telegram channel that monitors UVB-76. It is noted that this short-term outage is unusual for a station that has been broadcasting almost continuously for 50 years.
Among radio amateurs, UVB-76 is nicknamed «The Buzzer» because of the characteristic «buzzing» of the next signal. Since the mid-1970s, it has been broadcasting a repeating low-frequency loud signal at a frequency of 4625 kHz. The sound is repeated approximately 25 times per minute, interrupted only occasionally by voice messages, in which encoded phrases are read out in the Russian phonetic alphabet, for example, «НЖТИ НЖТИ 04315 ХРЮКОСТЯГ 4726 4703».
Because the broadcast rarely changes and is never explained, it has fascinated radio amateurs, cryptographers, and intelligence analysts for decades. For most of them, the station’s signature sound—a monotonous 110-Hz hum lasting 1.2 seconds, followed by a two-second pause—is instantly recognizable, like a heartbeat echoing across the shortwave bands.
UVB-76 is considered part of Russia’s strategic military communications network and is believed to maintain an open radio link between command centers and regional units. Some defense analysts suggest that UVB-76 may be linked to Perimeter, the Soviet «Dead Hand» nuclear retaliation system designed to automatically launch a counterattack in the event of the destruction of top Russian leadership. Because of this, UVB-76 is also called the «Doomsday Radio.»
Other experts claim that it functions as a readiness or alert channel for military mobilization in the Western Military District, transmitting coded mobilization commands disguised as meaningless words.
Despite modern encryption systems and satellite technology, UVB-76 continues to continuously broadcast its loud signal, which, according to experts, indicates that it still plays a strategic or psychological role.
