Russia is the world's most interesting country and the reason for that is vodka it is also because
Russia is inherently mysterious many westerners have spent their lives trying to understand Russia
usually only to fail Winston Churchill himself once called Russia a riddle wrapped in a mystery
inside an enigma but don't worry today we look at one single Russian mystery it is a mystery
that goes back to the soviet era a relic of the cold war that somehow lives on even now
in Russia there is a strange secretive radio station known locally as the ghost signal
tune into that signal at frequency 4625 kilohertz and you will hear an eerie noise
constantly broadcasting the buzzing and beeping is on a continuous loop but no one knows why or
what its purpose is many speculate it is broadcasting some kind of encoded message
perhaps for military purposes we don't even know when it began broadcasting
early reports seem to suggest the 1970s but there is no way to verify that for obvious reasons it
soon came to be known as the buzzer but one day a decade after it was first documented
the buzzing loop was interrupted and in its place was heard a Russian voice
essentially this vocal message simply gave the call sign of his station UVB-76 finally the signal
had a name but even more importantly many saw the interruption as evidence the signal had a purpose
but still there was no clue as to what that purpose was one theory is it sent coded messages
to Russian spies in other eastern bloc states another theory is that it was a dead hand signal
so called because it would only stop broadcasting if Russia's communication system goes down this
kind of arrangement was common during the cold war with the ever-present threat of nuclear conflict
perhaps it is solely to test government radio receivers tuning into UVB-76 to make sure their
receivers are working but in my view there is a more credible theory according to it
the buzz is simply to stop anyone else from broadcasting on that specific frequency
this way Russia will always have a line of communication for use in emergency most disagree
with me arguing there is a clear pattern in the signal one that must have some kind of meaning
in 2001 the signal was once again interrupted this time by a conversation heard in the background
but a brief segment of their conversation it is translated to English as I am 143 not receiving
the generator that stuff comes from the hardware room these interruptions are few and far between
and usually give away little information if anything they only add to the mystery
still now we don't even know the location of UVB-76 generally it is considered to be at a
secret military site near St. Petersburg but again that is just speculation
you might assume UVB 76 is unique but when it comes to Russia you should never assume anything
and again the reason for that is vodka UVB-76 has two sister stations known
respectively as for pip and the squeaky wheel so named due to the distinct noises they emit
the pip consists of a sharp beeping tone with 50 beeps a minute but you'll never guess what
the squeaky wheel sounds like it sounds like a wheel... that is squeaky even less is known about
these stations but they are younger the squeaky wheel first broadcasting in the year 2000 this
would at least suggest Russia has a purpose in mind for them yet the same old mysteries persist
it seems like wherever you go in Russia you will find mysterious radio transmissions
another kind of such phenomena are known as letter beacons
a letter beacon is a radio transmission consisting of a single letter in Morse code they are received
across Russia and in former soviet members like Ukraine and Georgia each region has its
own letter regularly broadcast with the letter l in Albania and the letter v in Uzbekistan
the purpose of letter beacons is entirely unknown but as with UVB-76 all kinds of theories exist the
main one is that Russian nuclear submarines use them to calibrate their radios this explanation
is incredibly boring impressively boring so I'm just going to assume aliens are behind it