Mystery Russian Coded Signal UVB-76 or MDZhB. Buzzing every second since '70s

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Suddenly the piercing buzzing noise that has continued incessantly for months stops. A cold voice takes over.

‘U-V-B-7-6,’ is read out in a thick Russian accent, before listing a series of code words and numbers. Then, just as suddenly, it ends. The buzzing returns, for another few months.

That is what has greeted listeners of a mysterious radio station nicknamed 'The Buzzer' - and code named UVB-76, or more recently MDZhB - since the 1970s.

But what the Buzzer is doing, or who is broadcasting it, remains a mystery - with theories ranging from the Russian military to atmospheric research.

It’s believed that the station is a way of secretly communicating with spies without the message being tracked or intercepted.

Despite anyone being able to listen to the station, depending on their radio coverage where they are in the world, the code used is a complete mystery.

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Using shortwave transmission (tower at old site shown) enables the station to cover the globe

There is no perceptible shift in the pattern of the buzzing, and no indication that a voiced message is imminent.

All the messages, though, are in the same format. They begin with the callsign of the station, which until 2010 was UVB-76 or UZB-76. Four years ago, though, a voice came on the air and changed the callsign, which is now MDZhB (with ‘Zh’ being a single letter in Russian).

The station also once broadcast a time signal, with a one-minute long two-tune buzzer sounding at the top of every hour. This was disabled in June 2010, and no time signal has taken its place.

Interestingly, codes have also been repeated over months or years, for reasons unknown. On 26 January 2011 the operator read out ‘ILOTICIN 36 19 69 46.’ This was repeated almost four months later, on 11 May 2011.

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on 18 March 2014, less than 24 hours after Crimea voted to join the Russian Federation, the voice read out: 'T-E-R-R-A-K-O-T-A. Mikhail Dimitri Zhenya Boris [MDZhB, the callsign of the station]. Mikhail Dmitri Zhenya Boris. 81 26 T-E-R-R-A-K-O-T-A.'

And in November of this year there were 28 separate voice messages broadcast over the network.

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'Strange people and very strange scenery.'

'There was a man on a bike that came from the road that lead to nowhere other than forest, he wasn't carrying anything and headed in the direction of a field which I know has nothing at all for miles and miles.

'The second creepy person was a mid-40s woman, she was with a stroller. At first I thought that she is a resident of the town out for a walk but as she walked past I saw that her stroller was empty.

'Who goes to an abandoned military base with an empty stroller for a walk?'

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