From a location near Moscow, this radio frequency has been buzzing and transmitting coded mesaages since the 1970’s. Listeners say it has become more active since the Ukraine crisis, leading to speculation that the mesages are military communications for the Russian military.
Tucked neatly somewhere between the 80m and 40m amateur bands on 4625 khz, this station sends out a repeating buzz sound for most of the time. Occasionally, mesages that are obviously coded are transmitted. Earlier today, somewhere around 5:01 UTC, we can see what appears to be a digital mode signal on the waterfall.
Why the buzzing you ask? The popular theory is that it is a station keeper. Essentially, it “reserves” the frequency by making it useless for others. In addition, it can serve as a constant signal for those who are intended to receive it to find the station once they fire up their radios.
So why do so many people believe this is some sort of military communications from Russia? Well for starters, the signal has been pinpointed as coming from a small community somewhere just outside of Moscow. Another reason is the obvious coded messages that can be heard from time to time. One more reason is the fact that these coded mesages have become more frequent since the Ukraine crisis. Logically, the military comms theory appears sound. I submit that it could actually be a part of KGB communications to regional spies. Who knows for sure though.
Radio enthusiasts with way more time on their hands than me have theorized for years that this station is actually using a permanantly open micrcophone and the buzzer is created by some other mechanical means instead of being one unit that creates the buzz and transmits it. Not that it really matters, but sometime on November 3, 2001, a conversation in Russian was overheard. That was not the only odd thing on the frequency however. In September 2010, listeners reported hearing portions of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, as well as what appeared to be a woman screaming. Of course, if this was one unit that internally generated the buzz, these things would not occur, this leading to the old fashioned “open mic” theory.
So if these are military comms transmitting encoded mesages, why aren’t Ukrainians trying to stop it? Well, it would be difficult to overpower the station for any given amount of time. To effectively block it, one would have to set up a transmitter capable of sending out a constant signal at a power level high enough to overpower the buzzer station. Doing this would also allow the jammer signal to be direction found. However, that has not stopped people from messing with it. As recently as January 2022, there have been reports of songs being played over top of the buzzer such as “Gangnam Style” for instance. No one has officially been able to identify those that attempt to jam the buzzer.
The Buzzer is not a one off station though. There are two other similar stations transmitting out of Russia known as “The Pip” and “The Squeaky Wheel”, named after the repeating sound transmitted.