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<v Speaker 1>Eddie Aragon, Eddie Dragon, Welcome to the other side of midnight.

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<v Speaker 2>Good evening, Walter.

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<v Speaker 1>You have a very big voice. It's intimidating to those

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<v Speaker 1>of us who are still new to radio.

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<v Speaker 2>Not as big as this story coming out of Russia

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<v Speaker 2>that's been around for a long time. And I've really

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<v Speaker 2>got to take all the radio real estate this evening

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<v Speaker 2>for this because it's a captivating story. As a radio

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<v Speaker 2>station owner of AM sixteen hundred KIVA here in Albuquerque,

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<v Speaker 2>New Mexico, ten thousand watts, big station and the most

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<v Speaker 2>powerful AM here in Albuquerque, you get intrigued by radio

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<v Speaker 2>stories and how radio comes to be. And I think

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<v Speaker 2>of Radio Caroline off the coast of England, and this

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<v Speaker 2>is the one that is particularly gripping, I think for

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<v Speaker 2>all radio enthusiasts, Ham radio enthusiasts, anybody who's a radio

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<v Speaker 2>enthusiast whatsoever, as you are Walter and have been for

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<v Speaker 2>a long time. But I want to take you back

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<v Speaker 2>to January of nineteen eighty three the Netherlands. There's, you know,

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<v Speaker 2>one of those small smallish countries in northern Europe, and

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<v Speaker 2>one man alone is sitting in a room with radio

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<v Speaker 2>and his name is Ari Wounder. Not a spook, not

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<v Speaker 2>a general, not a Kremlin insider. He's just a short

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<v Speaker 2>wave radio enthusiasts. So he's a type that lives inside

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<v Speaker 2>you know, the radio spectrum, if you will. And night

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<v Speaker 2>after night he sits there with his receiver, his notebook,

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<v Speaker 2>serfs the static, looking for odd signals. This is something

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<v Speaker 2>that people used to do on radio oftentimes, and listening

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<v Speaker 2>for anything that they possibly can. And most nights it's

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<v Speaker 2>really nothing special. It's just a distant broadcast bait at stations.

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<v Speaker 2>But on forty six twenty five Killerhers take notes listeners

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<v Speaker 2>very deep in the hiss, he hears something, not a song,

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<v Speaker 2>not a speech, no weather reports, no news briefings, just

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<v Speaker 2>a low mechanical pulse, one buzz, and it goes on

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<v Speaker 2>a rhythm every second. It's exact on it. No music,

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<v Speaker 2>no voice, no station ideas required by the FCC, something

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<v Speaker 2>akin to what you saw in Contact back with Jody Foster,

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<v Speaker 2>where you just hear a pulsing out of outer space

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<v Speaker 2>and there's just stubborn tone that just sits there on

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<v Speaker 2>the dial, won't go away. He does what any of

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<v Speaker 2>us radio nerds would do. He writes it down gets

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<v Speaker 2>the frequency, locks it down location. He assumes it's going

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<v Speaker 2>to be gone. But that's not what happens, because the

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<v Speaker 2>next night, the buzz continues to be back, same place,

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<v Speaker 2>same rhythm, same everything. So let's fast forward, and now

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<v Speaker 2>this buzz has now been heard continuously for more than

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<v Speaker 2>forty years, Walter through the end of the Cold War,

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<v Speaker 2>fall the Soviet Union, the rise of Putin sanctions, and

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<v Speaker 2>you name it. It's all there, right, it's all coming

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<v Speaker 2>to it. And this radio buzz has been there, and

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<v Speaker 2>someone somewhere and Mother Russia is keeping it alive. And

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<v Speaker 2>this is the story of UBB seventy six. Okay, it's

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<v Speaker 2>called the buzzer, and it drew a lot of serious

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<v Speaker 2>attention in the early nineteen eighties by radio enthusiasts. And

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<v Speaker 2>you know, a lot of broadcasters adjust their outputs, you know,

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<v Speaker 2>you get low power. Nothing happens to this UVB seventy six.

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<v Speaker 2>It doesn't mess with anything. It's constant and its tone

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<v Speaker 2>has stayed almost consistent regardless of what's happening.

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<v Speaker 3>So when.

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<v Speaker 2>When all these people started giving it a name and

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<v Speaker 2>the assusiasts started going crazy, everyone became obsessed with it, like,

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<v Speaker 2>what is this what is this going to be? What

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<v Speaker 2>is going to happen? And finally the station identified itself.

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<v Speaker 2>The first call sign that people heard in the voice

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<v Speaker 2>messages was something called u ZB seventy six, which was

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<v Speaker 2>used sometime in the late nineties to the Earth Lead

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<v Speaker 2>twenty tens okay. And as the years have ruled on Walter,

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<v Speaker 2>the call signs of this thing have multiplied and people

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<v Speaker 2>are looking for different meetings in it. For a long time,

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<v Speaker 2>the buzzer never spoke. It just continued to buzz. But

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<v Speaker 2>it changed on Christmas Eve, way back in nineteen ninety seven,

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<v Speaker 2>out of this drone came a human voice, a Russian operator,

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<v Speaker 2>reading a line of numbers and a single code word.

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<v Speaker 2>And for a lot of listeners, you know, that's when

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<v Speaker 2>everybody went crazy, well something different, right, looking for something,

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<v Speaker 2>you know, different than what was just a buzzer. And

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<v Speaker 2>the dominant theory was amongst these you know enthusiasts, was

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<v Speaker 2>it was just a forgotten Soviet hardware from the Cold War,

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<v Speaker 2>you know, just left running after the collapse. Right. But

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<v Speaker 2>they don't read numbers, they don't do anything like this.

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<v Speaker 2>This doesn't have any kind of intel to it. This

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<v Speaker 2>is a living voice meant that there was somebody living

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<v Speaker 2>behind it. It was actually alive. This radio signal. Somebody

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<v Speaker 2>was on the other end of that buzz, watching the

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<v Speaker 2>clock and king the mic, and it opened up. So

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<v Speaker 2>through the two thousands, more voice messages started appearing, always short,

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<v Speaker 2>always Russian, you know, always, you know, inside the digits

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<v Speaker 2>of military style code words. And then many other transmissions

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<v Speaker 2>started to follow that were recognizable, like the numeric groups

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<v Speaker 2>code words. And what made it all, you know, very weird,

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<v Speaker 2>was the texture of this stuff. These transmissions didn't sound

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<v Speaker 2>like any kind of clean studio recording like what you

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<v Speaker 2>have right or what the people at WABC or our

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<v Speaker 2>listeners are listening to at WBC. You could actually hear

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<v Speaker 2>just things bleeding through it and around the edges, you know,

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<v Speaker 2>things moving on the desk, phones ringing, the muffled conversations,

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<v Speaker 2>and then those types of noises started feeding more theories

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<v Speaker 2>about all of this, that there was a digital generator

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<v Speaker 2>that was sort of locked away in a rack, and

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<v Speaker 2>then it started to move. It was a bunker in

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<v Speaker 2>a bot with a human being and human operators popping

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<v Speaker 2>in and out. And then June fifth, twenty ten showed

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<v Speaker 2>up and the buzzer did something that it never did before,

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<v Speaker 2>and all that time, from January of eighty three until

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<v Speaker 2>June fifth, twenty ten, it stopped. The tone was gone static,

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<v Speaker 2>just coming in all over the place, and the sneaknem

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<v Speaker 2>came back. It sounded wrong, it was distorted, it was uneven.

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<v Speaker 2>Listeners were starting to report background sounds spilling through all

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<v Speaker 2>of this and through the frequencies. And it wasn't just

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<v Speaker 2>a chair squeaking and the furniture scraping across the floor.

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<v Speaker 2>I mean, it was all of this stuff was coming through,

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<v Speaker 2>and they claimed they heard a woman screaming in the background.

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<v Speaker 2>And just to make the whole thing kind of even stranger,

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<v Speaker 2>there was a Cold war opera playing a fragment of

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<v Speaker 2>Swan Lake from Tchaikovsky. It was all over what's now

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<v Speaker 2>referred to as the Russian doomsday channel, and that signal

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<v Speaker 2>of Swan Lake is indicative of something big happening in Russia. Now.

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<v Speaker 2>A couple of years after that, a Russian student name

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<v Speaker 2>Igor set out to find the source of all this. Wait,

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<v Speaker 2>where are we going to locate this? No one's been

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<v Speaker 2>able to find it. How can we triangulate the signal?

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<v Speaker 2>Where the where's the location, okay, and he traced the

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<v Speaker 2>origin of the signal to an abandoned military facility near

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<v Speaker 2>a town called Pova Rovo, which is northwest of Moscow.

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<v Speaker 2>Now they describe, you know, thick dust, paint, dead equipment,

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<v Speaker 2>you know, sort of this, you know, run down military facility.

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<v Speaker 2>And it was an old transmission logbook that they found

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<v Speaker 2>there was sitting where operators might have actually recorded all

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<v Speaker 2>this traffic. So everything about this place was completely off.

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<v Speaker 2>So apparently one of the men feeding off of Igor's

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<v Speaker 2>research rode a bicycle silently out of the surrounding force

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<v Speaker 2>along the path that led nowhere. Another witness in that

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<v Speaker 2>area found a woman in her forties shuffling past the

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<v Speaker 2>fence with an empty baby stroller. No baby inside, by

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<v Speaker 2>the way, no supplies, just an empty carriage rolling around.

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<v Speaker 2>So who brings an empty stroller to a dead military

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<v Speaker 2>outpost and why is this thing here? So by the

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<v Speaker 2>time that people walked through all of this area around

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<v Speaker 2>twenty ten, the triangulation suggested that a transmitter had shifted

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<v Speaker 2>to another location outside of Saint Petersburg from Moscow, and

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<v Speaker 2>it lined up with a western military of the district

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<v Speaker 2>footprint for Russia's military, and the measurements briefly pointed towards

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<v Speaker 2>another region near the Estonian border. And then after all

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<v Speaker 2>of this stuff became military, the Internet started to discover it.

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<v Speaker 1>And how long how long had it been on before

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<v Speaker 1>the Internet started to discover this signal?

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<v Speaker 2>Twenty fourteen?

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<v Speaker 1>How many years?

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<v Speaker 2>So it had been on forty years?

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<v Speaker 1>Forty years this signal had been on, and then at

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<v Speaker 1>some point we started we heard a voice. How many

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<v Speaker 1>years was it on before we heard a voice?

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<v Speaker 2>You heard a versus voice in nineteen ninety seven, so

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<v Speaker 2>that would have been sixteen years, but eighty three to

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<v Speaker 2>fourteen years? Excuse me?

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<v Speaker 1>Is it possible that it was put on the air

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<v Speaker 1>forgotten about somebody in Russia triangulated it, went to it

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<v Speaker 1>and started to speak on the frequency.

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<v Speaker 2>Is possible? Didn't happen? It has been what it's gone

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<v Speaker 2>from place to place right place? Internet discorre Yeah. So

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<v Speaker 2>after the Internet discovered it, there's various communities that showed

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<v Speaker 2>up all over the place. You know, YouTube read it,

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<v Speaker 2>I don't know, some Facebook stuff and yeah, right, but

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<v Speaker 2>they started locating and there's like, why is this thing moving?

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<v Speaker 2>Some of the hardcore people who were, you know, calling

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<v Speaker 2>themselves buzzerheads, started decoding contest.

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<v Speaker 3>Did they have swapped?

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<v Speaker 1>Did they have their own sweatshirts?

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<v Speaker 2>The T shirts? Actually it's funny. Yeah, they became this

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<v Speaker 2>whole entire thing. So they started hijacking.

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<v Speaker 3>Did you get one?

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<v Speaker 2>No? I didn't.

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<v Speaker 1>All right, now before you hijack the frequency, all right,

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<v Speaker 1>you and I can always talk at eight hundred and

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<v Speaker 1>eighty four eight nine two to two, two twenty two

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<v Speaker 1>past the hour with Eddie Dragon from New Mexico, lives

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<v Speaker 1>within walking distance of the Zoro Ranch. The Zoro Ranch

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<v Speaker 1>with Epstein's secrets, Epstein's secrets, And now he's concluding the

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<v Speaker 1>most astonishing mystery story I have heard in some time.

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<v Speaker 1>A mystery signal in Soviet Russia, sending out a signal

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<v Speaker 1>every second for years and years without id without explanation,

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<v Speaker 1>until a voice appeared. And now it's moved, the signal

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<v Speaker 1>move and it continues. It's a crazy story. Please wrap

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<v Speaker 1>it up, my friend.

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<v Speaker 2>So the trolls, you know, besides creating T shirts and all,

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<v Speaker 2>they started breaking into the signal. The station started actually

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<v Speaker 2>talking back. In twenty twenty four, they had a new

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<v Speaker 2>kind of visitor, a hacker right, and a guy comes

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<v Speaker 2>in and he says, can I tell you a joke

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<v Speaker 2>in Russian? Of course, he says one buzz for yes,

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<v Speaker 2>two for no, and the station actually buzzed back two buzzes.

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<v Speaker 2>Then it said he asked him, can I play a song?

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<v Speaker 2>Two buzzes another note. So these were responsive tones that said,

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<v Speaker 2>and for the first time after nearly half a century,

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<v Speaker 2>indicated that there is definitely somebody there. Now there's theories

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<v Speaker 2>behind all of this stuff, and it's important. They just

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<v Speaker 2>thought it was a number station away for the Russian

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<v Speaker 2>military to send, you know, encoded instructions to units in

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<v Speaker 2>the field or see or wherever they can pick it up.

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<v Speaker 2>Because remember a short wave, so it bounces and it

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<v Speaker 2>goes everywhere. Two five. But that particular signal has been

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<v Speaker 2>mostly dismissed as a number station because it doesn't behave

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<v Speaker 2>as such, it doesn't follow what's called a five digit

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<v Speaker 2>structure in most number stations. There's another theory that it's

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<v Speaker 2>a channel marker, which is a constant signal that reserves

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<v Speaker 2>that frequency and allows military units to check reception before

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<v Speaker 2>a real message goes out. So if the buzz is cleaned,

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<v Speaker 2>the line is live in that type of setting. The

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<v Speaker 2>rotating call signs and occasional relocations make sense, right, But

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<v Speaker 2>the new districts, the new hubs, new hardware don't necessarily

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<v Speaker 2>indicate that it's that. But we do know that it

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<v Speaker 2>has been used in that way. But that doesn't even

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<v Speaker 2>kind of come full circle on this and what it is,

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<v Speaker 2>because you'd have to go back to fourteen years to

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<v Speaker 2>the first time it happened nineteen ninety seven. This is

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<v Speaker 2>the first you know, documented in the early eighties. But

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<v Speaker 2>it doesn't transmit any voice messages, which is exactly what

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<v Speaker 2>that military line would actually do. Now here's the what's

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<v Speaker 2>called a dead hand theory. Walter So During the Cold War,

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<v Speaker 2>the Soviets explort systems that could trigger a nuclear counter

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<v Speaker 2>strike hence the name doomsday if their central command was destroyed,

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<v Speaker 2>a fail safe network designed to ensure that the regime

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<v Speaker 2>could reach back from the grave and transmit messages. This

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<v Speaker 2>apocalyptic version, if you will, this theory, and most experts,

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<v Speaker 2>including people who follow this station obsessively, have dismissed the idea.

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<v Speaker 2>But the shortwave, given that they're relied on, it is

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<v Speaker 2>all too reliable over the years, despite it being noisy,

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<v Speaker 2>despite it being vulnerable to outages. It has been consistent

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<v Speaker 2>the entire time. But in all of it, it's stayed consistent.

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<v Speaker 2>And during that entire time, from the end of the

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<v Speaker 2>Cold War, you know, nineteen eighty four to today, there's

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<v Speaker 2>been no missiles, no mushroom clouds, so it's actually never

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<v Speaker 2>been tested.

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<v Speaker 3>Right.

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<v Speaker 2>The decision to restore that buzz and put it in

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<v Speaker 2>different places shows you that it's active and it's listening,

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<v Speaker 2>and there is definitely something behind it. Obviously that is

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<v Speaker 2>of course the Russian government. But this buzzer Walter keeps buzzing,

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<v Speaker 2>it keeps pulsing. It is alive today even as we speak,

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<v Speaker 2>and occasionally people who are still monitoring it. You can

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<v Speaker 2>monitor on the internet. It's a sort of interrupted by

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<v Speaker 2>you know, cryptic Russian messages and voices. So the we

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<v Speaker 2>know the frequency, we know where it's at, we know

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<v Speaker 2>the pattern, we can plot the towers when they move,

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<v Speaker 2>you can go to the places where.

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<v Speaker 3>It's the frequency. What's the frequent four six two five

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<v Speaker 3>four six five short wave on short wave radio? Yeah,

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<v Speaker 3>and there's still a lot of enthusiasts. I actually have

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<v Speaker 3>a shortwave radio myself.

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<v Speaker 1>Oh, I I would have never guessed that I would

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<v Speaker 1>have never guessed that you had a short wave radio.

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<v Speaker 1>I am let me just say, I am going to

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<v Speaker 1>have to sit in a more comfortable chair. Thank you

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<v Speaker 1>very much, Thank you very much, Eddie Dragon for being

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<v Speaker 1>on the other side of midnight