"Through a fog of static, at 4625 kHz on the shortwave dial, a man's voice spoke in monotone: "Nikolai, Zhenya, Tatiana, Ivan." He repeats the message-spelled out in the Russian phonetic alphabet-followed by a series of numbers and letters. The whole message reads: "NZhTI 01263 BOLTANKA 4430 9529." What it means is anyone's guess, but lots of people were guessing."
"Throughout the Cold War, ham radio hobbyists searched the shortwave dial in search of agencies communicating with their agents. Tune in to the right frequency, and you could hear a KGB officer reading out coded messages for their undercover operatives in America, a Cuban intelligence officer relaying a message to Moscow, or a CIA asset in eastern Europe trying to get in touch with Langley."
"This radio station, dubbed UVB-76, has spent much of 2025 broadcasting cryptic messages, strange music, and pirate interruptions. The channel has elicited fascination for decades. This time, however, something is different. Now, Moscow's network of propagandists and warmongers are suddenly fascinated by this obscure channel. UVB-76's real purpose is almost certainly innocuous and mundane. But in recent weeks, Moscow has capitalized on the eerie fixation with the channel to stoke fears of nuclear armageddon."
UVB-76 is a shortwave radio channel that transmitted cryptic messages, tones, and interruptions throughout 2025. A monotone voice recently broadcast a sequence of names and alphanumeric codes on 4625 kHz, generating widespread online speculation. Shortwave broadcasts can travel vast distances and historically carried coded communications during the Cold War, attracting hobbyists and intelligence watchers. Analysts judge UVB-76's technical purpose is probably mundane, but Russian propagandists and warmongers have amplified attention to the signal to foment alarm. The attention has been used to insinuate threats of nuclear escalation, turning an obscure transmitter into a vector for psychological pressure.
Read at WIRED
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