Possible answer to the Russian radio signal UVB-76

It seems that it maybe a way for Russian spies in the field to receive encoded messages from Russian Intelligence Agencies. Here's an article from the Kernel.

Thursday, 5 September 2013

After The Kernel reported on the mysterious Russian radio signal UVB-76, we were inundated with anonymous tips. One email informed us of a legendary radio signal originating from Cyprus nicknamed the “Lincolnshire Poacher”, and run by the British Secret Intelligence Service.

According to our anonymous source, the radio signal ran from 1976 to 2008, far longer than has previously been reported.

Archived recordings of the old radio signal are available to listen to on the internet, but The Kernel has learned that the Poacher lives on as a secret telephone number for MI6 agents in the Middle East.

Our source, “Mr Bland” (we presume not his real name), tells us that after the Lincolnshire Poacher radio signal closed five years ago, it was moved to a UK telephone number. According to Mr Bland, that number is +44 1252 230 607. The number turns out to be registered in Aldershot, Hampshire in the south of England.

Like UVB-76, the Lincolnshire Poacher is a numbers station, which means a line of communication through which spies can securely receive encrypted messages at specific times. Anyone can call the number or tune into the radio signal of a numbers station.

But unless you have a “one-time pad”, issued to spies for single use with a numbers station, to decrypt the signal at the other end, there’s no way of working out what is being transmitted.

We decided to call the number anyway – and got lucky. Here’s what we heard at the other end of the line.

As you can hear, when the message ends, our mysterious spy controllers hang up on us. Seeking more information and evidence, we replied to Mr Bland. Our email failed to reach its destination: his email address had already been deactivated.

Comparing the recording of The Kernel’s telephone call with archived recordings of the Lincolnshire Poacher signal reveals an exact match in tone and transmission pattern. Internet sleuths on the trail of the old Lincolnshire Poacher radio signal now have a new point of origin to hunt down.

As you can hear, when the message ends, our mysterious spy controllers hang up on us. Seeking more information and evidence, we replied to Mr Bland. Our email failed to reach its destination: his email address had already been deactivated.

Comparing the recording of The Kernel’s telephone call with archived recordings of the Lincolnshire Poacher signal reveals an exact match in tone and transmission pattern. Internet sleuths on the trail of the old Lincolnshire Poacher radio signal now have a new point of origin to hunt down.

Working with Military Intelligence in the Army this doesn't surprise me. They find all sorts of weird ways to do their job. Really interesting stuff, you have to listen to the phone call message its great! here's links to the articles.

The Kernel: UVB-76, We called a secret MI6 phone number

Heres the update on the article.

Did we take out MI6’s secret line?

This is some crazy shit.

ALIENS?!?!?!?

Now to read your thread. BRB

Drink Your Ovaltine

I have read Cryptonomicon and know what a one-time pad is thanks to that book. :D

Raymond, why don't you pass the time by playing a little solitaire?

Isn't that whole article basically just explaining how numbers stations work? The part where they read off numbers, and only certain field agents would have the one-time pad that allows them to decrypt the message? Which people have more or less had a sense of for decades? I don't get what is supposed to be new about that article.

It doesn't seem to bring anything new to UVB-76, which is a nonstandard station in the sense that instead of being semiconstantly listing off numbers, it's a buzz the VAST majority of the time, only very rarely distributing out any coded information.

Also, why the constant references to MI6? Aren't they something else (SIS or something)?

@core1065: You really want to lose your shit, look into the "lost cosmonauts." Couple of Italian brothers recording high-octane nightmare fuel off their radio array back in the '60s. I think it's been mostly debunked, but it's still completely plausible. If there were astronauts shot into orbit that didn't come back, the Soviet Union was certainly the in the best position to bury that information forever.

Ray, for a moment, pretend that I don't know anything about metallurgy, or engineering, or physics, and just tell me what the hell is going on.

I've never seen this site before, but it seems pretty tabloid-y and untrustworthy. Off-topic though, carry on.

all this for a crumby commercial?

Lets tell him about the Twinkie.

@greggd: You never studied.

Having a telephone number for spies to call doesn't make sense, the reason they'd use number station is because they would only need a passive listening device to recieve the messages. If they are not intended to report in, but only receive orders, there's very little chance of the spies being found out, but once they start dialing in to a phone number somewhere, any reasonable intelligence agency would have access to the phone records. Even if they use one time pre-paid phones which they dump afterwards, they would likely leave enough evidence behind in the phone records for other spy agencies to find out their general area of operation, something which is impossible with a radio broadcast that can be received across continents.

I'm not sure why, but I find these number station broadcasts utterly terrifying.

Woah this is rea- YES. UNDERSTOOD. MISSION PARAMETERS RECEIVED. HEADING OUT NOW.

This kind of shit just freaks me the fuck out.

The ones that creep me out are the ones like that one they had on the bombcast at one point, just that Buzzing one that at some point in it's life could just change to not do that, and someone is talking and then it's just back to doing what it did before. Or the ones that play a creepy ass jingle or whatever.

Nothing new. That's always been the theory, intelligence secret squirrel shit.

This sorta crazy shit keeps life exciting.

Wait a sec, isn't this a different station? The article you imbeded clearly says it's not related to UVB in any way.

Yup - someone that read it, lol. This isn't related to UVB-76 directly.

What's so mysterious about UVB-76? Let's break it down:

1. It's just a numbers station, but why doesn't it play messages more often?

2. Maybe because it's just a frequency marker keeping it's frequency clear for the Russian military, but then why play messages at all?

3. In 1990, when the Cold War was winding down, it changed it's tune from beeping to buzzing. Now why would it do that?

4. In 2009 UVB-76 changed the location of it's broadcasting station and destroyed the old center. Why?

This is interesting. I've looked all over and can't find the 1997 Daily Telegraph article that's referenced, but salon is pretty reputable.

http://www.salon.com/1999/09/16/numbers_2/

A rare mainstream media article about numbers stations published in the Daily Telegraph last year quoted a spokesman for the Department of Trade and Industry, responsible for regulating the airwaves in the U.K.: “These [numbers stations] are what you suppose they are. People shouldn’t be mystified by them. They are not for, shall we say, public consumption.”

The BBC magazine has a numbers station article up today...

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-24910397