What is the Buzzer for?
Most likely: a routine command and alert channel of a Russian military district, sending short coded orders to subordinate…Ahead on the evidence, not yet confirmed. It needs two reviews to be accepted.
Where it stands
Five answers have been proposed. A routine command and alert channel of a Russian military district, sending short coded orders to subordinate… leads, with evidence 3 for, 1 against: partly supported by its tests. Four are still possible. Of the two narrower questions under it, none is answered yet.
Why it matters
It is the question the station is famous for. The listening community agrees it is a Russian military network[1], but the specific readings make different, testable predictions about outages, frequencies and message timing, and one of them (a nuclear "dead hand") has been repeated in the press for years[2].
Answers 5
History
- Anisimov et al.: a Russian observatory uses a stable 4.625 MHz broadcast carrier as the reference for ionospheric Doppler…For: The station sounds the ionosphere, for example to support over-the-horizon radar.
- Savodnik: call signs changed in September 2010, coinciding with the reorganisation of military districts.For: A routine command and alert channel of a Russian military district, sending short coded orders to subordinate…
- Priyom.org: live operators, open-microphone conversations and a phone call transmitted in error fit a working military…For: A routine command and alert channel of a Russian military district, sending short coded orders to subordinate…
- Priyom.org: transmitter stoppages and maintenance outages are frequent.Against: The buzz is part of an automatic nuclear retaliation (Perimeter or "dead hand") system, whose silence would…
- Priyom.org: priyom's primer states that, despite its catalogue designation S28, the Buzzer is not a numbers station.Against: It is a numbers station sending enciphered messages to agents abroad.
- Gorvett puts forward: the buzz is part of an automatic nuclear retaliation (Perimeter or "dead hand") system, whose silence would…
- Gorvett puts forward: it is a numbers station sending enciphered messages to agents abroad.
- Gorvett: no message has been decoded and the Russian military has never acknowledged the station.Against: A routine command and alert channel of a Russian military district, sending short coded orders to subordinate…
- Gorvett: the station does not change frequency with the time of day, as a guaranteed long-range link would.Against: The buzz is part of an automatic nuclear retaliation (Perimeter or "dead hand") system, whose silence would…
- Gorvett: stupples says ionospheric sounders sound nothing like the Buzzer.Against: The station sounds the ionosphere, for example to support over-the-horizon radar.
- Cox & Rose: pirates have repeatedly transmitted on the frequency without visible response.Against: The buzz is part of an automatic nuclear retaliation (Perimeter or "dead hand") system, whose silence would…
- Litnarovych: broadcasts were reported suspended on 14 November 2025 after a power cut.Against: The buzz is part of an automatic nuclear retaliation (Perimeter or "dead hand") system, whose silence would…
- Asked on this site