On Monday, September 8, 2025, the airwaves crackled with an old, familiar mystery. Russia’s enigmatic shortwave radio station, known by many as the “Buzzer” or “Doomsday Radio,” broke its decades-long monotony of buzzing to deliver a cryptic message that has set the global community of radio enthusiasts and intelligence analysts abuzz with speculation and intrigue.
For nearly fifty years, this station—officially identified as UVB-76—has haunted the 4625 kHz frequency with its relentless, monotone buzz. But every so often, the static gives way to something far stranger. On this particular Monday, listeners from around the world caught a transmission that lasted just over a minute, but packed enough coded content to reignite debates about the station’s true purpose.
According to reports from MailOnline, RT, and independent Russian outlet Meduza, the broadcast started as usual with the station’s signature buzz, but soon shifted to a voice reciting a series of Russian names—Nikolai, Zhenya, Tatyana, Ivan, Olga, Elena, and Leonid—interspersed with the numbers 38, 965, 78, 58, 88, and 37. Listeners also heard peculiar phrases such as “soft sign,” “five signs,” and “reception.” Most notably, two coded terms, “NZHTI” and “HOTEL,” were clearly spelled out.
To the uninitiated, this might sound like the set-up for a Cold War thriller. But for those who have tracked UVB-76’s peculiar history, Monday’s transmission was just the latest in a long line of unexplained anomalies. Since the 1970s, the station has been the subject of fevered debate, wild conspiracy theories, and even a bit of dark humor among shortwave sleuths. Some have speculated that the Buzzer is part of Russia’s automatic nuclear retaliation system—a so-called “Dead Man’s Switch” that would trigger catastrophic consequences if the buzzing ever ceased. Others have dismissed such theories as fanciful, pointing out that the station briefly stopped buzzing in 2010 during a transmitter relocation, and the world didn’t end.
Still, the timing and content of these transmissions often seem to align with moments of heightened global tension. As RT and Meduza detailed, UVB-76 has been known to broadcast coded messages during crises, such as the U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear sites earlier in June 2025, and even during phone calls between Russian President Vladimir Putin and former U.S. President Donald Trump in May and June this year. Previous messages have included cryptic words like “PANIROVKA,” “KLINOK,” and “BOBINA.” It’s this pattern—activity during international flashpoints—that keeps the world guessing.
Monday’s broadcast, which was shared widely on social media platforms like X (formerly Twitter), quickly drew speculation from listeners. Some wondered if the numbers—38, 965, 78, 58, 88, and 37—were coordinates, instructions, or perhaps part of a code only a select few could decipher. As one X user speculated, “something big is happening tonight.” Others pondered the identities of the intended recipients. Was this a message for Russian military units? Sleeper agents abroad? Or simply a red herring meant to keep the world guessing?
Experts and hobbyists alike have weighed in. Ary Boender, a Dutch radio enthusiast who runs the Numbers & Oddities website, has spent years cataloging the Buzzer’s broadcasts and the wild theories that follow them. “Some say that it is an old Soviet Dead Man’s Switch that triggers a nuclear attack on the west when it stops buzzing,” Boender told MailOnline in an earlier interview. “Others have posited that it’s a homing beacon for UFOs, or a mind control device with which the Russians can program your mind.” He even recounted claims that it was a remote control station for the Chernobyl nuclear power plant. Despite the outlandishness of these ideas, Boender is quick to point out that there’s never been any evidence to support them. When the buzzer stopped in 2010, nothing catastrophic occurred.
David Stupples, Professor of Electronic & Radio Engineering, offered a more grounded perspective to Popular Mechanics, speculating that if the station is indeed used by the Russian government, “it wouldn’t be for peaceful purposes.” Still, he noted that the military might simply be keeping the frequency active to prevent others from hijacking it. “If they don’t actually use it, someone will poach it,” he said. “They are keeping the channel available by broadcasting and saying ‘this is ours.’”
The station’s secrecy and its apparent ties to Russian military communications have only fueled its mystique. Independent Russian outlet Meduza reported that UVB-76 is likely a numbers station operated by the military, broadcasting coded instructions to agents or units. The constant buzzing, they suggest, helps prevent the frequency from being jammed. And while the true purpose of the station remains classified, many analysts believe it only becomes active in times of crisis or when important military messages need to be sent.
What’s clear is that UVB-76 has outlasted the Cold War, the fall of the Soviet Union, and countless technological advancements. Its persistence is a reminder that, in an age of instant digital communication, some secrets still travel by radio waves, shrouded in static and code. The buzz itself—steady, unyielding—serves as both a warning and a claim. It says: this frequency is taken, and its purpose is not for outsiders to know.
Monday’s transmission is not likely to be the last. As the world continues to watch Russia’s actions in Ukraine and elsewhere, every break in the Buzzer’s monotony will be scrutinized for meaning. For now, the true message behind “NZHTI,” “HOTEL,” and those cryptic numbers remains locked away—known only to those with the key.
Until the next broadcast, the Buzzer will return to its usual role: humming away in the background, a ghostly reminder of the secrets that still linger across the world’s airwaves.
