People who watched “The Manchurian Candidate” will be familiar with the phrase “Why don’t you pass the time by playing a little solitaire?” Seeing the Queen of Diamonds card triggers a brainwashed sleeper agent to carry out an operation on U.S. soil. This was mimicked in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, where Hydra code words were used to activate Bucky Barnes’ Winter Soldier programming. In “Call of Duty: Black Ops,” a similar plot element is incorporated using a Soviet radio transmission.
While these storylines are fiction, the radio code is rooted in reality, and it’s making waves in Europe.
A Russian Armed Forces shortwave radio station, callsign UVB-76, broadcasts on a frequency of 4625 kHz. For 24 hours a day, the broadcast loops a short and monotonous buzz. This gave UVB-76 its nickname, “The Buzzer.” However, the buzzing signal is sometimes interrupted by a Russian voice transmission of unrelated words and numbers. “Longing, Rusted, Seventeen, Daybreak, Furnace, Nine, Benign, Homecoming, One, Freight Car.”
Sounding familiar?
The purpose of UVB-76’s transmission remains unknown (at least to the public). However, general speculation links the radio broadcast to a post-Cold War Russian “Dead Hand” system. This means that if Russia is attacked with nuclear weapons, UVB-76 would stop transmitting, a signal to Russian nuclear forces to launch retaliatory strikes.
Again, this explanation for the mysterious radio broadcast is purely speculative.
Interestingly, the UVB-76 callsign is actually a mistranscription; the station identified as UZB-7 from 1997-2010. Since then, the station has taken on a series of alphanumerical callsigns. Its current callsign, NZhTI (НЖТИ), was adopted on December 30, 2020. Despite all of this, the station is generally referred to as UVB-76.
Throughout its broadcast history, UVB-76 has occasionally been hijacked by radio pirates who have trolled the Russian military with meme-related songs like “Gangnam Style.” While the internet lore of the 2010s certainly brings some humor to the sketchy station, the 2020s have revived the potentially serious implications of UVB-76.
On Nov. 14, 2025, Russian state media reported that the UVB-76 broadcast was temporarily cut off following a drone strike on a nearby power station. This arguably debunks the persistent “Dead Hand” system theory. Drone attacks aside, the Russian power grid is about as reliable as the Desert Storm-era Humvee at the back of the motor pool that the mechanics cannibalize for parts.
Just days later, on Nov. 17, a concerning transmission was made by UVB-76. One of its six messages that day stated, “NZHTI NZHTI 15854 LATVIA 5894 4167.” Aside from the station’s callsign, the unknown numbers and reference to the Baltic state and NATO member, Latvia, caught the attention of the European media. Bordering both Russia and Russian-friendly Belarus, Latvia and the neighboring allied nations of Estonia and Lithuania are on NATO’s frontline.
With any luck, UVB-76’s reference to Lithuania is non-threatening or even an unrelated code word. However, that still leaves the numerical part of the transmission a mystery. “The numbers, Mason, what do they mean?!”
