If I'm are right, were all about to dieFollow

So, earlier today, a mysterious russian shortwave radio signal known only as UVB-76 which has been broadcasting continually since 1982ish went off the air abruptly and has not resumed. The station is purportdly located about 50 miles outside Moscow, and is one of the last remaining cold war secrets that the russians refuse to talk about. Various theories exist as to its purpose:

• It is a transmitter sending encoded inteligence directives to spies in the field
• It is a russian Classical Music Station that outsiders just really can't appriciate fully
• (my favorite) It is a cold war era practical joke aimed at U.S. intel and is actually nothing more than an electric buzzer sitting in a shack somewhere designed to irritate whoever is assigned to monitor it for no apperent reason.
• It is a component of the "Dead Hand" second strike response automated nuclear launch system, designed to launch all of russia's nukes in the event we took out Moscow, theoretically part of a system of sensors that in the event they cease and a large seismic anomoly is detected, the system assumes we launched and shoots all their missiles. In theory, the radio station cutoff would only occur in the event we destroyed moscow since it is close enough to be affected by the EMP but far enough for shielded components to survive
• It is a component of the more sinister theoretical variant of "dead hand" and actually is supposed to trigger one of several large hydrogen bombs inside very deep shafts near the earth's crust. The bombs, based on the Tsar Bombe design, would detonate a set amount of time after contact was lost with moscow, theoretically destroying the planet by blowing a hole through the mantle and allowing the earths magnetic core to erupt to the surface, killing everyone.

Or it could be something else entirely. But, if the conspiracy nuts are right, an irrevocble countdown has now started and the planet will go <KrackBOOOM... Spoit!> here in the next few hours.



Edited, Jun 7th 2010 12:30am by Nizdaar

#3 made me laugh out loud Thats just so evil it's pure genius

How come my knee jerk reaction was to push that "Do Not Push" button?

Oh and I <3 #3. Sounds like something a friend of mine would do just to mess with people. :S

Human nature. I don't know why we're wired like this, but we are. It was my first instinct, too.

Its their S.E.T.I.

(you thought we were the only ones ?)

Okay, we need some other admin to edit the title of this thread to replace "the conspiracy theorists" with "I'm".

I wasn't familiar with the transmission before your post. After doing a brief Wikipedia educational tour of the subject, I am now thoroughly tweaked out. Dead Hand just freaks me out, even decades after the cold war. Yeesh.

I have no idea how I could misspell I'm. Iam?

Ignoring the fact that it's back on the air, I doubt running a shortwave radio transmitter (that just makes the same sound over and over) is a big drain on the budget. I could see them shutting it down if it no longer had a purpose but really doubt there'd be a "We wish we didn't have to but it's time for UVB-76 to come down; we just can't afford it" conversation.

Funny, i expected it to tell me that Kao left the Cyberwombat cage door open.

I dunno, seeing "I'm are" in the topic works for me as far as "is this an horrible typo".