Russia's Mystery Count Down Signal Has Changed! 

A bloke in an old Transit van drove past my house earlier playing that bugle noise, he was shouting “Scrap Ironnnn…scrap ironnnn…” as well. If I see him again I’ll tell him to stop pissing about on the wireless.

Great video, obviously a bit of psyops to worry & keep NATO guessing!!! . The real danger is my wife battering me for listening to these bonkers noises at 01.27 AM . PEACE AND LOVE TO EVERYONE ❤❤.

It’s not any worse than the music on the radio nowadays.

The siren played at 2:00 isn't necessarily a nuclear attack siren, it's just an air raid siren and it's used here in the states as a tornado warning.

I get the ticking clock up here too in Northern Snowy Scotland, my little Long Wire picks up many odd things.

I was a short wave fanatic as a kid in the late 1950's, I built one and two valve short wave receivers around the trusty DF91. I bought a shortwave receiver a couple of years ago when the international crises started because if the nasty stuff hits the fan the internet will go down but short wave will remain. I found that the short wave spectrum has changed a lot over the last 65 years, there is nothing like the number of stations there used to be when I sat in my bedroom till dawn listening to all the stations in the world that my 50 foot outdoor antenna would pull in, even Radio Australia and Radio Ecuador, The Voice of the Andes. When I was a kid the short wave band was full of people reciting long lists of numbers, I never did figure out what they were,I'll have a tune in on the 43 meter band this evening when the sun goes down and listen to the ticking clock.

Well... that seals it for me. Pirates, the air raid siren is too try hard to be anything clandestine.

The first time an alarm sounded on the frequency was half an hour after your first video about it. It's a pirate, and they obviously watch your videos, and timed it to coincide with an influx of people listening in and chatting about it in the chat.

Short wave trolling? That is what I get from this. 🤔

I mean at this point they know you’re listening so they are probably just giving you something to listen to. Either way it’s still fun.

(dont know much about radio but) Ringed my dad, and he instantly replied that this was MARS (Militar Amateur Radio Service) and its supposed to only used in cataclismic emergencies. He said that historically, the americans gave MARS (amateurs) a tiny slice close to the military frequencies (amateur starts at 40m and 7000khz) so amateurs could talk in the military frequencies in case of war. Wikipedia says MARS ended in 2015 and its purpose was to serve for amateurs to assist in providing auxiliary radio emergency communications in case of need. I wonder if the constant sounds are just there to keep the channel alive? Or maybe the opposite, spam it so it cant be used.

A military radio operator trying to look busy in case he gets posted to you know where.

At the time of World War II, during the 872 days of the siege of Leningrad (now called St.Petersburg), the sound of a metronome was broadcast in the streets, the purpose of which was to notify residents of the city of an approaching attack by German aircraft. The slow ticking of the metronome meant that there was no air attack, and the rapid "steps" of the metronome indicated that it was necessary to seek shelter, since the bombing of the city would begin any minute. The sound of a bugle signalled that the alarm was over. The siege of Leningrad, according to various estimates, claimed the lives of 600,000 to 1.5 million residents of the city. Only 3% of people died from Nazi bombing, the remaining 97% died of starvation: about 4 thousand people died of exhaustion every day. We in Russia still pay tribute to the heroism of the undefeated citizens of Leningrad.

Love the B-roll of radio infrastructure. It's always interesting to see how different engineers deal with different challenges.

Sample, remix, and send it back with a bit of drum n bass thrown in.

The last segment sounded as if the person responsible at the transmitter had accidentally set the frequency a little lower and then corrected it midway when he noticed it. It all gives the impression of trolling or pirates having some shortwave fun.

Another good video man, thanking you for the work mr ringwaymanchester

It would be interesting to know where the signals coming from. With a few guys across the country using directional antennas, find the compose heading of where the signal is strongest, then draw lines on a map to triangulate the signal. Where the lines converge will be the rough location of the transmission - just an idea

Another great video! Thanks for the updates.

The 6911 transmission seems to be a psychological effort aimed at tying up resources trying to make sense of the signal.

That particular siren was available on a sound effects record album that one could check out at the local library back in the 70s. We sure had some fun with it back in high school. Always enjoyable watching your videos. Keep up the great work.

That's not just a bugle call... those are notes from a performance of Also sprach Zarathustra composed by Richard Strauss (better known for its use in 2001: A Space Odyssey). The notes are a bit out of order, but it's unmistakable.

I will monitor this frequensy more now, becauce I can hear it here in Oslo Norway as well! Thanks for the video Lewis! The best from LB1NH. 🙂

Thanks for the heads up.

Thank you for your time

I find these transmissions to be haunting!

Ticking clock signal is a test pattern used in wired radio system in Russia. The system itself in additional to regular broadcasting controls civil defense sirens and street loudspeakers. You can hear this signal from time to time in Saint Petersburg coming from civil defense loudspeakers, locals call it the metronome. Not sure if it has anything to do with ticking clock station, but now I wonder if this test pattern is a reference to WW2 in the first place.

This means something to somebody.

1:45 is not a clock! this metronome immediately recalls the siege of Leningrad, the metronome was used in the broadcast as a "carrier" signal, heard constantly. The sound of the metronome is also associated with the besieged Leningrad, which, by the way, sounds in the very "Leningrad Symphony" by Shostakovich. It's not for nothing that the composer incorporated the sound of the metronome into his work. The metronome was, in the truest sense of the word, the real savior of the Leningraders. The metronome has a very close connection with the residents of Leningrad and the radio. The fact is that radio at that time, especially for Leningraders who found themselves in this position, was the only way to find out about what was happening. But the broadcasts on the radio did not happen very often. When there were no broadcasts on the radio, the sound of a metronome was broadcast through it, the purpose of which was to notify residents of the city of an approaching attack by German aircraft. The slow ticking of the metronome meant that there was no air attack, and the rapid "steps" of the metronome indicated that it was necessary to seek shelter, since the bombing of the city would begin any minute. The metronome beat incessantly, constantly reminding the residents of Leningrad that they must be on their guard. These very sounds of the metronome were reflected in culture, poetry, and music (the same "Leningrad" symphony by Shostakovich). "In the darkness it seemed: the city was empty; Not a word from loud mouthpieces, But the pulse beat relentlessly, Familiar, measured, forever new"

I found siren recordings on YT that sounds very similar Great videos and loving your knowledge

Very interesting as ever !!

Our local fire station every Saturday at lunchtime tests its warning siren. It sounds exactly like the nuclear siren

This "ticking clock" sounds more like a metronome.

It would be interesting to know how many ticks happen between the siren samples, and if they get fewer in number or not.

Great video lewis.,...chaos reigns at the Ukraine/Russian border with this type of traffic ....I would imagine its a mix of both sides pysops along with pirates chucking in there part to its so easy today with hf set 100w good antenna to put this stuff across 40 metres. Keep going lewis soon 150k subs

Been routine for the past month over at 6911. I am on early mornings listening and I have noticed pretty much the same thing. The signal strength varies a lot. The bugles are often followed by a Russian anthem. Picked up some female with feed back on her mic , reading what sounded like sets of numbers and letters...interesting to say the least.

Sounds more like a metronome than a clock, but, same idea..

Based on the clips you have played, my feeling is that there are a number of different transmitters in different sites all competing for the frequency. Some of them are working together to "pass the baton" while others are just trying to go over the top - which explains the distorted ticking as it's likely doubling up against a second signal that is ever so slightly off frequency. I am assuming if you spent time looking a the audio spectrum of each you could determine how many different variations there are. From your clips, there appear to be at least 3 main signals more or less taking turns and a bunch of other sub-signals.

Hi Lewis. This frequency's activity is most definitely a mystery. I have heard a little bit here on my FT-DX10. Odd stuff. Thank you for keeping us updated on the oddity that is 6.911. 😊🗼. 73 my friend from a rainy Portland, Oregon.

You're calling it a nuclear warning siren and while that's the most apocalyptic assumption I thought most of these sirens were already in place for more conventional air attacks experienced during the world wars. Nuclear attack is the most chilling but hopefully not yet an inevitability.

That's some encryption I have never heard before, the zingers "that zing" is atmospheric conditions, so it's not propagation issues, it's actually modulated to make that noise, beginning, is attention, then listen, then write, then decode then end.

Thanks Lewis 👍

This stuff is cool!Thanks

Its actually a SW output to tell clandestine Russian listeners they are tuned into the wrong station. It was set up many years ago to tell anyone who tuned in that there is no one here. At the moment. The bugle call or the siren indicates they should go somewhere else to listen. Its actually an automated signal that when received by an authorised receiver will open up another variable preset frequency to a transmission which is actually the one of interest.

part of civil defense... you keep an unbroken broadcast to always know it's still working up until you actually need to use it

In this Country, there used to be pips issued a couple of times a day. Long before the internet, it was said to be a message that our subs could pick up, a reassurance that all was well. I'm just a civilian, I don't know if it's true, but it occurs to me that the ticking could be something similar.

Reminds me of the old WWVB signal from Boulder NIST station. Just missing the solar report and the "at the tone it will be ..... universal coordinated time"

Maybe they do it because they know people are listening...and speculating.

Interesting. That siren isn't a warning, it's an "all clear" signal, usually meant for after an air raid is over.

If the point was to make us curious and listen, it worked 😊

I'm not expert on radio signals however I was given to understand that such repeating signals or pre-arranged sounds are signals to under cover agents to perform whatever their assigned task is. I'm pretty such we in the west do the same on different frequencies. Or as many of the comments point out, maybe that's what they want us to think and keep us guessing.

Listening to it all go on ring now. Sirens, ticking clock and all. Alternating from one to another.

Catchy yet ominous tune! I'm waiting for the i tunes release.

Bah..! I’m really bad at SDR and never get any completely terrifying signals from far away places..😕

Seems the frequency went dead for now!! Sat, 10pm eastern time

If that's not you adjusting the receiver's centre frequency while the trumpet sound is playing in those recordings where it's off pitch, then it sounds like it might be a recorded interval signal the pirate is using to calibrate their transmission equipment mid-broadcast. My running theory is that either the pirate is trying to jam that frequency for one reason or another, or attention-seeking because of increased observation on that area with the ongoing war.

That pitch change on the bugle call at the end made it sound alot like it was all played at the wrong tape speed and the "pirate?" corrected it right before it ended and resumed to the ticking clock.

I’m not sure if anyone has played this game called south of the circle 😳 but it’s about the Cold War and it’s about the Antarctic the British, America and the bear country 😳 and in that game there was a signal on the radio and in the end of the game it turns out that it was a Russian count down of a nuclear catastrophe 😳 if you have the patience to play this game on A play, please do it’s quite an interesting game that seems to coincide with what is happening right now 😳🙏

Thanks 👍

Maybe its The Woodpecker sound from cold war days

It sounds like, in the altered bugle call, the final note actually was NOT altered. Strange.

Maybe that is a repeater station, broadcasting from other stations. Maybe these are Russias inverse of the EBS (Emergency Broadcast System). If officials DON'T hear these signals, it's world-wide trouble.

its code. that's easy if you have the sypher. They probably have times they have to tune in and get their marching orders. very effect if you are trying to coordinate small groups into large tactical movements.

In some of the more obscure sub genres of industrial music, audiences love these sounds. ❤

My god. Radio thematic is so underrated. Its so scary and fascinating. Almost otherworldly

The 'ticking clock' or 'metronome' could also be the sound of a Blocking Oscillator, which is quite a simple circuit and would take very little power to run. On this case it could be being used to signal that a particular transmitter is still functioning and the sound quality giving and indication of how well. Aside from this, has anyone tried to analyse the signal in terms to see if there is any embedded data? When I first heard this I wondered if it was a time signal, the equivalent to the MSF signal that keeps radio-controlled clocks showing the correct time.

Hi Lewis. I’m listening to 6911 on a kiwisdr in Finland and right now they are broadcasting the Russian national anthem…..over and over. Just like on this video. Hope you are having a good weekend. Be safe my friend. 73

They use those radiocenters to maintain contact with agents in the field. Yes, russia still uses analoque communication.

Another great video! Thank you.

When you post a frequence could you please say if it is Am USB or LSB thank you

I'm just gonna be real with you this is either a civ jammer or Ukraine participating in psychological warfare over the radio. What makes me believe Civ jammer more than anything is that the very same jammer who called you out over the buzzer, has used that exact same siren audio file on the buzzer several times while jamming.

3:17 - The change in sample rate is very noticeable there. It immediately reminded me of specific samples on the Amiga. Have a listen to some vids on "Amiga ST-01" and other sample disks. I'm fairly sure the bugle/trumpet sound was used in many games like Lemmings. (but could have originally come from a "Rompler" synth like the Korg M1, or possibly the Roland D-50?) If you got in touch with some Amiga peeps, they would probably be able to tell you whether this was from one of the sample disks. And if so, they'd likely know the exact disk. I mean, it could just be samples played on a PC, tbh, but I could well believe it if it was just an old Amiga hooked up in Russia somewhere.

In the US that siren noise is played when there is a tornado.

Probably just for people training. Given times to check in at, if your checkin is 5pm and you hear ticking, just continue as are. The bugle probably means start, and the siren probably means stop. That way you could send troops out and call them back, or start their training without freaking people out, and you would only have to give the troops a cheap radio.

I wonder if there is a way to attempt decoding the signal to discern if any logic or data is being transmitted. It appears that different tones might be employed to represent higher or lower bit rates, possibly explaining why songs and tones vary in length seemingly at random each time.

I wouldn’t necessarily call it a nuclear attack siren specifically…it’s a generic air raid warning that has been repurposed over recent years for all sorts of forewarning

That "bugle" sounds like a Casio keyboard I used to own. It was a cheap ROMpler one for kids with bad 8-bit samples.

Does the clock change? You weren't playing full intervals; I'm wondering if the clock ticks mean anything. How many ticks between loops and does the count change, is what I'm asking.

Just a thought Try to listen to it from different radio nodes to the same wave It may be just an interference from nearby Trolls who overlap the signal with their stronger transmission (due to geographical cause) Also, the lack of noise could tell that the signal is actually closer than it supposed to be

It's probably still a channel marker. I can't imagine the Russian version of FCC or Ofcom to be super patient with frequency pirates.

Might be fun to get some triangulation happening to try and see just where these signals are coming from.

Unnerving and very Russian.

This says a lot about whats going on. Is there a means to use software to monitor these radio stations and a computer rather than big costly antenna and radios made for monitoring

It's almost comical now. Is anyone intimidated or frightened by it anymore?

It's getting weirder. Maybe somebody is doing all this to confuse us?

The "change in sound", is what happens when the receiver bandwidth is opened up by whomever was operating the SDR. It wasn't something that was transmitted. It's something I routinely do.

Could be an audio que indicator for squad movement, as well as data over audio transmission. Changes in key, frequency, and sound wave played could be translated against a key of data that would help them to translate that into strategic movement. Similar to old battle bugle players using sound and such to help formulate trooper movements during older battles. My guess is that it transmits basic troop movement data from their headquarters to the field units, which is why when march 24 they delayed transmission likely due to active changes on the battlefield, and new information being available to HQ. The alarms are likely to mark the beginning of a data packet, with transmissions being set at predetermined times. A combination of data encrypted into the sound, and hiding in plain sight, the ticking clock being a placeholder for the channel.

Weird...yes. Wonderful...no. Great video.

Won't be lying in bed with the wireless under the sheets like listening to Radio Luxembourg in the 70's.

This channel JUST appeared on my recommendations. I know nothing about radios! 😅 QUESTION: I'm 59. Back when i was a kid, the most exciting thing for my friend and I to do, was to listen in to aircraft pilot transmissions on the radio! 😅 It was just an ordinary radio... I'm guessing short wave and long wave? Could someone please explain to me why we were able to pick these transmissions up? I have a feeling that we also got faint police conversations too, but I'm not sure. I think we picked them up, but they were too fuzzy to really hear any details. I loved listening to pirate radio too! It always fascinated me, to think that they were broadcasting from the North Sea! My other favourite thing to listen to was the shipping forecast! 😅 ....imagining all these shipping areas out there, and what sort of conditions fishermen were working in! PS. We would have been listening from Norfolk, England, uk. Thanks 💐

What kind of equipment do you use to listen and view the signals?

Thanks, making a beat with this stuff on my SP-404 mkii!!!

The one at around the 5 minute mark that has some kind of reversal going on, it felt like there was a frequency running through it that made me feel really nauseous. I don’t know anything about these number stations, is it possible to play those kind of frequencies through them?

I’m listening to this and hearing pro Russian psy-ops. What equipment are you using to get the screen trace? And what antenna? Thanks

its a numbers station. using the ticking and the high and low pitch to send code.

I can’t exactly recall the exact context, but that bugle sounds extremely familiar to me, who grew up in the 1980s USSR-maybe something they played in the beginning of the military parades on the Red Square or something like that…

In case you think countries do not listen to HF radio broadcastsb for intel, back in 2021 i was set to monitor USAF GHFS, GAF (germans), and PLF (poland). Although you can literally see planes in ADSB exchange, hearing them spell their coordinates midflight is way more precise, and rewarding. Also those EAMs on GHFS are sorta intriguing.

Op welke UTC-tijden wordt het signaal van de tikkende klok uitgezonden en op welke frequentie? Ik luisterde om 20.45 uur UTC op 6911 kHz, maar ik hoorde slechts ruis.

Very Cool RM. Thanks. Always the Best Radio Stuff******

If i recall stations would play certain sounds/music in certain ways or with discrepancies in the musica/tones notes, and at certain times of the day. It was used as code to listening agents. Trick is finding out what each thing means. Maybe its nothing, or maybe its some instructions being sent. Only our PSYOPS guys would possibly know. 🤷🏻‍♂️