This may be old news to some, but I just discovered something strange. I was showing numbers stations to someone, and the eerie recordings of "The Buzzer" UVB-76 shortwave station. In the Wikipedia page about that particular station, there was a note about an abnormal number of messages transmitted on October 17th, 2016. That date stuck out in my mind, and sure enough is the date that Julian Assange's internet was cut at the embassy.
This tweet referenced in the Wikipedia page has a response that says "The DEAD HAND has been activated".
Has anyone seen this? What is the "DEAD HAND"? Is it related to the "contingency plans" described in Wikileaks tweet:
"Julian Assange's internet link has been intentionally severed by a state party. We have activated the appropriate contingency plans."
Wikipedia article archived: http://archive.is/h54nw
Twitter archived: http://archive.is/co1ES
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Atarian ago
So:
I think we can assume it was the Yanks that caused the internet outage.
Could it have been a new protocol on UVB76 to signal internet outage to Russian assets outside of Russia, and to fall back on traditional communication methods?
belphegorsprime ago
The thought crossed my mind that the signals could have been imitated in service to narrative building.
Atarian ago
That would have been detected straight away. The signal would have had to be broadcast from the same position and signal strength as the original otherwise crazy shit would have happened to receivers at different points around the globe.
My guess is it was a signal to russian assets about the net outage.
"Back to morse code comrades, internet is in gulag."
belphegorsprime ago
Is it plausible to have broadcast an impostor signal from an arbitrary location though, considering it is a well known location already? I wonder what kind of short wave signal strength can be expected from, say, a drone. I speculate on this because I remember in the vault 7 stuff, the revelation that CIA had code specifically for spoofing Russian meddling.
In any case, I wonder what is up with the internet in general.. I seem to remember lots of weirdness around that time with massive outages around the world.
Atarian ago
There's no chance you could generate a signal of that strength at that frequency from a drone. The lower the frequency, the larger the antenna you'd need - from memory its about 4MHz so you'd need an antenna about 80 meters long!! Thats a big assed drone.
belphegorsprime ago
Ah, so it's not possible due to the size required. I wish we could get more information on what signals were broadcast.. or a recording of them. Would be cool to listen to.
Atarian ago
I could hear UVB76 from England with a short wave radio and a resonant antenna.
You could try a websdr (internet live software defined radio)?
Go to
http://websdr.ewi.utwente.nl:8901/m.html
And tune to 4625 mhz
belphegorsprime ago
I meant on that particular day. But thanks for the link anyway.
Atarian ago
Keep listening bro! You never know...