I first heard it in the very early 80's. But once you listen for a few minutes to the repeating drone it gets pretty boring pretty quick. The sound has changed over the years, it sounded much different then than now.
There have been all kinds of speculation about it, from it being a "Dead Man" switch for nuclear response (a concept that a few moments thought can eliminate) to it being fairly standard military training messages. The later is almost certainly closer to the truth. While it was given a Spy Numbers identification by the Enigma group it is almost certainly not spy numbers related, its traffic is much more along the lines of military messages of some sort.
Keep in mind that the apparent increase in voice message activity from about 2010 onward is very likely the result of increased observation, vs an actual increase in activity. Prior to that time few people spent very long monitoring the station. So several messages a day might have been the norm for all we know, but no one happened to be listening to the station for extended periods. From 2010 on there have been dedicated groups and receivers set up to monitor and eventually record the station 24 hours a day.
The folks at priyom.org were originally a group of young new listeners who started in the radio hobby by near obsessive monitoring of this station. Since then they have broadened their interest and knowledge substantially, and now support one of the more complete and informative web sites related to Numbers Stations on the net. And they have an excellent description of the station on their site at
The Buzzer
The station is an oddity certainly, but really not as much of a mystery as some writings about it would have you believe. Don't let my saying that discourage you in any way, just understand that some very odd sounding stuff on the air waves can have some fairly benign sources.
T!
