This happened maybe a week ago, over the course of several days. I was there and talked to the pirate via Telegram.<p>I don't really like Vice and don't want to reveal anything about the pirate (singular) in particular, but I believe they are Russian, not Ukrainian (I just sent a message asking), and it is a younger gentleman (perhaps early 20's). His name on the SDR messages was Alex but his Russian name is something different. He was very kind, at least through messages (we spoke via Russian and some simpler English messages) and he accepted requests for music and images.<p>By far the clearest hijacking broadcast was the first day. The buzzer was completely gone, Alex's broadcast absolutely drowned it out for most online receivers I could find. The following days seemed to battle a bit more - perhaps the military did something to boost the signal.<p>As well, the days following the hijacking there were a <i>lot</i> of cryptic messages sent out, at a much higher frequency than usual. You can find what they sound like on YouTube if you just type "uvb76 broadcast". There were several <i>per day</i> whereas historically the channel could be unused for months at a time. There is still no known meaning behind the messages but they're always broadcasted by a live human, speaking Russian.<p>I screenshotted almost everything I could find, sans his Telegram handle for obvious reasons, Twitter thread here: <a href="https://twitter.com/bad_at_computer/status/1483982428221939712" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/bad_at_computer/status/14839824282219397...</a>
Wide band HD spectrum painting.<p><a href="https://www.w6rz.net/spectrumpaint.mp4" rel="nofollow">https://www.w6rz.net/spectrumpaint.mp4</a>
The other day they (not sure if it was the operators or someone trying to hijack the frequency) were playing forever young in the background and the combination of reverb and static was quite the hauntological experience.
Found a post about it on HN few days ago here. Not much was said though. Although the twitter thread does show more than this vice article.<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30061543" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30061543</a>
As I understand it, transmission typically takes modulated RF and boosts it. Its applying brute force to a pre-shaped signal as the "carrier". The RF has to come into the amplification stage over a waveguide. Typically it's being sent from somewhere else, down a landline or local point to point microwave link. If you can "flood" the amplifiers input with a stronger signal generated locally, with either a path into the RF waveguide or a strong directional antenna and a receiving dish for the microwave signal, it will latch on to it, and amplify it too. If it's stronger at source, it's stronger post amplification/transmission. Being stronger at source is easy if you are close.<p>It probably does not work as well on a digital stream, or a multichannel, agile frequency hopping signal but these tend to be short range. These numbers stations have to work with old, crude and remote receivers and with more traditional (deliberate) interference from distant sources so they are more prone to being subverted by a motivated local phreaker who can inject a strong signal from e.g. a car parked close by and then run away.<p>You would think military communications are 24/7 guarded but perhaps in some economies people assume distance from the urban area is protection. It doesn't stop motivated attacks. By the time you find out, they've taken the Max Headroom VHS and their radio rig away in an anonymous van.<p>Maybe this attack is smarter? Doing something less brute force and not just flooding the last-stage RF amplifier?