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G0FTD > SWL 20.04.05 01:02l 93 Lines 4985 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : A20460G0FTD
Read: GUEST DK5RAS
Subj: More Cold War Jamming 3/5
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Sent: 050419/1516Z @:GB7SXE.#38.GBR.EU #:28148 [Hastings] FBB7.00i $:A20460G0FT
From: G0FTD@GB7SXE.#38.GBR.EU
To : SWL@WW
For over 30 years Washington and Moscow held an ongoing debate about
radio jamming and I list below a comparison of their main arguments:
U.S.: "The participating States make it their aim to facilitate the
free and wider dissemination of information of all kinds" (Helsinki
Agreement, 1975); "Any frequency assignment shall have the right to
international protection from harmful interference." (Article 9, ITU
Geneva Regulation); "Everyone has the right to seek, receive, and
impart information through any media and regardless of frontiers"
(Article 19, Universal Declaration of Human Rights); "All stations
whatever their purpose must be established and operated in such a
manner as not to result in harmful interference to radio services or
communications of other members" (Article 28, Montreaux convention).
USSR: "The sovereignty of the USSR in the field of radio broadcasting
secures for the USSR the possibility and rights to sever a radio
aggression directed against her in ether." (International Legal
Regulation of Radio Communication and Broadcasting, S. Krylov, 1950);
"The participating States will respect each other's sovereign equality
and individuality as well as the rights inherent in and encompassed by
its sovereignty... they will respect each other's right to define and
conduct as it wishes its relations with other States in accordance with
international law..." (Helsinki Agreement, 1975).
Officially the Soviets failed to mention the fact that they jammed
foreign radio stations for a long time. Later they admitted it and
declared they had rights to "defend the national sovereignty of countries
in the fields of information and culture". The United Nations adopted
a resolution in 1972 that declared jamming to be a violation of human
rights.
At several summits - e.g. Reykjavik, 1986 - the Soviets proposed to
cease jamming of VOA (not RFE/RL) in exchange of the rights to acquire
or to rent AM and FM transmitters in or near the U.S.
On the evening of November 29, 1988 the Soviet Union ceased to jam all
foreign radio stations. The jamming session that lasted for 40 years was
over. In December of 1988, Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria stopped the
jamming of RFE/RL`s broadcasts. In the end of 1988, not less than 1600
transmitters were switched off in about 120 jamming radio centers of the
USSR, Czevhoslovakia and Bulgaria.
When the Soviet Union collapsed, some jammers were converted into
broadcasting stations or were put in month balls; others were dismantled.
One such low power jammer, installed shortly after the WWII in the Jewish
cemetery of the Lithuanian Baltic seaport Klaipeda, was also dismantled,
and the chapel was returned to believers. In another city the closed
jammer building was converted into a café. Some former Soviet jammers
were modified into a commercial radio stations, as Radio 7 in Moscow.
Jamming in Poland. RFE/RL archive document dated August 17, 1956:
"During the period of unrest [...] it has been decided to end the
jamming of Western broadcasts in Poland"; "newspapers reported the
local jamming station is being dismantled." The date acknowledged
by the Polish government is November 24, 1956. After a short period of
confusion, jammers in Czechoslovakia and Russia carried on against the
RFE Polish broadcasts. However, the cessation of local jamming within
Poland itself greatly increased the intelligibility and reliability of
reception of RFE programs".
Stanley Leinwoll, a former RFE/RL manager, wrote in his article
"Jamming - Past, Present, and Future" ("World Radio-TV Handbook", 1980):
"Coincident with a series of riots in the city of Poznan [...] jamming
of RFE Polish language programs was ended. The official date was
November 24, 1956. There had been mounting outcries from the press about
the jamming of foreign broadcasts, and it has been reported that at the
onset of the Poznan rioting the local jamming station was destroyed".
Ralph Walter, Perry Esten, "Jamming against RFE programs" (July 6, 1965):
"In the summer of 1964 the USSR switched to a new type of jamming against
RFE Polish programs. Instead of noise modulation formerly used, the new
interference consisted of very distorted program material from the
"Mayak" program, which is a 24-hour service from Moscow for listeners
in the USSR and abroad. It is believed that this new type jamming was
adopted to minimize complaints from the free world about jamming
operations".
David Walcutt, a retired RFE/RL engineer, wrote to me in 1997: "I have
a lot of material on jamming. These are files that were moved to
Washington after the Munich office of RFE/RL closed. But when the
Engineering Department closed, I rescued these materials from the trash
because of their historic nature. It is certain that Polish jammers
were located in Russia. There are triangulation studies which prove it".
Triangulation data was collected by Deutsche Bundespost and ITU.
Continued in part 4...
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