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G0FTD > SWL 20.04.05 06:46l 101 Lines 4905 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 8D0458G0FTD
Read: GUEST DK5RAS
Subj: More Cold War Jamming 1/5
Path: DB0FHN<DB0RGB<OK0PPL<DB0RES<DK0WUE<7M3TJZ<HG8LXL<CX2SA<GB7CIP<GB7SXE
Sent: 050419/1512Z @:GB7SXE.#38.GBR.EU #:28146 [Hastings] FBB7.00i $:8D0458G0FT
From: G0FTD@GB7SXE.#38.GBR.EU
To : SWL@WW
Rimantas Pleikys
RADIO JAMMING IN THE SOVIET UNION, POLAND AND OTHER EAST EUROPEAN
COUNTRIES
A specially emitted radio interference is classified into radio
communication jamming and radio broadcasting jamming. The first occasions
of jamming of military radio telegraph were recorded back in the
beginning of the 20th century. Germany and Russia were the first to
engage in jamming back then. The jamming signal most frequently consisted
of co-channel characters.
It was until the early thirties, when the first cases of jamming of radio
broadcasting were recorded. In the late 20's Berlin started to jam the
programs of Radio Komintern. In 1931 the USSR jammed the Romanian radio,
in 1934 Austria jammed the German radio. The Lithuanian language
broadcasts of the Vatican radio were jammed by the USSR in 1940.
Massive jamming of foreign radio broadcasts was initiated by the USSR
in February of 1948. It was targeted at VOA and BBC Russian language
broadcasts. Eventually jamming developed into a true monster, the
greatest jamming network in the world. The Soviet jamming network was
administrated by the 2nd department of the all-union ministry of
communications, headed by Natalia Krestyaninova for more than 25 years.
The Soviet Union and its East European allies used six types of the
jamming audio signals:
1. To block out the "most anti-Soviet" stations, a wide spectrum
electronically generated noise signal was used. RFE/RL, Voice of Israel,
and Radio Tirana would experience this type of jamming.
2. On August 3, 1964, one more source of interference was invented
- Radio Mayak program, transmitted in FM mode and heard distorted on
domestic receivers - to jam some "grey propaganda" stations such as
VOA, BBC, Deutsche Welle, and R. Beijing.
3. In 1976, Soviets started to use the speech resembling signal.
Its advantage was that it conformed to the timbre of the human voice.
This jamming sound, which used to be played back from open reel tapes,
was composed of two voices of male and female Russian announcers.
4. A unique case was the Polish service of RFE/RL: from 1971 until
1980 only light instrumental music was employed to jam it, both in clear
AM and distorted FM modes.
5. East Germany aired its domestic radio programs via medium wave
transmitters tuned in to several hundred Herz outside of the RIAS
frequencies.
6. Czechoslovakia used the swinging carrier, also known as wobler,
AM transmitters to jam RFE/RL.
The report of the RFE Engineering Department (dated January 29, 1982)
calls for at least 4 transmitters per jammed program for each beam
necessary. 250 kW and 500 kW transmitters have been proposed to replace
the old 100 kW units in the RFE and RL relay stations.
In Israel, there was an attempt to build a high-power radio station
(16 x 500 kW) for transmission of the VOA, RFE and RL programs to the
Soviet Union. This effort was halted due to the local protests.
In Portugal, six 500 kW transmitters were installed. Fourteen of the
16 RFE/RL's language services were jammed, and twelve of the 21
languages of VOA. Deutsche Welle (DW) was jammed in five of its 11
East European and USSR languages. BBC was jammed in two of its 12
Eastern languages. The effectiveness of jamming ranged from minor
annoyance to total blockage.
W. Edwards, "Longwave duel": "The trading pawn in the hands of the U. S.
had been the megawatt long wave transmitter located in Munich. The
record shows that when the Soviets stopped jamming the VOA Russian
programs in June of 1963, the VOA megawatt transmitter in Munich shut
down very soon thereafter. In August 1968, when the Soviets resumed
jamming of the VOA. [...] the megawatt in Munich returned to the air.
Again, in September of 1973 Soviet jamming against the VOA stopped and
a month later the megawatt transmitter on 173 kHz went off the air.
This off again-on again relation was rooted in the 1948 European
Broadcasting Conference at Copenhagen where medium wave and long wave
frequencies were assigned to the participating countries within Europe.
Under the plan, 173 kHz was assigned to the USSR. [...] The presence of
the VOA megawatt transmitter in Munich appearing on the same frequency
caused an acerbic reaction - the Soviets took the position that their
500 kW signal on 173 kHz from Moscow was being jammed".
Jamming in the USSR: The local jamming transmitters ranged in power from
1 to 20 kW with 10 to 20 units per station. The typical antennas were
multi-wire broadband dipoles, suspended vertically or at 45 degrees angle.
The effective range of ground wave jamming usually was about 30 km.
In 1986, the local jamming stations were located in 81 big city of the
Soviet Union. Dwarf jammers were numbered with "60" and "600" series
("Object Nr. 600", etc.), while giants were assigned "800" series.
Continued in part 2.
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