Kim Elliott on shortwave radios & signal jamming in 2015

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(Source: USC Center on Public Diplomacy)

BBC Russian Wants to Expand, But It’s Not So Easy

The BBC, as part of its 2015 Charter Review document, announced proposals to “invest” in BBC World Service. This includes a desire for a “bigger digital presence in Russian through a new digital service on platforms such as YouTube and the Russian equivalent Rutube, together with TV bulletins for neighbouring states. We would also start a feasibility study for a satellite TV channel for Russia.”

[…]The feasibility of BBC satellite TV for Russia is problematic. Very few Russians have rotatable satellite dishes, surfing the Clarke Belt in search of outside news. About 25% of Russian homes have fixed Ku-band satellite dishes to receive proprietary domestic direct-to-home services such as TricolorTV and NTV+. Western Russian-language news channels are not included in these channel packages and are unlikely to be invited aboard. Content from Western Russian-language broadcasters, including Voice of America and Radio Liberty, is also legally not welcome on Russian domestic terrestrial television and radio stations.

[…]So far, Russia has not blocked the Internet content of Western international broadcasters, at least not on a continuous basis. The Kremlin’s repeated denials of any intent to block Internet content suggest that it has at least been thinking about it. And recent press accounts indicate that Russian authorities may even try to ban anonymizers and other methods used to work around online censorship. Circumvention tools would have to become even cleverer, and Russian users would have to be willing and able to use them. In an extreme scenario, Russia could physically cut off the landlines of Internet traffic into the country. Then no circumvention tool within the Internet Protocol would work.

This could bring BBC Russian full circle to the venerable but unfashionable medium of shortwave radio. To be sure, Russians are out of the habit of listening to shortwave. Shortwave is no longer used for domestic broadcasting in Russia. BBC Russian eliminated its shortwave broadcasts in 2011. But, if need be, Russians could dust off their Cold War era shortwave radios. Or they could purchase inexpensive Chinese-made portable radios with shortwave bands.

In addition to traditional voice broadcasts, text, images, and even formatted web pages can now be broadcast using existing shortwave transmitters, and received on any shortwave radio. The audio must be fed to a PC or mobile device equipped with appropriate (free) software. Such a method allows reception of content even in difficult reception conditions, and allows unattended reception. This new capability of existing shortwave broadcast technology has been demonstrated through the VOA Radiogram experiments.

If Russia blocks Internet content from abroad, it will also probably try to jam shortwave radio content from abroad. Most jamming transmitters of the Cold War era have been dismantled or have fallen into disrepair. Many of the jamming transmitters are outside of Russia, in former Soviet republics. Reviving a shortwave jamming apparatus would be a much more expensive proposition than blocking Internet content. Various Cold War anti-jamming tactics, using various tricks of ionospheric propagation, can be employed. Text via shortwave would be even more resistant to jamming than voice broadcasts.[…]

Read the full article by Kim Andrew Elliott at the USC Center on Public Diplomacy online.

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6 thoughts on “Kim Elliott on shortwave radios & signal jamming in 2015

  1. Mark AB0CW

    On a slightly related topic, found this report by the UN to be quite interesting,

    The jist:
    “Growth in the number of people with access to the Internet is slowing, and more than half the world’s population is still offline, the United Nations Broadband Commission said on Monday.”

    https://ca.news.yahoo.com/internet-growth-slows-most-people-still-offline-u-100925805–finance.html

    Maybe governments should not be in such a rush to abandon SW.

    Reply
  2. Dennis Kalinin

    As Russian I want to assure that we still use iphone, ipad and other smartphones and devices:) Over 62% of Russians yet have access to internet, including access via the mobile platforms etc. The problem is different, even having all the ways of getting other points of view, the vast majority opts the TV where all the channels are surely censored. The main satellite provider is Tricolor with pre-installed set of channels, and the last and only opposition channel in Russia was removed from the list a couple of years ago, has become available on Web only since that time. As for the shortwave, I personally would be really happy as a devoted SW listener:) But to be honest, who are the target audience? Some hams and some aged? I would rather consider the Broadcast Band like radio Liberty is currently doing on 1386 on daily basis from Lithuania. At least MW is still in every built-in car’s audio. But this would be much more expensive of course, the Broadcast needs more power than SW for wider range.

    Reply
  3. Andy Preece

    “The Kremlin’s repeated denials of any intent to block Internet content suggest that it has at least been thinking about it.” – What a ridiculous assertion! It means they’ve been repeatedly asked about it by journalists with an anti-Russian adgenda.

    Reply

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