Cold War Broadcasting: Impact on the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe

Chapter 4: Cold War Radio Jamming

51 CHaPter 4 Cold War radio Jamming george W. WooDarD introduction on the night of november 21, 1988, shortly after 9 p.m., i received a call at my home in munich, germany, from operators at the rfe/rl technical monitoring and receiving station at schleissheim, a northern suburb , reporting that soviet and some eastern european jamming of radio free europe and radio liberty shortwave transmissions seemed to have abruptly ended. Jamming of rfe and rl signals (historically by far the hardest hit of all western broadcasters) as well as Voice of america, BBC, deutsche Welle, Kol israel, radio Vatican and other stations had ended abruptly and without prior warning. so unbelievable was this development at the time that all my colleagues at rfe/rl and i could think to do was to “…keep listening—it must be a mistake.” throughout the night, into the next day, and in the days following it was confirmed; all but a few rfe programs were clear of the jamming noise and radio distortions that had plagued the shortwave bands in europe and eurasia for more than forty years. Jamming of the remaining rfe programs, primarily Czechoslovak and Bulgarian, stopped a few weeks later. it is difficult to describe the emotions experienced by those of us in international radio broadcasting regarding this monumental event. for four decades we had listened to, tolerated with irritation and frustration, and battled this phenomenon that was so foreign to the Western culture of freedom and exchange of information. some jamming continues today on the shortwave and, to a much lesser extent, medium-wave bands. China still jams radio moscow’s Chinese-language services, as well as all radio free asia programming to south asia, and some Voa and other Western broadcasting services. many middle eastern countries still jam each other, and iran jams Westi4 J&P.indb 51 2010.07.05. 7:54 52 ern broadcasts as well. Cuba still jams radio and tV marti. But the massive and all-pervasive jamming by the soviet Bloc countries ceased in 1988—the first public evidence of the impending collapse of soviet communism and the soviet union, and the forthcoming democratic transformation of soviet-dominated east european nations. History of radio Jamming the history of radio jamming, defined as intentional interference with radio, television, or other electronic communications,1 dates back to the beginning of radio broadcasting. in the united states, where the broadcast bands were private, forces of competition (and greed and power) caused so-called “commercial” as well as religious broadcasters to vie for listener attention before the broadcasting bands became regulated by government. frequency wars, where one broadcaster would trespass on the frequency used by a competitor, or power wars, where broadcasters incessantly increased transmitter power to gain an advantage over a competitor, were common in the united states, especially in metropolitan markets. government regulation, growing awareness on the part of broadcasters that such behavior was actually counter-productive, and improvements in technology that eliminated unstable transmitter frequencies reduced these competitive jamming wars. eventually the federal regulatory Commission (frC), the precursor to the present federal Communications Commission (fCC) in the united states, ended the frequency and power wars by strict licensing control of the carrier frequency and by limiting maximum carrier power to 50 kilowatts (kW).2 international radio jamming is extensively used during periods of armed conflict. this type of radio jamming targets not only broadcasting but, more importantly, tactical military and military-related radio communications . it began in World War i and has continued, as techniques and counter-techniques improve, during every war thereafter. every 1 the most comprehensive work on jamming is rimantas Pleikys, Jamming. Vilnius, lithuania: no date, approx. 1998, available in five languages at http:// www.radiojamming.info. for a discussion of the types of jamming, see appendix a to this Chapter. 2 the “am” band in north america, currently 535 to 1710 kilohertz (kHz), is referred to as the “medium-wave” band in most of the rest of the world. in this chapter “am,” and “medium-wave” are used interchangeably. i4 J&P.indb 52 2010.07.05. 7:54 53 country in the world has engaged in this type of intentional military radio jamming and many, to varying degrees and with varying methods, have engaged in jamming of foreign broadcasts to protect themselves from foreign ideas thought to be counter to established societal goals.3 never , however, has the practice of jamming...