Radio jamming

Radio jamming is the (usually deliberate) transmission

of radio signals that disrupt communications by decreasing the signal-to-noise ratio.[1] Unintentional jamming
occurs when an operator transmits on a busy frequency
without rst checking whether it is in use, or without being able to hear stations using the frequency. Another
form of unintentional jamming occurs when equipment
accidentally radiates a signal, such as a cable television
plant that accidentally emits on an aircraft emergency frequency. The concept can be used in wireless data networks to disrupt information ow.[2] It is a common form
of censorship in totalitarian countries, in order to prevent foreign radio stations in border areas from reaching
the country.[1] As an example, Islamic regime in Iran has
been using the radio jamming to block free information
across the large cities and the capital, Tehran.

noise such as stepped tones (bagpipes), random-keyed

code, pulses, music (often distorted), erratically warbling
tones, highly distorted speech, random noise (hiss) and
recorded sounds. Various combinations of these methods may be used often accompanied by regular morse
identication signal to enable individual transmitters to
be identied in order to assess their eectiveness. For example, China, which used jamming extensively and still
does, plays a loop of traditional Chinese music while it is
jamming channels (c.f. Attempted jamming of number
stations).
The purpose of this type of jamming is to block reception of transmitted signals and to cause a nuisance to the
receiving operator. One early Soviet attempt at jamming
western broadcasters used the noise from the diesel generator that was powering the jamming transmitter.
Subtle jamming is jamming during which no sound is
heard on the receiving equipment. The radio does not receive incoming signals yet everything seems supercially
normal to the operator. These are often technical attacks
on modern equipment, such as squelch capture. Thanks
to the FM capture eect, frequency modulated broadcasts may be jammed, unnoticed, by a simple unmodulated carrier. The receiver locks onto the larger carrier
signal and hence will ignore the FM signal with information.

Distinction between jamming

and interference

Originally the terms were used interchangeably but nowadays most radio users use the term jamming to describe
the deliberate use of radio noise or signals in an attempt
to disrupt communications (or prevent listening to broadcasts) whereas the term interference is used to describe
unintentional forms of disruption (which are far more
common). However the distinction is still not universally
applied. For inadvertent disruptions, see electromagnetic
compatibility.

Digital signals use complex modulation techniques such

as QPSK. These signals are very robust in the presence
of interfering signals. However, the signal relies on hand
shaking between the transmitter and receiver to identify
and determine security settings and method of high level
transmission. If the jamming device sends initiation data
packets the receiver will begin its state machine to establish two way data transmission. A jammer will loop
back to the beginning instead of completing the handshake. This method jams the receiver in an innite loop
where it keeps trying to initiate a connection but never
completes it, which eectively blocks all legitimate communication.

Method

Intentional communications jamming is usually aimed at

radio signals to disrupt control of a battle. A transmitter,
tuned to the same frequency as the opponents receiving
equipment and with the same type of modulation, can,
with enough power, override any signal at the receiver.
Digital wireless jamming for signals such as Bluetooth Bluetooth and other consumer radio protocols have built
in detectors so that they only transmit when the channel is
and WiFi is possible with very low power.
free. Simple continuous transmission on a given channel
The most common types of this form of signal jamming
will continuously stop a transmitter transmitting, hence
are random noise, random pulse, stepped tones, warbler,
jamming the receiver from ever hearing from its intended
random keyed modulated CW, tone, rotary, pulse, spark,
transmitter.
recorded sounds, gulls, and sweep-through. These can be
divided into two groups obvious and subtle.
Obvious jamming is easy to detect because it can be heard
on the receiving equipment. It usually is some type of
1

3 HISTORY

History

mestic radio stations on the same or nearby frequencies.

For example, for many years East Germany operated at
Wiederau a transmitter on the same mediumwave frequency (575 kHz) that Mhlacker radio transmitter used
with an output power of 100 kW, which made it dicult
to receive the AFN Mhlacker radio transmitter in much
of the East Germany .

During World War II, ground radio operators would attempt to mislead pilots by false instructions in their own
language, in what was more precisely a spoong attack
than jamming. Radar jamming is also important to disrupt use of radar used to guide an enemys missiles or
aircraft. Modern secure communication techniques use Radio Free Europe and its sister service Radio Liberty
such methods as spread spectrum modulation to resist the were the main target of Soviet jammers followed by Voice
deleterious eects of jamming.
of America and the BBC World Service.
Jamming of foreign radio broadcast stations has often
been used in wartime (and during periods of tense international relations) to prevent or deter citizens from listening to broadcasts from enemy countries. However such
jamming is usually of limited eectiveness because the
aected stations usually change frequencies, put on additional frequencies and/or increase transmission power.

Other stations targeted by the Soviet jammers (but not

to the same extent as RFE/RL/VOA/BBC) included
Deutsche Welle and occasionally Vatican Radio, Kol Yisrael and Radio Canada International. The jamming usually only took place during programming in languages
widely spoken in Eastern Bloc countries (e.g., Russian,
Polish, Czech, Lithuanian, etc.). Programmes in English
languages were rarely (if ever)
Jamming has also occasionally been used by the gov- or other major Western
[9]
[3]
[4]
jammed
intentionally.
ernments of Germany (during WW2), Israel, Cuba,
Iraq, Iran (Iraq and Iran war, 19801988), China, North There were also periods when China and the USSR
and South Korea and several Latin American countries, jammed each others programmes. The USSR also
as well as by Ireland against pirate radio stations such as jammed Albanian programmes at times.
Radio Nova. The United Kingdom government used two
Some parts of the world were more impacted by these
coordinated, separately located transmitters to jam the
broadcasting practices than others
oshore radio ship, Radio North Sea International o the
[5]
coast of Britain in 1970.
Eurasia (worst aected, including mediumwave frequencies particularly 720 kHz used by RFE)

3.1

World War II

In occupied Europe the Nazis attempted to jam broadcasts to the continent from the BBC and other allied
stations. Along with increasing transmitter power and
adding extra frequencies, attempts were made to counteract the jamming by dropping leaets over cities instructing listeners to construct a directional loop aerial that
would enable them to hear the stations through the jamming. In the Netherlands such aerials were nicknamed
moenzeef (English: kraut sieve).[6]

3.2

Cold War era

Main articles: Radio in the Soviet Union and Censorship

in the Soviet Union
During much of the Cold War Soviet (and Eastern Bloc)
jamming of some Western broadcasters led to a power
race in which broadcasters and jammers alike repeatedly increased their transmission power, utilised highly
directional antennas and added extra frequencies (known
as barrage or frequency diversity broadcasting) to the
already heavily overcrowded shortwave bands to such an
extent that many broadcasters not directly targeted by the
jammers (including pro-Soviet stations) suered from
the rising levels of noise and interference.[7][8]
A further method used was operating transmitters for do-

North Asia, Americas and Sub-Saharan Africa

(partly aected)
Australasia, South America (rarely aected)
Meanwhile some listeners in the Soviet Union and
Eastern Bloc devised ingenious methods (such as homemade directional loop antennas) to hear the Western stations through the noise. Because radio signal radio propagation on shortwave can be dicult to predict reliably listeners sometimes found that there were days/times when
the jamming was particularly ineective because radio
fading (due to atmospheric conditions) was aecting the
jamming signals but favouring the broadcasts (a phenomenon sometimes dubbed twilight immunity). On
other days of course the reverse was the case. There were
also times when jamming transmitters were (temporarily)
o air due to breakdowns or maintenance. The Soviets
(and most of their Eastern bloc allies) used two types of
jamming transmitter. Skywave jamming covered a large
area but for the reasons described was of limited eectiveness. Groundwave jamming was more eective but
only over a small area and was thus only used in/near major cities throughout the Eastern Bloc. Both types of jamming were less eective on higher shortwave frequencies
(above 15 MHz) however many radios in the USSR didn't
cover the higher bands.[10] Skywave jamming was usually
accompanied by morse signals in order to enable (coded)
identication of the jamming station in order that Soviet

3.3

Post Cold War (1989present)

monitoring posts could assess the eectiveness of each

station.
In 1987 after decades of generally refusing to acknowledge that such jamming was even taking place the Soviets
nally stopped jamming western broadcasts with the exception of RFE/RL which continued to be jammed for
several months into 1988. Previously there had been periods when some individual Eastern bloc countries refrained from jamming Western broadcasts but this varied widely by time and country. In general outside of the
USSR itself Bulgaria was one of the most prolic operators of jamming transmitters in the Eastern bloc with East
Germany the least.
While western governments may have occasionally considered jamming broadcasts from Eastern Bloc stations, it
was generally accepted that doing so would be a pointless
exercise. Ownership of shortwave radios was less common in western countries than in the USSR where due to
the vast physical size of the country many domestic stations were relayed on shortwave as it was the only practical way to cover remote areas. Additionally western governments were generally less afraid of intellectual competition from the communist bloc.
However in Latin America there were instances of communist radio stations such as Radio Venceremos being
jammed, allegedly by the CIA, while there were short
lived instances where Britain jammed some Egyptian
(during the Suez Crisis), Greek (prior to Cyprus gaining
independence) and Rhodesian stations.[11]

3
(as opposed to future product sales) were a reason
for the duplication.
3.3.2 Iran
The government of Iran has frequently used jamming of
satellite TV (as well as ltering the Internet and restricting
Internet connectivity speed and other methods) as a strategy to prevent the consequences of freedom of expression
in the last decade. Most of the jamming took place in the
year 2009 after the controversial presidential election in
Iran to control the ow of information and updates about
the protests. Although most of the jamming is done on
news channels or political ones, another famous series of
jamming started around July 2010 on a non-political, Persian language satellite TV channel called Farsi1 which
airs Persian-dubbed popular TV series.
Debates have been raised in Iran regarding the possible
health hazards of satellite jamming. Iranian ocials including the health minister have claimed that jamming
has no health risk for humans. However, the minister of
communication has recently admitted that satellite jamming has 'serious eects and has called for identication of jamming stations so they can put an stop to this
practice. The government has generally denied any involvement in jamming and claimed they are sent from
unknown sources.[12] According to some sources IRGC
is the organization behind satellite jamming in Iran.[13]
3.3.3 Other countries

3.3
3.3.1

Post Cold War (1989present)

Peoples Republic of China

Further information: Radio jamming in China and

Censorship in the Peoples Republic of China
In 2002, China acquired standard short-wave radiobroadcasting equipment designed for general public
radio-broadcasting and technical support from Thales
Broadcast Multimedia, a former subsidiary of the French
state-owned company Thales Group.
It is assumed that China is using ALLISS technology
for jamming foreign radio stations broadcasting into
China.
Thales jamming technology only operates at power
levels below 500 kW (for its shortwave jamming
products).
Adele Milna (BSEE) of Continental Electronics (in
an audio le held at shortwave.org) claims that China
has duplicated his companies 100 kW, 250 kW
shortwave transmitters. It is unclear if these products were indeed duplicated or if broadcast jamming

Since the early 1960s, the practice of radio jamming

has been very common in Cuba, blocking not only
American government funded radio stations (such as
VOA) but also radio stations owned and/or operated
by (or selling airtime to) Cuban exile groups transmitting from Miami, such as La Cubanisima, Radio
Mambi, WWFE La Poderosa and Cadena Azul. The
same practice has been applied to Radio Mart and
TV Mart, operated by the U.S. Information Agency
since 1985.
North Korea and South Korea still regularly jam
some of each others radio (and sometimes television) stations. (See: Radio jamming in Korea)
Several Middle Eastern countries (particularly Iran)
jam shortwave broadcasts (and even occasionally attempt to jam satellite TV signals[14][15] ) targeted at
their countries.
Pakistan has recently stated its intention to begin
jamming clandestine radio stations operated by the
Taliban[16]
Ethiopia has jammed the DW[17] and VOA[18][19]
transmissions as well as ESAT Ethiopian Satellite
Television[20] and Eritrean radio stations.

6
Vietnam jams the Vietnamese service of Radio Free
Asia with a siren jammer.

See also
Association of Old Crows
Culture jamming
Electronic warfare
Eastern Bloc information dissemination
Mobile phone jammer
Radio jamming in China
Radio jamming in Korea
Wireless signal jammer

References

EXTERNAL LINKS

[13] IRGC is Behind Satellite Jamming (in Persian).

[14] Global media accuse Iran over signal jamming. Iran Focus. AP. 7 December 2011. Retrieved 22 May 2012.
[15] Stephanie Nebehay (26 March 2010). UN tells Iran to
end Eutelsat satellite jamming. Iran Focus. Reuters. Retrieved 22 May 2012.
[16] Pakistani army to jam Taliban radio in Swat Valley. Media Network. Radio Netherlands Worldwide. Retrieved
22 May 2012.
[17] Ludger Schadomsky (28 May 2010). Jamming of DW
is part of Ethiopias campaign against press freedom.
Deutsche Welle: Press Freedom. Deutsche Welle. Retrieved 22 May 2012.
[18] Ethiopia admits jamming VOA radio broadcasts in
Amharic. BBC News (BBC). 19 March 2010. Retrieved
22 May 2012.
[19] US Criticizes Ethiopia for Jamming VOA Signals.
VOA: News / Africa. VOA. 19 March 2010. Retrieved
22 May 2012.
[20] #

[1] Jerome S. Berg (2008). Broadcasting on the Short Waves,

1945 to Today. McFarland. pp. 46. ISBN 978-0-78645198-2. Retrieved 17 February 2013.
[2] NIST 800-97 Establishing Wireless Robust Security Networks: A Guide to IEEE 802.11i
[3] "'Kraut sieve'". Museum: Second World War. Dutch Resistance Museum. Retrieved 22 May 2012.
[4] Col. David Eshel. Hezbollahs Intelligence War. Defense Update. Defense Update. Retrieved 23 May 2012.
[5] Radio Northsea International. http://www.bobleroi.co.
uk. Bob Le-Roi. Retrieved 23 May 2012.
[6] Cooperate?". Second World War: Kingdom of the
Netherlands. Ducth Resistance Museum. Retrieved 22
May 2012.
[7] Oce of Research, USIA (1983), Jamming of Western
Radio Broadcasts to the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe,
United States Information Agency
[8] ARCHIVE DOCUMENTS. www.radiojamming.info.
Radio Baltic Waves. Retrieved 22 May 2012.
[9] Russian Jammers. The Laughing Policeman Wireless
Society. The Laughing Policeman Wireless Society. Retrieved 22 May 2012.
[10] Oce of Research, USIA (various), Radio Free Europe
archive documents, United States Information Agency
Check date values in: |date= (help)
[11] Rimantas Pleikys.
JAMMING BY THE FREE
WORLD. JAMMING by Rimantas Pleikys. R. Pleikys.
p. 11. Retrieved 22 May 2012.
[12] BBC (in Persian) http://www.bbc.co.uk/persian/iran/
2012/08/120821_l39_jamming_satellite_health.shtml
|url= missing title (help).

6 External links
Various articles on Soviet jammers 1 2 3 4
extensive site on radio jamming
Article on recent jammers with audio samples
Audio sample of jamming (c1982) at start of BBC
World service (Russian) programme includes jamming station morse ID
Ethiopia jams VOA (2010)
Ultra Fast Folloow Jammer Description (2007)
R. Pleikys, D. Vildinas. Empire of Noise (video).
Aadu Jogiaas: Disturbing soviet transmissions in
August 1991.
Words: MATT BOLTON Photographs: MATT
MUNRO The Tallinn Cables, A GLIMPSE
INTO TALLINNS SECRET HISTORY OF ESPIONAGE Lonely Planet Magazine, December 2011

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