Canada’s CTV News reports shortwave radio, used by spies for decades to send encrypted messages, is being resurrected for the war in Ukraine
The story says:
According to Dr. Andrew Hammond, curator and historian at Washington, D.C.’s International Spy Museum, the shortwave radio “is a classic tool that was used for espionage.
“With a shortwave radio like this, you can transmit information over huge distances,” he told CTV National News.
But now, decades later, shortwave is coming back into use.
After Russia attacked communication towers in Ukraine, the BBC went old school, broadcasting their news service on the shortwave frequency to counter Russian propaganda about the war.
“The BBC is using it to transmit it because it’s a lot harder to block those transmissions,” John Figliozzi, a shortwave radio expert and author of the book ‘The Worldwide Listening Guide,’ told CTV National News. “It’s an old technology, but it works.”
Used in conflict zones, shortwave is less complicated than other communication avenues, and travels further than TV or cell phones.
Radio waves are electromagnetic signals that can be broadcast and for others to tune into by tuning a radio to the correct frequency, such as tuning your car radio into AM or FM chanels.
Shortwave radios tune into a range of frequencies that includes all of the high frequency bands, among others. When shortwave transmissions are directed at an angle into the sky, they bounce off of a layer of atoms in the atmosphere called the ionosphere, allowing them to travel beyond the horizon, much farther than other radio waves that are limited by having to transmit in a straight line.
Over the past few months, amateur radio hobbyists have used shortwave to pick up Russian soldiers openly discussing battle plans. Anti war protestors have also used it to ‘troll’ the Russian military, by blasting the Ukrainian national anthem or jamming their channels with annoying ear worms.
Watch the video and read the full story at
https://www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/how-shortwave-radio-is-resurfacing-as-a-tool-in-ukraine-1.5894366