Allied Counter To Soviet Radio "Jam" Blockade

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 22940, 7 May 1949, Page 5

Allied Counter To Soviet Radio "Jam" Blockade

(11 a.m.) LONDON, May 6. The British Broadcasting Corporation officially stated that a jamming operation which shows every sign of being as large as any organised by the Nazis during the war had for some time obliterated the scheduled programmes in Russian from London and New York.

The statement said that for a considerable time there had been intermittent interference to broadcasts in the overseas short-wave services.

‘'Towards the end of April, however, a new development was observed,” it added. ‘‘A set of very powerful jamming stations started an offensive against all broadcasts of the 8.8. C. and the ‘Voice of America’ in the Russian language. ‘‘A great number of powerful jammers were observed employing a technique developed by the Nazis of using Morse indicators to control the operation.” A new Anglo-American attempt to break through the Soviet jamming blockade will be started tomorrow, the State Department announced today. It added that 61 British and American transmitters would be beamed simultaneously at Russia. The spokesman said that checks showed the Russians were using 60 jammers. ‘‘lf we can spread our broadcasts over the whole frequency field, the jamming will be so thinned out that we will get through.” Powerful Counter-Measures The Times’ radio correspondent says that the 8.8.C.’s measures against deliberate Russian interference will be greater than any measures taken by the 8.8. C. against the Nazi propaganda before and during the warThe Times’ diplomatic correspondent says that either by design or coincidence, the jamming began the day before the Russians gave publicity to the fact that negotiations were in progress for the raising of the Berlin blockade. “The effect has been, presumably, to deprive the Russian public of all news concerning the four-Power agreement except that supplied from Russian sources, and these have been reserved.”