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BBC revives shortwave broadcasts to Ukraine

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ZantennaG1 said:
I'm definitely banking on the hope that the "older" Russians haven't forgot what it was like to live in the USSR, and kept their radios around just in case. The youngsters could be kept informed by their grandparents who have shortwave tuners lying around. @gr8oldies you might be missing the point then. War time is a whole different animal then Peacetime. Actually, shortwave's "demise" is a great disguise because it maintains it's secret.

In the case of the BBC, they simply turned off access to the website, but they can't just turn off a station on another continent. However, the Russians might begin jamming signals (hopefully they don't).

Yikes. Not suprising, but definitely despicable. It's like they're copying North Korea's playbook

Exactly. People haven't entirely forgotten.
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I suppose hams who have general coverage on their transceivers could get the BBC shortwave, unless hams get their rigs confiscated.
 
kevtronics said:
Another factor is that during the Soviet era, all school children in Eastern Bloc countries were required to learn Russian as a second language. My mother, who grew up in Slovakia, still complains about how they were forced to study Russian in school -- although she says the teacher wasn't too happy about it either, so during tests he would leave the room, allowing the students to share the answers.
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My brother-in-law is from Serbia, and was forced to learn Russian before the fall and dissolution of Yugoslavia. He does not have a positive view of Russia as a consequence.
 
ZantennaG1 said:
And we've brought this on ourselves folks! Americans, in particular, have gotten quite complacent, and soon they ask "Who uses this", or "Who uses that", and so we shut it down. Ukraine/Russia is a modern day prime example of the government easily cutting off your access to the world. So, a Reverse Tinkerbell Effect, of sorts. "We don't need radio! We have the internet!" Well, the internet is a web of local entry points, all connected together as one, so Putin had an easy time pulling the plug. So, ironically, Ukrainians and Russians need radio again. So the next time someone tells you that medium-wave or short-wave is a waste of spectrum that needs to be shut-down, just remind them of the 2022 Ukrainian War, especially when someone thinks that a crackdown can't happen in the modern day.
Even if not many people will receive the shortwave broadcasts, because society has "moved on" from radios, the BBC is right to at least try, as they have been through a lot, and they just know how easy it is to be isolated from the rest of the world by the crackpots.

Awesome!
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I got friends like that. They come to my place and see my music room with CDs and stuff and some say "My phone does all that." I remember one day someone driving drunk struck a utility pole and somehow knocked part of the cell network. My friend came over asked me if I had service and I said yes, since my flip phone was on a different carrier. She said "I can't hear my music, etc" and I said I got that solved - I just put one of my CDs in. (Although I have a music server in my home.)
 
Negin said:
I got friends like that. They come to my place and see my music room with CDs and stuff and some say "My phone does all that." I remember one day someone driving drunk struck a utility pole and somehow knocked part of the cell network. My friend came over asked me if I had service and I said yes, since my flip phone was on a different carrier. She said "I can't hear my music, etc" and I said I got that solved - I just put one of my CDs in. (Although I have a music server in my home.)
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I actually wish I had hard copies of my music. I'm thinking more of a time it may not be available online
 
World service probably got rid of their theme about 20y? ago but I still wish it was around:
It would probably give certain segment heart attacks today.
 
radioman148 said:
I still have all my CDs and records--yeah records for those that remember what those were :)
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Took all the CDs, digitized them, and play them through the computer. But then I took all the CDs and put them in binders. So I still have the originals. Working my way digitizing the LPs, but most of them are available for download anyway.
 
Meanwhile, the BBC and several other US and British news outlets have ceased reporting in Russia due to a new law that criminalizes reporting that does not follow the state media line. Shortwave services aimed toward Moscow are probably more useful than those in Ukraine right now, since Putin has been actively cutting off independent media. The wrap I heard on the NPR headlines this hour said calling Russia's current incursion into Ukraine a "war" could be punishable with 15 years in prison, because the Kremlin considers that false.

www.theguardian.com

BBC, CNN and other global news outlets suspend reporting in Russia

Corporation’s director-general says new Russian legislation ‘appears to criminalise the process of independent journalism’
www.theguardian.com www.theguardian.com
 
I'm hearing the 15735khz broadcast from wooferton UK to "eastern Europe" at 1450UTC in alaska, its in english
 
My experience from multiple trips to Europe is that English is as close as you'll find to a universal language. I learned something on my first trip across the pond that stuck with me that I've seen repeated dozens of times. French guy an n Italian guy carrying on a conversation in my hotel lobby. French guy didn't speak Italian. Italian guy didn't speak French. But they could converse because they both spoke English. From my own experience in Continental Europe. I would say that if I approached someone with a greeting in English, the other person would know enough English to "get by", understand what I was talking about, and respond accordingly.

I recall one occasion where I was trying to order in French at a Paris cafe, then finally gave up. "My French is terrible", I explained. The waitress laughed and responded. "So's mine....I'm from Germany".

My point being hat while English-language broadcasts aimed at European countries are undoubtedly less than ideal, they're almost certainly not a total loss. Especially in countries where a significant number of ole-school transistor SW radios may be in use. Also, I aubmit that in large families as well as in apartment buildings and neighborhoods, there's at least some likelihood that there'll be someone with a cold war era radio who will listen, understand, and spread the word.
 
I got the 5875 freq. at about 4pm with not the greatest reception on East Coast, where it's not beamed.
Trying for 15735/ 3UTC and could not receive. Not much of an antenna but doubt it can be heard -here- anyway.
 
bigdonho said:
The bean counters keep saying there is no need for shortwave broadcasting. Everyone has high speed internet access. Yet, when it really hits the fan, shortwave comes through.
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This is hardly a "bean counter" issue. Most shortwave in the last 60 years has fallen into three categories:
  1. Local (tropical band) SW, intended for regional coverage in nations like Brazil, Ecuador, Perú and Bolivia in our Hemisphere. As more and more smaller towns got thier own local stations, the need disappeared in favor of better signals from local broadcasters.
  2. Religious stations like TWR and HCJB. Not news sources, and gradually declining in favor of local "affiliates"
  3. Government agencies. VOA, BBC, DW, CBC, etc.
The government agencies have to work within budgets. As the need for better local stations increased, the money for national and international ones was cut. The need for a local station in West Twinkleberry overcame the need for a national service. And the Twinkleberrians vote in elections, something that is well recognized in all democratic nations.
 
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cyberdad said:
My experience from multiple trips to Europe is that English is as close as you'll find to a universal language.
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English does work well nearly everywhere.

I make one exception... In France we speak Spanish along with my fairly basic French. We never speak English. Avoiding English vastly improves service and response.

This reminds me of a visit to Martinique on a cruise ship. We went to a restaurant in the center of Fort-de-France and there was a line, apparently all from our ship. As we entered, one cruise passenger said, "we've been here nearly an hour". I went to the check-in and spoke Spanish peppered with French; my daughter who was with us spoke non-stop French to us, even though we did not understand a lot of it. The act worked. We were seated immediately.
 
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DavidEduardo said:
This reminds me of a visit to Martinique on a cruise ship.
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I'm going to pass your story alomg to my daughter when she comes home for a few days later this month. She's fluent in French and conversational in several other languages (including Spanish). She teaches non-native English speakers at USC and also travels overseas.
she may find herself with reason to stage an "act" or two somewhere herself!
 
cyberdad said:
I'm going to pass your story alomg to my daughter when she comes home for a few days later this month. She's fluent in French and conversational in several other languages (including Spanish). She teaches non-native English speakers at USC and also travels overseas.
she may find herself with reason to stage an "act" or two somewhere herself!
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It was actually rather amusing. What we got was regional preference. The locals were seated first, and then those obviously from elsewhere in the Caribbean. By mixing Spanish and French, we joined the "almost a local" crowd.
 
One thing not mentioned in the discussion of shortwave broadcasting to Russia and Ukraine is that it appears Vladimir Putin considers shortwave to be an irrelevance. Note that Russia shut down what was left of its domestic and international shortwave infrastructure in 2014, including the tattered remains of the Voice of Russia world service. Seems the Russians want to concentrate on the RT television channel, Radio Sputnik distribution to local stations, as well as the manipulation of social media and internet information websites.

During the Soviet era, Radio Moscow was perhaps the biggest and most extensive broadcaster in the world, with shortwave output in over 70 languages. All gone now.

Meanwhile I'm hearing a poor to fair signal here in Houston of the BBC broadcasts to Ukraine on 15735 from 1400-1600 UT.
 
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