Crimean Human Righs Group: russia intensified jamming Ukrainian FM radio signals in occupied Crimea

 The Crimean Human Rights Group held the next monitoring of the FM radio station broadcasting in the north of peninsula in June 2020. The situation with receiving the Ukrainian FM signal became worse, comparing to the previous monitoring of March 2020.

In June Ukrainian radio station signal was heard only in 5 of 19 settlements.

The monitoring held this March showed that the Ukrainian radio broadcasting through towers located in Chongar and Chaplynka was heard in 9 settlements.

This being said, the number of Ukrainian radio stations to be heard in Crimea has substantially reduced, too.

Only one Ukrainian radio station can be heard in Voinka.

2 Ukrainian FM radio stations may be heard in Krasnoarmeyskoye, and Istochnoye, and 3 in Predmostnoye and Novoaleksandrovka.

Five Ukrainian FM radio stations can be heard on the occupied territory of the peninsula at CHONGAR checkpoint, and four Ukrainian radio stations can be heard at the Crimean side of CHAPLYNKA checkpoint.

In 14 settlements (Vishnevka, Martynovka, Zavet Leninskiy, Solionoye Ozero, Yermakovo, Pridorozhnoye, Zarechnoye, Dzhankoy, Ovoschnoye, Lobanovo, Zelenaya Niva, Krasnoperekopsk, Armiansk, Ishun’) Russian FM stations broadcast on the Ukrainian radio frequencies.

In March 2020 a signal of one Ukrainian radio station could be heard in Yermakovo, Vishnevka, Pridorozhnoye, and Zelenaya Niva. But in June an attempt to get the signal failed.

And the same time in 16 settlements of 19 a simultaneous broadcasting of two stations: Ukrainian and Russian at some frequencies was recorded that is an evidence of a purposeful blocking of the Ukrainian FM broadcasting by the Russian radio stations.

KULTURA, PROMIN’, ARMIYA FM and NOVA KAKHOVKA radios can be heard in two settlements of the entire list, NV – in three, UKRAINSKOYE RADIO and KRYM.REALII in one of 19 checked.

Thus, comparing to March 2020, the KRYM.REALII FM broadcasting coverage that had been heard in six settlements of the list reduced substantially. The broadcasting of the ARMIYA FM radio signal reduced from four settlements to two.

Broadcasting of the Ukrainian FMs via the Broadcasting Tower located in Chaplynka in the Northern Crimea is jammed by such Russian stations:

KRYM – 95.3 frequency of KULTURA Radio

MORE – 96.4 frequency of PERETS FM

SPUTNIK – 102.3 frequency of MEYDAN

MAYAK – 103.5 frequency of KHAYAT

VATAN SEDASY – 106.4 frequency of PROMIN’

Broadcasting of the Ukrainian FMs via the Broadcasting Tower located in Chongar in the Northern Crimea is jammed by such Russian stations:

SPUTNIK – 100.7  frequency of UKRAINSKOYE RADIO

VESTI – 102.6 frequency of PROMIN’

KRYM – 103 frequency of ARMIYA FM

MORE – 104.1 frequency of RADIO NV

VESTI – 105.9 frequency of KRYM.REALII

VATAN SEDASY – 107.8 frequency of KHERSON FM

The CHRG monitors checked, with car radios, what Ukrainian FM radio stations might be heard in 19 settlements of the northern Crimea: towns of Armiansk, Krasnoperekopsk, and Dzhankoy, and settlements located along the main roads – Ishun’, Zelenaya Niva, Vishnevka, Krasnoarmeyskoye, Istochnoye, Novoaleksandrovka, Martynovka, Solionoye Ozero, Zavet Leninskiy, Yermakovo, Pridorozhnoye, Predmostnoye, Zarechnoye, Ovoschnoye, Lobanovo, and Voinka.

The Crimean Human Rights Group holds regularly missions for monitoring the broadcasting in northern Crimea. The Russian authorities have seized unlawfully the Ukrainian radio frequencies in the peninsula and have been blocking the Ukrainian FM broadcasting.

Thus, the Crimea occupying authorities have deprived the Ukrainian nationals of access to the information of independent Ukrainian radio stations. Doing this, the RF authorities neglect completely the fact that jamming radio signals is forbidden by the International Telecommunication Convention of 1947 and the UN General Assembly in 1950.

The actions of the Russian authorities in Crimea lead to abolishing the pluralism of opinions and replacing in fact the independent media with the sources of state Russian propaganda. With these discriminatory practices, it becomes in principle impossible for the Crimeans to receive information about Ukraine and human rights violations that are common in Crimea. Kremlin-controlled Russian media are hiding most of these facts from residents of the peninsula.

Information isolation of the occupied peninsula is intensifying, that constitutes a severe violation of free speech standards as well as provides the occupying power additional opportunities to disrespect further the human rights and freedoms in Crimea.

To stop this it is necessary for democratic countries to intensify the pressure on the Russian Federation authorities, demanding them to stop the censorship, unjustified blocking and other forms of freedom restrictions of independent media on the territory of Crimea.

The law enforcement bodies of Ukraine should investigate in depth the facts of unlawful blocking the media and seizure of radio frequencies in Crimea in the context of international armed conflict, and to bring the guilty to justice.

Source: https://crimeahrg.org/en/jamming-ukrainian-fm-radio-signal-in-crimea-strengthened/

Will russia restart shortwave jamming?

Interesting results of shortwave observations and following discussion started by Token forum member were posted on HFU message board: strange DSB-modulated signals on at least four frequencies: 5708, 9008, 9022 and 9024 kHz were regularly active in April between 0300 and 0500 UTC on weekdays. Sometimes on two frequencies simultaneously.

The audio sounded like looped recording of mixed male and female voice speeches taken from programs of USSR All-Union Radio: short clippings of local and international news concatenated and mixed into the one recording. I just recalled that I have already heard this sound formerly when listened to audio clips posted by American DXers. That was sample from Rimantas Pleikys' website, dedicated to deliberate radio jamming, and described as: "Speech-like signal (USSR 1976-1988, USSR/Poland  1980-1988)". The audio, as it turns out, was identical!

What is the "speech-like signal jamming"? Some people of the older generation in ex-USSR countries are probably remember that phenomenon and well familiar with it. Others can find clear answer in Rimantas Pleikys' article "Radio Jamming in the Soviet Union, Poland and other East European Countries". Rimantas writes that some countries of the Soviet Bloc started to broadcast speech resembling signal since year 1976. This was quite efficient jamming technique, because its sound, composed of male and female announcers speech, is well conformed with typical timbre of the human voice.

Signal strength, simultaneous broadcasts on several frequebcies and regular schedule basis of the strange April transmissions actually argue in favour of its official origin and tell us that it was not a fraud/joke organized by some radio pirates. Moreover, numerous TDoA analysis attempts, carried by American DXers, reveal signal source somewhere near Khabarovsk area (russia).

Thus, deliberate jamming is the leading assumption on purpose of these transmissions for the moment. It was rather test, not actually a real jamming yet, as no other signals were observed on the same frequencies. However, it remains unclear what is the possible target of the jamming, because all russian-language "enemies' voices" have already left shortwave bands since Soviet/post-Soviet era? May be it's a preparation for an assistance to "Chinese comrades" in fight against VOA, RFA, RTI, SOH?

The frequencies selected for the tests allow for conclusions that some NATO utility stations operating on adjacent channels could be potential targets. Some of them are using Link-11 (MIL-STD-6011) standard NATO protocol, but I guess, the speech resembling signal is more suitable for jamming of voice communications.

Cat-and-Mouse game on 6250 and 6350 kHz

It's interesting to watch that daily cat-and-mouse game on 6250/6255 and 6350/6355 kHz where COTB station Echo of Hope runs away from North Korean jammer. Recently the station has changed its frequency to 6255 kHz, but jammer followed it. The similar "game" can be observed 100 kHz upward.

I hear the Echo of Hope on 6250 kHz and behindhand noise jammer on 6255 kHz at the moment recalling the same situation with Kurdish clandestine broadcasters and Iranian bubble jammer near 4 MHz in the late 1990s.

How russian navy jams international distress channels

Not a new logging this time, but a cautionary tale about stupid and irresponsible using of the HF resource by armed forces of the country where such behaviour is a style of life over the centuries. That’s why I decided to use screenshots from remote SDRs to illustrate the fragrant cases of GMDSS channels jamming.

There is a set of frequencies allocated for GMDSS (Global Maritime Distress and Safety System) on MF and HF bands for short- and long-distance distress calls:

Band            For voice calls:        For DSC (digital selective calling) signals:

MF              2182.0  kHz             2187.5  kHz
HF 4  MHz       4125.0  kHz             4207.5  kHz
HF 6  MHz       6215.0  kHz             6312.0  kHz
HF 8  MHz       8291.0  kHz             8414.5  kHz
HF 12 MHz       12290.0 kHz             12577.0 kHz
HF 16 MHz       16420.0 kHz             16804.5 kHz

All the channels are designated for emergency communication by international agreement and being monitored by the Maritime Rescue Coordination Centres all over the world. They must be kept clear of other QRMing signals.

However, not all countries follow the international agreements, endangering the lives of people across the seas and oceans. They make interference on the mentioned frequencies now and then, as it can be seen on the following screenshot made on 11^th of August 2019 at about 17.30 UTC:

Here is typical CIS-12 (aka FIRE, MS5) PSK signal on 6311 kHz produced by AT-3004D and AT-3104D military 12-tone multi-channel modems used by russian armed forces. One can see a characteristic carrier (pilot-tone) on 6314.3 kHz as well as 12 subcarriers with 200 Hz spacing between them. The wideband CIS-12 signal is interfering with DSC call of more narrow spectrum which is also visible under CIS-12 on the distress frequency of 6312 kHz.

TDoA analysis showed that source of the signal is located in North Sea, between U.K., Denmark and Norway. That was some warship with approximate coordinates of 56.65 N, 02.05 E:

The Twente University web-SDR in Enschede has a great feature to store 24 hours waterfall for entire 0 to 29160 kHz frequency spectrum daily. It’s a good opportunity to check some signal’s history for some concrete day. The following screenshot demonstrates dynamics of evening signals strength on 5900 – 6550 kHz frequency range. The CIS-12 signal on 6311 kHz is marked by red arrow and red strips at the beginning and end of jamming period.

So, one can see that the jamming of the international distress channel started at about 14.40 UTC, stopped at 18.20 UTC approximately and lasted for about 4 hours:

6 MHz HF DSC channel is still in use in European countries, including northern part of the continent. According to the loggings from DXers in Classaxe Database, these European MRCCs were active on 6312 kHz in year 2019:

DSC ID         Station                             ITU    Last Logged
002070810      Varna Radio                         BUL    2019-08-21
002371000      Olympia Radio                       GRC    2019-08-21
002387010      Rijeka Radio                        HRV    2019-07-16
002392000      Piraeus Radio                       GRC    2019-02-07
002640570      Constanta Radio                     ROU    2019-07-15
002734417      Kalinigrad Radio                    KAL    2019-03-27
002750100      Rig Rescue Radio                    LVA    2019-05-18
002770330      Klaipeda RCC                        LTU    2019-05-18
219015591      Sailor Examiner XPE3307 Pandrup     DNK    2019-07-17
219016306      Simac-1 XPE3817 Svendborg           DNK    2019-03-18
228040600      Test ANFR SR Donges                 F      2019-08-13

By the way, this is not only case of distress channels jamming. The similar interference was also observed on the voice call frequency of 6215 kHz on 23^rd of April 2019 at 18.10 UTC (thanks to my DX-colleague Ray from France for this screenshot from Twente University web-SDR):

Here is the same CIS-12 mode signal of russian military modem on 6213 kHz. Unfortunately, the TDoA analysis was not fulfilled that time. The jamming took place from about 14.40 till 15.20 UTC and from about 17.30 till 19.05 UTC that day:

Conclusion: there are two ways to stop such dirty tricks in light of recent events: 1) to impose more and more new serious sanctions which will destroy putin’s criminal regime and his army of malicious fools; 2) to wait till the russian armed forces destroy themselves in future military exercises.

Ukrainian Radio Signal from Chaplynka and Chongar Towers Blocked in North of Crimea

A signal of seven Ukrainian radio-broadcasting stations in 20 settlements of the Northern Crimea is blacked out by a signal of Russian FM radio stations.

This is an outcome of the Crimean Human Rights Group (CHRG) monitoring held in March – April 2019.

The CHRG monitors checked 13 broadcast frequencies of 7 Ukrainian radio stations granted a permission of the National TV and Radio Broadcasting Council to broadcast on the territory of the Northern Crimean from settlements of Chongar and Chaplynka controlled by Ukraine and located close to the administrative border.

The monitoring was carried out with car audio units in the settlements of Northern Crimea located in the vicinity of Chaplynka Check Point.

20 settlements were monitored: Nadezhyno. Krasnoarmeyskoye, Vishnevka, Krepkoye, Tankovoye, Proletarka, Krasnoperekopsk, Sovkhoznoye, Tavricheskoye, Risovoye, Pochetnoye, Perekop, Armiansk, Suvorovo, Piatikhatka, Karpova Balka, Filatovka, Ishun’, Tomashevka, Voinka.

As reported by Mr Sergey Kostinsky, a National TV and Radio Broadcasting Council representative, the National Council has licensed and allowed seven radio broadcasters to broadcast temporarily through a radio tower mounted in the settlement of Chaplynka.

★ ARMIA FM  96 MHz

★ KRYM REALII RADIO 98.6 MHz

★ NV RADIO 99.8 MHz

★ PROMIN’ UA RADIO (NSTU[1]) 106.4 MHz

★ Meydan FM  102.3 MHz

★ PERETS FM, STIL’NOYE 96.4 FM

★ KULTURA UA RADIO (NSTU)  95.3

The monitoring outcomes showed that as at early April 2019 the signal of two of these stations, and only in two settlements of 20 checked, was picked up at seven frequencies.

This being said, the Russian SPUTNIK v KRYMU radio is heard at Meydan FM  102.3 MHz frequency in 17 settlements.

There is no signal in all 20 settlements at the KRYM REALII RADIO 98.6 MHz frequency.

There is no signal at ARMIA FM  96 MHz frequency.

PERETS FM at 96.4 FM is heard only in one settlement of 20, with the Russian MORE Radio broadcasting at this frequency in 18 settlements.

There is no signal at NV RADIO 99.8 MHz frequency.

KULTURA Radio is heard only in 2 settlements of 20, with the Russian KRYM Radio broadcasting at this frequency in 17 settlements from the monitoring list.

At 106.4 MHz frequency the VATAN SEDASY radio controlled by the occupation authorities is heard in 19 settlements instead of the PROMIN’ Radio, with no signal at all in one settlement.

The signal of these Ukrainian radio broadcasting stations in these settlements is also blocked on other frequencies granted to them for broadcasting from Chongar.

ARMIA FM Radio is heard at these frequencies in 3 settlements, while the Russian KRYM Radio is heard in 17.

KRYM. REALII Radio, at the frequency for broadcasting from Chongar, is heard in 4 settlements of 20, with the Russian VESTI FM Radio broadcasting at this frequency in 16.

The MEYDAN Radio at the frequency the station was granted to broadcast from Chongar Radio Tower is heard jammed only in one settlement, with the signal of the Russian KRYM Radio broadcasted in other 19 settlements at this frequency.

NV RADIO at the Chongar broadcasting frequency is heard in 8 settlements from the list, with the Russian MORE radio blacking out its signal in other 12.

PERETS FM Radio is heard in 4 settlements at the frequency granted to broadcast from Kherson.

And in all 20 settlements the Russian VESTI FM radio is broadcast instead of PROMIN’ Radio at the Chongar broadcasting frequency.

Based on the monitoring outcomes, one may conclude that the Crimean occupation authorities have been blacking out deliberately the signal of Ukrainian broadcasters through, inter alia, switching the Russian radio stations at the same frequencies. 

We would remind that in November 2018 the Crimean Human Rights Group monitored already the broadcasting of Ukrainian radio stations in Crimea. That time broadcasting of radio stations in 13 settlements at 8 frequencies was checked. The monitoring also confirmed a consistent blocking of the Ukrainian radio signal in Crimea by switching the Russian FM stations at these frequencies.

[1] National Public Broadcasting Company of Ukraine

Source: https://crimeahrg.org/uk/ukra-nskij-radiosignal-z-vishok-chaplinka-ta-chongar-bloku-tsya-na-pivnochi-krimu/