Cuddling the Communists

The Voice of America last week described some of its more effective technical tricks for getting its programs to listeners in the U.S.S.R. One trick: slipping its broadcasts in alongside Russian programs on a neighboring channel.

The Soviet government, explained Chief Engineer George Herrick, needs some wave bands for its own purposes; it cannot well afford to jam all the frequencies all the time. Its need for air room is accentuated by the fact that Russia has few long-distance telegraph or telephone lines. Cities get along with three or four circuits instead of the 200 or so that connect comparable cities in the U.S. To make up for this lack, the Russians use high-frequency radio. U.S.S.R.-wide broadcast hookups, much needed for the Kremlin's round-the-clock pep talks, are sent out to local stations over the air instead of over land-line circuits.

The situation is convenient for the VOA, whose engineers note which frequencies the Russians are using in their internal communications. Then the VOA "cuddles" close beside the Russians' frequency, sending its messages on adjacent wave bands. The Soviet jammers cannot block the news from outside without blocking their own messages too. When the Russians switch to another band, the VOA follows, cuddling close by.

Another trick, says Herrick, is to broadcast the important news slowly (ten-to-twelve words a minute) in International Code. A great many Russians, Herrick believes, learned to receive code during the war. The jammers try to block this, too, but code is harder to jam than voice transmission.

For the Russian radio listener, it is no easy job to follow the VOA. He must keep his hand on his tuning knobs and skip from frequency to frequency as the battle of the wave bands rages over his head. Do many try? Herrick thinks they do. Like any other people, he says, the Russians enjoy doing something the government tells them not to.

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