The Kiev Buzz Saw

The signal, according to some radio operators who have heard it ratcheting over their headsets, sounds like a buzz saw. Others have compared the racket with the sound of an electric mixer or the continuous firing of machine guns. Since July, short-wave radio operators in Europe, the U.S. and elsewhere have been tormented by a mysterious radio beam that Western intelligence sources say emanates from what is probably the world's most powerful transmitter: a 2 million-watt Soviet military radar station near Kiev.

The behemoth is apparently part of a Soviet effort to develop long-distance, over-the-horizon radar. Its signal, which pulses ten times a second, is four times more powerful than the most potent civilian radio stations; sometimes it is augmented by a smaller transmitter near the Black Sea town of Nikolayev.

Aching eardrums are the least of the problems caused by the Soviet signal. Norwegian ship-to-shore radio has been blocked on occasion; telecommunications between Western nations and their embassies in Asia and the Middle East have been impeded. Radio operators as far away as Australia have been bothered by the transmissions.

Nicknamed the "monster" or "Ivan the Terrible," the Soviet station ranges across the standard short-wave radio band, sometimes jamming as many as 100 frequencies at once. Its directional beam sweeps across northern Europe and reflects off the Arctic ionosphere to scan the U.S. for missile launchings. Interference seems to be most severe in Scandinavia.

Scattered Bursts. With complaints streaming in from maritime, aeronautic and amateur radio operators, the U.S. Federal Communications Commission and European governments have dispatched stiff protests. Belatedly, the Russians concede that their "experiments" could "cause interference of short duration to radio facilities."

Although they are still operating it at full power, the Russians have cut back the Kiev buzz saw's schedule from hours at a time to scattered one-and two-minute bursts. To stem criticism, they are also dodging vital safety service and amateur frequencies. "It's become a cat-and-mouse game," says Douglas Spalt, an FCC treaty branch official. Meanwhile, Western states can do little else about the big noisemaker except ask for cooperation.

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