Talk:Broadcasting in the Soviet Union

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About short-wave listeners... Couldn't they have just written down the frequencies of broadcast soviet radio? Or if they didn't write them down, wouldn't they have to memorize the frequency, even if it were announced over the air? I've memorized my local AM sports talk station (680), does that make them part of some kind of commie plot? Tafinucane 23:35, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

They could, but not really. Let me explain. I'm sorry if you don't know SWL terminology, but occasionally I have to use it.

There was an article in the 1998 edition of "Passport to World Band Radio" that talked about vintage radios, such as the old Philcos. Apparently, back in the Cold War era many countries created propaganda stations that aimed their signals at each other. (An example would be Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.) Each country believed that their ideology, whether it was democracy (the First World nations) or communism (the Second World nations), and they tried to state that in their stations. This lent itself to two interesting situations.

The Soviet Union, I believe, never published details of the frequencies of their domestic radio stations and particularily Radio Moscow. I am assuming that they believe that it was a state secret and thus did not want it to be leaked. However, there are some interesting situations regarding the so-called "state secrets". For example, according to a report on Central Asian shortwave radio stations by Mansoji Guha in a recent edition of "Passport to World Band Radio", Kazakhstan considers the frequencies for their national radio service to be a state secret, yet the frequencies are listed in their official newspaper (known, interestingly, as "Kazakh Pravda", if translated into English). This would mean that you would have to find the frequency yourself (which would be a miracle if you got a domestic station, such as Radio Mayak, and also for Radio Moscow, which used very mighty transmitters (so does the modern-day Voice of Russia), then write it down. Now, if you were an official contributor/monitor for a publication like, i.e., WRTH, then the frequencies that you found a service on would be of great value to other SWLs.

One example of the "state secret" thing in the US is with the LW band. In Europe and North Africa, LW is used for broadcasting. However, most radios sold in the Americas don't have LW included, because they are used for airport beacons. If the sunspot cycle/ionospheric conditions were timed perfectly, then you could pick up BBC Radio 4 or NRK (Norwegian radio), but very faintly. However, the FCC does not want you to use the LW band because of the airport beacons.

This is when it gets interesting. If you QSLed (verified via a reception report to a station) a station in a Second World country (i.e. Radio Moscow, Radio Habana Cuba, the Voice of Vietnam, Radio Peking/Radio Beijing, etc.), then not only did you get that station's QSL card, you would also get goodies that almost resulted as propaganda. Now, remember that in the 1950s, the blacklist and McCarthyism was all the rage, so if you received goodies postmarked from, say, the RSFSR, you were deemed to be a Commie. Thus, if you did not want to be branded as a Commie, you simply did not QSL the station.

I hope this clarified things a bit. So yes, you were partially right, but I hope this made that section of the article a bit better. If it isn't, let me know on my talk page. -Daniel Blanchette 01:52, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

You the man boy. Thank you for your detailed explanation. Tafinucane 20:25, 22 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Image faceing

The lead image of Valentina Leontieva looking intently to the right, off into space, drawing our attention away from the article, to the edge of our computer monitor, is a good example of "image facing" (see image style guidelines) -- and how not to face an image (peoples faces should be turned looking into the text). However, very rarely, there comes a time when it's artistically appropriate to stare off into empty space at nothing, and this article might be that singular case in a thousand. I hope it was purposeful and not an accident, it sends a powerful message about the subject matter. --Stbalbach 23:41, 19 December 2005 (UTC)

I did not put the image there, sorry. Can't help you out. -Daniel Blanchette 01:52, 21 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Good article

Would need some citations. - Francis Tyers · 16:39, 5 March 2007 (UTC)