Voice of Russia

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A 1969 Radio Moscow QSL card

Voice of Russia is the Russian government's international radio broadcasting service. Its predecessor 'Radio Moscow' was the official international broadcasting station of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.

1 Early years
2 The Cold War years
3 Changes 1980s–1991
4 Transmission network
5 VOR output compared to other broadcasters
6 USSR Shortwave broadcasting milestones and innovations
- 6.1 See also
7 External links

[edit] Early years

Radio Moscow began broadcasting in 1922 with a transmitter station RV-1 in the Moscow region. In 1925 a second broadcasting centre came on air at Leningrad. Radio Moscow was broadcasting (on mediumwave and shortwave) in English, French, German, Italian and Arabic by 1939. Radio Moscow did express concern over the rise of Hitler in Germany during the 1930s, and its Italian mediumwave service specifically was jammed by an order of Mussolini during the late 1930s.

[edit] The Cold War years

The U.S. was first targeted by Radio Moscow during the early 1950s, with transmitters in the Moscow region. Later Western North America was targeted by the newly constructed Vladivostok and Magadan relay stations.

The first broadcasts to Africa went on the air in the late 1950s in English and French. In 1961 Radio Moscow for the first time spoke in three African languages: Amharic, Swahili and Hausa. Over time, listeners in Africa got a chance to tune in to Radio Moscow in another eight African languages.

The first centralized news bulletin went on the air in August 1963 and reached out to listeners all over the world. In the years of the Cold War most news reports and commentaries focused on the relations between the United States and Soviet Union.

In the 1970s the cream of Radio Moscow's commentator teams united in a radio journal, called "News and Views". Taking part in the ambitious project were Viktor Glazunov, Leonid Rassadin, Yuri Shalygin, Alexander Kushnir, Yuri Solton and Vladislav Chernukha. Over the years the journal grew into a major information and analytical program of the Radio Moscow foreign service.

[edit] Changes 1980s–1991

In the late 1970s its English language service was renamed Radio Moscow World Service, in order to compete with BBC World Service. The project was launched and supervised by a long-time Radio Moscow journalist and manager Alexander Evstafiev. Later a North American service, African service and even a "UK & Ireland" service (all in English) operated for a few hours per day alongside the regular (24 Hour) English World Service as well as services in other languages, the "Radio Peace and Progress" service and a small number of programmes from some of the USSR republics.

Broadcasting pro-Soviet propaganda was Radio Moscow's primary function. All programmes (except for short newsbreaks) had to be cleared by a "Programming Directorate", a form of censorship that was only removed in 1991.

At its peak, Radio Moscow broadcast in over 70 languages using transmitters in the Soviet Union, Eastern Europe, and Cuba.

Radio Moscow's interval signal was Moscow Nights, played on chimes. Since then, Voice of Russia World Service has used two further interval signals, Midnight in Moscow, a version played by Ricky King, and also its current signal, Pictures at an Exhibition by Mussorgsky.

One of the most popular programmes on air in the 1980s, due to its informal presentation that contrasted with most other shows, was the 'Listeners’ Request Club' hosted by prominent radio presenter Vasily Strelnikov. Another popular feature which began on Radio Moscow was Moscow Mailbag, which answered listeners' questions about the former Soviet Union and later about Russia. For almost five decades, between 1957 and 2005, the programme was presented by Joe Adamov, who was known for his command of the English language and his good humour.

Radio Moscow continued to broadcast until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, and was renamed the World Service of the Voice of Russia.

[edit] Transmission network

Radio Moscow's and Voice of Russia's shortwave (SW) transmission network has never been equalled in its transmission power, directivity and reach. During the stations peak in the 1980's the same programmes could often be heard on a dozen or more frequencies on the (heavily overcrowded) shortwave bands although the station never published its time/fequency schedule

The transmission network consisted of at least 30 high-power transmission sites (West to East, with first transmission dates):

Wachenbrunn, East Germany (1000 kW carrier power, MW)
Bolshakovo (2500 kW carrier power, MW)
Vilnius (site ceded to Lithuania, operated by Radio Vilnius)
Moscow (5 known high-power SW transmission sites)
Saint Petersburg (1961) [16 × 200-kW SW]
Volgograd
Yekaterinburg [9 × 100-kW SW]
Samara [6 × 250-kW SW, 3 × 200-kW SW, 7 × 100-kW SW]
Kamo, Armenia (site ceded to Armenia, but operated by RMOC)
Omsk
Arkhangelsk (Angarsk, 1971) [2 × 100-kW, 4 × 250-kW SW, 8 × 500-kW)
Tashkent (1000 kW carrier power?)
Krasnodar (1967) [8 × 100-kW SW, 8 × 500 kW SW]
Novosibirsk (1956) [17 × 100-kW SW, but 1000 kW carrier power capable]
Chita
Yakutsk
Komsomolsk-on-Amur
Dushanbe (1000 kW carrier power)
Vladivostok (1000 kW carrier power?)
Petropavlovsk-Magadan (1000 kW carrier power?)

The transmission network is partially documented here: http://www.tdp.info/rus.html

The Voice of Russia can also be heard online online.

[edit] VOR output compared to other broadcasters

For a comparison of VOR (RM) to other broadcasters see

Output of VOR (RM) compared to other broadcasters (1950-1996). Please convert to a Wiki 'Category table' if possible, adding 2006 in the final column.

[edit] USSR Shortwave broadcasting milestones and innovations

The USSR pioneered the use of HRS 8/8/1 antennas (horizontal dipole curtain, eight columns, eight rows, with electrically steerable pattern) for highly targeted shortwave broadcasting long before HRS 12/6/1 technology became available in the west. HRS 8/8/1 curtain arrays create a 10-degree beam of shortwave energy, and can provide a highly audible signal to a target area some 7,000 km away.

The full extent of Russia's shortwave antenna directivity research is unknown, although it is understood that some ionospheric heating experiments were carried out at the Kamo and Dushanbe relay stations in the late 1980s to 1990.

HRS 6/4/1 and HRS 12/6/1 curtain arrays are sold by an U.S. company TCI [1] in California. Marconi (UK) sold two HRS 6/4/1 antennas to Voice of America-BBG before terminating all sales and service for its longwave/mediumwave and shortwave products in the late 1990s.

The full list of available shortwave relay stations is only known by the Russian Ministry of Communications. These transmission facilities can be rented by contractual agreement. The Voice of America, Deutsche Welle and other international broadcasters have leased facilities in the past and currently possess lease agreements with Russia's MOC.

All shortwave relay station facilities in Russia and the former USSR are owned and operated by the Russian Ministry of Communications, with a few exceptions where the facilities were ceded to national governments.