[HCDX] ``Mother of All Jammers`` corrected

["Glenn Hauser" <wghauser@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I have seen several DX bulletins reproducing the previous ARRL story about 
the ``Mother of All Jammers`` but not a word from four issues of DXLD, 
already linked on this list, correcting misinformation in that report. So 
here is the entire thread, and I hope everyone will notice it now. BTW, the 
ARRL corrected story at the end still does not go into the Kurdish angle 
(Glenn Hauser)

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** IRAQ/IRAN/KURDISTAN [Re: ARRL story via DXLD 1-002]

Glenn, A few comments to the recent discussion in DXLD about the
jammers in the 40 m HAM band.

I listened today (01/6/01) to the jammers in the 7020-7090 kHz range
and they appear to be the usual ones operated by Iran to counter the
Mojahedin propaganda broadcast from Iraq. I was not able to pick up
any programming, but evidently the Iranians did, as the jammers
changed frequency once in a while. Many Iranian jammers make a noise
that is unique for Iran.

According to the TDP, Iraq purchased a large number of 10 and 50 kW
RIZ (ex Siemens) transmitters in the early `80s, and I would
guess that several of these carry the Mojahedin broadcasts. The
transmitters always use frequencies that are even multiples of 10
kHz and they have good frequency precision. At irregular intervals
they change frequency at random within a given frequency slot for
each transmitter. The jammers will normally follow rather quickly
after a frequency change. At my place the Mojahedin transmitters
are never very strong - the jammers as a rule are much stronger and
will cover the Mojahedin signal with a high degree of kill, but
since the Mojahedin transmitters are likely to be using directional
antennas they will also be harder to counteract within Iran. When
audible, the Mojahedin programs are in Persian.

The Mojahedin operate quite a number of these frequency hopping
transmitters. Most often they can be traced from the accompanying
Iranian jammers. They are using frequencies in the outskirts of the
official SW bands or, in several cases, in between these bands.

A couple of years ago VOA Persian programs on 1548 (Kuwait) were also
jammed by the same kind of jammers. The wellknown Iraqi bubble
jammers were silenced for good during the Gulf war. 73 (Olle Alm,
Sweden, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

[Re: ARRL story via DXLD 1-002]

This item is confusing. While some of the Kurdish stations have
similar names, this item sounds like they are referring to the Voice
of the People of Kurdistan, the station of the Patriotic Union of
Kurdistan (PUK). This station has been on 6995 and 4061 as of late.
Here in Arizona they are heard around 1400 almost daily on these
frequencies. They don`t jump around and they certainly don`t sound
like they are jammed.
   While I wouldn`t say that the station or the PUK are pro-Saddam,
I wouldn`t say that they are anti-Saddam either. The winds are always
changing in this region and the various Kurdish groups will realign
themselves accordingly. The PUK station is certainly not the anti-
Saddam propaganda mouthpiece that the Iraqi government is fearful of
as described in the article. How could this station or any other
Iraqi Kurd station possibly be so? The Kurds of Iraq are a minority
and outcasts in Arab Iraq, hence their long struggle for an
independent Kurdistan. At least half of their programming is in
Kurdish, which most Iraqis don`t speak as they are Arabs. The Kurds`
goal is an independent Kurdistan, not a march on Baghdad. Having
listened to their Arabic news and programming for years, their focus
has been on putting the PUK in a good light and providing news of
what is going on in Iraqi Kurdistan. Additionally, this station has
always reported its transmitter site as As Sulaymaniyah, Iraq, not
Iran.
   Historically, the Iraqis have not jammed the various Kurdish
groups nor have any of these stations been known to jump frequencies
throughout a broadcast.
   What I do hear in this range is the Iraqi-based Voice of the
Mojahed, most recently on 7070. This one has a long-term pattern
of jumping around throughout its transmissions, usually 10 or 20 kHz
up or down every few minutes. This will happen right in mid-sentence.
There is also a long-term pattern of Iran jamming this one with a
passion. I have heard several jammers in this range over the last few
weeks- 7020 [also mentioned in the article] and 7060 are the most
persistent ones. This seems to be the jamming the ARRL is referring
to.
   It would have been nice if the article could have stated 1) how
the ARRL IDed the PUK station as what is being jammed; 2) how it
knows what the PUK station broadcasts; 3) How it knows this is coming
from Iran now. Finally, the article leaves the impression that this
jamming has only been going on a matter of months when it has been
happening for over a decade (Hans Johnson, AZ, Jan 6, Cumbre DX via
DXLD)

** IRAQ/IRAN/KURDISTAN. [Re: DXLD 1-002, 1-003] I doubt the jamming
you refer to is in any way connected with Voice of the People of
Kurdistan - which is a long-standing Kurdish domestic broadcaster
based in Sulaymaniyah, in the Kurdish autonomous area of northern
Iraq (Iraqi Kurdistan). It operates a very stable transmitter on 6995
kHz. It does not use 7100 kHz and certainly does NOT transmit from
Iran. Nor is it subject to jamming from Iraq. The source of your
frequency-hopping jammer is far more likely to be IRAN. The jamming
is probably aimed at the Iranian opposition station Voice of the
Mojahed which hops all over the place, including frequencies in the
40m ham band. Voice of the Mojahed has been around for many years
along with its frequency-hopping Iranian jammers, and is well known
to broadcast DXers. I am therefore very surprised that a respectable
organisation such as the ARRL should get it so wrong. Could you pass
this on to Brennan Price as I don't have his email address. 73s (Dave
Kenny, British DX Club, via Bill Smith, TX, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

I was just about to reply to this, to point out that the ARRL has got
things completely back-to-front, when I read the comments from Olle
Alm and Hans Johnson in Glenn Hausers`s DXLD 1-003. Olle and Hans
have got it absolutely right, so there is little more to be said.
These jammers are Iranian, not Iraqi, and are aimed at broadcasts out
of (not into) Iraq. And they (the broadcasts and the jamming) have
been going on for years, not months. As Hans says, Voice of the
People of Kurdistan has nothing to do with all of this. I wonder if
the ARRL would like to share the evidence that led them to "know
exactly what this is" (Chris Greenway, England, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

Some who hate to admit the ARRL could be so wrong question the
credentials of those quoted in this and previous issue. For those who
do not know: Chris Greenway and Dave Kenny both are professional
monitors working for BBC Monitoring (speaking for themselves here);
Olle Alm is a highly respected longtime monitor known for his
detailed observations of technical clues leading to the
identification of transmitter sites; Hans Johnson, head of Cumbre DX,
among other things, speaks Arabic. The facts could also have been
researched in a number of (non-amateur) DX publications. We expect to
see a correxion in the next edition of the ARRL Letter (gh, DXLD)

** IRAQ/IRAN/KURDISTAN. It appears that none of the four previous
contradictions to the ARRL article were ever sent to its author,
altho at least Dave Kenny requested that, until I forwarded them to
Larry Van Horn, and he to him, drawing this response: (gh)

Our normally very reliable sources had led us to believe it was the
other way around, although European SWLs are closer to the source of
the transmissions and are quite possibly more familiar with the
players involved. I suspect we`ve only recently begun hearing it in
the United States because we`re at the top of the cycle; Europe,
being closer, would have heard this sooner. Regardless, I stand by
the main point of the ARRLWeb article: these are intrusions with
strong political motivations, and are unlikely to go away until the
political climate changes (Brennan Price, N4QX, Field and Regulatory
Correspondent, American Radio Relay League, Jan 9, via Larry Van
Horn, DX LISTENING DIGEST)

** IRAQ/IRAN/KURDISTAN. Hi, Bill. Over the last few days, I`ve
satisfied myself that our report was in error. I am grateful to the
SWL DX community for being the first to call the error to our
attention, and we are working on a correction.

I don`t mean to blame our erroneous report on the sunspot cycle; I am
merely theorizing why our United States monitors have only recently
begun to report this intrusion, while many SWL DXers have been
hearing it for some time. Most hams don`t use optimal receiving
antennas, while most serious SWL DXers do, if I understand correctly.
Although, if this teaches me anything, it teaches me not to assume I
understand correctly. Thank you for your membership in ARRL.

73, (Brennan Price, N4QX, Field and Regulatory Correspondent,
American Radio Relay League, 860 594-0272 (work), reply to Bill
Smith, W5USM, via DXLD)

Who's Jamming Whom? Getting the Story Straight on the 40-Meter Jammers

NEWINGTON, CT, Jan 11, 2001--It turns out that the 40-meter "wobble-
and-buzz jammers" heard by many in the US over the past year or so
are Iranian stations that are attempting to block Iraqi stations --
not the other way around as recently reported (see "Mother of All
Jammers Continues to Plague 40 Meters" elsewhere on this page and in
The ARRL Letter, Vol 20, No 1). Several members of the monitoring
community had questioned the earlier ARRL report, which was based on
information from typically reliable sources.

"I began to doubt our information on January 8, when I received
second-hand reports from SWL DXers that the jammer and jammee were
backwards," said ARRL Monitoring System Coordinator Brennan Price,
N4QX. "Further investigation confirms their reports--that the jamming
signal is, indeed, from Iran, and the broadcast station is in Iraq."

Larry Van Horn, N5FPW, the assistant editor of Monitoring Times,
forwarded several SWL reports to ARRL that suggested the jamming
signals definitely were coming from Iran and already were well-known
within the monitoring community. SWL reports indicated that the
signals typically operate in the range from 7020 to 7090 kHz.

"That will teach me never to say, 'We know exactly what this is',"
Price said.

ARRL sources said this week that the object of the jamming is an
Iraqi pirate [sic] station -- which several SWLs identified as The
Voice of the Mojahadin -- broadcasting in Persian into Iran on
various 40-meter frequencies as well as in the Aeronautical Band. The
pirate station operates on a specific frequency -- or frequencies ?
until it`s spotted by the Iranians, who then attempt to jam the
signal. The broadcaster then hops to another frequency to avoid the
jamming, which explains why the jammer will suddenly pop up on a
frequency for several minutes at a time and then disappear.

"This will happen right in mid-sentence," one SWL reported. "There is
also a long-term pattern of Iran jamming this one with a passion. I
have heard several jammers in this range over the last few weeks."

IARU Region 2 Monitoring System Coordinator Martin Potter, VE3OAT,
concurs with the ARRL`s latest information. He says the Deutscher
Amateur Radio Club in Germany also has followed and reported on the
jamming activity. "It seems the SWLs are correct," he said.
"Strangely, I have never heard the target broadcast from Iraq, except
perhaps a weak carrier under the jammer -- but the jammer often puts
a thundering great signal into my antenna."

The jamming signals are broad and noisy. They typically land on
multiples of 10 kHz and occupy some 10 kHz of bandwidth.

The Iranian and the Iraqi governments are reported to have ignored
complaints by the US and the United Kingdom. Price says that in light
of the strained relations between the US and both Iran and Iraq,
there's not much hope that the problem will be resolved anytime soon.

"Even with the identity of the perpetrators reversed," Price said,
"the same political dynamic remains. The intrusions are unlikely to
go away until the political climate in the region changes."  (ARRL
via John Norfolk, DXLD)

Fine, but just one thing -- the anonymous ``SWLs`` were clearly
identified to N4QX, just as in DXLD, but hey, without alphanumerics
after or instead of their names, they`re not worthy of identifying?
(gh)

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