Whatever Happened to Radio Moscow?

There was a time when you really did not need a receiver to hear Radio Moscow.

Hi-fi fans found that the inductance of the pick-up coil and the capacitance of the cable to it produced a resonance around 7MHz causing it to come out of the record player. Such was the power radiated in our direction.

The size of the Russian land mass meant transmitter sites could be placed to get the best signal almost anywhere. When the USSR became the CIS, most of these sites were lost as the new countries did not want to carry the voice of an old regime. The economics in the new regime can hardly support the powerhouse transmitters and a recent name change to The Voice of Russia adds to the confusion when looking for the old war-horse.

Try AOR's big-signal capability on 7,400kHz late in the evening and our sensitivity circa 17,780 and 15,560 around 1300GMT.

Some of the sites are still fed by a sideband link. Test our self-seeking filter symmetry on 12,175 USB, daytime and the selectivity on 4,860 via Tver as night falls bringing in all the European mobile comms co-channel.

And, of course, listen to Media Network from Radio Netherlands buying air-time on 1386, The Voice of Russia via Kaliningrad, Thursdays around 2152GMT.

We get our radio news and views and Moscow gets badly needed revenue. Funny how things change...