The BBC has been broadcasting on shortwave for decades - BBC World Service. The, somewhat hyperbolic, article implies this is somehow new and "WWII era". Many

The BBC has been broadcasting on shortwave for decades - BBC World Service. The, somewhat hyperbolic, article implies this is somehow new and "WWII era". Many counties around the world still use shortwave for various reasons - unofficial propaganda being one of them. The BBC World Service itself is and has been funded by the British government to promote its interests abroad.[1] The content is usually cultural in context. Sadly, many countries are also reducing or completely closing SW broadcasts entirely. What I find interesting, from a geopolitical point of view, is that the Chinese are everywhere on shortwave. Very strong signals from China Radio International [2] on many frequencies in every broadcast band that I listen to. CRI broadcast very professional sounding, western style, news and opinion programs to a global audience directly. Jamming of signals to try and prevent broadcasts being heard is probably also as old as AM radio itself once the powers that be recognised its value. The US also has the Voice of America [3] but, not being its target audience, the transmissions received by me tend to be weaker - I just may not be on the right band at the right time though. There is a reason number stations exist! [4] Its my opinion why even liberal, democratic countries seem paranoid about giving free access to the natural physical phenomenon of ionospheric radio propagation. The ability for citizens to have relatively unfettered broadcast access to a global audience outside of any control gives rise to IMHO undemocratic punishments of large fines or even prison. Most of the UK radio regulation is driven by commercial interests and the government control of radio spectrum for monitory gain. For context look back to the time of the North Sea radio pirates - anyone would think the pirate radio stations were terrorist organisations! [5] As a licensed ham radio operator I have the narrow privilege to talk to fellow operators, but if I step outside of those my license is in danger of being revoked. Ukraine banned its radio ham population from transmitting as soon as the invasion happened. I think this is standard practice by most governments. I fully agree with spectrum regulation though in the sense of band planning to keep mutual interference down, and fully understand the havoc a poorly spec'd transmitter can cause - but this is easy to solve technically. I do think there is a need for citizen broadcast bands to be established where there is a form of radio podcasts available to those who wish to meet the technical requirements - not hard as these are met by current, off the shelve transmitters - and put content literally "on the air". Anyway, who put governments in control of this natural resource? Sorry, I drifted off topic but I am fascinated by the politics of radio. [1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/2021/world-service-funding https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/2021/world-service-funding [2] http://chinaplus.cri.cn http://chinaplus.cri.cn [3] https://www.voanews.com https://www.voanews.com [4] https://www.numbers-stations.com https://www.numbers-stations.com [5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_radio_in_the_United_Kingdom https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_radio_in_the_United_Kin...