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This seems like a pretty silly article. A shortwave radio station is a single point of failure. You can either physically interrupt the transmitter - convenien
by CraigJPerry 2y ago
This seems like a pretty silly article.
A shortwave radio station is a single point of failure. You can either physically interrupt the transmitter - conveniently it tells you exactly where it is the whole time it is transmitting. Or, you can broadcast interference.
The internet or digital communications does not share that same single point of failure.
- notepad0x90 2y agoI think you might be lacking imagination here. Frequency hopping algorithms can be used. Multiple transmitters, globally dispersed and coordinating with each other can deliver service. Shortwave can be digital. Not everything is a competition, other means of communication don't mean the internet has no use. Imagine being able to push micro-blogs to a local station and having it broadcasted globally over shortwave.
- Cthulhu_ 2y agoInterference is a problem for sure, but that's only in one potential scenario (open warfare with troops / interference broadcasting nearby); for all the other scenarios it's good to have a backup.
- lormayna 2y agoIt's not exactly like this. The localization is not easy, because the distances are huge (several thousands of kilometers) and shortwaves are bouncing over the atmosphere. Think about the number stations, that are still not localized after years. And even jamming it's not always easy: the Turkish government usually jam the Kurdish shortwave stations like Denge Welat targeting Europe, but they are moving up or down in frequency to avoid the jamming. Moreover, you need a lot of power to jam another station. Another advantage of the shortwave is that it don't require a complex hardware neither infrastructure to receive them: a rudimentary AM receiver is very simple to implement and can work also on battery for long time.