The Voice of Russia -- the former "Radio Moscow" -- ended its shortwave broadcasts on Tuesday, April 1 -- No fooling! After contradictory announcements and reports last December, it appears the international broadcaster has indeed pulled the plug on its HF transmissions. SWL Tom Witherspoon, K4SWL, contacted VOR. As he
reported on his
blog, Voice of Russia's Elena Osipova told him, "This is to thank you for your message and confirm the information about the upcoming cancellation of the Voice of Russia's short- and medium wave transmissions as of April 1, 2014."
Richard Weil, KW0U, in St Paul, Minnesota, was able to hear the final shortwave broadcast. "Just barely picked up the last-day broadcast of VOR on 13.805 at 1300 UTC," he commented on Witherspoon's site. He used a dipole in his attic. "No mention on air of a final broadcast, which some services have given before closing down," he added. "Too bad to lose it, but time does move on."
Effective December 9, as a result of a decree signed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, the Voice of Russia radio company officially ceased to exist and merged with several other state-run news agencies as part of
Rossia Segodnya, a Russia-based international news service. From the 1950s through the 1980s, the station, then as Radio Moscow, was an easy catch for budding short-wave listeners (SWLs),
many of whom later gravitated to Amateur Radio.
"I remember when the
Voice of Russia and Radio Moscow absolutely dominated the shortwaves, especially in my early years as a radio listener," Witherspoon remarked on his blog. "Times have changed for this broadcaster, who has been the mouthpiece for Russia and the Soviet Union."In 2003 VOR was among the first major international radio broadcasters to launch daily broadcasts to Europe in Digital Radio Mondiale (
DRM).
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