Sweden reports Russian jamming against Astra satellites

The Swedish Postal and Telecommunications Authority (Post- och telestyrelsen) has officially complained to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) in Geneva about disruptions to northern European satellite communications. This was reported by the US news website Bloomberg, citing a non-public letter from the Swedes to the ITU. According to the letter, the Swedish authority contacted the ITU on June 4, after the Russian government had already been confronted with the allegations on March 21. According to the Swedes, the disruptions began a few days after the country joined the NATO defense alliance on 7 March. As a UN body, the ITU monitors the allocation of radio frequencies worldwide, both terrestrial and satellite.

The radio interference affects the network of television satellites operated by the Luxembourg-based company SES, which is represented in the Scandinavian region by its subsidiary SES Sirius. Specifically, it appears to be the two satellites Astra 4A and SES-5, often referred to as Sirius 4 and 5, which provide satellite television to the whole of Central Europe at the 5° East position. The exact nature and origin of the interference is not known at this time, but only the Northern European region is affected. According to Bloomberg, the Swedes have asked for the interference to be put on the agenda of an ITU meeting starting next Monday. This is likely to be an upcoming meeting of the ITU's Radio Regulations Board in Geneva, which is responsible for reports on radio interference. Apparently France, the Netherlands and Luxembourg have also lodged complaints; meanwhile, a Kremlin spokesperson told Bloomberg that they knew nothing about the problems.

The radio war extends into space

Since the Russian invasion of western Ukraine in spring 2022, a radio war has been raging in Eastern Europe. It is not only military frequencies on Ukrainian soil that are being jammed, amateur radio operators are also jamming various frequencies inside and outside the conflict zone, such as the frequency of the well-known Russian military radio station UVB-76 (also known as "The Buzzer"). Propaganda messages are often broadcast, especially on shortwave. There are also frequent insults and verbal battles between Russians and Ukrainians. This has been a regular occurrence on the 40-meter band in particular since Russia's annexation of Crimea. The American Radio Relay League (ARRL) reported on this back in 2020.

Recently, satellite communication seems to be affected more and more often. Interference with navigation satellites –, especially with the US GPS system and the Russian GLONASS satellite, but also with the European Galileo and Chinese Beidou satellite radio –, has been increasing since the beginning of the year. Amateur radio operators refer to this phenomenon as the "Baltic Jammer". Only recently, the Finnish airline Finnair had to suspend flights between Helsinki in Finland and Tartu in Estonia for weeks because of this. The German Amateur Radio Club (DARC) also reports GPS interference in the Baltic Sea region. In turn, amateur radio operators are repeatedly observing how the frequencies of the Russian military's Meridian communication satellites are also being disrupted.

(mma)