Topic: The Kremlin Letter 1987 (Amateur Radio version) starring Glenn Baxter, ex-K1MAN

[W1RC]

I was going through some old amateur radio documents and found this in the May 1988 edition of the AM PRESS EXCHANGE, published from the early 1980s through 1995 by Don Chester, K4KYV.  It is still an amazing story even now, almost 30 years later.

Radio Moscow Moves

This Fall, the International Amateur Radio Network got bombed out by Radio Moscow on 7.290 mhz. Sunday evenings. A quick letter to Mr. Gorbachev on 12 October apparently brought a QSY on 1 November, 1987. See the following exchange of letters.... very interesting.

12 October 1987

Mr. Mikhail S. Gorbachev
The Kremlin
Moscow, U.S.S.R.

Dear Mr Gorbachev:

We broadcast amateur radio programming for 45 minutes every Sunday evening on 7.290 MHz. at 2300 GMT. Could you ask Radio Moscow to avoid this frequency and time so that our programming can be heard without interference by everyone world wide? As radio amateurs, we are quite restricted with respect to frequency availability wheras Radio Moscow has much less restriction and this perfectly reasonable request should present no problem for them.

Amateurs in the U.S.enjoy listening to Radio Moscow and we hope you will tune into our program and learn more about amateur radio and its role in emergency communications.

Thank you for your attention to this request and the best of good will from the United States.

Sincerely,

Glenn A. Baxter, P.E.

Registered Professional Engineer
I A R N Network Manager
cc: Radio Moscow

 
MOSCOW, U.S.S.R.
22 January, 1988
4-9/ 103

Mr Glenn A. Baxter
Long Point Lodge,
Belgrade Lakes, ME 04918
U.S.A.

Dear Mr Baxter. Your complaint about the interference experienced by radio hams in the United States on 7,290 kHz between 23:00 and 23:45 UTC has been considered by the Technical Board of Radio Moscow.

Radio Moscow does not broadcast to the United States on 7,290 kHz at the time you indicated.

Starting from November 1, 1987, Radio Moscow has been broadcasting on that frequency between 12:00 and 22:30 UTC to Zone 28 -Europe) and between 15:30 and 22:00 UTC to Zone 26 (the Chukot Peninsula) in keeping with our application registered with the International Telecommunication Union.

As you can see, Radio Moscow has not been broadcasting on 7,290 kHz between 23:00 and 24:00 UTC since November 1, 1987. We hope that at the moment radio-hams in the United States are not experiencing any problems caused by interference from our radio stations on that frequency.

Respectfully,

Iver I Kezbers, Deputy Chairman of the USSR State Committee for Radio and Television

You gotta hand it to old Glenn B, ex-K1MAN!  The man has BAs!  Not long after this Glenn complained to the Air Force that the Soviets were overflying his QTH at Belgrade Lakes ME, spying on him.

Don'tcha just love this stuff!