A Chinese Long March 3B rocket successfully placed the Chinasat-9 direct-broadcast television satellite into geostationary transfer orbit June 9 - a launch that caused public-relations discomfort for both Chinese authorities and satellite builder Thales Alenia Space, for different reasons. Chinasat 9, a Spacebus 4000 satellite platform, is expected to operate for 15 years at 92.2 degrees east longitude. Chinese government authorities have been upset with the French government in recent weeks following a demonstration-marred passage of the Olympic flame through Paris in April and the near-simultaneous decision by the Paris city council to make the Dalai Lama an honorary citizen - an act that the Chinese Foreign Ministry termed "a grave provocation." For that reason, industry officials said, China will not be drawing attention to the fact that Chinasat 9 was made in France. For Thales Alenia Space, the launch highlighted the fact that the French-Italian firm is alone among the world's major commercial satellite builders to be able to export satellites to China for launch on the Chinese rockets. The other manufacturers all use U.S.-built components whose export to China is barred by current U.S. technology-export policy. Competitors, particularly Space Systems/Loral of Palo Alto, Calif., have sought to put pressure on Thales Alenia Space by stimulating congressional action that would make it difficult for Thales North America - part of the same Thales Group that owns a majority share in Thales Alenia Space - to win U.S. Defense Department business unless it refuses to export satellites to China. No one has alleged that Thales Alenia Space has violated any U.S. laws, but Thales officials nonetheless have elected to apply discretion when talking about the company's Chinese satellite customers, or non-Chinese customers who have chosen to use the Chinese launch vehicle. The situation was far different in 2004, when the $145 million Chinasat 9 contract was signed in the presence of China's vice premier and the French prime minister. Chinasat 9 carries 18 36-megahertz Ku-band transponders and four 54-megahertz Ku-band transponders. It will be operated by China Satcom, notably to broadcast Olympic Games events.

This is the studio version of the music used by the Chinese Government to jam international broadcasters. It was taken off of Chinasat 6B,which is used by China National Radio 8 (CNR8). This music is fed to various transmitter sites around China to jam the broadcasts of Voice Of America, BBC World Service, Radio France International, Radio Deutsche Welle, Radio Canada International, Radio Taiwan International, Radio Free Asia and many many more.

Not many people in western nations regularly listen to shortwave radio. If you do, you have probably come across some operatic Chinese music. It never pauses to say what station it is, no news, no identification, or anything else. It's truly bizarre on first encounter. What you are in fact listening to is a jamming station operated by China. It can be found jamming foreign broadcast stations and even 'number stations' that are operated by the world's various intelligence agencies for coded one way communication with spies abroad. A demonstration of the jammer, including a prime example of it targeting Voice of America's Mandarin service - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwJgM595p4w http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1p1bxIKVurA Up around the 19m & 16m bands: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EcM3GLWX11M Recently found jamming the English version of Radio Singapore: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqlsesOo4fY A relatively rare recording of a Chinese spy number station (not that they'd jam their own intelligence communiqués of course) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKMmgTDvgx4 It's very sporadic, and in one sweep turned up on these frequencies on June 9@13.40 UTC in NSW Australia: 6030kHz, 7105kHz, 7445kHz, 9600kHz, 10350kHz, 11605kHz, 11665kHz, 11785khz, 12040kHz, 15250kHz. There are other slots besides these, with one caught below 5000kHz on occasion. Frequencies that have been regular for weeks can suddenly disappear only to show up in other areas of the shortwave band. The music sampled in this clip was sourced from the Satdirectory website below, which itself was captured from the satellite used to feed Firedrake. http://www.satdirectory.com/firedrake.html The audio quality of shortwave would not have done the music justice. It is unknown when or who it was composed by. Other links of interest: http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSL318681420080331 http://www.mediachannel.org/wordpress/2008/04/03/tibet-exile-radio-says-china-jamming-it/ http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/04/02/europe/EU-GEN-Norway-Voice-of-Tibet.php

This video is a brief update on the working information we have to go by about the jammer - the company supplying China with the equipment used, the frequencies of stations it is jamming (which is relatively pointless because there are so many) and the general uneasy feeling about the whole thing. I was surprised by the interest in the Firedrake radio jammer - other people have heard it, and lots of people who listen to shortwave radio know it's there. Although, China hasn't mentioned anything publicly. No western government has said anything. It's pretty much business as usual. In the lead up to the Olympics, the jammer's use seems to be increasing. The music in this clip is my own simple compilation whipped up in Apple's GarageBand - think no more than 4 tracks! It has music from the Firedrake jammer in the background being ran through GarageBand's filters. Just over a month ago, China's regime also began exerting pressure on the one and only carrier of NTDTV, an independent news source, and cut off the satellite that it used to broadcast into China: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpCjpbrP9Ng http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VChnlx_Ph44 http://wikileaks.org/wiki/NTDTV_China_sat_channel_shutdown_transcript_2008 NTDTV themselves didn't bow to pressure, just the company that leases them use of the satellite. It's a worrying trend, and shortwave radio is just one more medium that China's government is actively blocking. Unlike flipping off a channel to a satellite, shortwave radio blocking requires much more resources - for an 'outdated' medium, the CPC are giving it a great deal of attention. As a side note, while many countries are cutting back or even eliminating their shortwave services and opting for internet streaming instead, China have maintained and even increased their shortwave presence. My original take on the Firedrake Jammer - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_xWyR0BANE