Radio Links and Deliberate Jamming

Radio jamming is an old practice, dating back theoretically to the dawn of radio communications. It is something that has become recognised in the zeitgeist of the Cold War and various conflicts around the world. This chapter looks at jamming fundamentals for communications jammers. The limitations in jammer power mean that it is necessary to have different methods to apply the jamming signal to different applications. The first type is the simplest. This is called ‘jam on tune’. When the target signal is changing frequency or there are multiple signals to jam, a swept jammer can be used. A different method of jamming a wide bandwidth is to use a barrage jammer. If more than one frequency needs to be jammed, an adaptive jammer can be used. There are many methods that can be used to protect communications against jamming attack. Controlled Vocabulary Terms Channel allocation; electronic warfare; radio frequency