Thank you to the Wavescan staff for this nostalic story on the Global War on Terror.
Jeff: Just over 20 years ago, shortwave radio regained strategic importance in 2004 and 2005 during the so-called “Global War on Terror.” Here’s Ray Robinson in Los Angeles to remind us of what happened.
Ray: Thanks, Jeff. This is a story that I must admit passed me by at the time, but Dr. Martin van der Ven in Germany recently drew my attention to it, and I found it had been written about quite extensively at the time on the DXing.info website, in Radio World, Monitoring Times and in other radio journals. So, what happened?
Well, one of the more unusual and historically significant examples of the revival of shortwave radio during that period was the establishment of Coalition Maritime Forces – Radio One (or CMF Radio One), a low-power shortwave broadcasting service operated by the United States Navy through its Maritime Liaison Office (MARLO), headquartered in Bahrain. Beginning in April 2004, this operation combined elements of psychological operations (or ‘psyops’), maritime security communications, and traditional radio broadcasting, targeting seafarers across the Persian Gulf, Gulf of Oman, Arabian Sea, and beyond. And the interesting thing was that the broadcasts came from ships.
Origins and Official Disclosure (April 2004)
The existence of the broadcasts first came to public attention through a navigational warning rather than a conventional media announcement. On April 20, 2004, the U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (the ‘NGA’) published a notice, intended for mariners operating in the Persian Gulf, explicitly announcing that “Coalition Maritime Broadcasts” had commenced on shortwave radio as of April 15, 2004.
According to the official text, the broadcasts were initiated “in response to all mariners that have helped Coalition Maritime Forces in the Global War on Terror” and as a means to build broader engagement with regional audiences.
Programming consisted primarily of popular regional and international music, interspersed with informational segments in Arabic, Farsi, Hindi, Pashto, Urdu, and English. The purpose of the broadcasts was to urge seafarers to report terrorist activity conducted at sea.
At first, two daily transmission windows were specified: a morning broadcast from 0300 to 0800 UTC on 6125 kHz, and an early evening broadcast from 1400 to 1900 UTC on 15500 kHz. Although the original web page hosting the warning was subsequently deleted, cached versions preserved by Internet archive sites and reports from DX enthusiasts confirmed the authenticity of the announcement.
MARLO and the Strategic Context
The broadcasts were coordinated by the Maritime Liaison Office (MARLO), an organization established to facilitate information exchange between the United States Navy and the commercial shipping community within the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) area of responsibility. MARLO’s stated mission emphasized maritime safety, situational awareness, and cooperation with civilian seafarers – an especially critical concern in the post-9/11 security environment, where fears of maritime terrorism, attacks on oil terminals, and the use of shipping lanes by non-state actors were prominent.
Radio Netherlands and later BBC Monitoring independently confirmed MARLO’s role, noting that the broadcasts were part of a broader effort to encourage voluntary intelligence sharing from seafarers. The informational segments also promoted the U.S. “Rewards for Justice” program, which offered financial incentives for information preventing or resolving terrorist acts.
Technical Characteristics and Early Monitoring
The transmissions originated from coalition naval vessels operating in the Gulf of Oman and the northern Arabian Sea, using single-sideband transmitters with a power output of only about 250 watts. Such low power, combined with shortwave propagation characteristics and skip zones, meant reception was variable, and the broadcasts were difficult for the international DX community to monitor.
Nevertheless, by early May 2004, reception reports did begin to emerge from Europe. On May 4, 2004, Finnish DXer Jari Savolainen reported hearing an upper sideband (USB) transmission on 15500 kHz featuring continuous Middle Eastern and South Asian music, with intermittent announcements in Urdu or Hindi and English, including a U.S. toll-free telephone number associated with the Rewards for Justice program. This was an especially difficult catch, not only because of the low power being used, but also because Radio Kuwait was broadcasting at the time on the two split-channels 5 kHz above and below 15500 – 15495 and 15505 kHz.
But, all the evidence suggested that the broadcasts were not merely informational but constituted a form of psychological operations (‘psyops’), in a similar manner to the earlier ‘Information Radio’ broadcast by US forces from airborne medium wave and FM ‘Commando Solo’ transmitters over Iraq the previous year.
In 2005, a significant operational change occurred with the introduction of a new frequency: 9133 kHz (USB). This frequency offered improved reception in Europe and the eastern Mediterranean, as confirmed by numerous DX reports from Sweden, Austria, and Finland. BBC Monitoring formally documented broadcasts on 9133 kHz on May 1, 2005, noting Afghan and Arabic music interspersed with appeals for information related to terrorist activities, including specific references to Iraqi oil terminals. Here’s an audio clip of one such announcement in English, providing instructions on how listeners could assist coalition forces by identifying and reporting terrorist activity at sea. The speaker has a heavy Middle Eastern accent:
To hear the audio clip, go to: https://www.podomatic.com/podcasts/wavescan
“Thank you for listening to Coalition Maritime Forces Radio One. This broadcast is conducted continuously throughout the term of the violence around the world. Tune to CMF Radio One anytime on 6125 kHz, 9133 kHz or 15500 kHz. If you have any information regarding terrorist or illegal activities, please contact any coalition forces or coalition embassy, or by telephone to 001-800-877-3927, or email at mail@rewardsforjustice.net. Your identity will be protected.”
Under the ‘Rewards for Justice’ program, the U.S.A. offered financial rewards for information that prevented or favorably resolved acts of terrorism against the United States. It is known that one unnamed Iraqi received US$1 million through the program for information that led to the arrest of Khamis Sirhan al-Muhammad, a Baath Party regional chairman and Iraqi insurgent leader.
Interaction with the DX Community and QSL Confirmations
Unusually for a military-linked broadcaster, CMF Radio One demonstrated a degree of openness toward the DX community. In April 2005, Chief Warrant Officer Matthew Wilson of the U.S. Navy responded to listeners directly, thanking them for reception reports and soliciting further feedback on signal quality. This correspondence confirmed active use at that time of 6125 kHz and 9133 kHz, with plans to return to 15500 kHz.
Several DXers received official QSL confirmations, including written replies from U.S. Naval Forces Central Command and the U.S. Fifth Fleet. These confirmations, often signed by senior officers, conclusively established CMF Radio One as an official U.S. Navy operation rather than an ad hoc or clandestine broadcaster.
Historical Significance
Coalition Maritime Forces Radio One, which continued well into 2005, represented a rare modern example of ship-based shortwave broadcasting used for strategic communication rather than entertainment or public diplomacy alone. It stands at the intersection of naval operations, intelligence gathering, psychological operations, and the long tradition of broadcasting from International Waters. Its technical scale was modest, of course, and we could ask the questions, given the low power, odd choice of frequencies and use of single sideband – were they really serious about reaching an audience, and was anyone actually listening (besides a few DXers)? But, the mere existence of this station does underscore how legacy technology such as shortwave radio can continue to play a role in twenty-first-century security operations – particularly in environments such as present-day Iran and North Korea, where internet and satellite communications cannot be assumed.
Back to you, Jeff.
(Ray Robinson/Jeff white/Wavescan
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