Cuban government apologizes to Montreal-area family after delivering wrong body
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
In a world of mobile phones, satellites and the internet, some old school technology is making a major comeback. The shortwave radio, used by spies for decades to send encrypted messages, is being resurrected for the war in Ukraine.
According to Dr. Andrew Hammond, curator and historian at Washington, D.C.’s International Spy Museum, the shortwave radio “is a classic tool that was used for espionage.
“With a shortwave radio like this, you can transmit information over huge distances,” he told CTV National News.
But now, decades later, shortwave is coming back into use.
After Russia attacked communication towers in Ukraine, the BBC went old school, broadcasting their news service on the shortwave frequency to counter Russian propaganda about the war.
"The BBC is using it to transmit it because it's a lot harder to block those transmissions,” John Figliozzi, a shortwave radio expert and author of the book ‘The Worldwide Listening Guide,’ told CTV National News. “It's an old technology, but it works.”
Used in conflict zones, shortwave is less complicated than other communication avenues, and travels further than TV or cell phones.
Radio waves are electromagnetic signals that can be broadcast and for others to tune into by tuning a radio to the correct frequency, such as tuning your car radio into AM or FM chanels.
Shortwave radios tune into a range of frequencies that includes all of the high frequency bands, among others. When shortwave transmissions are directed at an angle into the sky, they bounce off of a layer of atoms in the atmosphere called the ionosphere, allowing them to travel beyond the horizon, much farther than other radio waves that are limited by having to transmit in a straight line.
Over the past few months, amateur radio hobbyists have used shortwave to pick up Russian soldiers openly discussing battle plans. Anti war protestors have also used it to ‘troll’ the Russian military, by blasting the Ukrainian national anthem or jamming their channels with annoying ear worms.
“Just from this little box,” Hammond said. “And during the Cold War, this little box came into its own.”
While shortwave was used back in the First World War, it became more widespread in the Cold War era, when the U.S. and the Soviet Union were highly invested in hearing each other’s secret communications and hiding their own.
Shortwave changed the way spies communicate, sending cryptic messages on so-called number stations which were traced to governments all over the world.
If you tuned in to one of these number stations at the right time, a mysterious monotone voice would read out what seemed to be random numbers.
One of the ways to understand these transmissions was by using a cipher key called a one-time pad, which allowed the intended recipient to crack the code.
And it’s still used by modern day Russian spies, including a husband and wife team who had been posing as Canadians for two decades and were arrested in Boston in 2010, inspiring the hit series, ‘The Americans’.
"The shortwave radio is unbreakable,” Hammond said. “So you know that's a pretty powerful tool.”
But could shortwave make a difference in Ukraine?
“You know necessity is the mother of invention right?” said Figliozzi. “If you need to get through, you’re going to try anything.”
Sending signals and listening — with a tool from the past, reborn.
Cuba's foreign affairs minister has apologized to a Montreal-area family after they were sent the wrong body following the death of a loved one.
The federal government's proposed change to capital gains taxation is expected to increase taxes on investments and mainly affect wealthy Canadians and businesses. Here's what you need to know about the move.
On a night she should have been mourning, a nurse from Quebec's Laurentians region says she was forced to clean up her husband after he died at a hospital in Montreal.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is accusing Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre of welcoming 'the support of conspiracy theorists and extremists,' after the Conservative leader was photographed meeting with protesters, which his office has defended.
"It's a bit of a complicated pattern; we've got a lot going on," said Jennifer Smith of the Meteorological Service of Canada in an interview with CTVNews.ca on Wednesday. "[As is] typical with weather, all of these things are related."
Boeing said Wednesday that it lost US$355 million on falling revenue in the first quarter, another sign of the crisis gripping the aircraft manufacturer as it faces increasing scrutiny over the safety of its planes and accusations of shoddy work from a growing number of whistleblowers.
Police tangled with student demonstrators in Texas and California while new encampments sprouted Wednesday at Harvard and other colleges as school leaders sought ways to defuse a growing wave of pro-Palestinian protests.
Members of the Bank of Canada's governing council were split on how long the central bank should wait before it starts cutting interest rates when they met earlier this month.
A North Bay, Ont., lawyer who abandoned 15 clients – many of them child protection cases – has lost his licence to practise law.
A property tax bill is perplexing a small townhouse community in Fergus, Ont.
When identical twin sisters Kim and Michelle Krezonoski were invited to compete against some of the world’s most elite female runners at last week’s Boston Marathon, they were in disbelief.
The giant stone statues guarding the Lions Gate Bridge have been dressed in custom Vancouver Canucks jerseys as the NHL playoffs get underway.
A local Oilers fan is hoping to see his team cut through the postseason, so he can cut his hair.
A family from Laval, Que. is looking for answers... and their father's body. He died on vacation in Cuba and authorities sent someone else's body back to Canada.
A former educational assistant is calling attention to the rising violence in Alberta's classrooms.
The federal government says its plan to increase taxes on capital gains is aimed at wealthy Canadians to achieve “tax fairness.”
At 6'8" and 350 pounds, there is nothing typical about UBC offensive lineman Giovanni Manu, who was born in Tonga and went to high school in Pitt Meadows.
Kevin the cat has been reunited with his family after enduring a harrowing three-day ordeal while lost at Toronto Pearson International Airport earlier this week.