As US Congress seeks to mandate AM radio in cars as a communications safety feature, Israel’s Ministry of Communications has brought back nationwide AM radio reception during emergencies. AM signals can reach bomb-proof areas and air raid shelters other signals cannot.
The transmitters are broadcasting Israeli Defense Force station Galei Zahal on 1,287 kHz in the north and on 945 kHz in the south on transmitters provided by telecommunications company Bezek.
Minister of Communications Dr. Shlomo Karai said, “As part of the process of making the air raid shelters in the towns and villages near the border and in the threatened areas of Judea and Samaria serviceable and as part of the introduction of communications infrastructure into the protected bomb proof areas, we are now allowing radio reception using AM transmitters that are more widely distributed…We realized that communications is an essential commodity and, in emergency situations, it can even save lives.”
Director General of the Ministry of Communications Maimon Shamila added, “The Ministry, assisted by the National Emergency Authority (Rachel), Bezek, and Israeli Defense Force Radio, acted to restore to service an additional capacity that will be used as an information channel for the needs of alerting, guiding and informing the public, so that we will be the most fully prepared that we can be, and hopefully that we will not need it.”
