All posts by G4YRF

WW2 Spies & Double Agents

Stan Ames, G4OAV gave a talk about German spies active in the United Kingdom and the work involved in intercepting their communications to their handlers in Germany and attempts to turn them into double agents.

At the start of the war there was a “spy mania” with a poster campaign warning of the danger of careless talk. German agents were run by German Military Intelligence, the Abwehr, from near Hamburg. The Radio Security Services was established to try and intercept messages from the continent to German agents in the UK and to find the agents by direction finding. As well as intercept stations such as Hanslope Park equipped with HRO receivers individual listeners operated from their homes. Some of the members of the RSS were Radio Amateurs recruited through the RSGB. At the end of the war there were some 1200 listeners who listened in 2-3 hour spells to CW messages which included the Q code. Some of these intercepted messages were de-coded by Hugh Trevor-Roper without the aid of Bletchley Park.

One agent who was caught soon after landing by parachute near London Colney was Karl Richter. He was apprehended with £551 and US 1400 which he was to give to another German agent, known to the British as agent Tate. Richter was given the opportunity to become a double-agent but declined and was tried for treason and executed.

The first double-agent was a British battery salesman, known as agent Snow, who visited Germany before the war and was recruited by the Abwehr. On returning to Britain he told MI5 and became a double-agent, supplying identity cards to the Germans so they could be forged for use by German agents. These had subtle differences in the way the address was laid out that indicated to the British authorities that they were forged documents. The first radio message from the Abwehr to agent Snow was on 2 October 1939 requesting information on the disposition of RAF squadrons.

The most audacious double-agent was Juan Pajol, code name Garbo, who was recruited in Spain and flown to England. He managed to convince the Abwehr that he had a network of agents and supplied the Abwehr with many false reports of allied shipping movements.

Another double-agent was Eddie Chapman, code name Zigzag, who was a career criminal and was recruited by the Abwehr when he was released from prison in occupied Jersey. He was flown to England with the mission of sabotaging the de Havilland factory at Hatfield. Chapman was turned and the sabotage on the DH factory was faked to such an extent that an aerial reconnaissance flight convinced the Germans that the attack had been successful.

                                                        (report written by Owen, G0PHY for SADARS)

A WREN operating an HRO receiver

A WREN operates an HRO at Bletchley Park

3 Sept 2015 – What did you do in the Holidays?

Thanks to all who attended our first evening back! After a short update of club news, Bryan showed some excellent photos of his travels around the industrial north; lots of historic vehicles, steam machinery, buildings and the like. Paul, G8IUG thanked members for the get well card after his successful hip replacement. He went on to show items he was most pleased to have purchased at a local rally. Brian, G8GHR brought a display of colourful QSL cards all showing Morse keys, along with a good selection of Morse keys for members to check out. The silver Vibroplex seemed to attract the most attention!

16 July 2015 – CERN by Eddie Erbes

photo by CERN
photo by CERN

Eddie, M0HDK, gave a talk covering CERN (The European Centre for Nuclear Research) and a brief history of nuclear physics.

CERN was established in 1954 at Meyrin, Switzerland and is the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. There are 22 members (The UK contributes 146.96 million Swiss Francs or 12.5% of the budget, the biggest contributor is Germany contributing 18.6% of the budget). There are 2,400 full time employees, 1,500 part time employees and up to 10,000 visiting scientists.

CERN is the home of the Large Hadron Collider housed in a 27 km circumference tunnel that straddles the Franco-Swiss border. Following a two –year break for maintenance the LHC re-started in April this year. The most well-known discovery was the Higgs Boson particle in March 2010.

Eddie then covered the work of John Dalton in the development of modern atomic theory; the work of Mendeleev on the periodic table, then moved on to Thomson and Rutherford and Dirac and covered quantum mechanics and antimatter. Eddie also covered the development of cyclotrons, cloud chambers, spark chambers, bubble chambers and linear accelerators.                                          ( Text by Owen, G0PHY)

 

Eddie shows the building blocks of particles and their interactions.
Eddie shows the building blocks of particles and their interactions.             (Photo by Paul G1GSN)

 

 

9 July 2015 – 2M Pedestrian DF Hunt at Shefford

The fox signal was provided by Martin, M6SCI and Ian, G3ORG. The hunt started at 20:00 with the fox transmitting one watt for one minute in every five.  First on the scene at 2020 was Ken, G4YRF, assisted by Richard, G3Nii and Quentin, G0BVW. Peter Webb, M0CKA followed after a few minutes and then David, G8UOD at 20:25. Two other members, Paul, G1GSN and Owen, G0PHY got very near, but then turned away.

At about 20:45 the hunt was ended and we all headed for the pub!

3 July 2015 – This and That

The meeting started with Don, G4LOO outlining changes necessary to the VHF/UHF NFD plans.

This was followed by a short look at some of the aspects of planning a major DXpetition.  Using internet video, details emerged as to the depth and scale of planning required to enable the trips to Navassa and Desecheo Islands in the Caribbean.

25 June 2015 – WW2 Spy Radios by Ben Nock, G4BXD

Ben Nock, G4BXD
Ben Nock, G4BXD

Ben arrived with a selection of ‘suitcase’ sets and other radios from wartime clandestine use.  On display were the B2, a Wadden MK7 Paraset, a Type A Marconi MK3, a German S90/E90 along with it’s almost perfect copy, the Italian 1943 set of German design. Also shown was the OSS SSTR1 1942 American made set similar in appearance to the B2.

Ben showed no lack of enthusiasm in describing how each was designed and operated along with some stories of their use during wartime.

The equipment was only a very small part of his collection of nearly 850 sets from around the world now on show at the Military Wireless Museum in Kidderminster. (http://www.qsl.net/g4bxd/introduction.htm)

A small part of the equipment on display at the British Wireless Museum.
Some of the equipment on display at the Military Wireless Museum.  Photos by G4BXD used with permission.

18 June 2015 – 2M Mobile DF Hunt

Fortunately, we had a very fine evening for the DF hunt. The Fox for this hunt was Martin Pope, M6SCI and Ian Taylor, G3ORG. Rather than trying to paraphrase the report from Ian, I can only best present it as received!

Last night three of the six hounds successfully found the fox in just over an hour of hunting.  The other three successfully found the Cock rendezvous pub close by!!

The first to arrive was Paul with a journey mileage of 10.1 miles*

The second a few minutes after was David with a mileage of 16.1 miles

Finally Bryan and Brian arrived with a mileage of 17.0 miles

*At the event Paul and I convinced ourselves that he had travelled 20.1 miles.  When I got home and redid the numbers (and remembered Paul had stayed put for two transmissions and also included a discussion with a local farmer!) it was clear our mental arithmetic left something to be desired.  A phone call this morning and another mileage reading at Pauls’ home has increased his mileage to 12.9 miles.  So Paul won even taking into account his journey home!

Please accept my sincere apologies for my mental aberration and in particular to David who was nominated the winner at the event.  David, I will recompense you on any celebratory Champagne you may have purchased as a result.

Ian,  Part time Fox

As a result, David responded:

Hi Ian,

Sorry but Jackie and I drank the Dom Perignon White Gold when I got home.

 David

 What a show of Sportsmanship! My thanks to Ian and Martin for being foxes and thanks to those who took part. Afterwards we all met up at the above mentioned watering hole for a chat and a good laugh!

11 June 2015 – Another change of programme

The VHF NFD planning scheduled for this week had to be moved a week earlier to accommodate member’s holiday plans. This week Bryan provided a VHF NFD follow-up and sent round the roster for more names.  Richard, G3Nii requested members planning to build the data interface to supply either their rig ID or the pin out for connections to the auxiliary port.  Some discussion followed about possible problems in setting up and software that could be used, although a thorough run down of software will follow later when the interface is nearing completion.

4 June 2015 – A change of programme

The speaker for the evening was unable to attend, so we used the time to encompass two items needing discussion.

The first was a look back at our results in past VHF/UHF NFD. Don, G4LOO showed our standing throughout the past ten years or so and then went on to detail our proposed entry for this year’s event. A roster was started and passed around so members could let Don know if and when they would be available.

The second part of the evening was taken by Richard, G3Nii who detailed the next Club Project. Considering the popularity of PSK and other data modes, it was surprising that some members had not ventured into those modes. To that end, Richard described a simple interface which he will kit out and supply to members for a fraction of the cost of a commercial unit.

28 May 2015 – Top Band DF Hunt

Richard tuning up
Richard tuning up

Richard, G3NII was the ‘fox’ and had set up a mobile antenna in the field near the river.  Some problems were experienced getting the rig to tune but the ATU was found to be the problem, so it wasn’t used.

After only 19 minutes Ian Taylor, G3ORG and Martin Pope, M6SCI came into sight having made a perfect triangle on the map to indicate our position. Ian, using the club project Top Band DF receiver noted that almost perfect (Null) bearings were obtained off the end of the ferrite rod antenna which they transferred to their map. Next, at 20:24 was Gareth, M5KVK who was also using the club project receiver, followed by Paul, G1GSN and David, G8UOD at 20:39.

At this point, everyone pitched in to help cart the gear back to Richard’s car so we could meet up at the local pub for a chat.

The Transmitter location
The Transmitter location