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WIRELESS AT WAR Developments in Military and Clandestine Radio 1895-2012 BF trench set in operation on tile Western Front (RAS) WIRElESS AT WAR Developments in Military and Clandestine Radio 1895-2012 Peter RJ ensen ROSENBERG First published in Australia in 2013 by Rosenberg Publishing Pty Ltd PO Box 6125, Dural Delivery Centre NSW 2158 Phone: 61 2 9654 1502 Fax: 61 2 9654 1338 Email: rosenbergpu [email protected] Web: www.rosenbergpub.com.au © Copyright Peter R Jensen 2013 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher in writing. Every effort has been made to trace owners of copyright of material included in this book, but advice of any omissions would be appreciated. National Library of Australia Cataloguing-in-Publication entry Author: Jensen, Peter R. . author. Title: Wireless at war/ Peter R. Jensen. ISBN: 9781922013477 (paperback) Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index. Subjects: Telegraph, Wireless--History. Military telecommunication-History. Dewey Number: 384.52 Cover: PRC-Fl SSB synthesised HF radio by AWA (RAS) Printed in China by Prolong Press Limited Contents Acknowledgments 7 Key to illustration sources 9 Introduction 10 Part 1: 1895-1920 12 1 Wireless Beginnings: a new means of communication 12 2 War Wireless Before 1914 29 3 The First World War 50 4 Technological Change: from spark to valve 82 Project 1: Wilson transmitter replica 95 Part 2: 1921-1950 107 5 The lnterwar Years 107 6 lnterwar Military Communications 115 7 World War Two 124 8 Radio Communications in Australia's war zones 133 9 Clandestine Communications 140 10 Technological Change: valves, miniaturisation and circuitry 160 Project 2: Paraset replicas 176 Part 3:1951-1970 189 11 After World War Two 189 12 Computers, Sputnik and ARPANET 204 13 The Vietnam War 212 14 The Solid-state Revolution 222 15 Technological Change: from valves to transistors and integrated circuits 229 Project 3: Solid-state double-sideband transceiver 242 6 Wireless at War Part 4: 1970-2012 250 16 Towards a New Century: changing warfare 250 17 Military Communications Requirements 255 18 Technological Change: Digital Development, Encryption, Jamming and SDR 262 19 Battlefield Communications: 1976-2012 272 20 Contemporary Military Communications 280 21 Future Directions 286 Postscript 291 Bibliography 293 Glossary of Abbreviations 304 Appendix A: Tactical Radio Database 08 Appendix B: Large Schematic Diagrams 318 Index 347 Acknowledgments Many persons and organisations provided assistance and material in the creation of this work, a process that has continued over a number of years. Keeping track over time of all sources of material has proved difficult, and it is very possible that some have been overlooked, for which I offer my sincere apologies. Firstty, acknowledgement of the assistance received at the Royal Signals Museum at Blandford Forum in the Great Britain and the curator at an earlier time, Major Roger Pickard, is particularly appropriate. Because the Australian Army was so intimately related to the British Army until the 1950s and 1960s, much of the early wireless apparatus was of British origin and often locally modified for Australian and tropical conditions. This relationship only started to lessen with Australia's collaboration with the United States in the wars in Korea and Vietnam. In addition to the Royal Signals Museum, access to the Amberley Chalk Pits Museum via its curator, Mr David Rudram, provided illustrations of interest, as did the Imperial War Museum. Access to the Royal Australian Signals Museum at Watsonia, north of Melbourne, has been immensely valuable in providing information relating to more recent warfare in which Australia has been involved. In particular tile assistance of the curator and manager, Major Jim Gordon. in allowing access to equipment, and in scanning slides and other material in the museum, is gratefully acknowledged. In the late 1980s, access to the collection of World War One wireless apparatus owned by Mr Bill Journeaux of Poole in Dorset allowed images of extremely rare items be made. More recently, the remarkable private collection of clandestine radios of Mr John Elgar-Whinney in Kent has helped to consolidate the range of apparatus available during and after the Second World War. 7 8 Wireless at War Access to the Royal Tank Museum at Bevington made possible the creation of a graphical database of tanks from all periods and various national sources. This was a valuable resource with which to expand the text in relation to armoured mobility and communications. At the Duxford branch of the Imperial War Museum, the Duxford Radio Society's Vice-President, Mr Denis Willis, proved a highly informative and helpful guide to the collection of valuable radio exhibits. In Canberra, the staff of the Australian War Memorial provided access to particular exhibits, including the De Mole tank, which contributed significantly to the development of the local element of this history. The support of members of the Historic Radio Society of Australia is also acknowledged and, in particular, the assistance of Mr Ian O'Toole who operates an admirable military communications museum at Kurrajong in New South Wales. Mr Lou Albert provided rare components that made possible the successful completion of two of the projects, the Wilson Transmitter and the Paraset. Another critical element came through the efforts of Mr Ray Robinson, who undertook a meticulous reading and editing of the draft manuscript. Last but by no means least has been the support of my wife Helen, who has cast a benign eye over the antics of her obsessive husband in his journeys to examine places of historic radio interest both near and far in the task of unravelling the technological changes that have occurred over the last 100 years. And finally, to provide some light relief from the parade of historical and technical matters, instructions for the construction of practical examples from successive eras of radio development have been included at the ends of Parts 1, 2 and 3. Traditional historians may find this an unnecessary intrusion into the story of military radio, but for many others it may prove a desirable interlude. Moreover, in terms of the evolution of the technology of military radio communications, undertaking these projects may be more revealing than the words and illustrations of the main text.