Category Archives: Radio History

Video: Story of Gibraltar Broadcasting Corporation’s move to a new broadcasting house

NCM discovers incredibly rare OMI Cryptograph machine in “a dusty crate”

OMI Cryptograph, an Italian cipher machine built by Ottico Meccanica Italiana (OMI), is part of the National Cryptologic Museum’s (NCM) collection of artifacts. (Photo by NCM)

Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Andrea Borgnino, who shared the following news from the NSA Museum (the National Cryptologic Museum) in Fort Meade:

Long lost and rare Italian cipher machine found

FORT MEADE, Md. — At the outbreak of WWII in 1939, Nazi Germany’s Enigma encryption machine stood as the state-of-the art method for sending and receiving secret messages. It wasn’t until 1940 that English mathematician Alan Turing, and the team at Bletchley Park, cracked the daily changes Berlin made to its cipher system, and helped the Allied powers win the war.

While the Enigma stands out as the most famous of encryption machines, Italy, set out to develop a high-end machine to rival its war partner, Germany. In 1939 Italy’s government secretly tasked a little-known photogrammetric equipment company, Ottico Meccanica Italiana (OMI), to build a device capable of rivaling its more famous cousin. Founded in 1926, OMI’s tools were used to create precision topographical maps and surveys using stereoscopic aerial photography. The technical expertise made OMI a natural fit for the job. The end result was OMI’s first cipher machine known as the Cryptograph Alpha.

OMI built cipher devices throughout WWII, and into the 1960’s, including: the OMI Cryptograph, the OMI Cryptograph-CR and the OMI Cryptograph-CR MkII. While many of these devices managed to survive passing through the hands of various collectors and museums, examples of the second iteration, the OMI Cryptograph machines, were widely believed to have been destroyed long ago. Until now. Digging through its vast collection of warehoused artifacts, the National Cryptologic Museum (NCM), curators found an OMI Cryptograph machine in its collection.

NCM Collections Manager Spencer Allenbaugh recently discovered the OMI Cryptograph in a dusty crate and immediately knew he had found a treasure.

“This find gives the National Cryptologic Museum the chance to recover an artifact once thought to be lost forever. This device provides a small glimpse into Italy’s cryptologic history and how Italian cryptologists operated during that time period. This recovery also strengthens our already-strong reputation in the field of cryptologic history and will give people more reason to come and see the device up close once the museum re-opens,” said Allenbaugh.

“When the device is on display, researchers and historians will have the opportunity to see the artifact, study it, and learn more about its history and design,” he added.

Originally introduced around 1954, the OMI Cryptograph operated similarly to the German Enigma, with five moving cipher wheels to encipher/decipher messages, but, unlike the military Enigmas, it also had a built-in printer that produced its output directly onto a paper strip. This model was operational until the late 1950s when the OMI Cryptograph-CR succeeded it.

Visitors to the NCM can look forward to see this treasure on exhibit when museum renovations are completed and the museum reopens in Spring of 2022.

Click here to read this story at the NSA website.

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Rare 1968 Radio Dzaoudzi QSL card fetches $158 at auction

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Dan Robinson, who writes:

In recent years, a number of records have been set for QSL cards from former shortwave stations around the world. The latest example shows that there is still strong collector demand for one of the rarest stations on the air from Africa, Comoros Islands.

In this eBay auction, a classic photo QSL from the station at Moroni went for $158. That’s in the high end for QSL auctions — there have been higher, for example for QSLs from the former AFAN station at McMurdo, Antarctica, and for some other African and Asian cards.

This card shows the 90 meter band shortwave frequency for the station, 3,331 kHz which as veteran DX’ers who are still around recall could be heard with great difficulty from 0300 UTC when the station signed on for morning programming. The other frequency of 7,260 kHz was also heard, though the 90 meter frequency was the easiest for U.S. DX’ers.

– Dan Robinson

Wow! Thank you so much for sharing your insight, Dan. What a fascinating find!

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RCI Sackville Antenna Farm Map and Legend

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I’ve been going through some old paperwork recently and discovered this map of the antenna farm at Radio Canada International’s former Sackville, NB, transmitting site (click to enlarge):

I was given this printout by one of the staff members at Sackville when I visited there in the summer of 2012–only a few months before they closed, permanently.

I thought perhaps some others here in the SWLing Post community might enjoy checking out this map.

I do miss hearing RCI on the air. Hard to believe it’s almost been a decade.

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1951 US Army Film: Independent Radio Station WMCA

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Kris Partridge, who shares the following:

I belong to a FaceBook group “The Broadcasting Club” and [recently] there was posted a link to a YouTube video of a 70 year old 1951 US Army film called “The Independent Radio Station WMCA”. It’s worth a view to show what the thinking was 70 years ago:

From YouTube:

In 1951 the US Army made this film showing how an independent radio station operates. There was certainly a cold war propaganda motive for the US Army to produce this film, but today, when independent stations are a rarity, this film gives a detailed view of how a large market, independent radio station, WMCA New York, went about producing its programming and paying the bills in post war America.

If you enjoyed this video, consider becoming a member of the Antique Wireless Association at: https://antiquewireless.org/homepage/…

Subscribe to the Antique Wireless Museum channel and you’ll receive news of our latest video uploads.

Thank you so much for sharing this, Kris!

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Free online lecture: “Aspidistra and the Broadcast Group of the Diplomatic Wireless Service”

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Kris Partridge, who shares the following information about a free online lecture hosted by the The Institute of Engineering and Technology. This presentation will take place tomorrow (September 8, 2021 staring at 19:00 BST/18:00 UTC). You must register online to attend this lecture.

Here are the details from the IET website:

Aspidistra and the Broadcast Group of the Diplomatic Wireless Service including the wartime transmission of black propaganda.

The History of the Broadcast Group of the Diplomatic Wireless Service. The event starts at 19:00 BST on 8th September 2021

This is the story of Broadcast Group of the Diplomatic Wireless Service (DWS) which had its origins in the Political Warfare Executive (PWE) at the beginning of WW2. In 1972 it was amalgamated into the administrative structure of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) and was renamed Communications Engineering Department (CED). The latter had two groups, Broadcast Group which was responsible for transmitters carrying many of the BBC’s World and Vernacular services, and Communications group which provided radio communications to embassies for diplomatic traffic. In 1986 CED’s Broadcast Group was taken over by the BBC.

In this illustrated talk we will learn first about the transmission of black propaganda and associated activities during WWII. Also such activities as trying to interfere with enemy rocket guidance systems. Then about the various Medium-Wave and Short-Wave transmitting stations of Broadcast Group with transmitter stations at Crowborough, Orfordness, Cyprus and the island of Masirah, a part of Oman. Transmitters ranged from 1?kW carrier power to 600 kW. Several of these were designed and manufactured in house. There will be many pictures and descriptions of the equipment and aerials used at these stations. Also covered will be an introduction to the progress of amplitude modulation techniques which enabled transmitters to become more compact.

So, what is Aspidistra? Please register to hear the story of Aspidistra and the Broadcast Group of the DWS with the engineering used to build and operate these stations.

About the Speaker

Roger Castle-Smith FIET

Mr Roger Castle-Smith FIET. Roger first became interested in radio when he joined the signals section of his school’s Combined Cadet force. This led to him gaining an amateur’s radio license at the age of 15, callsign G3IOT. Then on to the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, where he started an amateur station for the academy. Graduated into Royal Signals. Achieved a BSc(Eng) degree as an external degree from the University of London whilst at the Royal Military College of Science. Many of his army postings were of a technical nature. On retirement at the age of 37 he was made a MBE. Joined the Diplomatic Wireless Service then worked his way up to becoming Head of Broadcast Group in 1979 leading to Chief Engineer and Head of Communications Engineering Department (CED) in 1981. During his service a CBE followed his MBE. Retired age 66.

Click here to read more and to register for this event.

Kris also suggested this article and this article as a little background and worth reading prior to the lecture.

Thank you for the tip, Kris!

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Radio Prague celebrates 85 years on the air

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Jonathan Marks, who recommends this video tour of the Czech Radio Building from Radio Prague’s Facebook page.

Jonathan notes: “[The video os very] nicely done. It compliments episode 4 of the video I made with Olrich Cip”:

Many thanks for sharing this, Jonathan, and for documenting this important piece of our international broadcasting story.

Post readers: If you’d like more information about the 85th Anniversary of Radio Prague, check out this (and other) stories on the Radio Prague Website:

Radio Prague International celebrates 85 years on the airwaves

Although the origins of foreign language broadcasting on Czech Radio stretch as far back as 1926 – in the form of English and French lectures about Czechoslovakia – the birth of the foreign language service is traditionally dated to August 31, 1936, when the Technical Director of Czechoslovak Radio Eduard Svoboda officially announced the beginning of regular foreign language broadcasting.
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