[Milsurplus] " World War II Radio Heroes "

[Hue Miller]

I bought this book recently from the Amazon site: 
" World War II  Radio Heroes ",  second edition, by Lisa L. Spahr. 
Deals with the American hams and SWLs who monitored German
and Japanese SW broadcasts for POW messages, which they 
then conveyed to the POW’s nearest relatives via letter or even
via a phone call and playing a disc recording they had made.
Ofttimes  the broadcasts were not heard entirely well and the
listener would have to guess the relatives’ city, with the letter
bouncing from post office to post office. Some of these listeners
spent prodigiously of their time and money; one sent over 
10,000 postcards or letters. Ham radio and SWL prominently
mentioned in a very good light. Government discouraged 
listening to enemy stations and it is claimed, sent own
telegrams based on FBIS monitoring.
I consider this book quite interesting and well worth the modest
price.
An article on the same subject appeared in ‘World War II’ 
magazine Sep. 2011, from the perspective of another POW
family.

( W7BCT, James Barrows, SK, of Bothell, WA, told me years ago
that when he worked for FCC and FBIS in Seattle and Portland,
the Foreign Broadcast Information Service recorded enemy
broadcasts on discs and sent the discs back east for analysis.
He also mentioned that it came to their attention that some 
listeners would contact the relatives and demand some 
substantial fee to convey their POW relative’s message. In 
those times, I am sure, a word of warning with some implication
of legal action would suffice to shut down that enterprise. The
FBIS, by the way, used ‘walls’ of SX-28 receivers and to a lesser
number, Hammarlund SP200 receivers.  The FCC even had a 
variation of the SX-28, classified as ‘secret’, which incorporated
an SX-28 with a McLoughlin sideband selector, all installed in 
a metal desk unit. I do not think any survived. I was very lucky
in finding and recognizing the manual for the equipment, and 
Jim Barrows verified that the equipment was used by the FBIS.
( –Hue Miller, Newport, Oregon )