[Milsurplus] [spyradiosets] Question Regarding "Die Funkpeilung der kurzen Wellen" - Why the focus on the Lafayette "Transceptor"?

[Hubert Miller]

I wondered about this too when i first saw it about three decades ago. A 50 MHz low power, line of sight range, voice radio: what use would this be to the resistance ? A courier would be more practical, and safer.
Of course, the Gestapo would want to document ANY communication device used. I myself doubt that considering how impractical this radio was, more than two were ever used, and that very briefly, and were maybe from some radio ham's prewar ownings. One other thing - with the confiscation of ALL radios in occupied Europe, having anything even looking like a radio was Streng Verboten !

BTW - there is some book of recent publication which on the cover has photo of French resistants gathered around a radio, which happens to be a lunchbox - sized, German Fu.Sprech series radio, which means low power, voice mode, VHF. Perhaps it was captured from a knocked out German armored artillery vehicle ? But what good did it do the Maqui ? A listening range of maybe 4 kM and occasional enemy tactical comms ? But - it makes a good cover photo, and impressed a lot of innocent book buyers.

Oh - let me tell you this anecdote: a few years back i had a couple Fu.Sprech radios in fine condition. I could see no real fun for me in using one, other than infrequently "trying it out", so i put them on Ebay. They sold for $1900 each, which was okay with me, oh well. Less than a week later i was browsing the web and what did i see, but "Messerschmidt', a militaria dealer, sold one of the Fu.Sptech radios for 2x what Ebay brought me. So selling one made the other one cost - free to him. I learned from that !!
 One, people with more money than time will not or maybe cannot or maybe do not know how to deal with an auction - they go to a store, a middleman.
Second  if you have something of genuinely high value, you don't auction it in a narrow 7 to 10 day window. You set your BIN price where you want it. No sell ? You gradually drop your price. A "reverse auction", and your unhurried patience is better rewarded.

Of course, this tip doesn't apply to stuff like the severely ham - hacked, once - was - a  'Command Sets' transmitter offered on Ebay for only $300+.

Possibly this post is longer than the typical group's clipped combat communication, but maybe the reader got some information and amusement from it.
-Hue Miller

Sent from my Galaxy

-------- Original message --------
From: "Richard Brisson
Date: 11/27/25 08:00 (GMT-08:00)
To: spyradiosets

Subject: [spyradiosets] Question Regarding "Die Funkpeilung der kurzen Wellen" - Why the focus on the Lafayette "Transceptor"?

All -
I’ve been meaning to pose this question to this collective for a while as this regards a WW2 German military publication “Die Funkpeilung der kurzen Wellen” and more specifically the first volume “Teil 1: Die Funkpeilung der kurzen Wellen im Nahfeld” – the online Bing translator equates this to “Radio direction finding of short waves in the near field”.  It was published in 1943 and most of you are likely familiar with it.

The last section of the book is titled Part IV “Agenten-Sende-Empfange-Geräte” or “Agent Transmit-Receive Devices” which includes the British Mk VI and Polish A1 (Nelka) amongst others. At the end of this section on pages 168 to 170, there is attention given to the Lafayette “Transceptor” – did this device get much use by the American military and/or agents in WW2 in order to get this level of focus/scrutiny?
And if anyone who can read/interpret German text, it would be great to learn, if possible, why the Germans put focus on this “Transceptor” … especially in the section to do with foreign agent radios?


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