[R-390] re: Bletchley Park (OT)

[wli]

Guys and gals:

Seeing as things are slow this summer, I'd like to
share my recent visit to Bletchley Park in England
this summer.

It was the then top secret location in WW II where the
Enigma Code machines were reverse engineered in 1941,
by geeks from Cambridge University and other places...
to decode HF Nazi military communiques. In those days,
all armies communicated thru coded shortwave. It has
been all well documented in numerous books re Enigma.

The place is set up like a live museum. You walk thru
restored "huts". There was one hut showing hardware. I
saw a BC-348J, a AR88D. a BC-314, amd a rare RACAL
RA-117. All were restored and in working condition.
The main receivers seemed to be a slew of HRO's. 

That hut was manned by volunteer hams from the area.
It was quite a place, and a lot of history.

Most visitors wanted to see Colossus: a monster
room-filling digital computer with hundreds of large
glass pentodes fed by a really long punched paper
tape. Probably had 16K of memory.  

In those days groups of women spent hours listening
and transcribing CW in make-shift wooden huts warmed
by a single coal stove in the middle... 

It was all very fascinating and well worth a day's
visit.

W. Li