{"id":17,"date":"2021-05-04T14:21:48","date_gmt":"2021-05-04T14:21:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/secretlisteners.co.uk\/?page_id=17"},"modified":"2021-11-08T13:38:53","modified_gmt":"2021-11-08T13:38:53","slug":"v-i-origins","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/secretlisteners.co.uk\/index.php\/v-i-origins\/","title":{"rendered":"V.I. Origins"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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The Secret Listeners<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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V.I. Origins<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Arkley View<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Direction Finding<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Spies<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Reflections<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Newsletters<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Links<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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Origins of the Radio Security Service<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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The one thing Bletchley Park could not decode were the signals that it did not receive.<\/p>

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EARLY BEGINNINGS<\/span><\/strong><\/p>

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The seeds of the Radio Security Service were sown by MI5 in 1938 when they became concerned about German wireless agents operating in Britain. \u00a0But a Col. Adrian Simpson sent a report to the Director of MI5 in August 1938 explaining that the interception of short wave transmissions would be difficult and he proposed a network of <\/span>voluntary interceptors,<\/span> which he predicted, would probably cover most of Britain. Up to that time they relied on three direction finding stations built and operated by the GPO. This was the the beginning of the RSS and a small group of RSS officers joined the officers of MI5 in a group of unused cells at Wormwood Scrubs Prison in London.<\/span><\/p>

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THE ROLE OF VOLUNTARY INTERCEPTORS<\/span><\/strong><\/p>

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The Voluntary Interceptors \u00a0eventually grew in number to around 1,500 \u00a0including many members of the Radio Society of Great Britain, experienced amateur radio operators who used their own equipment initially and later radios provided by the RSS to listen for enemy agents transmitting within the UK. At the same time \u00a0the GPO began setting up several intercept stations for RSS and it was not long before the amateurs and the GPO operators started to notice a series of German transmissions which used Morse conventions used by amateur operators such as the \u201cQ\u201d code, but which also included a series of 5 character groups. <\/span>The use of amateur radio operators who used Morse code reception as a hobby \u00a0might surprise some, but their determination to identify weak signals amongst heavy interference, and to track those signals using radio receivers of the day which were not very stable, was what their hobby had trained them to do to a very high standard.<\/span><\/p>

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DECODING THE MESSAGES<\/span><\/strong><\/p>

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MI5 had already begun to operate their first double agent in 1938 and using the codes supplied to them by the Abwehr (the German Secret Service). \u00a0The groups of characters \u00a0in the messages were decrypted and found to be communications between German Agents in Europe and their handlers in Germany. \u00a0\u00a0Later messages contained Enigma encoded groups. As RSS grew in numbers, they had to move to a large house called Arkley View near Barnet, North London using the postal \u00a0address Box 25, Barnet. \u00a0It was here that the intercepted traffic was sorted and analysed and the volunteers’ efforts were \u00a0coordinated. \u00a0Encoded messages were sent to Bletchley Park for decoding and onward transmission to the Allied Commanders and the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill. <\/span>The value of the decoded message was soon appreciated and RSS focussed on Abwehr traffic and that of their rival the Sicherheitsdienst operated by \u00a0Himmler \u00a0and the S.S.. \u00a0Other functions were added during the war years.<\/span><\/p>

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MOVE TO MI6<\/span><\/strong><\/p>

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In 1941 RSS was taken over by MI6 and it became one of their\u00a0<\/span>Special Communication Units, SCU3.<\/span>\u00a0They also ran\u00a0other SCUs that maintained\u00a0communication with our agents abroad and dealt with wireless propaganda. In addition,\u00a0MI6 ran SLUs\u00a0<\/span>Special Liaison Units<\/span>\u00a0that were responsible for disseminating the intelligence from intercepted messages to\u00a0our military\u00a0commanders in the field. All of these organisations were under the control of Brigadier Richard Gambier Parry, MI6’s Head of Communications.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Bob King, G3ASE, shows the reconstructed home made Eddytone receiver he used as a VI. (Frame from The Secret Wireless War –\u00a0Grindelwald Productions)<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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What a German Spy might look like whilst operating.<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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The Origins of Wireless Interception & The Radio Security Service<\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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The idea of listening in to other people’s wireless communications dates back to the beginning of wireless (or radio) communication itself. Thus when necessary the messages were encoded and this made it all the more desirable to find out what was being said. <\/span>Just when it was first suggested that Radio Amateurs should be used for interception purposes is hard to determine and probably pre-dates this 1938 memo:<\/span><\/span><\/p>

H<\/span>ere it must be born in mind that there was no suggestion of picking up signals from abroad, that came later, but to locate the (supposed) enemy within the UK.<\/span><\/span><\/p>

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This page from the meeting is an early reference to using amateurs (surprisingly a remuneration was suggested) to listen for local signals: <\/span>Adrian Simpson\u2019s report to the Director of MI5 dated 10th August 1938\u00a0<\/span>(click here)<\/a><\/span> can be regarded as the real starting point of the Radio Security Service (RSS). \u00a0From the outset he appreciated that interception of short wave transmissions would be very difficult unless there was a receiver within 10 miles that could detect the ground wave. He proposed the plan for a network of Voluntary Interceptors, which he predicted, would reach considerable proportions and, if possible, cover the whole country.\u00a0<\/span>The Radio Society of Great Britain was approached with a request to sound out trusted radio amateurs to see if listening could be arranged on a voluntary basis. \u00a0Fortunately although their transmitters had been impounded at the outbreak of war they still had their receivers and they could all read Morse Code with a particular in reading faint signals in noisy backgrounds.<\/span><\/span><\/p>

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Each amateur was checked on MI5 records and visited by the local police to see if there was any reason why they could not be trusted. \u00a0Before long there was quite an army of amateurs diligently searching for spies, that didn’t exist, or the suspected transmitters guiding enemy aircraft to worthwhile targets. \u00a0The amateurs were given the \u00a0title Voluntary Interceptors (VIs) and were empowered to enter premises where a suspicious transmission was found. \u00a0As they were not armed it was a wise precaution to have the company of a police officer. In time a few hundred amateurs were asked to listen on HF for anything they could not recognise as genuine commercial or military transmissions and send them in by post written on a log sheet provided, that showed date, time, frequency and what was heard. \u00a0A few experienced people in Wormwood Scrubs checked the resulting logs and notified the amateur where they were not wanted or further intercepts were required. The organisation was given the title of the Radio Security Service (RSS) but it became apparent that the reason for its existence was false and there appeared to be no reason for continuing. \u00a0Already the armed services were setting up their own stations to expand the monitoring of types of military transmissions and there was a long established de-coding department in room 40, as the department was called, in the Admiralty building. \u00a0The Post Office and the Police had radio operators routinely checking the air waves so the RSS was out of a job.<\/span><\/p>

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It transpired that all was not lost: \u00a0the amateurs were not put out of work by any means. \u00a0They were logging whatever was heard and among it all located some strange stations using Ham Chat but with 3 letter call signs and on top of that sending messages in 5 letter groups of code. \u00a0This was strictly forbidden for amateurs. <\/span>However MI5, located in Wormwood Scrubs prison (with cells for offices) were in charge of looking at these reports (called logs sheets) where Lt. Hugh Trevor-Roper (later Lord Dacre)\u00a0<\/span>(<\/span>click here)<\/a><\/span>\u00a0in concert with Cpt Gill \u00a0worked on the messages and actually managed to decipher some to discover that they were in a hand cipher that translated into German. \u00a0Moreover the translation showed that they were not ordinary signals but apparently coming from the German Secret Service (called the Abwehr) or something equivalent to our MI6 only more widespread to include other unpleasant organizations set up by the Nazis. \u00a0Bletchley Park, previously uninterested or too busy, immediately took note and required all future messages to be sent to it and strictly no more self styled de-ciphering was to take place. <\/span>It became apparent that there was a lot to be uncovered about these secret transmissions and amateurs were recruited as VIs on an ever-increasing scale to cover the British Isles. \u00a0Ultimately about 1,700 were engaged on intercepting although not at one time as many were called up, some for other duties, but many to work full-time, in uniform, for the RSS. <\/span>As the organisation grew it became necessary to set it on a semi-military footing with full time operators and other staff. \u00a0For details see<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Arkley View<\/a><\/span>.<\/span><\/span><\/p>

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Additional background at:\u00a0<\/span>:<\/a><\/span>http:\/\/technology.timesonline.co.uk\/tol\/news\/tech_and_web\/the_web\/article7144376.ece<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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\u00a9 The Secret Listeners<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Website by CAMBITION<\/a><\/span><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Secret Listeners V.I. Origins Arkley View Direction Finding Spies Reflections Newsletters Links Origins of the Radio Security Service The one thing Bletchley Park could not decode were the signals that it did not receive. \u00a0 EARLY BEGINNINGS \u00a0 The seeds of the Radio Security Service were sown by MI5 in 1938 when they became… Continue reading V.I. Origins<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"elementor_canvas","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-17","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","entry"],"yoast_head":"\nV.I. 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