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BenR
Regular Member
200 Posts
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 Posted -
04/05/2009
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08:08
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Waaay back when I was a teenager I used to listen to MW late at night, probably Radio Luxembourg or something. At the far end of the scale, very late at night I could sometimes hear a strage sort of fanfare of a sequence of notes, which would be repeated for an hour or longer, concluding with a piece of martial music then silence. I never worked out what it was until a few yaers ago when I actually heard a programme on R4 about these broadcasts. The presenter had been just as baffled and had tried to find out more but the more he investigated the obvious explanations the more bizarre it all seemed.He did give the broadcasts a name, which I've forgotten.
The best explanation I've heard recently was that they originated in the Soviet Union and were jamming unapproved stations.
Does anybody know what I'm talking about?
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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 04/05/2009 : 09:29
Yes, we have had a thread about these before. I remember three drum beats, the last one lower than the other. I'm sure Panny will see this and put us straight. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Numbers_station
During the war the three drum beat signifying 'V' for Victory in Morse was used as a signature by many stations broadcasting into occupied Europe and you saw 'V' or 'dot dot dash' painted as graffiti on the walls in these countries.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk  |
panbiker
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Posted - 04/05/2009 : 10:38
Stanley, you are right about the V for victory signature preceeding radio broadcasts during the war and its general use as a morale booster.
The morse code for V though is three dots and a single dash or dit,dit,dit,dah if spoken. dit,dit,dah is the letter U.
I think the wiki article you posted though just about sums up what the broadcasts were about. Some kind of clandestine messaging system known only to the originators and the recipients. The BBC used a similar system of quotes from poetry or even sentences of giberish when transmitting to the resistance groups in occupied europe during the war. The sentences transmitted did not mean anything to anyone listening apart from the intended target group, to which they were directed.
Ian |
BenR
Regular Member
200 Posts
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Posted - 04/05/2009 : 16:48
Thanks - somehow I knew I'd get a quick reply on OGFB!
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Tizer
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Posted - 04/05/2009 : 16:56
The film about D-Day, The Longest Day, used the dit,dit,dit,dah motto.
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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 05/05/2009 : 08:06
Yes, and Panny is right, I had it wrong, it's the recurrent theme in Beethoven's 5th Symphony which includes the 'Ode to Joy' words by Schiller. Now adopted by the EU as their anthem but for some strange reason they changed the words..... We had an eight valve superhet Ekco console radio with a big dial and I used to tune into the strange sounding stations on the dial during the war, Droitwich, Hilversum, Moscow, Berlin...... I didn't understand it all but it was fascinating.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
panbiker
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Posted - 06/05/2009 : 17:32
Here is an extract from a wiki article regarding the use of "personal messages" relayed by radio.
An intricate series of resistance operations were launched in France prior to, and during, Operation Overlord. On June 5 1944, the BBC broadcasted a group of unusual sentences, which the Germans knew were code words – possibly for the invasion of Normandy. The BBC would regularly transmit hundreds of personal messages, of which only a few were really significant. A few days before D-Day, the commanding officers of the Resistance heard the first line of Verlaine's poem , "Chanson d'automne", "Les sanglots longs des violons de l'automne" (Long sobs of autumn violins) which meant that the "day" was imminent. When the second line "Blessent mon cœur d'une langueur monotone" (wound my heart with a monotonous langour) was heard, the Resistance knew that the invasion would take place within the next 48 hours. They then knew it was time to go about their respective pre-assigned missions. All over France resistance groups had been coordinated, and various groups throughout the country increased their sabotage. Communications were cut, trains derailed, roads, water towers and ammunition depots destroyed and German garrisons were attacked. Some relayed info about German defensive positions on the beaches of Normandy to American and British commanders by radio, just prior to 6 June.
The full article can be viewed at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Resistance_during_World_War_II
Ian |
BenR
Regular Member
200 Posts
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Posted - 06/05/2009 : 20:53
A little mundane in comparison but does the BBC still broadcast personal SOS messages?
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tripps
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Posted - 06/05/2009 : 22:51
They were a long time ago Ben. Guess they are not needed now as nearly evryone has a mobile phone?
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Stanley
Local Historian & Old Fart
36804 Posts
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Posted - 07/05/2009 : 06:47
They were a fairly regular occurence at one time. Usually seeking relatives of someone who was terminally ill. We forget nowadays that pre-TV the wireless was the essential link with the world. During the war it was possibly the most powerful weapon the government had for maintaining morale and disseminating news. The wonderful thing was that we trusted the BBC implicitly.
Stanley Challenger Graham
Barlick View
stanley at barnoldswick.freeserve.co.uk |
GSB
New Member
47 Posts
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Posted - 08/05/2009 : 14:16
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_Woodpecker
The signal was called the Russian Woodpecker
see article above
I remember it well
http://www.gka.btinternet.co.uk/links.htm
for more on it
Edited by - GSB on 08/05/2009 2:27:30 PM
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BenR
Regular Member
200 Posts
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Posted - 18/05/2009 : 09:07
The virtual monopoly of radio broadcasting was something the Government did not give up easily for obvious reasons. This I believe explains the furore over FM and AM citizens' band radios; the reason why citizens were limited to the less effective (AM?) was because long range CB would have given people an independent means of organising civil disorder. At that time no Government foresaw the advent of cellphone technology but I've no doubt that if widespread civil disorder ever did hit the UK, cellphone coverage would be the first to be switched off.
I remember witnessing an anti racism demo in Walthamstow in around 1984 and watching Asian demonstrators in side streets using CBs and despatching runners off to carry orders.
It is now a well-established routine that if an incident starts in the streets, reinforcements summoned by text or mobile will arrive quickly to witness or join the action.
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Weird radio broadcasts in the seventies.
