The HF Renaissance In The US Army

Today I'm taking it easy and letting someone else do the hard presentation work 😄.

There are a number of good YouTube videos on the resurgence of HF communications in the US Army  that have been released in the last decade, and I've touched on the topic in this blog. For me this is a fascinating topic - I'm very much an 'everything old is new again' kind of guy. 

This presentation by Colonel Stephen Hamilton from the Army Cyber Institute is probably the best single presentation on the topic. If you've followed this topic at all in the past few years you've seen a lot of this material, but this is probably the best compilation of all the information, and COL Hamilton clearly has mastery of the topic.

The presentation was hosted by The Radio Club of America. Highly recommended, and definitely worth tagging as a favorite in your YouTube account.

W8BYH out

Message Center Clocks

I love clocks and watches, and I've written about this in the past. I also love to research and read about the history of radio, particularly radio operations involving two way communications (as opposed to broadcast radio, which is one-way only). It's clear that radio and time are inseparable. Just about everything in radio revolves around time. Our formal nets start and end at defined times. Much of our software like WSJTX and JS8CALL is tightly time dependent. Modern military and, increasingly, commercial transceivers are dependent on accurate time signals to synchronize things like frequency hopping, automatic link establishment, and automated digital messaging operations. Time is everywhere in radio. Has been since Guglielmo Marconi first thought about commercializing his 'invention' back around 1900.

My earlier post was about radio room clocks, particularly those that call out the mandatory quiet periods at 15 and 45 minutes past the hour. These clocks were designed specifically for maritime radio room use - a reminder to the operator to cease transmission for a 3-minute period and just listen on 500 kHz for any distress calls.

But there was another use for clocks in conjunction with radios, a use that was somewhat more utilitarian but just as important - in military message centers.

First, let's define what a message center is. A message center is nothing more than one or more radios dedicated to transmitting and receiving message traffic. If you were in the military for any length of time, particularly if you worked a job that involved coordinating activities at a brigade or higher headquarters, you'll have heard the terms 'comms (communications) center' and 'message center'. A comms center is an over-arching communications environment that handles both direct voice communications and message traffic, while a message center is dedicated to handling just digital or voice message traffic - orders, reports, etc. When a commander wants to talk by voice to one of his subordinate commanders he goes to a comms center. When he needs to send a report to his higher headquarters he goes to a message center. The difference between the two was often very fuzzy, particularly at the lower battalion and company levels, where one or two radios were handling ALL voice communications and message traffic duties. But at higher command levels, with steadily increasing volumes of message traffic, a dedicated message center was usually required. 

And, of course, message centers needed clocks. Everything was coordinated by time. Radio message traffic needed to be time-stamped and logged with the time received or sent. Operators needed to know when to switch frequencies to handle message traffic on different nets. They needed to time-track when physical messages (paper copies) were received or handed off. Basically, everything in a message center revolved around time.

It was during WWII that the concept of a purpose-built message center clock took hold. There may be earlier designs, but if there are I have not seen them. My my guess is that prior to the WWII era militaries just used whatever cased clocks they could procure. But starting with the run-up to WWII (which, remember, started in Europe in 1938 - a full 3 years before the the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor), a few militaries like the US and Germany started specifying designs for message center clocks. Let's start with the US. The Army took the smart and easy path, and asked manufacturers like Chelsea, Hamilton, and Lowe to make a variation of the maritime 'deck clocks' they had been making for years. The first clocks were brass cased, later switched to a phenolic (Bakelite?) housing to conserve a strategic metal that was in short supply. The movements in these clocks were fairly rugged, simple to service, and were already in volume production. All the US Army had to do to make them 'army' was to have the words 'Clock Message Center M1 (or M2)' stenciled on the face. The M1 models had 4" faces, the M2 models had 6" faces, and most seem to have come with a secondary 'zulu time' hour hand. The Army had them mounted in a clever flip-open wooden box, which made them easy to transport and set up.

Clock Message Center M1 (4" face) in a brass case. Brass was a strategic metal during
WWII and clock cases were quickly switched to a phenolic (Bakelite?) case

The far more common M2 message center clock (6" face) in a phenolic housing. 
The red hand is the 'zulu' or second time zone hand

These clocks were a commodity item, produced in the thousands. If they appear in period photos at all it's because the photographer was taking a picture of something else and the clock just happened to be in the shot. Here's one of the best known (and clearest) photos of a message center clock in use. This photo is interesting because it looks like the radio is being used in an early M2 or M3 Scout Car. Note the telegraph key strapped to the operator's leg, and the home made speaker box. I'd guess that this picture was taken either pre-war, or immediately after the US entered WWII. This is a great example of what a 'message center' looked like in small units during the war - a single radio, a single operator, a clipboard with some standard message forms, and a clock.

Some have asked, why not rely on wrist watches? A good question. We have to remember that prior to WWII a good quality wrist watch was a fairly expensive consumer item. Not everyone owned one. This was almost half a century before the arrival of cheap but accurate quartz watches. In the 1930's and 40's all watches were hand assembled mechanical units that could cost a working man's weekly wage, or more. Plus, the US military can not compel soldiers to use their personal property for official purposes - which means they can't compel you to buy and use a wrist watch as part of your Army job. If your job requires a watch, they'll issue you one. However, it's cheaper to provide a single clock that's available for all to reference than hand out a bunch of wrist watches. Then there's the issue of time synchronization. All activity in a message center had to be referenced to a single time source. If everyone is using their own wrist watches, and each watch is off a minute or two in either direction (very common with mechanical watches) then how are you sure that Message A arrived before Message B? In wartime this matters, a lot.

The German Army took a similar approach. Called a 'funkuhren' (radio operator clock), it was a standardized clock specifically designed to be used in message and communications centers. However, their clocks were a bit different - they appear to be large pocket watch movements in a modified case with a larger mainspring, giving an 8-day runtime. The whole thing is mounted in a wooden case, and the movement can swing out for winding via a  knurled knob or stem on the rear. Actually a pretty good arrangement. since it doesn't require a winding key like the American clocks do. 

Evidently this design was so good that the Germans kept it in production after the war for issue to the new Bundeswehr communications units. I can't help but wonder if there's a warehouse full of these things somewhere in Germany, in unissued condition, waiting to be dumped out onto the collector market at reasonable prices. One can only hope...

Note the 'funkuhren' on the table in the lower left. This German soldier is running a Hellschreiber unit.
 You can still run Hellschreiber using digital mode software like Fldigi, and it's a lot of fun!

Note the 'funkuhren' on the table between the two radios

So we've looked at US and German message center clocks from WWII. What about the British, French, Japanese, Russians, Canadians, etc? Honestly, I don't know. I've never seen any write-ups or on-line discussions of message center or radio room clocks in use by other countries involved in the war. I can only guess each country had some sort of standardized timepiece they adopted.

Now let's push forward to today. As a MARS and SHARES member I run a small message center. So I need a message center clock, right? OK, it's just for looks and tradition, but to me it's important. I'm always trying to connect the past to the present, so we don't forget.

Chelsea, the US company that made the majority of message center clocks in WWII, is still making pretty good reproductions. Not exact replicas, but considering the cost of a good working Army surplus M1 or M2 clock, they are good enough. In a nod to modern times and cost, these clocks use battery powered quartz movements. They also still use the same phenolic cases that Chelsea started using in WWII, but now they are made of a more up-to-date glass reinforced plastic. Overall they are pretty good clocks, and have a place in even the most modern of ham radio shacks.

A modern (quartz) interpretation of the classic US Navy deck clock, which was adopted
by the US Army as 'Clock Message Center M2'

A modern Chelsea 'radio room' clock. I like this one for it's accurate quartz movement and 'zulu'
or second time zone hand

But I have to think that the Germans did a better job of it, particularly for smaller setups. The Chelsea M2-style clocks are big. Six inches may not sound like a lot, but when the clock is sitting only a few feet from your face, it's a bit imposing. The smaller 4" M1 message center clocks would be a better option, but nobody makes a replica, and originals are very hard to find. The smaller German 'funkuhren' clocks seem like they were better suited to small setups. Sadly, nobody makes a 'funkuhren' replica, and good working examples go for silly high prices. But the idea that a large(er) pocket watch format can serve as an ersatz message center clock has me intrigued. 

My grandfather's Illinois Bunn Special pocket watch in front of a 6" Chelsea radio room clock

And I think I've spied my solution, courtesy of Seiko. It's the Seiko SNE370 wrist watch. It's not as large as a pocket watch, but at 43mm it's it's plenty big enough. It's got a clean, uncluttered face with a 24 hour inner ring, and it's got an accurate quartz movement. I can do without the day/date readout, and I'd love a second hour hand (a 'zulu' hand or, as it's called in the watch world, a GMT hand), but you can't have everything. One problem though... it's out of production. Aaarrrgggghhhh! I can't catch a break.

Seiko SNE370 Solar.
Do me a favor - keep your eye out for one!

W8BYH out

If You Can't Talk, You Can Still Listen

 And many times listening is more important than talking...

Yesterday Thomas Witherspoon's excellent SWLing Post blog offered a guest post by Jock Elliott, a frequent contributor. In this post, Jock details how is father, a WWII Canadian Royal Air Force lieutenant, was shot down over Germany and his status (dead/alive, prisoner/in friendly hands) was unknown.

Then, as if by a miracle, letters and postcards from complete strangers started to arrive, notifying Mrs. Elliott that a German shortwave broadcast had announced that her husband was alive and a 'guest' of the German government.

You can read the whole story here:

This was not an unusual occurrence. In early 1942 the US Government shut down all Amateur Radio transmitting activities. You know, spies and all that. Most Amateur Radio operators of draft age were quickly sucked into one of the services; if you could copy and send CW at 15 wpm or better, you had a golden ticket to a communications assignment. Older operators were ordered to pull their transmitters off-line. But unlike WWI, where the US Navy (which controlled wireless activity at the time) would actually come to your house and seize your gear and yank down your antennas, in 1941 operators were just told to go QRT, and everyone complied.

But nobody said you couldn't listen! Across the United States, and particularly along the northeastern seaboard, Amateur Radio operators and regular citizens routinely listened in on German commercial, government and military transmissions. There were formal and informal monitoring nets that listened faithfully to German broadcasts like the one discussed in Jock's post, in an effort to collect the names and service numbers of POWs. As brutal as the Nazi regime was, they were actually fairly responsible about reporting Allied POW information to the International Red Cross, and then broadcasting lists of POWs during their commercial shortwave broadcasts.

I'm guessing thousands of Allied POWs had their 'guest' status confirmed by shortwave broadcast. This information was a godsend to many families, who had no idea if their loved one was dead or alive.

The story of radio in WWII is incredibly rich. Radio didn't just inform, it was a true weapon of war. Both sides in the European Theater used radio skillfully, from broadcasting propaganda, to intercepting clandestine communications, to providing deceptive cover for battlefield operations, to pinpointing attacking aircraft and submarines, to communicating with spies and resistance groups.

And, as in this case, providing comfort and hope to an anxious family.

W8BYH out

Nothing Was Certain

I'm a huge fan of history, particularly WWII history. America was never better, never lived her ideals more fully, than when she sent millions of her sons and daughters out to liberate the world. From the Japanese home islands to the Elbe River in Germany, America, along with her allies, stepped into the breach and stopped tyranny in its tracks. 

Over 400,000 Americans never came home, and we're still recovering their remains today.

Until late 1943, the ultimate outcome was not a sure thing. Until then, the war was the Allies' to lose. Our enemies were smart, well trained, experienced, well equipped and motivated. All we could do was hold in some areas, nibble away at the enemy in others, play for time, gather our resources, and wait for the right opportunities.  

Immediately after Pearl Harbor, America found it relatively easy to turn on the industrial production tap. War materiel began to flow from our factories and shipyards in staggering and ever increasing volumes. But the one thing we couldn't manufacture was men. America's entry into the war created an immediate manpower crisis. There simply were not enough bodies to fill the military drafts, the factories, the farms and the shipyards, to man the merchant fleets, to build the training camps, to operate the railroads, the ammunition plants, the steel mills. To take pressure off of the manpower demands, all services, the Army, Navy, Marines, and the Coast Guard, were forced to do something they had never done before - integrate women into key roles.

Of course we've all heard the stories of women in uniform serving as nurses, medical technicians, clerks and secretaries, as aircraft ferry pilots, as switchboard operators, vehicle drivers, statisticians.

And, of course, thousands of women in all services were trained as radio operators and were taught Morse code. They served in a huge variety of communication roles - as radio watch officers listening for any hint of enemy submarine activity, manning air traffic control networks across the country, coordinating coastal ship movements, sending critical command and control messages across the vast open spaces of the Atlantic and Pacific. Most of this radio traffic was routine and boring, but all too often these operators had a front-row seat to the realities of war: Atlantic convoys reporting their desperate attempts to shake off the attacking U-Boat wolfpacks, merchant ships calling for help while being torn apart by fierce North Atlantic storms, aircraft lost in heavy fog and searching for a safe place to set down, or tiny Pacific islands reporting the sudden appearance of Japanese landing forces, and sending what the operators on both ends of the conversation know will likely be the last transmission.

A few days ago I stumbled on this poster done by John Falter, a famous illustrator who, before the war, was known for his advertising work and magazine covers. He was commissioned a lieutenant in the US Navy Reserves and did a series of well known recruiting and motivational posters. While I've seen and admired a lot of Falter's work, I don't remember ever seeing this poster until just recently. Falter painted it in 1942, when America was still reeling from the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the Japanese and Germans were still moving from victory to victory. Our enemies seemed unstoppable and, for a time, they were. From the American perspective, everything was in doubt, nothing was certain, and we were suffering setbacks on every front.

In this poster, Falter beautifully and poignantly captures the seriousness and reality of the time. It isn't the all-too-familiar and jaunty 'Join The Navy And See The World!' recruiting poster. This poster says, "We need you. We need you for serious, demanding, and often heartbreaking work."

...---...  ...---...  ...---...  ...---...  ...---...  ...---...  ...---...  ...---...  ...---...  ...---...  ...---...

The headphones are in place, her hand is on the key. She's listening intently. There's a look of concern, almost fear, in her eyes. Is it an Allied convoy under attack? An aircraft pilot desperately trying to land? A Navy ship that's not answering the call? 

We'll never know - we can't know. All we do know is, it's a tough fight, and we're all in it.

W8BYH out

Early History of the PRC-25 and -77

Very few things in this world are a wholly original idea. So it is with the AN/PRC-77. The PRC-77 is actually a product improved AN/PRC-25, a radio that was revolutionary it its design.

The PRC-25 was introduced in the early 1960's and was the right radio at the right time. In 1965 General Creighton Abrams called the PRC-25 "The most important tactical item in Vietnam today". More important than the M-16 rifle, more important than the UH-1 'Huey' helicopter. In fact, it was the light weight, rugged design, ease of use and wide fielding of the PRC-25 that allowed the US Army to successfully implement the new tactic of vertical envelopment by helicopter. Vertical envelopment requires close communication between ground and aviation elements, and the PRC-25 filled this role perfectly.

The early history of both the PRC-25 and PRC-77 is not well known. The PRC-25 and -77 series radios were the most widely produced military communications systems ever fielded (estimates are that over a half million units were eventually produced in the US alone) and the PRC-77 is still in use with militaries around the world. They are also immensely popular with collectors. But the history of these radios, particularly the developmental history, is a bit foggy.

Back in 1999, Mr. Dennis Starks, a military radio collector and former editor of the Military Collector Group Post, put together an article that was, and remains, the the most comprehensive history of the PRC-25 & -77 series radios. The article, titled 'PRC-25, Forgotten Legend', was published on-line and is still referenced as a link from a number of collector and military history websites. Sadly, the hosting site Mr. Starks used was closed down several years ago and since then his article existed only as partial extracts on various discussion forums.

In December 2017 I was able to contact Mr. Starks and obtain an original copy of his article. With his permission I edited the article and re-created it as a PDF document. The article is a great read, with lots of important information on the early design and fielding of the PRC-25 and -77 radios. It is an important historical and collector's resource and it deserves a wider audience. Towards that end I have added a link to 'PRC-25, Forgotten Legend' (as a PDF) in the 'Links' section of this blog.

PRC-25, Forgotten Legend by Dennis Starks

Enjoy!

W8BYH out