Spy Rigs, Para Sets, Bugs, and Enigma Machines -- Dr. Tom Perera W1TP (video)

This is a really amazing presentation by Tom Perera W1TP to the Fairlawn (NJ) Amateur Radio Club. 

There is so much great info in this presentation.  Some of the highlights for me: 

-- The U.S. Civil War telegraphic (wired) spy set was just mind blowing.  I had never heard of this.  

-- The way the Nazis transmitted a signal 1 kc off the BBC frequency, so that Germans who tuned their Nazi-issued receivers to the BBC could be detected by neighbors (from the resulting 1 kc tone!) and turned in to the Gestapo.  

-- "Things don't land gently when dropped by parachute." Indeed.  This was a reminder of the courage of the young women who parachuted into Nazi-held territory during WWII.  Like Paulette.  It was great to see her with her Paratrooper wings on.  AIRBORNE!  And the picture of the operator with the bicycle generator was of Virginia Hall.  See: https://www.npr.org/2019/04/18/711356336/a-woman-of-no-importance-finally-gets-her-due  That portrait hangs in the hallway of the National War College. 

-- How they put the schematic of the PRC-5 right into the box.  Great idea.  But it had a terrible receiver.  One of the schematics showed a 455 kc IF and a BFO.  So they sent in superhets, not just regens. 

N2CQR operating the Para Set of G3ROO around 2009

This video makes me want to build a Para Set. 

Thanks a lot to Tom W1TP and the Fairlawn ARC.