30s sliphorn
New in Town
- Messages
- 42
- Location
- The People's Republic of Illinois
Yes, the no power thing is a little disturbing...
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1933 (haunted) radio picks up Hitler wartime speechs
- Thread starter Blackjack
- Start date
Wambleyburger
Familiar Face
- Messages
- 74
- Location
- Central Florida
For a good, easy read along the same lines of this topic, pick up the book London Calling by Edward Bloor. Here's a link to the book on Amazon.com:
http://www.amazon.com/London-Callin...=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1312178447&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/London-Callin...=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1312178447&sr=1-1
- Messages
- 13,384
- Location
- Orange County, CA
Ghost voice in Changi Gaol
A group of Australian POWs were sent from Selarang barracks to Bukit Timah area for building a Shinto shrine for the Japanese dead. The Japanese front-line soldiers who were supposed to be guarding the POWs at that stage weren't really interested in their job. Some POWs used to roam around a bit at night to see what they could fine in some of the houses in the Mt Pleasant - Thomson Road area. One particular house intrigued the POWs because there was a lot of Japanese going into it quite often during the day. It appeared to be some kind of a house for storing radios! Apparently they had gone around Singapore and confiscated all the radios they could find. They stole many of them. One was an AWA three band set, about twenty inches wide, fifteen inches high, and about eight inches deep. It was known as a table model in those days. It appeared to be particularly brand new. Up to this point, the POWs had not heard any outside news, or any authentic news at all. They had heard the Japanese propaganda telling people that they had taken over country after country after country. It was risky to be caught with a radio, but it was essential to find out what was going on in the world.
The secret radio was operated from a water-storage tank in the roof of this house..
The POWs were very keen to hear the BBC Delhi News which came on from 10-10:45pm. Some POW had electrical knowledge, and he scrounged around and found a time switch. He installed this so it switched on the set automatically at 10pm and off at 11pm. When they were put in a bomb-damaged house in Mt Pleasant, they had the radio hid in a water tank in the roof. A pair of fine wires led down from the radio to a balcony downstairs, and was connected to an earpiece from a telephone. So every night at 10, one of their Intelligence sergeants would come over and listen to the news through the earphone, and jot down the highlights. Then the news would be carefully circulated verbally.
In fact that particular radio was later smuggled into Changi Gaol. It was actually bricked up in a wall cavity in one of the cells. The walls between the cells were about eighteen inches wide, so they knocked a hole in the brickwork and put the set inside, and connected to the power supply diverted from the cell lighting. A time switch was installed so that the set only switched on at the times of day when BBC news broadcasts took place. Then the whole thing was cemented in and made to look as though nothing was there. A four-inch nail was driven through the wall and its tip just touched the diaphragm of a headphone within the wall cavity. The POWs listened to it with a kind of stethoscope. All you had to do was put the end of a bit of rubber tubing over the head of this nail, and hold it tight with your finger.. and you could hear the transmission. That set did develop a few problems towards the end. The valves had got overheated, but anyway it was not possible to get in and make repairs, so it eventually gave up the ghost.
Talking of ghosts, a newspaper some years ago reported that gaol warders would not go near a certain cell in Changi because they reckoned there were ghosts in it! Changi Gaol is still used as a prison, and the set is probably in the wall, though.
http://www.spi.com.sg/haunted/haunted_changi/changi_gaol.htm
A group of Australian POWs were sent from Selarang barracks to Bukit Timah area for building a Shinto shrine for the Japanese dead. The Japanese front-line soldiers who were supposed to be guarding the POWs at that stage weren't really interested in their job. Some POWs used to roam around a bit at night to see what they could fine in some of the houses in the Mt Pleasant - Thomson Road area. One particular house intrigued the POWs because there was a lot of Japanese going into it quite often during the day. It appeared to be some kind of a house for storing radios! Apparently they had gone around Singapore and confiscated all the radios they could find. They stole many of them. One was an AWA three band set, about twenty inches wide, fifteen inches high, and about eight inches deep. It was known as a table model in those days. It appeared to be particularly brand new. Up to this point, the POWs had not heard any outside news, or any authentic news at all. They had heard the Japanese propaganda telling people that they had taken over country after country after country. It was risky to be caught with a radio, but it was essential to find out what was going on in the world.
The secret radio was operated from a water-storage tank in the roof of this house..
The POWs were very keen to hear the BBC Delhi News which came on from 10-10:45pm. Some POW had electrical knowledge, and he scrounged around and found a time switch. He installed this so it switched on the set automatically at 10pm and off at 11pm. When they were put in a bomb-damaged house in Mt Pleasant, they had the radio hid in a water tank in the roof. A pair of fine wires led down from the radio to a balcony downstairs, and was connected to an earpiece from a telephone. So every night at 10, one of their Intelligence sergeants would come over and listen to the news through the earphone, and jot down the highlights. Then the news would be carefully circulated verbally.
In fact that particular radio was later smuggled into Changi Gaol. It was actually bricked up in a wall cavity in one of the cells. The walls between the cells were about eighteen inches wide, so they knocked a hole in the brickwork and put the set inside, and connected to the power supply diverted from the cell lighting. A time switch was installed so that the set only switched on at the times of day when BBC news broadcasts took place. Then the whole thing was cemented in and made to look as though nothing was there. A four-inch nail was driven through the wall and its tip just touched the diaphragm of a headphone within the wall cavity. The POWs listened to it with a kind of stethoscope. All you had to do was put the end of a bit of rubber tubing over the head of this nail, and hold it tight with your finger.. and you could hear the transmission. That set did develop a few problems towards the end. The valves had got overheated, but anyway it was not possible to get in and make repairs, so it eventually gave up the ghost.
Talking of ghosts, a newspaper some years ago reported that gaol warders would not go near a certain cell in Changi because they reckoned there were ghosts in it! Changi Gaol is still used as a prison, and the set is probably in the wall, though.
http://www.spi.com.sg/haunted/haunted_changi/changi_gaol.htm
In the foreword of Andrew Greig's "That Summer" he mentions how there are some radio tranmissions from the Battle of Britain that have become trapped between the ground and the Heaviside Layer. These bounce back and forth endlessly and don't decay. For that reason occasionally a radio ham skimming the airwaves will suddenly be listening to men taking vector directions, screaming at one another to get in formation, or attacking and being attacked during the air battles of 1940.
...
Blackjack
One Too Many
- Messages
- 1,198
- Location
- Crystal Lake, Il
This is facinating..
filfoster
One Too Many
- Messages
- 1,329
You mean ghost to ghost don't you?
Sound of drum/cymbal 'rimshot' here....
