It is a truism that communication played a crucial role in the World War-II. In fact, a Stanford University paper published in 2004 explains how radio was used to disseminate propaganda. But city-based radio enthusiast and techie Ashhar Farhan believes that war was even fought using radios. As an off-beat hobby, he is currently working on restoring at least four radios in his possession that were used in tanks and aircraft of the Allies.
“The World War-II gave a big fillip to radios and war was fought using them. It was a time when valves for radios were invented that would make them powerful and made wireless transmission possible. So the constricted, wired use of radios as seen in the World War-I was a thing of the past,” says Mr. Farhan.
He then displays his HRO (Helluva Rush Order), a radio that was used in Allied Forces’ aircraft. He removes the cover revealing its electrical viscera. Pointing to a set of removable coils, he says, “These coils serve as band changers. If the Allied Forces wanted to switch bands (frequencies), they would replace the coils with suitable ones. A lot of these came into India as war surplus”. The HROs, he says, did not have circuit boards as seen in modern electrical equipment.
Mr. Farhan says his HRO was used in an aircraft. Even the place it was used can be verified by means of running a search using its serial number. The HROs, he says, were so efficient that even the Germans and Russians started producing its versions.
Another radio set that was used by the U.S. Air Force is the BC 348N. Manufactured by Wells-Gardner & Co. in Chicago, Mr. Farhan has two of these. Sitting quietly in a corner is another veteran CRI 43044, Mr. Farhan informs, is a spy radio set.
“This one was manufactured for the United States Navy’s Bureau of Ships. It was made by the Colonial Radio Corporation in New York,” he says. The inscription validates his claim.
At the top of CRI 43044 is a spiral bound ‘cypher book’ with pinkish pages. Apart from transmission codes, it contains transmitter recalibration procedures. “Cyphers is a way of encrypting messages to stop them from being intercepted. You get to see it in the movie Imitation Game in which Alan Turing decrypts German codes using a machine that he invented. You have to feed the codes, which are numbers, into the CRI 43044,” says Mr. Farhan.
Of passion and patience
Interestingly, radios were also used for internal communication. The Wireless Set No. 19 Mk II, which Mr. Farhan is in the process of restoring, was used in armoured vehicles like tanks.
So what does the restoration process entail? A passion for radio. Some can even take years to complete.
“You can get some spare parts like bakelite knobs on the Internet. But they’re very expensive. The idea is to look for such radios in shacks and junk yards. Till a few years ago, old radios were available in Jummerat Bazaar in Old City,” he says.