I was casting a wildcard net in search of info regarding Paul's pic of TTB standing in front of some ambiguous 1950's era radio tower. This turned up a reference to
"Aspidistra"("Aspi" for short), which was the code name for a massive radio transmitter in King's Standing, East Sussex, equipped with a very, very powerful transmitter. This RCA-built transmitter (codenamed for a popular song of the day - and forming a naughty anatomical pun) operated at 500,000 watts, far exceeding the FCC "ceiling" of 50,000 watts (which limit is still in place, in the US). Unusable, then, in America - the unit was consequently purchased by the Brits, who used it's huge wattage (expanded by them to a whopping 600kW) to broadcast propoganda into Germany across various middle-band frequencies. The programming schedule masqueraded as actual Nazi-produced content, but with cleverly subtle differences intended to confuse and disinform the radio-listening German population. All of this was a way-cool wartime hack - and makes for fascinating browsing! Incidentally, the thee antennae for the Aspi were designed for the Political Warfare Executive (PWE) - the outfit in charge, who came from the same complex that included GCHQ - by an American expert named GH
Brown. One of three ships carrying the 360-foot masts (as Brits call antennae) was sunk by a German torpedo en route, but a replacement was soon sent - and the spoof station started sending all sorts of bogus info into enemy airwaves. Here's a bit of snipped
history:
The importance of the broadcasts from 'Aspidistra' lies with the fact that the German population actually believed they were real German radio stations. The broadcasts included anti-allied propaganda and comments against the Royal Family. 'Bigband' music and Jazz were broadcast in the knowledge that German public were not able to listen freely to this type of decadent music. This was to get them 'hooked' on the station, which became very popular.
'Aspidistra' was able to reach deep into Germany and various tests were made to verify this. When a number of messages were sent asking people in various towns to donate warm clothing for soldiers fighting in cold areas, numerous people actually turned up with clothing, much to the surprise of the local commanders!
As an example of other 'tricks' that Delmer and 'Aspidistra' could get up to, consider what might happen if a bombing raid on Hamburg were planned. Some hours before the raid 'Aspidistra' would be moved in frequency to that the main Hamburg radio station - 908kHz (only 'Aspidistra' was this agile!). It would be tuned up on this frequency but would not radiate, as the rf drive would not be applied. The programme from Hamburg would be monitored at Milton Bryan. At the same time the same programme would be transmitted on another frequency from, say, Frankfurt and would also be monitored at Milton Bryan.
As it became obvious that the RAF was heading for Hamburg, the Hamburg station would go off the air, so as not to be used for navigation by the incoming bombers. Within about eight milliseconds of Hamburg dropping carrier 'Aspidistra''s drive would come up and she would be on the air relaying the programme received at Milton Bryan from Frankfurt. All the interruption in programme that the locals in Hamburg would hear would be a slight 'click'! The 'Hamburg' programme was now under Delmer's control and all sorts of bogus information could be provided to cause panic and distress to the inhabitants under attack.
By the end of the war, 'Aspidistra' had been used on ten operations of this type during attacks on cities such as Cologne, Frankfurt and Leipzig. According to captured reports, these hoax transmissions were very successful.
And there were many other radio tricks played by these amazingly clever wireless spooks!
Researching the beautiful art-deco construction of
Aspidistra in search of any architectural features which matched those in Paul's TTB picture, I learned a bit about "black radio", which then segued me into offshore British radio, transmitters, ships and such (some equipment for which came directly from the PWE-type psych-ops war effort). This then led to my browsing the history of the radio network known (familiarly enough, to the British - but not to me), as "Radio
Caroline"!
I was just sure this had to be linked to the topics we discuss hereabouts - I mean, ship-based, high-frequency radio waves with a then-recent history of having been used in British intelligence??? But - alas - the official origins of "Radio Caroline" are attributed to the founding father of un-official British radio - Ronan O'Rahilly, who dubbed his ship-based pirate station "Caroline" after viewing a picture of JFK's daughter playing on the floor of the oval office,
"...disrupting the serious business of government..."
So...there was absolutely no linkage at all between high-voltage naval platforms, hot & cold wartime intelligence operations, and TT Brown wearing a Wild Ones jacket while posing in front of a modestly-sized 1950's era radio mast...right?
Right?
Just goes to show ya...everything can be connected - sometimes orthogonally! Even the alphabet seems to be in that particular order only by some mysterious (and arbitrary) coinkydink. I think our file drawers would make alot more sense if we used the RSTNLE, etc method (like on that Vanna and Pat game show), putting the fattest folders to the front, at least! Oh well, there's another idea of mine that'll never catch on...

On the other hand, you have different fingers.