Today Hack-A-Day has an unsually good report on Britain’s Voluntary Interceptors. I was especially touched by the story of the guy who provided reports while still bedridden from devastating wounds received in World War I.
https://hackaday.com/2025/06/12/crowdsourcing-sigint-ham-radio-at-war/#more-786810
I’ve had the video on the SolderSmoke blog several times. It is so good that it warrants inclusion yet again:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RwbzV2Jx5Qo&t=228s
That regen looks a lot like the one I bought at the Kempton Park rally (London) so long ago. I still have it. And those headphones found in the old “radar” station look a lot like some that I have in my shack today. And of course there is that HRO dial. I build a whole receiver around that gem from Armand WA1UQO.
I thought the comments on the ability to detect the nationality of the enemy operator from his Morse Code “fist” (sending style) was very interesting.
Three cheers for the Voluntary Interceptors!
Thanks for sharing this Bill! I had a National NCX-3 in the ’90s and early 2000s, but had never put together that when people talked about the HRO, that was also a National rig. Also, I had no idea where the name HRO came from before I just read aobut it on Wikipedia!
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