• Tue
    Dr Elizabeth Bruton (Leeds University)

    2014 will be the centenary of the outbreak of World War I. Dr Bruton will describe how the radio technology of 100 years ago was used in that conflict.

    Upon the outbreak of the war, the British government quickly realised what a valuable and dangerous tool wireless telegraphy could be. They immediately sealed up the transmitters of the limited number of wireless amateurs licensed and operating in Britain. However, this was not the end of the war for wireless amateurs - they established signals intelligence (or SIGINT), "listening in" to German wireless transmissions and locating enemy vessels. They filled the gap while the Marconi Company hastily trained up wireless operators for wartime usage. They also listened out for German spies using wireless to send secret messages, though this may have been more myth than reality.