WELCOME WILLKOMMEN BIENVENUE

Welcome to my website. It is hoped that it will be of interest to those already familiar with the fascinating world of electronic espionage, more commonly referred to as SIGINT (Signals Intelligence), and to the curious simply wanting to know more.

 By now most people will have heard of Bletchley Park and the operations there in WWII analysing the results of radio intercepts logged elsewhere. What many had not heard of and knew very little about until a few years ago was the work of GCHQ and its American counterpart NSA.

 The site contains a number of photographs taken by myself or former colleagues, mainly in the 1950s and 1960s in some of the locations where foreign radio transmissions were being intercepted. It  in no way attempts to reveal any details of present day sigint operations, mainly because I am not aware of how things are done these days and if I was I would not want to labled a 'whistle blower'.

Most of the information on this site is taken from my personal experiences and the experiences of former colleagues who have agreed to me using such and I am grateful for this. However, should any former Spec Ops or allied tradesmen wish to contribute a snippet, anecdote or photo related to their time on the ‘Y’, regardless of location,  I will be happy to include it on this site subject to suitability. Any such submissions will be attributed to the author who may use his/her name or a pseudonym.

In the section entitled, ‘My Bookshelf’ I list a number of books that I have read and believe may be of interest to those wishing to know more, particularly about the history of this subject. Where appropriate I have added a few personal comments. I make no apologies for listing, separately, my own modest effort; Special Operator, The Rise and Fall of a Cut-Price Spy, describing my eighteen year journey through the Sigint world.

 On the sub page entitled 'Listen to Numbers' you may find details of sites where one can learn more about intercepting foreign radio transmissions using a short-wave receiver in ones own home or anywhere else for that matter using one of the small portables available these days. I am aware that such activities are deemed illegal in a number of countries so I am not suggesting that one breaks the law. However, many thousands of hobbyists, including short-wave listeners throughout the world are doing this on a daily basis. Whilst it is true that many of these folk are only listening to and logging Radio Amateur and commercial radio transmissions there are others listening to the short-wave transmissions sent from a variety of diplomatic and other locations to secret agents located elsewhere.  These transmissions can be heard in both voice and Morse code. The text is always encoded so, whilst one can hear and take down the message, should one wish, one can never use what is heard to ones advantage, that really would be breaking the law. For anyone with an appetite for listening to and transcribing data type transmissions such as FSK (Frequency Shift Keying) or Polytones more information with frequencies and schedules is available via the Enigma 2000 website. This also applies to anyone already familiar with such transmissions and wishes to renew their interest in such.

I must add though that there are authorities in some countries, including some in Western Europe that simply do not believe that hobbies involving certain pastimes exist. The arrest and jailing of innocent ‘Plane Spotters’ in Greece in November 2001 and in March 2016 in the UAE and Kenya are examples. So, should you decide to take up this fascinating hobby, be extra carefull what you take with you and use when on holiday outside your own country.

Please note that all photographs on this site are subject to copyright and should not be copied or reused without permission.

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