“Spook Radios” are radios that spent at least some of their working lifetime listening to signals that they weren’t intended to hear.  Many people find these radios interesting for that reason – there always seems to be a story that goes with the radio. Click on an picture for a larger image.

Our spook radio stories start with the venerable National Radio Company HRO-MX.  This particular radio was repatriated from its lend lease resting place in the UK in 1999 when I visited a small “boot sale” in the shadow of the Cambridge radio telescope.  This treasure was a labor of love, because it traveled as carry–on baggage through a few countries on the way home, attracting ex-radio ops, ham radio operators and shortwave listeners alike.  And more than a few interested security personnel.

On top of the radio is a matching speaker, but more interestingly, above it are nine plug-in coils that vary the frequency range of the receiver. This radio is a direct descendent of a mid-30’s design, and the stability thought to be provided by the use of plug-in coils endured as a design feature in later descendents until the late 1950’s.

If you visit Bletchley Park you can find a number of these radios in the intercept room.  Hence the “spook” nomenclature.

Newer spook radios can be really cool.  The Collins 651-S1 pictured spent its life at the Department of Defense (note the tag on the left upper front panel), doing God knows what.  If only it could talk, but we’d probably have to kill it if it did.

Note the wildly funky light blue Nixie tube frequency readout (7777.7).  Vintage probably early to mid-70’s.  Widely used by the armed services in intercept and other applications, the radio can also operate under computer control.  You can find information about this and other fine Collins radio equipment at the Collins Collector’s Association website.

Probably my favorite spook radio is the Watkins Johnson AN/URR-74(V)2.  This radio was manufactured from 1976-1990, and is the slightly beefed up flavor of the WJ-8718A. 

Each of the mechanical switches on the front panel of this radio includes an insert that changes color when the switch is pressed.  This radio was rescued from a small flea market in western Illinois several years ago, and after a few squirts of control cleaner and a bit of fiddling, has served faithfully ever since.  This is not atypical of a radio of this type, which probably cost the government $15-20,000, and was designed not to fail.  But like everything else, they became obsolete.

This radio operates under microprocessor control and can be programmed to scan ranges of frequencies, has 100 memories that can be recalled instantaneously, using digital signal processing (DSP) to filter and demodulate signals rather than analogue components such as mechanical or crystal filters.  And of course, its performance can be changed to the latest model by upgrading the ROMs that control its operation.  The HF-1000A is out of production, but the WJ-8711A is available, if you have close to $10,000 US that you have nothing better to do with.