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Crowdsourcing SIGINT: Ham Radio at War
- During World War II, the Radio Security Service (RSS) utilized a network of ham radio operators to intercept enemy radio transmissions on home soil.
- The volunteers, totaling about 1,500 members, used their own equipment and Morse code skills to intercept messages.
- Initially operating from a prison in London, the RSS eventually moved to Arkley View, where they focused on intercepting messages from enemy agents for codebreaking.
- The RSS successfully intercepted German signals, leading to the decoding of messages between agents in Europe and their handlers in Germany.
- The RSS grew into SCU3 (Special Communications Unit 3) under MI6 in 1941, specializing in foreign radio traffic interception.
- Operators at Arkley View processes intercepted logs to classify and correlate information, aiding in intelligence gathering.
- The RSS expanded monitoring with Y stations equipped with American receivers and direction-finding stations for identifying transmitter locations.
- Female volunteers and innovative operators contributed significantly, such as a bedridden VI who intercepted messages using mirrors during the Great War.
- Due to the RSS intercepts, numerous potential German agents were identified before entering the UK, leading to arrests and turning others into double agents.
- By decoding a quarter of a million intercepts, the RSS played a crucial role in intelligence gathering and security during the war.
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