Polish prisoner of war radio question

[Andy gw0jxm]

Hi Guys, I’ve been asked to help a gentleman who’s writing a book about Polish prisoners of war in Wales. Apparently the POW’s built a crystal set using galena crystal that can be found locally and they are said to have used the metal gutter of the building as an aerial. I have no problem with any of that; I did it myself as a child. Making a capacitor again is no big deal using waxed paper and tinned cans cut into sections that can be stacked. But, I'm wondering what they might have done for a telephone i.e. the ear piece? As a child I used those little pink crystal ear pieces or Stirling 2,000Ω head phone from a church jumble sale if I could find them.
Do you have any idea of any other way a POW could build an earphone out of ‘found,’ (or begged stolen or borrowed,) items back in the 1940’s.
Another point, am I right in assuming back then you wouldn’t find aluminium foil in a normal domestic environment?
Any help will be appreciated.
Kind Regards ... Andy
GWØJXM

[cmjones01]

I read recently some information on prisoner of war radios in a different environment, here:

http://www.zerobeat.net/qrp/powradio.html

but I think similar tricks would have been used anywhere in the world. It seems that complex components like valves and headphones were obtained by smuggling, theft or bribery.

However, I do wonder why on earth there were Polish prisoners of war in Wales?

Chris

[Station X]

I think this would have been a displaced persons or refugee camp. These were set up after the war to accommodate Poles who didn't want to return to Soviet controlled Poland.

I'd have thought the occupants would have been supplied with radios in mess halls etc.

[maninashed]

Yes that's right, although Polish people were on our side during WW2, they were not allowed to settle here en mass after the end of hostilities. Many were housed in former MOD camps, hostels and hospitals. The main one in Wales was at Penley, which was a hospital. They weren't mis-treated, but it was a time of severe austerity, but they would not have been deprived of home comforts, and that may have included a radio or two, or possibly an ex MOD set from the scrap/surplus lying around.
Bill

[turretslug]

Originally Posted by Station X

I think this would have been a displaced persons or refugee camp. These were set up after the war to accommodate Poles who didn't want to return to Soviet controlled Poland.

E.g. my dad's stepfather, whose blacksmithing skills were very useful to the farmers of Fife (and, apparently, Aberdeen university). Don't know if he built any radios, though transmitters of the time may have looked as though they'd emerged from the smithy...

[David G4EBT]

Originally Posted by cmjones01

...I do wonder why on earth there were Polish prisoners of war in Wales?

There weren't - Poles were our allies. As has been said, they would have been refugees. British householders who had spare rooms were encouraged (pressed even) to take in Polish refugees to occupy any spare rooms. I was born in 1939, and from 1943 was brought up by a kindly spinster in a five bedroomed house in Nottingham. At various times up to 1953 we had Polish families living with us until they could be found accommodation. They never went back to Poland - nothing and no-one to go back to. (They still live in Nottingham to this day).

There were lots of Italian POWs in the UK who lived a fairly free and easy life, often working on the land with minimal supervision, (Eden Camp - now an award winning museum near Malton in N Yorks was one such camp, which housed Italian and German POWs). They weren't considered a great security risk - they were safe, secure, out of combat and generally well looked after so kept their heads down. I don't think they'd have needed to make clandestine radios to be up to speed with the news. Many met local girls and settled in Yorkshire - those that didn't were in no particular rush to be repatriated and didn't go back until 1947 and later.

Any cross section of POWs whatever their nationality had many people skilled in a range of crafts. The Italian POWs in Nottingham - many housed at Wollaton Hall - made tin toys for children from old tin cans, of which I and other local kids had a few. They also made slippers with soles made from coiled rope and discarded leather and heavy duty cloth of which I had a pair as a child. I assume that the POWs bartered such things with their captors in exchange for things that they wanted. Everyone on both sides of the fence were trying to get by at a time of acute shortages, and rationing for most things didn't end till 1954. It wouldn't surprise me at all if a pair of old headphones wouldn't be too difficult to come by in exchange for something or other. Use one earpiece for wire for the coil - the other as an earphone. (I don't think they had any escape committees!). I don't recall any enmity towards the POWs.

[Heatercathodeshort]

There were probably quite a few GPO phonebox handsets robbed of their inserts..J.

[Andy gw0jxm]

Originally Posted by cmjones01

I read recently some information on prisoner of war radios in a different environment

Thanks for that Chris. I found that very interesting.

Originally Posted by cmjones01

... However, I do wonder why on earth there were Polish prisoners of war in Wales?

I knew I’d fall foul of this question, I don’t know the history of the Poles in Wales I guess I'll have to follow this up now but when I was approached by the writer of the proposed book I could see he was a real enthusiast and all I wanted to do was see if there were any options for building headphones out of ‘found’ items. Your previous link lead me to the site saying that capacitors were made in Japanese POW camps from the aluminium foil from tea chests. I wasn’t sure when such foil was common place but it looks like even in war time aluminium foils was available. Maybe that might have been ‘old stock’ tea but it seems the foil was used.

Kind Regards ... Andy

[pmmunro]

One possible explanation?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polnisc...orld_War_II%29

Who knows what pressures people were under at the time?

PMM

[radiotechnician]

Aluminum foil may have been found by dismantling condensers
used on truck igntions. Also would have been a source of copper wire
in the coils, heavy and very fine. This combined with magnetic core,
bits of tar, and perhaps magnets from a magneto could be used to
make an earphone. Rest assured, that amongst the Poles interned
would be tradesmen, mechanics, etc happy to help fix lorries
or do whatever else such a camp would have needed given scant
wartime resources.