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Old 15th Sep 2017, 8:39 am   #1
jsbhavsar
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Default Hitler's Bunker Radio 1945

Sorry for asking something rubbish from the Nazi era.

I have read numerous times that the German dictator Adolf Hitler spent his last days in the Fuehrerbunker in the Berlin city. The RCC bunker was quite deep underground.
When all communication modes broke in the last days of his life, Hitler still continued to receive LW/MW/SW broadcasts on his radio that was in the bunker deep below the ground.

What radio make model could that have been?
What kind of aerial did they install on the bunker that they could still receive signals inspite of heavy bombing and firing on both sides?

Anyone has any idea on this?
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Old 15th Sep 2017, 11:33 am   #2
Craig Sawyers
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Default Re: Hitler's Bunker Radio 1945

Here's a Norwegian fellow who collects German WW2 receivers, transmitters and Tranceivers.

http://www.laud.no/ww2/

He might know the answer to your question, if you can work out how to contact him.

He's clearly got extremely deep pockets - looks like he owns an Enigma machine http://www.la6nca.net/tysk2/enigma/index.htm
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Old 15th Sep 2017, 7:34 pm   #3
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Default Re: Hitler's Bunker Radio 1945

Quote:
He's clearly got extremely deep pockets - looks like he owns an Enigma machine http://www.la6nca.net/tysk2/enigma/index.htm
Not necessarily

I know another Norwegian amateur who would have been in his late teens at the end of WW2.

We talked in general about Enigma machines and he admitted to having one

He said something like "there were plenty just laying around" meaning at the end of the war

Fred
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Old 15th Sep 2017, 7:55 pm   #4
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Default Re: Hitler's Bunker Radio 1945

Probably (three or more) primitive (coiled?) aerials made of off the shelf wire; if they all got broken some poor sap had to go up and restring one or all of them. Having said that, they could probably shrug off near misses, in the same way the barbed wire on the battlefields in WW1 simply couldn't be blasted away with shells- it just bounced back.
Carpet bombing often failed to achieve total destruction unless firestorm/s took hold.
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Old 17th Sep 2017, 6:08 pm   #5
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Default Re: Hitler's Bunker Radio 1945

Perhaps its worth adding that there is nothing technically difficult about receiving radio signals deep underground, provided the antenna is above ground - preferably in the clear. So as others have pointed out a bit of wire strung above ground would do just fine - and be reasonably bombproof. Then all that's needed is a bit of feeder down to a receiver.

So there was nothing special about the radio itself. Any radio - with an external antenna connection (probably most of them in 1945) would do.

Richard
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Old 17th Sep 2017, 9:48 pm   #6
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Default Re: Hitler's Bunker Radio 1945

I went to a lecture on Enigmas a few years ago. The lecturer had about a dozen on display afterwards, and a couple working for the audience to play with. Apparently the basic models were freely available for anyone to buy before the war, and were often used for important businesses correspondence to maintain commercial confidentiality. It was the more complex models with additional coding wheels that were developed later in the war that made the code breakers' job considerably more difficult due to the much greater number of different combinations.
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Old 17th Sep 2017, 10:44 pm   #7
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Default Re: Hitler's Bunker Radio 1945

IIRC the plug boards were fitted after the Spanish Civil War as the early ones used for correspondence were too easy to crack with just 3 wheels.
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Old 29th Sep 2017, 12:13 pm   #8
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Default Re: Hitler's Bunker Radio 1945

Thanks for all the inputs.

All I wanted to know basic whether the radio inside Hitler's bunker

1) Was it a TRF Receiver or Superhet design
2) Whether it was a specified German military radio or a consumer model like Grundig or Telefunken we see in many homes
3) What kind of aerial system it had to receive signals deep underground. The bunker was RCC concrete structure quite deep below underground.
4) What kinds of bands his bunker radio had?
5) Is that radio kept somewhere in some museum? Russia?

My own radios do not work in RCC Highrise in Mumbai on the 6th floor here. I need to place radio set near the window sill and then can hear some but not all. Hence getting radios work that deep inside a RCC bunker would have meant some "harsh orders" by the German leader on his "technical men"?
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Old 29th Sep 2017, 1:54 pm   #9
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Default Re: Hitler's Bunker Radio 1945

I can't comment of the radio details, but there is a very good Wikipedia article on the bunker: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Führerbunker

The 2004 film Downfall attempts to show the last few weeks of life in the bunker, and does show some radio technology. I don't know if the technology is completely accurate but a lot of effort was made to get the historical details right. It is an interesting albeit harrowing film, and well worth watching.

The bunker was very large and would have had a lot of radio equipment, quite apart from any radios for Hitler's personal use. It also had a telephone switchboard.
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Old 29th Sep 2017, 2:26 pm   #10
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Default Re: Hitler's Bunker Radio 1945

Quote:
My own radios do not work in RCC Highrise
The problem in the bunker was merrily feeding RF down to it and only for a few metres. Thee would be very little interference outside and above the bunker. Have you tried a loop antenna on a long stick?
 
Old 29th Sep 2017, 2:52 pm   #11
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Default Re: Hitler's Bunker Radio 1945

Steel framed high rise buildings usually screen radio signals quite effectively. There is also likely to be a lot of digital interference generated nearby which will swamp weak signals.
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Old 29th Sep 2017, 4:12 pm   #12
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Default Re: Hitler's Bunker Radio 1945

The radio program might have been fed to the bunker via hard wired communication lines?

Lawrence.
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Old 1st Oct 2017, 12:30 pm   #13
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Default Re: Hitler's Bunker Radio 1945

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Originally Posted by paulsherwin View Post
There is also likely to be a lot of digital interference generated nearby which will swamp weak signals.
Digital interfence in 1945?
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Old 1st Oct 2017, 12:38 pm   #14
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Default Re: Hitler's Bunker Radio 1945

That was an indirect reply to post #8.
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Old 4th Oct 2017, 12:03 pm   #15
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Default Re: Hitler's Bunker Radio 1945

Quote:
Originally Posted by ms660 View Post
The radio program might have been fed to the bunker via hard wired communication lines?
But the Russians would have broken such lines as they were bombing the city for a long time and inching closer to the bunker from March-April 1945.
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Old 4th Oct 2017, 12:10 pm   #16
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Default Re: Hitler's Bunker Radio 1945

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Originally Posted by paulsherwin View Post
Steel framed high rise buildings usually screen radio signals quite effectively. There is also likely to be a lot of digital interference generated nearby which will swamp weak signals.
Set Top Box & Broadband modem are the two top culprits I noticed in my RCC highrise in Mumbai. Out of which I can only switch OFF the modem and not the TV, else I will be OUT from the apartment with my radios
To some extent the split AC also adds to noise and disturbance.

Another thing noticed. The radio works quite well in a particular room window than other. It means the window above or below my living room has some noise generating equipment which is absent in the other room.

Few days back I was at my parent's place where our home there is on the ground floor.

Radio set :
https://uae.souq.com/ae-en/toshiba-t...io-10621449/i/

Inside the apartment it sounded a little noisy on SW. As soon as I walked out in open space it came up loud and clear. Shutting down the HD Set top box helped quite a more.
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Old 4th Oct 2017, 12:58 pm   #17
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Default Re: Hitler's Bunker Radio 1945

You could have an aerial on a balloon, just like the one in the Fuhrerbunker....

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