Page 225 - The Secret War in the Italian front in WWI (1915-1918)

CHAPTER TEN

rules and abbreviations used by the enemy, etc. Listening activity became easier also thanks to the
adoption of completely stand-alone receivers, independent from transmitters. In September 1916,
for the first time, the Austrian army commissioned ten receivers for interception only, delivered
the following year, while the Italians had similar receivers in Codroipo and elsewhere, for about
one year already .
65

ITalIan cIPhers’ ProlIferaTIon

Contrary to what happened on the Austrian side, the number of Italian transmitting radio stations
in the war zone increased continuously, reaching the figure of about eighty at the end of 1916, also
following the introduction
of a considerable amount of
200 W stations that could
be easily transported and
powered by pedal. Picture
10.10 shows the main
component of this station,
completely produced in the
army workshops. The top part
of the picture displays the
receiver case and transmitter
case, while the bottom shows
the tandem activating the
dynamo for power source.
The photograph in picture
10.11 probably refers to the
delivery of the equipment to
the radiotelegraphic office in
Codroipo.
The general directive sent
by the Chief Inspector of the
STM to the Headquarters
10.10 A 200W pedal-powered transmitting and receiving station. The of the armies in April 1916,
transmitter is on the top right side (ISCAG Archive) prohibits Service Ciphers
usage in those stations and
prescribes the application of other coding systems to be created locally by “each radiotelegraphic
section command”, in order to protect its own communications “with ciphers which, in case of
loss, do not cause too much damage”, since radio stations located in forward positions were
evidently more likely to be captured . Using different ciphers within the same army was also
66
allowed, considering “advisable to have just the stations actually communicating with each other
using the same system” .
67

65 M. Ronge, Der Radiohorch, op cit., p.11. The use of stations qualified for listening only was justified by the fact that in that
manner “one was not tempted to transmit dispatches”.
66 Chief Inspector of the STM, Military Journal, Letter, Subject: Servizio delle stazioni RT di piccola potenza (Service of
low-power radiotelegraphic stations), 11 April 1916, AUSSME, Series B1, 105 S, Vol. 88.
67 ibidem.

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