[Mondial]

I have been getting back to working on my 38-116 after taking a break for a while and after removing the dial noticed the following message written underneath in pencil:

"Short wave sealed 3/22/42. Do not break seal until short wave is allowed again"

It seems that the repairman soldered a wire to the chassis and tied it to the bandswitch shaft so it could not be turned from the broadcast position. The wire is long gone but the place where it was soldered is still obvious. At least he did not disconnect any coils or such, which would have been a real pain on a 38-116.

I have heard stories of disabling the short wave bands during WW2, but this is the first radio where I have actually seen it done. Wonder if this sort of thing applied to the general public, or only certain ethnic groups which might have been considered "subversive".

[Radioroslyn]

I've got a little model 81 that the band switch was removed and a pot put in it's place. SW wires where  cut off at the coils. I chose not to fix it not much on the SW band it covers.
Terry

[morzh]

...like a German-born Japanesel.

In the USSR they did that too.

[thirtiesradio]

I have a Zenith 10-S-130 that the shortwave trimmer pot was removed and a "short wave disconnect" note written on the underside of the chassis. Wish they had just disconnected it. What a rip off to the original owner of the radio. Took me a while to find a donor part.

[Mondial]

I still wonder how this disabling worked. Was it only when the radio was serviced for some other reason, or was there an actual program to disable the shortwave on radios owned by non-citizens from combatant countries.

Find it hard to believe that the "Shortwave Police" came to every home in the US to check and modify the radios found in use.

[morzh]

....in which case we'd see most of them with this mod.

[Kestas]

My mother told me stories of living in Nazi-occupied Lithuania. Her dad had a battery set, and they had someone posted outside the house as lookout while listening to the radio, since it was against the law to listen to certain broadcasts.

The batteries were periodically taken to town for recharging.

[Paul Philco322]

This topic periodically surfaces in the hobby, who was subject to the disabling, how did the authorities notify repair shops, how could you stop someone from reconnecting the shortwave, it is subject to much discussion. I have had people tell me they knew techs who did this but they have not offered me details. Has anyone ever seen govt documentation requiring this work? All pretty mysterious....

Paul

[PhilcoMike]

No doubt it happened. I guess the question at large is how widespread was it?
I have yet to buy or find an old radio with SW that didn't work on all bands.
I doubt the all were reworked after the war.

Thanks

Mike

[Warren]

My guess would be it was mostly inforced in german occupied countries probably mostly in cities where there was a large german presence. Would be pretty hard to enforce in places here they werent stationed permanantly to be around and see someone using sw. Maybe when they werepassing through they might check someone radio, if convenient. I would also expect most they did inspect where probably not converted so they probably destroyed the set, another reason we dont see many... Of course, just guessing

[Scottb]

If I remember correctly, German and Japanese Americans were required to turn in their cameras and have shortwave disabled. I wonder who enforced it.

[klondike98]

Here's a thread on the AM Forum about the topic.  It mentions a proclamation that all citizens, natives etc. of a hostile foreign nation could not own short wave radios (among a number of other items like weapons, bombs, signal devices etc.).  

On the Museum of American Heritage web site there is the following info on WWII Radio servicing that includes a comment on German and Italian nationals being forbidden from owning a short wave radio.

"Radio Servicing During WW II
In 1942 the manufacture of radio sets for civilian use was stopped and the facilities were directed to war production. By 1943 sets were in short supply. Old radios, long considered obsolete, were resurrected from basements and attics and put into use. The owners needed to bring many sets to the local repair shop for restoration It was quite common to find the remains of a dead rat or mouse that had crawled into the chassis to get warm only to be electrocuted when the set was turned on.
Repairing these sets was at times a dangerous occupation. Capacitors contained PCB's; cabinets had asbestos insulation; the solder contained lead; wire insulation was often poor -- and on top of this, the internal operating voltages often exceeded 350 volts!
While most radio component production went to the military, the government did allow some components to enter the civilian market. These were marked "MR" for "Maintenance and Repair." During these times it seemed that there was a radio repair shop on every block of a large city. Many of them had poor reputations, for some repairmen were out-and-out crooks, often rewiring sets for substitute components at exorbitant prices when originals were readily available.
With tight gas rationing (an "A" sticker allowed only two gallons of gasoline per week), many car owners removed their car radios and had them converted into home receivers. German and Italian foreign nationals were forbidden to own radios with short wave bands for fear that they could be used for espionage purposes. They were required to bring their sets into repair shops to have these bands disconnected.(1) [emphasis is mine]  
(1)  www.moah.org/radioking/radiokiosk/early3e.html   and www.moah.org/radioking/radiokiosk/early3f.html

[Arran]

 I can't understand why they would take such measures as mechanically sabotaging the front end of a radio to render the short wave inoperable. All that would be required to disable the short wave would be to disconnect one end of one of the mica caps in the oscillator tank circuit, or even just to shunt part of the oscillator tank circuit to ground, come to think of it they could accomplish this by soldering a jumper across a trimmer.
 This whole campaign was all nonsense of course, real spies were not about to turn in whatever radios they had anymore then they would have handed over pistols or dynamite. Most of their communications were carried out by mail anyhow, through a code, maybe they could have sent them some secret messages by shortwave broadcasts but why bother when it was all one way? I think this is an ancestor of the "security theater" you see at airports today, just to make people think that something is being done or are contributing to the war effort in some way when it really accomplishes nothing. This was how daylight saving time was foisted on us, something that we go through the motions of dealing with twice a year but really serves no tangible purpose.
Regards
Arran

[morzh]

Arran

At least in Russia they sealed it, not just disable it.

[Ron Ramirez]

Repairing these sets was at times a dangerous occupation. Capacitors contained PCB's; cabinets had asbestos insulation; the solder contained lead; wire insulation was often poor -- and on top of this, the internal operating voltages often exceeded 350 volts!

Obviously written by an imbecile with his/her head up their behind. (And I am most definitely not referring to Bob here! I am referring to whoever wrote this garbage for the Museum of American Heritage website.)

Capacitors in 1930s radios did not contain PCBs.

Cabinets did not have asbestos insulation. Some (chiefly AC/DC sets in the USA) did have a sheet of asbestos under the chassis or in areas where a large amount of heat was generated, yes. But to say they had "asbestos insulation" is an incorrect generalization. Cabinets were made mostly of wood, some metal, some Bakelite, Plaskon or Beetle. They had no insulation inside. Dummy.

Yes, the solder contains lead. DUH! Lead free solder is simply not as good for electronic work, not to mention the little whiskers that are known to grow in lead free solder and wreak havoc with contemporary surface mount electronic devices. That would not have been much of a factor in ye olden days when point to point wiring was used. Lead is not evil. Don't eat the stuff and you'll be fine.

Wire insulation was not poor; it was adequate at the time. Regarding the radios with rubber-covered wire, the rubber didn't start out hard and brittle. Rubber gets that way over time. Radio manufacturers did not intend for their products to still be in service 75+ years on.

Yes, operating voltages could exceed 350 volts in high power audio amplifiers. The radio servicemen of the day were well aware of the high voltages involved; they weren't a bunch of babies who needed someone to hold their hand constantly. They knew the risks, and used something that is fast disappearing from the world today - common sense.