Related Resources • Radio History

Links In This Article • Article from “The Electrical Experimenter”, June, 1917 • Aviation, Sea & Spy Adventures - MP3 Archive CD-ROMs • Calling Dick Tracy! The 2-Way Wrist Radio • KGB Music Box and Radio

This coming Friday, November 22, the 20th James Bond movie, "Die Another Day" will be released. Even 007 would tell you the art of spying and the use of radios have gone hand-in-hand since undercover agents first realized the value of the immediate and long distance communication radio could provide them.

As far back as 1917, a German citizen living in America named Max Hans Ludwig Wax, was arrested as a spy. After some questioning, police recovered a peculiar black box he had left in a New York City machine shop. Inside, they eventually found a wireless telegraph radio receiver but it wasn't until meticulous inspection revealed it. Initially, Wax tried to convince authorities the box was a counterfeiting device for U.S. currency. He claimed if you put a U.S. $1,000 dollar bill in it, 10 fake ones would come out. Wax claimed the scheme was designed to upset the balance of gold by shifting U.S. gold to Germany. This was a ruse not to divulge the radio.

Eventually, authorities discovered the wireless telegraph radio receiver housed in a secret compartment on the bottom of the mysterious box. They determined the device could receive signals (morse code) from as far away as Germany and marveled at how small and concealed the device was. The police speculated it must have been terribly expensive to build, estimating it at $800, a small fortune then.

Still more evidence pointed to Wax as being a German spy and if you wish, you can read more from an article which appeared in the June, 1917 edition of a now defunct publication called “The Electrical Experimenter”. The article has more details and a picture of Max and his secret spy radio.

Some other intriguing spy radio resources can be found on the Internet. Old radio programs about aviation, sea and spy adventures like “Captain Midnight” have been archived in mp3 format on CD Roms and are available at serialsquadron.com. Other vintage radio programs about spying like “I Was a Communist for the FBI” from 1952-53, and “David Harding, Counter Spy” from 1949-50 can also be obtained.

And, if you would like a look at clandestine radio equipment of the United States, Peter McCollum has written and compiled an amazing set of web pages all about the important role communication has played in collecting intelligence. His site includes detailed background information along with many pictures of various types of spy radios used during the 1940s and 1950s including the the RS-6, a mid-50's vintage Spy Radio which Amercian U-2 pilots carried in their vest pockets.

From fiction like Dick Tracy's "2-way wrist radio" or the "KGB Music Box and Radio" seen in the 1977 James Bond thriller, “The Spy Who Loved Me”, to the real-life drama of covert operations, radio has played a major role in both teasing our imagination and protecting our national security.

- Corey Deitz

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