Friday Projects Page II
Page initiated 30 March 2025
The first Friday Project page (November 2024-
January 2025) can be visited at https://www.cdvandt.org/friday-projects.htm
Current Status: November 17 2025
We are maintaining a dedicated Friday
group with Ambro, Anton, Hans and Eric being engaged in various projects, giving future directions together with Karin Hovius and the foundation board members.
Februari 2025
Our chair and friend Arthur O. Bauer passed away at
the age of 82 years on February 5th 2025.
The center for German Communications and related
Technologies (CDV&T) will continue as a foundation to keep the unique
collection, manuals and setting intact, including organizing various meetings
each year, posting new articles and scanned manuals via the website and social
media, collaborations with other organizations and museums, and the weekly Fridays with Ambro, Anton, Hans,
Eric and Karin to continue with projects and discuss outreach activities.
Project update:
↓
1. Friday: 28 March 2025
With
parts of the collection distributed over 3 different locations, we decided to take
some time to restructure the main location where we have our weekly Friday
meetings. here we have the two large exposition rooms with workbenches, and we will 1) make a library
room with numerous books, manuals and schemes, 2) isolate the depot part to be able to
store instruments and additional workspace, and 3) restructure the cellar to store
the large tube collection, stocks of capacitors and other electronic parts used
for repair.
A separate room at the front of the
building was used for storage and some books. We cleared the room and placed
numerous bookcases as well as drawer units for the hundreds of schemes and
manuals. Many books on German military radio and radar, as well on radio in general, techniques, tube development,
history and also the Dutch history of radio (e.g. Kootwijk) will be placed
here. Work in progress!
The main depot behind the second
exhibition room was not isolated and mainly used to store some pieces of
equipment under poor conditions, as well as chairs and equipment. We are now removing the shelves, stripping the
walls (showing the old walls) and will add a good isolating layer to the walls
and the ceiling. This will enable us to have more radio equipment at this
location, storage of workbenches during exhibits but also place some heavy equipment.
The Myford Super7 lathe might also move to
the depot, as it is currently being located at a different location.
To our surprise we found many hidden items in the depo
, including various antennas.
One antenna is the 2 meter antenna used
for the Fu5 radio set commonly used with panzers and related vehicles.
There were also two Sternantennes, one being the Sternantenne a used for the 30W and 80W
Sender, and the Sternantenne c with extendable rods that was used for the 100W Sender.
With tubes stored on various locations we
also decided to merge these collections. Not an easy task with thousands of tubes!
Step by step the tubes are being
reorganized
The RS237 tubes for the 100W Sender were
tested with the 100W sender. Some were leaking (as shown by a blueish light),
but most tubes were performing nicely as shown by the antenne output.
While we focus mainly on the restructuring we keep interacting with other organisations and welcoming
interested individuals. After the summerbreak we hope
to have our first real symposium again, likely together with our friends of the
Cryptomuseum.
And we help people with requests including
providing loan objects for movie productions such as the 15 WSEB and Hellschreiber for a Dutch movie production...
...and sending German radar related items for
the Yokohama
WWII Japanese Military Radio Museum 横浜旧軍無線通信資料館 run by Takashi Doi
2. Friday: 20 June 2025
Since March we have been mainly busy isolating the depot at the end of our building. Here we have a hugh stock of radio equipment and spare parts, yet the temperature and humidity is not good for the stored instrument, the people working here in winter time, and the gas bill. Therefore the walls and ceiling were stripped and well isolated, and new electricity network was installed. An inspection of the building by professionals also gave an overview of expected maintenance tasks and costs for the next 20 years.
Meanwhile we also continued selecting various parts including capacitors, tubes and books. And we bought some new pieces of equipment for future projects. One example is a second Tfb4. At our foundation we have already two TFb 2 carrier telephony sets (TFb or Trägerfrequenzgerät b) that were used by the Wehrmacht to add multiple communications through one telephone line. The earlier work by Arthur and Hans can be seen at https://www.cdvandt.org/tfb-survey.htm We also have a single TFb 4 (having a different carrier frequency) and we obtained a second TFb 4 so we can make this working too, ideally on the same telephone line as the TFb 2.
In july we will also move various benches and radio equipment from the garage boxes to the Klooster building, including the U boot radio setup with a working Hellschreiber.
.
Following placing of thick Polyisocyanurate (PIR) insulation blocks -a type of foam board well known for its superior thermal insulation capabilities- the isolating walls are shielded 'with plasterboard and wooden plates. The side walls will be for storage, the back side for a heavy duty bench
The original Tfb4 and the new one
The bench used in the garage for repairing e.g. a Hellschreiber will move to the depot...
... as well as the radio setup used by Arthur and the Hellschreiber Hellnet team
3. Friday: 15 August 2025
Following the reconstruction of our main building for the CDV&T foundation including a large library and a well isolated depot, we moved the German WWII radio equipment placed at other locations to the main building too. This included the main setup used by late Arthur Bauer which was located in his own house, and weekly used with the European Hellschreiber network.
The main instruments are the T200 FK39 Sender and the AS 60 Sender (two heavy instruments!) and the Kw.E.A. and E52 Köln receivers, and of course the Hellschreiber. The setup will be kept as originally used by Arthur, and get into working order again.
Kurzwellen-Sender 1,4 kW,AS 60
Telefunken 200 Watt transmitter
We have to work on some smaller details including updating the electricity network in the building but can start dreaming of new restoration projects again, and activities including exhibitions.
Since August we have been finalizing the last reconstructions, electricity and heating, and started with a workplan for 2026 including projects, symposia and meetings. Ideally we will have a few topic-specific meetings including a Hell(schreiber)meeting, a meeting focussed on radar, a meeting together with the Cryptomuseum, and 1-2 days open for the general public. Projects include continuing with the Feld.Fu radio sets, a Mutterkompass for the airplane corner, and get the Hellschreiber of Arthur into the air again!
With several Hellschreibers around we could not resist buying a Morsebildschreiber:
Some components are missing but this will be a nice project for 2026! We also obtained a cap for one of our Geheimschreibers - the cap got lost during an exhibition abroad. It will need some restoration too!
While various instruments were repaired and put into action over the many years of the CDVandT, some setups were not powered for a lomg time. To keep all instruments up and running we will slowly reactivate them one by one. Always good for demonstrations!
The Radione setup is a nice example, and within minutes both the RS 20M transmitter and R3 receiver were in the air again
We received two pieces of broadband cables used in the Third Reich by Jürgen Bauch, author on 3 books on Breitbandkabel with volumes on Berlin-Leipzig-München, Berlin - Hamburg and Berlin - Brocken - Franhfurt. He is currently working on a volume on Münche-Salzburg- Wien including the Obersalzberg yet there is very little information on cables connections with the Obersalzberg - e.g. was there a television connection?
