Diplomatic Wireless Service
The Diplomatic Wireless Service (DWS) was the name of the communications system set up for the British
Her Majesty's Government Communications Centre
(HMGCC).
It also operated and maintained transmitters at home and abroad on behalf of the Foreign Office for the broadcasting of the European Service of the BBC and the BBC Overseas Service, which were combined as the
Masirah both called the British Middle East Relay Station. This section of the DWS was renamed the Foreign and Commonwealth Office Communications Engineering Division in the mid-1970s and was ultimately transferred to the control of the BBC in 1985.[4]
DWS operators were also involved in radio eavesdropping, the gathering of signals intelligence (SIGINT) for GCHQ, from within the compounds of embassies. The first of these undercover stations was established at Ankara in 1943;[5] another important station was at Stockholm, a location ideally suited for the monitoring of radio traffic from the Soviet Union.[6]
References
- ISBN 978-0-00-731265-8.
- ISBN 1-84375-252-2.
- ^ "Why is the HQ called Bush House?". Retrieved 13 July 2010.
- ^ Norman McLeod Spalding DWS Engineer 1926 -2022
- ^ Aldrich p. 58
- ^ Aldrich p. 192