24/06/2026
Type 31/1 "Sweetheart Radio"
Designed by Norwegian electronics engineer W***y Simonsen in 1942 after escaping to England, the sets were built under the supervision of the Special Operations Executive. The receivers were given the designation Type 31/1 and were given the nick-name “Sweetheart” after “a nice young lady who worked on the project” with Simonsen. He is quoted as saying: “Remember I was a young man then”.
About 5000 of these were dropped over occupied Norwegian territory where they were used by the resistance movement to listen to the coded messages, broadcast by the BBC in London. For this reason, Sweetheart is also known as the Propaganda Set.
The set on display in our museum originally belonged to Johannes Bjugn, shown here in our photo. He was a highly decorated Norwegian military officer who fought as a platoon leader in the Battle of Narvik during World War II. During the 1940 Norwegian Campaign, he served as a Second Lieutenant in the 7th Company of Infantry Regiment 15.
This particular set (Numbered No. 7302) was kindly donated to Orkney Wireless Museum by Leif Fiske of Alversund, Norway.
