The only problem with the Echophone EC1 is that its not a transmitter, although maybe the Echo Charlie band was originally only SWL? One of the reasons for assuming EC was born during the war is that, I have heard the 45m band referred to as “The Lancaster Bomber” channel, on more than one occasion, however that might just be because surplus military radios were used.
However, I accept some of your reasoning about radio transmissions during that period, even so there would still have been some “amateur” radio users, even phones were scarce back then, so rural communities used radio to communicate.
In both the US and the UK there were complete bans on any amateur use of radio transmitters, many other nations had similar bans. As I said before, these bans were vigorously enforced, by the FBI in the US and by the MoD in the UK. There were also groups of volunteer radio monitors on the lookout for unauthorized transmissions.
To get caught transmitting was to face charges, and unlike today there were many people actively pursuing anyone transmitting. Numerous spies were captured this way during the time period.
Although phones may have been scarce at the time, I can guarantee there were many more phones than radio transmitters.
Some nations had bans on private ownership of radio receivers during the same period.
We’ve already discovered that fighter aircraft (And other aircraft) during the war was using TR9D radios, even during the battle of Britain, and these radios covered 6.6mhz.
TR9 was a series of radios, the TR9D was only one model in the series. Let’s also remember that this series of radios had a TOP frequency of 6600 kHz, not the 6670 kHz that has become “EC”. The radios could, indeed, transmit up to 6800 kHz, however the crystal pack shipped with them probably only covered the “specified” range of frequencies.
However, the TR9 series was not used in bombers or larger than fighter sized aircraft, so hard to tie that radio to the “Lancaster Bomber” channel you mentioned above.
On HF the Lancaster, and other British bombers, used primarily the T1154 transmitter and R1155 receiver. This combination worked across a wider frequency range than the smaller radios used in smaller aircraft. The exact frequency range is model specific, there were over 16 variations of the sets, from 1.5 to 16.7 MHz was possible, with an LW band of 200 to 500 kHz, depending on model. The T1154C was the widest banded single unit, from 2.35 to 16.7 MHz. The R1155 receiver covered 0.075 to 18.5 MHz, with some variation depending on the exact version.
It was fairly common, in the UK, after the war for the T1154 / R1155 combination to be picked up on the surplus market and used by radio hobbyist.
One of the companies who produced the T1154 / R1155 was EKCO. I suppose there could be some tie in there.
So listening to this extremely exciting stuff, for real, on an EC1 radio, may have caused 45m to become known as Echo Charlie, it was probably illegal to listen in, like it used to be when police scanning, but there would be no real way to police it. But this may be the reason it was underground. (Excuse the pun)
Not sure of your location, but in the US police “scanning” in general has never been illegal. There are some limitations on where and when you can do it (such as in a vehicle) but those are local or state regulations, not federal, and not very common.
Later after the war and in the 1950’s and 60’s when 45m band was part of the amateur radio spectrum, radio users may have carried on referring to 6.6mhz as Echo Charlie, which has remained since, although 6.6 is no longer part of the legal radio spectrum, it still attracts a fair number of what are now known as “Freebanders”.
The 45 meter band was never, as far as I know, part of the amateur spectrum, and certainly not in the period after WW II. Let me elaborate on that a bit.
In the very early days of amateur radio it could be used, but I am talking prior to 1924. Before that date the bands were not well defined, and starting in 1913 amateurs had all of the frequencies 200 meters and down (1.5 MHz and higher). In the 1924 to 1927 time frame international agreements started to define specific “bands” in that range, and in 1924 the basic HF amateur bands similar to what we know today were established. So between 1913 and 1924 the 45 meter band might have been legal for amateur use, but I don’t think that has anything to do with what we are talking about.
T!