In article , Robert Casey
writes:

Ya think a spy would apply for a license in ANY radio service, Jim?

Depending on the situation, a ham license could be a good
"cover story" for a spy with transmitting equipment. The
FCC did shut down all ham bands during WW2...

Search for KGB Colonel Rudolph Abel on the 'web. You will learn
that he posed as an artist in NYC and had an HF receiver-
transmitter in his apartment for his "hobby of amateur radio."
According to arresting investigators. After WW2.

Abel was traded for Francis Gary Powers, the U-2 pilot downed
over Russia, tried and imprisoned there. Powers later worked for
Lockheed in Burbank then the NBC Western Hq there, living in
Roscoe Canyon in Sun Valley (northern extension of Roscoe Blvd,
see Mapquest), not exactly a neighbor but nearby to me.