I'm aware that this post is off-topic, except that it is the basis for my
two previous posts that were on topic to antennas. I believe it is time to
reexamine the contributions hams and commercial radio ops made to the WW2 effort
as they were the operating personnel of the FCC's Radio Intelligence Division.
This is their story.
With the War already raging in Europe in 1939, people at the State
Department knew they were missing vital war intelligence being exchanged by
radio, especially that going between Germany and South America. They queried the
FCC Field Division in early 1940 about monitoring to intercept the information.
The Field Division operated the original primary monitoring stations, performing
regulatory and enforcement duties. However, at that time the Field Division
personnel had their hands full just monitoring domestic operations, and had no
time for intelligence monitoring.
Congress was alerted to the need for additional personnel and equipment for
the FCC to monitor intelligence, and it approved funds for establishing a new
section, the National Defense Operating section, NDO. The NDO began operations
September 3, 1940, and was later upgraded to a division, becoming the Radio
Intelligence Division, RID. To head the NDO, the late George E. Sterling
(W1AE/W3DF) was elevated from Ass't Chief Engineer, FCC, to Chief, NDO Section,
and later to Chief, RID. To obtain personnel for the new section he instructed
one of his assistants, the late Harriette Koster, to search through the file
cards containing the information on licensed amateur and commercial operators.
She selected more than 500 operators from the file cards, and over T.J. Slowie's
signature, she sent telegrams to those selected, offering them positions of
Radio Operator, Ass't Monitoring Officer, and Monitoring Officer. The entire
personnel for the new NDO Section, including myself, were obtained from response
to those telegrams. (Harrriette later became my wife, and mother of my four
children, W2WM, WB4GNR, K4JRM, and KC4UBZ (Sue's license now expired). The
Congressional funding also supported building many new secondary monitoring
stations throughout the country, each equipped with Hallicrafters SX-28 and S-27
receivers, and Adcock (sky-wave) direction finders. In addition, Hudson
automobiles equipped with the receivers and a loop direction finder were a part
of each secondary station, used for mobile close-in surveillance.
Immediately following Pearl Harbor, December 7, 1941, the FCC RID mobilized
a group from both primary and secondary monitoring stations to go to the
Hawaiian Islands to set up eight new secondary stations, one each on Oahu,
Molokai, Kauai, Maui, and Lanai, and three on the big island of Hawaii. NDO
Chief Sterling accompanied the group, of which I was a member from the primary
station at Allegan, Michigan.
Extensive 24/7 mobile monitoring around the shoreline of all the islands
was pursued, with the intention of finding clandestine radio operation between
local Japanese loyal to Japan and Jap submarines cruising off shore. No such
operations were found to occur, and no Hawaiians of Japanese descent were found
to be disloyal to the U.S. During my stay on the Islands I worked at stations on
Oahu, Kauai, Molokai and Hawaii.
With Adcock direction finders at all eight secondary stations, plus the one
at the primary station in Honolulu, the FCC saved the lives of thousands of
military personnel and more than 600 military aircraft flying the Pacific
between the Mainland and the Islands during WW2, after becoming lost due to
errors in navigation with limited fuel supply. Details on how this task was
performed, and how the Beverage antenna was used to receive broadcasts from JOAK
Tokyo, were the subjects of my two previous posts.
Within the next few months I'll be relating some of the 'real intelligence'
work involving RID operations that had a significant effect on shortening WW2.

Walter Maxwell, W2DU