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Hams of FCC's RID Aid Allied Effort in WW2
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 |
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