[QCWA] Error in Journal

[Norm Gertz]

Walt......brings up a few memories of my own...

In 1942 I was an operator at WAR in Washn DC.  The word was passed to us 
that the FBI was looking for radio operators.
I went down and was interviewed and was told if I could get a release from 
WAR they would give me a job etc.
WAR declined to give me the release;  said I was needed there at the 
station.
I therefore never got the FBI job.

Later, with the 4th Marine Division we had a base radio station on Maui and 
had a direct line to the FCC monitoring station.  We often exchanged 
information with them.  You can imagine the variety of radio signals 
eminating from the military training exercises.  I'm sure it kept the FCC 
receivers hopping.

A number of my old friends did however go with the FBI as radio operators 
and made a career with them.

73    Norm


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Walter Maxwell" <walt at w2du.com>
To: <QCWA at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Monday, September 19, 2005 10:40 AM
Subject: [QCWA] Error in Journal


> Hello All,
>
>
>
>     Just received my copy of the Fall 2005 Journal. Among other things, I 
> found
> the Barrows' article, "World War 2 Remembered" very interesting, as I was
> involved in precisely the same activity they described concerning their 
> late
> father, W7BCT. However, there are some errors in the article that need to 
> be
> corrected to set the record straight.
>
>     First, it is stated that he, W7BCT, transferred from the FCC to the 
> Radio
> Intelligence Division (RID) of the National Defense Agency, (NDA). This 
> could
> not be true, because the RID was a division of the FCC, not the NDA, 
> whatever
> that was, if it even existed. It is likely that W7BCT's sons 
> misinterpreted his
> notes, because the original FCC monitoring of radio intelligence was 
> performed
> by a new section of the FCC established in early 1940, the National 
> Defense
> Operations Section (NDO), and began monitoring operations September 3. The 
> NDO
> was later upgraded from a section to a division, becoming the FCC Radio
> Intelligence Division. The FCC Field Division operated the original 
> primary
> monitoring stations, performing regulatory and enforcement duties, while 
> the
> personnel of the FCC RID monitored for intelligence transmissions, along 
> side
> the Field Division personnel at the primary monitoring stations. 
> Additional RID
> personnel operated at numerous secondary stations, as I'll explain later.
>
>     I was part of the original FCC NDO Section personnel that became 
> effective
> on Sept 3, 1940, continuing with the RID until April 1944. During that 
> entire
> time there were three pay grades; Radio Operator, $1800 per annum; 
> Assistant
> Monitoring Officer, $2400; and Monitoring Officer, $3200. There were no 
> other
> pay grades during the duration. However, the article states that there was 
> a pay
> incentive for copying higher code speeds, earning $10 per month more for 
> copying
> 35 wpm. In my nearly four years with the FCC, first as Radio Operator, and 
> then
> as Assistant Monitoring Officer, I never heard of such an incentive. I 
> could
> copy faster than 35 wpm, but my pay was exactly $1800 and then exactly 
> $2400
> until I left the Commission, not a penny more. I already had the ARRL Code
> Certificate for 35 wpm.
>
>     Perhaps a little history of the NDO and RID is in order. 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 
> between
> Germany and South America. They queried the FCC in early 1940 about 
> monitoring
> to intercept the information. 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 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 new personnel 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 from the files, and over T.J. Slowie's signature, she sent telegrams 
> to
> those selected, offering them the positions described above. The entire 
> new
> personnel for the NDO Section, including myself, were obtained from 
> response to
> those telegrams. (Harrriette later became my wife, and mother of my four
> children, all licensed hams, two, W2WM and WB4GNR, are Life Members of 
> QCWA.)
> The Congressional funding also supported building many new secondary 
> monitoring
> stations throughout the country, each equipped with Hallicrafters SX-28 
> and
> SX-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 
> mobilized a
> group from both primary and secondary stations to go to the Hawaiian 
> Islands to
> set up eight new secondary monitoring 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 is the subject of an
> upcoming story.
>
>
>
> Walter Maxwell, W2DU
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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