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Reprinted with permission from February 2018 QST www.arrl.org Rick Lindquist, WW1ME Individual Amateur Radio stations did A 1949 memorandum discussed Released as part of the FOIA not come into being in the USSR recruiting radio amateurs from requirements on federal agencies, until the mid-to-late 1950s, when the among German nationals legally the declassified documents were advantages of this approach to the licensed to operate in the US Zone, only available previously in a closed state became clear. Ham radio gear “who could be of use in the period system at the US National Archives. in the Soviet Bloc was typically home immediately following an outbreak of They relate readily available informa- built, although components were hostilities.” tion in the form of excerpted transla- scarce. More on this later. A 1954 CIA report pointed out that tions of articles in East Bloc Amateur Western hams of that era were far Soviet DXers had become accus- Radio magazines, as well as assess- more likely to concern themselves tomed to communicating in English ments of Amateur Radio clubs, with the latest offerings from through contesting, which, it said, groups, technical training, and activ- National, Hallicrafters, or Collins, hams universally regarded as “a ity — even station equipment infor- recent exotic DX heard and worked, giant, king-size game [sic] which defi- mation derived from QSL cards of and occasionally, how to comply with nitely separates the men from the the day. the myriad of FCC rules back then. boys.” The report cited [redacted] Many of the often-redacted and oth- who “never heard any additional con- erwise “sanitized” PDFs appear to be versational comments or remarks of scanned copies of copies of copies, possible intelligence value.” and can be difficult to decipher. The archive contents A 1949 CIA memorandum, Amateur Radio is not the sole topic, “ reveal how Soviet Bloc “Exploitation of Radio Amateurs,” although a search on “Amateur asserted: Radio” will yield many hits. Individual governments during the documents are not searchable, Cold War strictly controlled Except for possibilities in the unfortunately. ham radio and attempted counter espionage field, it is believed that exploitation of East vs. West to ‘collectivize’ it in the amateurs with reference to the The CIA kept tabs on random service of the state. USSR and satellites could lead at ” best only to information concerning Amateur Radio activities in general, the location of ham transmitters, an and on those in the Soviet Bloc in item of dubious intelligence value. particular. Various documents reveal the dichotomy between the US’s Exploring Amateur A few years later, in 1955, a CIA largely leisure pursuit of Amateur Radio as an “Asset” report of “unevaluated information” Radio and The USSR’s far more The CIA at least considered the pos- noted that the East German govern- institutionalized version. Amateur sibility that Amateur Radio could be ment had ordered systematic inter- Radio behind the Iron Curtain was co-opted as an information-gathering ception of “all radio traffic from West viewed as a patriotic pursuit, with asset. The author of a once-secret German radio amateurs,” with special radio amateurs as servants of the 1948 memorandum, “Responsibility attention paid “to those messages in state, although not without a certain for Detecting those Activities of which the amateurs reveal the con- degree of prestige, because hams Licensed U.S. Amateur Radio struction of their station and were in touch with — or at least lis- Stations which are of Interest to U.S. exchange technical advice.” The tened to broadcasts from — the out- Communication Intelligence order called for recording these com- side world. Authorities,” mulled the monitoring of munications and sending the tapes licensed operators and of “clandes- regularly to the government. The archive contents reveal how tine transmissions,” either for internal Soviet Bloc governments during the security or law enforcement reasons, Although no reason for the order was Cold War strictly controlled ham radio or for foreign intelligence collection. given, “it is believed that the technical and attempted to “collectivize” it in experiences of the West German the service of the state, as a means “In all probability, the foreign intel- amateurs and their technical possi- of enhancing the technological ligence content is virtually negligible,” bilities are to be systematically expertise of young people; indeed all the author concluded. exploited.” A heavily redacted 1953 “radio amateurs” belonged to clubs, information report indicated that only and not all of these were hams, members of the Socialist Union per se, but lay technologists. www.arrl.org Reprinted with permission from February 2018 QST Party-controlled Society for Sports offender could get 3 years in the issue of The Radio Amateur in and Technology could apply for a Czech slammer. Hams and even Czechoslovakia, which “in typically ham ticket in East Germany, “after shortwave listeners (SWLs) were Communist presentation” lamented appropriate recommendations have required to report unregistered trans- “The Slow Progress of the been made.” mitters to the Ministry of Posts in Sovietization of Czechoslovak Prague. Amateur Radio.” Regulation and Control Wireless in general was arguably A darker paragraph in the same doc- The reporter cited the editorial’s under the tightest control in East ument recounted that when a ham’s effort to zero in on the problem. “One Germany (the German Democratic call sign was “changed or abolished,” of our greatest faults was our inability Republic). A report from 1953 pro- the Ministry of Posts notified the rest to arouse interest in collective ama- vided information “regarding tele- of the amateur community. The teur work among those who are communications, radio monitoring, Ministry of Posts could terminate either active hams or interested in and high-frequency installations,” a license, however. “In the few Amateur Radio,” the editorial said. saying: instances when this happened…rea- “There still are among us too many sons were never given; the person in hams who do not comprehend the The monitoring is carried out under question simply ‘discontinued radio political aims of collective ham work great difficulties, because on the amateur transmissions.’” The deleted and who do not lend aid in the fulfill- one hand, the installation is required call sign was never reassigned. ment of these aims.” The editorial to locate illegal transmitters or to touched upon a renewed effort to observe a certain frequency, Additionally, “[I]t was made clear to organize clubs and to train special whereas on the other hand, it is for- all operators that information on polit- communications groups of radio bidden to do direction finding. The ical affairs, locations of industrial amateurs and concluded: monitoring installation is therefore installations, and other related classi- forced to do direction finding illegally. fied matters would not be broadcast,” The main purpose of all radio train- ing will be the creation of politically In this vein, secret information in a the assessment said. and technically reliable cadres, 1953 report said that, while there Sovietization which will aid our army, our indus- were no restrictions on purchasing a tries, and other branches of our radio in Czechoslovakia, “group lis- Another document recounted the gist activities through which we are tening, as well as spreading what of the editorial in the January 1953 building up our socialist system and one heard, was forbidden and the defense of world peace. regarded as ‘anti-state activity.’” An Ham radio was serious business in the Soviet Bloc. Similar sentiments appear in other documents, including assessments of radio-related activity in the USSR, where Amateur Radio came under the aegis of the paramilitary Volunteer Society for Cooperation with the Army, Aviation, and Fleet (DOSAAF), which reported directly to the Central Committee of the Communist Party. The same report included a page of Morse code abbreviations that Soviet hams were using “in addition to the usual Q codes.” A majority of these, the report noted, are abbre- viated Russian words and expres- sions. Soviet hams also employed “Z Codes” — AFB for “strong fading,” and ZMO for “wait a while,” for example. Reprinted with permission from February 2018 QST www.arrl.org A “confidential” 1953 report referred Radiofication, in part, involved the deployment of to the same article, and acknowl- “ edged, “Since these abbreviations wired loudspeakers or receivers throughout a are completely different from those community often in lieu of over-the-air receiving used so far in international amateur devices in each residence, although radios were also communications, they may be of use in monitoring Soviet hams’ interna- part of the plan. Radio amateurs were often drafted to tional traffic, as well as contacts with carry out this work, in the service of advancing hams in the Iron Curtain countries.” communist ideology through the diffusion of A 1952 “restricted” document of infor- communication technology. ” mation gleaned from “foreign docu- ments or radio broadcasts” notes “the great success” of radio amateurs in Bulgaria who constructed a station A 1950 “confidential” report cited a A 1952 report derived from Russian at the Central Radio Club in Sofia: USSR Radio magazine editorial by documents or broadcasts outlined Col. Gen. V.I. Kuznetsov, a decorated the “progress of radiofication” in the Thus, Bulgarian Amateur Radio Soviet hero, that promoted the devel- USSR, with 556,000 wired speakers operators maintain uninterrupted opment of “radio amateurism.” The in Moscow Oblast reported and just radio communication with ones in the Soviet Union and the People’s colonel said it’s evident that young four radio receivers. In Smolensk Democracies, with whom they people have a great desire to know Oblast, the report said, “Radio ama- exchange expertise in radio com- about radio techniques. “We must aid teurs have installed around 1,400 munications.

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