NBC Faces East

Until six months ago, short, rubicund Morton Smith was a typical radio ham. His house in hot, humid San Fernando Valley was equipped with a 1,000-watt transmitter, was located in the best sending and receiving area around Los Angeles. Then NBC, for which Amateur Smith works as engineer, decided to set up a listening post on the West Coast to keep tabs on the Far Eastern end of the Axis. Picked for the job was Morton Smith's little station. Last week the post got under way.

The equipment NBC installed in the garage adjoining Engineer Smith's pleasant stucco house was similar to that used in its Long Island listening post. It has three receivers constantly beamed on Tokyo, Saīgon and Chungking. The three receivers are due to be manned from 4 a.m. to early afternoon, best time for the area covered, and will be monitored at other times when hot news is expected or when reception at the Long Island listening post is bad.

Biggest difficulty to date has been to find interpreters for Japanese and Chinese programs. Having consulted all possible sources from missionaries to naval intelligence men, NBC finally decided to try a Los Angeles court interpreter. Barred were local Nisei (second-generation Japanese) on grounds that they might indulge in favoritism.