Mickey With the Big Ears - RIP

Mickey Gurdus was always a good listener.

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For decades he commanded a battery of shortwave and FM radios, UHF and VHF receivers, tape recorders and other devices from a swivel chair in his Tel Aviv apartment, all to intercept and record foreign news broadcasts, secret satellite transmissions, confidential military messages and diplomatic conversations.

He was no vicarious eavesdropper, however. Mr. Gurdus listened for a living.

He monitored the airwaves for the state-run Israel Radio and tipped his editors — and, sometimes, intelligence agents — to hijackings, invasions and revolutions. In one instance he intercepted a telephone call between the White House and Air Force One. more

Amazingly, there was a time when anyone could eavesdrop on the radio-telephone calls from Air Force One. All one needed was a radio which could receive shortwave and/or frequencies around 409 MHz. More detailed instructions are still floating around the net. These days, communications are encrypted, and are mostly routed via satellite. ~Kevin