[closeparen]

The intelligence community was hunting RF emissions with trucks during WWII. Three quarters of a century of top-dollar aerospace and electronic warfare R&D later... I’d be surprised if they didn’t have this capability by the 70s. What do you think the National Reconaissance Office is?

[daviddumenil]

RF tracking was even more sophisticated in WWII.

The Gestapo developed a man-portable set worn under a trenchcoat:

https://www.cryptomuseum.com/df/gurtelpeiler/index.htm

[ImprovedSilence]

I think the point here is that the satellites are not owned by the gov, but by a contractor, hence the quote about capital expense to operational expense. Everyone wants to be a service these days, you don't own it, you borrow it, etc...

[greglindahl]

I don't think the NRO puts much effort into finding illegal fishing, or other kinds of activity that don't impact US national security.

[ggm]

Having a capability and chosing what you use it for are different things. I also believe that the life of RF detection by third parties, and radio between parties has been entirely parallel. For every signal, there is a device hunting that signal in amongst the noise.

[jhayward]

You probably mean the National Reconaissance Office [1]

[1] http://www.nro.gov/

[closeparen]

Thanks, updated.