The Nome Nugget

Three Men Charged In
Attempt To Transmit
Phony Signal of Sputnik I

LOS ANGELES, (A) - Three electronic engineers have been charged with operating an unlicensed radio station that broadcast on the same frequency as the Russian earth satellite Sputnik I.

Asst. U. S. Attorney T. Conrad Judd said they did it as a prank on amateur radio operators attempting to track the satellite.

To be arraigned in U. S. District Court today on charge of operating the unlicensed radio transmitter are Rulon D. Jensen, 30, Dean L. Hanson, 29, both of Los Angeles, and Fred W. Field Jr., 29, of suburban Torrance.

They have not commented on the accusation.

The phony signals were heard by monitoring stations as far away as Alaska, Georgia and Hawaii, Judd said.

The three engineers, who work at an aircraft plant, are licensed as amateurs to operate on other frequencies, but none was licensed to transmit on 20.005 megacycles-Sputnik's frequency.

The battery-operated transmitter was set up about Dec. 21 in a remote area of the Angeles National Forest and signals were transmitted automatically for three minutes every hour, Judd said.

The transmitter broadcast automatically, Judd said.