listening post

listening post (plural listening posts)

1. (military) A position established for the purpose of detecting the enemy's movements by means of listening.
2. A facility established to monitor radio and microwave signals and analyse their content to secure information and intelligence for use by the security and diplomatic community and others.
   • 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect, Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Nepmos:

     Shepard: Why are you out here in the first place?
     Lieutenant Durand: There's been a lot of pirate activity in this cluster. We set up a chain of listening posts in the local systems in case they have a staging base.

3. Any location frequented by a journalist in search of stories or gossip.
   • 1945, Elmo Scott Watson, Jobs in Rural Journalism, page 25:

     He probably has "listening posts" which he visits regularly in search of stray items of news. These may be the general store, the barber shop, the ministers' homes, the Chamber of Commerce and the local or state police headquarters.

   • 2000, APME Journalism Studies, page 17:

     Students discover "listening posts" within the community and produce stories from community voices […]

• (intelligence facility): listening station

• “listening post”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “listening post”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “listening post”, in Collins English Dictionary.
• “listening post” (US) / “listening post” (UK) in Macmillan English Dictionary.