Earl at first you said some side switchers were on your vox and they switched to Knights, and
were part of the intercept. Later you said that they "had to be" listening to your vox:
"maybe it was just bad timing, but to have three different groups in three different sectors, all getting jumped by a number of fighters, when there was no way anyone could know we were coming, because no dar bar was showing, so someone had to be listening to our VOX communication about where we were going."Not trying to be an arsehat to you, but which was it? Were there switchers who intercepted your mission, did some switchers get kills/your group kill them?
I speculate the latter of what you said to be much less probable.
Here's why: I used to do a lot of strat mssns (not as much as Snailman of course) at all types of alt. If you are NOE there are some maps that it is impossible to stay that way all the way to strats. There are occasions where you must traverse between mtns and you can't afford to descend into the valley...
and all kinds of other reasons of the like. One thing that anyone watching the map that will get their attn is a darbar that disappears/reappears, even numerous sectors away this is a good tell that something intentionally NOE is headed in.
I'm not saying there aren't DH's in the game, but the fact is there are many occasions where it's easy to think

when you are alone. However, when 10 guys do anything together...
A tactic used by many squads to deter any spying is no public announcement of target until mssn is up and then only on range/vox. Also know who is in your mssn, if it's a name you don't recognize then ask them who they are, ask who knows them...
Better luck in the future.

Edit: To give some benefit of the doubt to everybody: I've been playing for over a year, in that time I've seen a lot of things that I thought were questionable (spying wise.) A lot of times I thought spying was taking place. Sometimes it may have been, and I will contend that there is a very small group who does it. However, over the past year I have only once actually witnessed something that one might call "spying," and that was one player was vectoring his friend to another player's location to kill him over and over - really more of a: "we told you not to get us PO'd..." situation. With that said and by strong encouragement (

) from other players to consider other factors, I will admit, of all the times I thought spying was going on, it probably was only a small fraction of the time.