It seems that the insurrectionists in Minneapolis are upset that someone infiltrated their Signal communications. Ian at The Bugscuffle Gazette has the details. Bunny Hunting
Last couple of days my private comms have lit up with various folks informing me that protestors have apparently decided that since their Signal chats have been infiltrated, they should switch to ham radios.
The fact that the folks informing me of this were giggling as they did so should be indicative of how good an idea this is.
Hunting for illegal transmissions, and it is illegal to use coded transmissions on Ham Radio bands, is something that the federal government used to be quite good at. Not sure if they are in practice or not.
But who IS in practice for hunting down transmissions are the Ham Radio operators of the world.
First off, if you want to see a pack of folks what put the “‘tism” in “weaponized autism”, may I introduce you to the amateur radio underworld? Ham radio operators lovingly build their own kit, get certifications and licenses, and build entire social communities. Bunch of loud weirdos crashing their frequencies, ignoring their mores,1, violating their courtesies, and trampling their protocols is likely going to get a whole bunch of feathers ruffled.
Which brings us to "Transmitter Hunting." It goes by several names, including Fox Hunting.
Let me restate that: A bunch of radio nerds find a great deal of pleasure in discovering which of them can locate a transmitter the fastest — and will venture out from their lairs to do so. Not the military. Not the police. Not the government. Private citizens doing “speed radio direction finding” for bragging rights, the fun of it, and minor prizes.
And remember: no matter how good the government is at something, a pack of enthusiastic amateurs will leave the government in the dust.
Click thru for the details.
And let me see if I have this correct. Your operational security is SO BAD that you can't maintain private communications on a system designed to be secure, but you think using a system, designed and legislated to avoid all coded messages will work out better. OK then.
There was a video where some woman was advocating the use of Baofeng UV-5R radios for this. Those are Chinese handie-talkies that are absurdly cheap compared to a lot of the alternatives and cover two of the most crowded bands that hams are assigned - which greatly increases the chances of being found out. The whole thing was so bad that part of me thought it had to be joke because nobody could be that stupid. At one point she holds up the radio showing it has no antenna, and transmitting without one is, at best, going to be ineffective. If not self-destructive.
ReplyDeleteYeah, despite decades of counterexamples I will still tend to think it has to be satire.
The quick summary that hams, as a general rule, tend to be adamant about "this is our band" because they had to work to get the license is true. Everything he says about Fox Hunting rings true in my experience. These guys get together to find powerline or phone network boxes that make too much noise, so they can report them to the companies that own the box and appreciate having someone do that work for them.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity
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