A personal thought on the "Beltway wannabe a sniper"

10/17/02 | BCR #226

[BCR #226]

As you all know, over the last couple of weeks the DC metro area has been plagued with nearly a dozen attacks by a gunman. It has been suggested that this person is not working alone and may have assistance. On more than one scene, several vehicles were reported as "fleeing the scene". Based on this, I have a theory.

If the attacks are being made with more than one person involved and more importantly, more than one vehicle involved, how are the different vehicles coordinating? I would think that they may be using small portable radios to communicate with one another just before the hits. If this is the case, it may be possible to intercept these messages with normal everyday scanners that have a wide range of reception. I'm not too versed in radios and such but I think that we may be able to help the police some if those of us with scanners that have a channel scan function monitor the airwaves, we may be able to catch some of the chatter.

If I'm not blowing smoke here, which I don't think I am, I would urge all DC Metro area Freepers that have scanners turn them on and listen as much as possible. If we begin to intercept transmissions, we will prove that it is more than a single person involved and we may have a way to get the police to the area faster and in a more effective way.

As I stated, I'm not well versed in radio technology. If anyone has any suggestions or other ideas in this area or heck in other areas that may assist to catch this guy, please post them.

Thanks,

Mike

[Fred Mertz]

Even if they use walkie talkie radios, they probably use plain English code words like, "Green light ahead" or "I've got the bread and butter" etc. Just my thoughts.

[gridlock]

You would be amazed how much chatter there is out there. All the conspirators would have to do is create simple codes, like "I'm going out for milk" or "radio check", to sound completely mundane. Trust me, nobody is out there saying "I'm taking the shot..." into a radio.

[gridlock]

Quick fingers, eh' Fred?

Say hello to Ethel for me.

[Diogenesis]

"Abdul, shoot the milk for allah."

[jrhepfer]

The DASH-7 being flown in from Fort Bliss, TX has extensive ElInt, ComInt, and SigInt capabilites that can receive, intercept, and rebroadcast across a very, very wide range of communication bands. If you are correct and there is some sort of communication between the teams, this bird may pick up on it.

I'm not intamately familiar with it's intelligence gatering capabilities when it comes to ElInt etc, but if they are monitoring for inter-team coms, thy may well find it.

[VoiceOfBruck]

They may be coordinating via radio, but I would say not likely. Even though you're not well versed in radio, the police and FBI are, and with the large numbers of people on the case, I'm sure they're monitoring every conceivable band.

The snipers are quite good at evading capture, so I'd hazard a guess that they haven't compromised themselves by broadcasting anything.

73,
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[Crowcreek]

I've always thought there was an army of scanner enthusiasts
glued to their sets anyway. I'm sure they would report any chatter that seemed suspicious or out of place, such as: 'My goat is frisky tonite' or 'turn-on the camel for me' . . .

[Sender]

Great idea. They must have radios, and logic suggests they just sauntered into Radio Shack or somewhere and bought the excellent, inexpensive, license-free FRS handheld radios that Motorola and Cobra and everyone else makes. Anyone with a UHF scanner and time, here are the freqs:

UHF FRS Frequencies:

CH.1-462.5625 MHz
CH.2-462.5875 MHz
CH.3-462.6125 MHz
CH.4-462.6375 MHz
CH.5-462.6625 MHz
CH.6-462.6875 MHz
CH.7-462.7125 MHz
CH.8-467.5625 MHz
CH.9-467.5875 MHz
CH10-467.6125 MHz
CH11-467.6375 MHz
CH12-467.6625 MHz
CH13-467.6875 MHz
CH14-467.7125 MHz

[maestro]

Well, now that this has finally been posted by you (BCR#226).
Here comes MHO from the beginning of this enemy op.

The luggage racks are radio antenna.
The real reason for the break in action over the weekends is major 'down-time' in the D.C. area of regular (massive) business communications of all kinds which provides NOISE ('snow') for these professional terrorists' to cover their bursts of their own op intelligence traffic.

Also, they use the weekday domestic 'system' FOR their own monitoring puropses.

etc.!

Just MHO on this.

Thank you for your posting.

Prayers that we get these "Enemies at the Gate" real soon!

[China Clipper]

Now we have your call sign Bruce!!

[Lou L]

The NSA is pretty sophisticated when it comes to electronic surveillence, and even if there are multiple "snipers" using coded words, I'd suspect that voice prints could be possible. It's pinpointing the precise location that's probably a little more difficult.

Yes, I know the NSA is supposed to only monitor threats outside the US, but I'm sure there are execeptions that can be made, particularly if this sniper is deemed to have ties to any terror organization.

[ffrancone]

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[M. T. Cicero II]

How is the security feature implemeted on these FRS radios?

[taxcontrol]

As long as we are posting possible avenues for investigation allow me to propose this:

If the shooter has a cell phone and it is turned on, it will send out a registration message to the local cell tower.

Go to cell phone companies. Ask for all records of all cell phones registering with towers that cover the area of the shootings. Limit the information to a time period 10 min before and up to the times of the shooting. Put all those numbers in a database, sort for the most common occurance of numbers.

If you get a number that is more than 50% at each of the shootings, you might want to put a tail on that person.

[annieokie]

Anything is possible and should be used, your ideas are valid.

I don't live in that area but feel it will come to every U.S. city.

Another what if: Since so many of these are in shoppng centers, some with a Michaels store, Could it be possible that these Vans, Trucks are simply being driven into a larger 18 wheeler, seeing as how they disappear so quickly. Perhaps this/these guys are Truckers for a Michaels store. Pull their van/truck in the 18 wheeler and take off. Some profilers have said that he/they is/are working in an area that they know well or it is on their "route".

I would say Stop all vehicles and investigate/search all, should he/they strike again.

[Rick.Donaldson]

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Don't be too sure, the hams in this area have given lessons in radio proceedures, as well as operational proceedures to various LE agencies through out the years. :) All of them appreciated it greatly and especially the OEMs here, and many other related government agencies count heavily on amateur involvement in disaster drills and signal location.

73,

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[maestro]

There are NO snipers in the "Chechen Republic".

(/sarcasm)

:-)

(BCR,.....you have a great Zip-gun.)

:-)

[Rick.Donaldson]

wow... my eyes have GONE. That should have been:

.- ----- .- .--- -.-- (had one too many dahs in the one letter! Doh... )

[Rick.Donaldson]

If you're talking about the "privacy" thing, associated with the FRS radios, there isn't one, not precisely. There is a CTCSS encoder. That basically means that UNLESS someone ELSE is transmitting a special subaudiable tone to you, you wont receive his signal. It doesn't mean you have "privacy" on your channel. Essentially, the "privacy" function isn't really for privacy. It merely keeps your radio from opening its squelch and hearing ALL signals on that channel, but only opens the squelch and allows to pass that signal that contains the subaudiable tone. I believe the frs radios have 25 or so codes in them (I don't recall off hand).