Posted on 01/26/2008 6:20:32 AM PST by Sammy67
Jan. 24, 2008
Equipment Stolen from Charleston Could Jam Emergency Communications
By Tony Rutherford Huntingtonnews.net Reporter
Huntington, WV (HNN) – The FBI has joined an investigation into the theft of electronic equipment after break-ins at several transmitting towers in Charleston. According to a Huntington TV station, ten break-ins at three separate sites (Garfield, North Charleston, North Gate Business Park) resulted in the loss of a radio receiver/transmitter (repeater) and frequency counter.
Charleston police asked the FBI to enter the investigation after they learned the stolen equipment could possibly be used to jam emergency frequencies.
Thieves took only the specified equipment leaving other items untouched. Anyone with information about the break-ins should call (304) 348-6480.
ping
This does not look good. This is where that blue haze was hovering yesterday, correct?
I wonder if there is a wider pattern of specific stolen items that is getting more interesting for the FBI? I guess this was not some poor slob looking for the copper or or other expensive metals?
rogue hams?
(does anyone actually repair TVs anymore?)
If someone set it up as some kind of static jammer, it would likely only cover one narrow frequency and it would be easy to locate.
The emergency communications in my local counties are now trunking over many 800 mhz frequencies, so you need a $500 scanner just to listen to them.
If someone managed to jam one or a few of those frequencies, I doubt if it would make much difference to the system. It would use other frequencies.
The FCC can track unauthorized frequency transmissions pretty easily. A frequency counter just tells what frequecies are being used in a given area. I’d like to know whose equipment it was and the frequencies the equipment is used transmit on?
I am not too concerned about a terrorist attack untill after the elections.Then look out,could be a lot of crap comming down then.It will be much worse if the dems win.
Bad news - these folks sound like they knew what they were doing...
Great link - thanks.
What would be the advantage of being able to block some frequencies for a short period of time? I think that’s what they’re worried about...
Modern radio systems use frequency hopping to send the signal over many different frequencies, with the signal chopped up into small packets. The receiving system reassembles the signal into the original voice or data. A jammer would have to cover all the frequencies to stop a modern system.
Around here the electric company has replaced all the chain link fences around these sites with high brick walls. Now, the bad guys can do their work without being seen. Brilliant, huh.
Yes it was...
In the worse case scenario, if you have the equipment that uses the specific spread spectrum or know the ranges of the the system then it can be blocked. Most civilian systems do not need encryption to operate and therefore use a 800 MHz carrier wave to packet the digital signals from one group to another. In systems that use encryption, their algorithm method can be gleaned from the equipment and be back engineered,but a time consuming process. Steal the equipment with all the crypto preloaded and your inside the communications system. Local governments are usually too poor or stingy to change their encryption regularly. To be able to know the carrier freq or the ablity with a master unit or programmable repeater station change to the frequency need to allow a person to monitor or jam at their leisure. As long as they are in passive reception and not using the repeater functions they can stealth the system indefinitely. Giving the bad guys the advantage looses you the initiative and advantage terrorist or criminal.
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