This is a bad idea. Transmitting on a government frequency with enough power to interfere with other radio traffic will get you a police visit. You’re basically turning on a big lightbulb that says “come find me” for anyone who would bother to triangulate the source of the interference.
what if you had something like that running in a bag or backpack at a protest, with hundreds or even thousands of people around you? How about if you had three or four people with them coordinating, switching them on and off at certain times as they move through the crowd?
Oh I know all about Kent State, I just mean right now, ICE has not (to my knowledge) started firing live ammunition into crowds of protestors yet. If or when they do, I hope they get a lot of return fire.
It is at this point trivially easy to locate strong signals in crowds - iirc the Olympics was one of the pioneers of the technology to prevent illegal broadcasts, and the equipment is fairly cheap and very easily accessible for any interested party that wants it. Foxhunter fourms even have many, many plans to build your own versions of the hardware if you want.
And that’s setting aside that the strength of a portable jammer is very limited, military radios like the US police use have pretty neat anti-jamming features (hardened FHSS is brutal, just look at Ukraine/russian signal warfare for how hard it is to mitigate) and you’d be absolutely screwing over any coordination attempts by other protesters using cell or radio by trying this.
You’ll get caught, and you’ll do a great deal more harm than good if you use these in a protest. Outside that context they could be useful, but by turning one on you gotta remember you’re ensuring that you can’t get any help, either.
FWIW you can get decently powerful (but narrow frequency, most just affect cell bands or 802.11) jammers off Aliexpress for like $300. Thats where the cartels get theirs, at least. The FCC will find you the minute you turn one on though, and holy shit they don’t fuck around, so I really don’t recommend trying it.
Yeah, the issue with jammers is that ones targeted at specific frequencies are pretty easy to prosecute. You will have a tough time proving it wasn’t deliberate interference.
The spread spectrum ones that look like really loud noise across many frequencies are easier to get away with but far less effective with even shorter effective ranges.
they probably kick down your door pre demonstration because buying the equipment with that power and bandwidth for this to work is already raising red flags
It’s real hard to find the interferer when there’s interferers everywhere, also triangulation is hard, particularly for a bunch of meat heads who have been shown to struggle with high school education.
It’s still a significant escalation of “extralegal” activity on the same level as torching a police cruiser in a parking lot, and isn’t really congruous with the first paragraph in that regard. Probably from ignorance of how serious signal jamming is more than anything.
It’s like saying to leave your phone at home and know your rights, but also remember that .243 Winchester lead-free ammo can penetrate level IV plates.
It’s real hard to find the interferer when there’s interferers everywhere
It’s actually pretty easy to locate a radio source on a particular frequency, especially if it’s a frequency where most transmitters are known/registered (e.g. police radios).
also triangulation is hard, particularly for a bunch of meat heads who have been shown to struggle with high school education.
You do realize that not all police are beat cops, right? They have technical specialists. If there’s an issue outside the qualifications of a regular officer, they just refer it to the specialists who know exactly what to do.
Police have been driving around with suitcase-sized Stingray devices since at least 2006. They absolutely have equipment that can triangulate a radio source - they don’t even really need to understand how it works, just turn it on.
Police radio is largely encrypted these days.
blanking their frequencies with noise is still going to cause some trouble
This is a bad idea. Transmitting on a government frequency with enough power to interfere with other radio traffic will get you a police visit. You’re basically turning on a big lightbulb that says “come find me” for anyone who would bother to triangulate the source of the interference.
what if you had something like that running in a bag or backpack at a protest, with hundreds or even thousands of people around you? How about if you had three or four people with them coordinating, switching them on and off at certain times as they move through the crowd?
they will shoot you all and sort it later.
well they’ve yet to actually fire on an entire crowd with live ammo – though I’m sure that’s coming, too.
Just ask the 4 students in Ohio.
Oh I know all about Kent State, I just mean right now, ICE has not (to my knowledge) started firing live ammunition into crowds of protestors yet. If or when they do, I hope they get a lot of return fire.
deleted by creator
not sure i understand correctly, but i don’t have a dictator. i am watching this from behind the ocean.
It is at this point trivially easy to locate strong signals in crowds - iirc the Olympics was one of the pioneers of the technology to prevent illegal broadcasts, and the equipment is fairly cheap and very easily accessible for any interested party that wants it. Foxhunter fourms even have many, many plans to build your own versions of the hardware if you want.
And that’s setting aside that the strength of a portable jammer is very limited, military radios like the US police use have pretty neat anti-jamming features (hardened FHSS is brutal, just look at Ukraine/russian signal warfare for how hard it is to mitigate) and you’d be absolutely screwing over any coordination attempts by other protesters using cell or radio by trying this.
You’ll get caught, and you’ll do a great deal more harm than good if you use these in a protest. Outside that context they could be useful, but by turning one on you gotta remember you’re ensuring that you can’t get any help, either.
well, it was worth asking. Anything to hamper the brownshirts and their support network, you know. Thanks.
You’re carrying a big felony around if you get caught. Just decide if and when it’s worth it.
Plus, since jammers are illegal for civilians, you will have to build it yourself.
FWIW you can get decently powerful (but narrow frequency, most just affect cell bands or 802.11) jammers off Aliexpress for like $300. Thats where the cartels get theirs, at least. The FCC will find you the minute you turn one on though, and holy shit they don’t fuck around, so I really don’t recommend trying it.
Yeah, the issue with jammers is that ones targeted at specific frequencies are pretty easy to prosecute. You will have a tough time proving it wasn’t deliberate interference.
The spread spectrum ones that look like really loud noise across many frequencies are easier to get away with but far less effective with even shorter effective ranges.
they probably kick down your door pre demonstration because buying the equipment with that power and bandwidth for this to work is already raising red flags
secondhand microwave has entered the chat
A word of caution… Fucking around with microwave parts can and will probably kill you if you don’t know for sure what you are doing.
it at least 3 different ways and all of em gona hurt a lot
Yes, extremely illegal. Wise people don’t mess with radio waves or trees.
You mean stoned people?
Tree Law. It’s pretty unbelievable how much trouble you can get in for messing with people’s trees.
. . . . . . What?
I misremembered the slang term “tree” for cannabis as being slang for people smoking said trees. My bad 😄
That would be Ents, the tree people
. . . Woah
reminds me of that one “someone is committing a federal crime right here” XKCD
EDIT: XKCD 3030: Lasering Incidents
It’s real hard to find the interferer when there’s interferers everywhere, also triangulation is hard, particularly for a bunch of meat heads who have been shown to struggle with high school education.
It’s still a significant escalation of “extralegal” activity on the same level as torching a police cruiser in a parking lot, and isn’t really congruous with the first paragraph in that regard. Probably from ignorance of how serious signal jamming is more than anything.
It’s like saying to leave your phone at home and know your rights, but also remember that .243 Winchester lead-free ammo can penetrate level IV plates.
It’s actually pretty easy to locate a radio source on a particular frequency, especially if it’s a frequency where most transmitters are known/registered (e.g. police radios).
You do realize that not all police are beat cops, right? They have technical specialists. If there’s an issue outside the qualifications of a regular officer, they just refer it to the specialists who know exactly what to do.
Police have been driving around with suitcase-sized Stingray devices since at least 2006. They absolutely have equipment that can triangulate a radio source - they don’t even really need to understand how it works, just turn it on.
The problem isn’t one strong stationary interferer, its a large number of weak intermittent interferers.
For two minutes until they just fallback to their cell phones probably.
Also, you might be interfering with EMS with that strategy.