Previous message: "Details on bin Laden's radio communications system" http://www.politechbot.com/p-02932.html --- Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2001 14:07:09 -0500 To: declanat_private From: e cummings <berniesat_private> Subject: Re: FC: Details on bin Laden's radio communications system In-Reply-To: <5.1.0.14.0.20011216130939.00a83a30at_private> declan, there are several technical inaccuracies and no real information about " bin Laden's radio communications system" in the information you were sent and forwarded to the list. in the interest of promulgating accurate information, please note the following: there is no such thing as a "high power HF SSB handset." any handheld unit would necessarily be low power (5 Watts or less) or it would drain the batteries in a few seconds or minutes. CODAN HF radios are not addressable, although they can be optionally equipped to be and used in that manner a user-selectable basis. in nearly all cases, HF (high-frequency, 3-30mhz) radios are not like cellular phones or network interface cards which do transmit unique identifiers along with their signals. it is laughable to assume that afghans, taleban, or others using radios stolen from UN personnel would use UN callsigns, or bother with using callsigns at all. they might use some code names to differentiate themselves, but certainly not UN callsigns. if they wanted to try to confuse listeners, they could use any two-way radios and callsigns they wanted to. HF radios with voice encryption are readily available on the commercial market from two-way companies like motorola, racal, etc. it's a question of bandwidth: if you're only using a 5khz voice channel it's not possible, but if you're using wider bandwidth spread-spectrum HF, then it is possible and often used by US military. it's not likely the taleban uses these, but it's a certainty the u.s. military there is. 5-bit "Baudot" code (more properly called Moore coding) was once popular for low data rate radioteletype (RTTY) data over HF channels, but it's rarely used anymore. the two-way radio held by usama bin laden (seen in that frequently rebroadcast archive video) is a VHF transceiver that operates somewhere in the 30-300mhz range. other handheld radios used by the taleban and "northern alliance" include those that operate somewhere in the 300-500mhz UHF spectrum. it's certainty that u.s. forces have sophisticated radio direction-finding equipment in several locations in afghanistan that scan and record all radio activity in the region, including bearing (direction) data. this gathered data is shared and triangulated for intelligence and targeting purposes: http://www.washtimes.com/national/20011215-68264047.htm in addition to SIGINT from radio transmissions, US military has probably dropped thousands of small, ground-based sensors that detect and transmit vibration, noise, temperature and other data. some of these are very sophisticated and network with each other. some even use small lasers to transmit signals between each other and to ground, air, or space-based collection stations: http://cipherwar.com/news/00/smart_dust.htm -ed ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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