Radio Direction Finding: AKA How "They" Can Find You

In this video we cover how basic Radio Direction Finding and SIGINT collection methods, as well as what you can do to be a little bit more undetectable when communicating.
If you would like to support us, we're on Patreon!
www.patreon.com/user?u=30479515
And if you would like to support us anonymously by donating using cryptocurrency, here is our address:
bc1qsvj58q2w03ru2mdtnru79ee4n3y6u6mh7lu009
This address is routinely changed, for obvious reasons.
If you are a boss, and don't want to support KZbin, feel free to view this video on our LBRY page. LBRY is a great platform because it has no ads, and no data goes through any sketchy servers because it has no servers.
lbry.tv/@S2Underground:7
Our Website (Requires Tor Browser):
wx7ssrp5gfuymzmdyng7tfkce7ilzs...
Our other podcast episodes are here:
www.buzzsprout.com/868255
And if you'd like to support us, check out our merch store here!
teespring.com/en-GB/stores/s2...

[@bryananderson3772]

Please don't let views and comment numbers get you down. Those of us who are serious about learning about the topics in your content love it. I have learned so much

[@stephendavidcavuoti6548]

He Right but we that care about what’s happening and wanting to be prepared when the Shit hits the fan how ever we that do care should share with others like us and I know we’re like me I know about 10 goddamn more start hating you site with this is something I feel will help for sure! Thank you so much!⚔️🔪🗡️

[@KJ-ho6sb]

it’s almost better if fewer people know about this…

[@ImperiumLibertas]

This comment is awesome coming back to this video a year later and it has 111k much deserved views.

[@captaincurd2681]

Absolutely. I love treasure information.

[@captaincurd2681]

​@@KJ-ho6sb😂 true.

[@dangeary2134]

I had a bunch of friends that were all CB radio buffs. We would go out and practice tracking each other by only using the meter on the radio. I was a bit smarter than most, knowing how signals propagate, and how to use structures and landforms to bend my own signal. I sat at one end of a steel bridge one night in a place that was not well known. My signal shot across a river, and flooded the massive subdivision on the other side of the river. I kept transmitting as was the “rules.” They knew what my vehicle looked like, and they could not find me. I listened as they all read out signal strength all through the subdivision, and saw how the pattern played out. Granted, it was in a limited environment, but most of them couldn’t think outside the box. They never found me, which is half the fun.

[@keithrushforth4019]

Yes that's a neat trick. With a quarter wave vertical monopole like a CB antenna the shape of your ground plane will effect the shape of the radiation envelope. So parking next to something conductive that's earthed, like a large body of water or a bridge, will make the antenna have more gain in that direction. A mobile rig in a vehicle will radiate more to the front than the rear if the antenna is mounted on the rear of a vehicle, and vice versa.

[@Andrewbreeze316]

Legend

[@abstractapproach634]

If that really happened it's super cool

[@juanbait9670]

My dad did something simular on a HAM radio repeater hunt. My dad went to a big three story mall in town, on one end it had a elevator in a glass and steel tower that was visible from outside of the mall. He went into the elevator with the repeater, so it was sending out signals intermitently at diffrent elevations, and based upon the steel doors being opened or closed on 1/4 of the glass box elevator. They were looking for him all day, i dont remember if they ever found him or not. 😂

[@randy-tzu1624]

Umbrella with emergency blanket on the inside will mask you from thermal. It is away from your body, will not absorb your heat when away from body, will mask it though, now, also put clutter on outside of umbrella so it is not a smooth surface. I have tested this, and it works.

[@williamseddon8092]

Is clutter same material as blanket?

[@ImperiumLibertas]

@@williamseddon8092 no. By clutter he means whatever relevant camouflage for your area. Just trying to breakup the solid flat surface.

[@22leggedsasquatch]

Especially a fishing umbrella: they are large enough to sleep under and have a extention spike inside the pole, for fixing to the ground.

[@Leehartzell]

Mylar is dirt cheap

[@jero37]

So ghillie outside the umbrella, mylar inside. Sounds like a fun project. And the fishing umbrella sounds cool.

[@DougsterCanada1]

Back in the day I integrated a computer with a Radioshack scanner. I located and mapped all the cell towers in my area and had software that decoded the "data" channels from cell phones and towers that my scanner (with a decent antenna) received. Any time a friend or co-worker of mine (who's cell number I had) drove into my service area which covered approximately 6 cell towers, as their number pinged any of the towers a "beep" would go off on my computer and log the fact they were in "my area" and which tower they were closest to. I'd give them a ring and ask what they were doing in "my area". Immediately their heads were on a swivel looking for me, or my cars. Based solely on which towers their phones were handed off to (via the data channel) I could very roughly tell where they had entered "my area" from, and general direction of travel. These days, I can imagine that a clever (or paranoid) person living in a smallish community could build a "list" of phones pinging towers, to find out who "belongs" in "your area" and who "might be" an interloper, be it a delivery person, friend of an area resident, or someone with less than good intentions.

[@sailmirage]

Fellow shacker😉

[@SnackPack913]

That’s amazing. Very cool side project to work on

[@supremeleader5516]

How can I learn all this stuff? Guide me please

[@synapticaxon9303]

Decoded POCSAG back in the 90s with a pro-2006 with discriminator tap into a computer sound card. I sent myself some alphanumeric pages and identified a signature for my pager, then filtered the bulk POCSAG stream for my messages so that I could execute scripts on my servers by sending myself a page. Saw a lot of drug deals going down too. :) Today, I have a wifi mesh over about 12 acres and can localize clients and foreign ssids by signal strength. I live in a radio quiet place but the signal leakage from individuals and vehicles is shocking.

[@rattyratstuff7125]

can you make a video series on this. i keep seeing a black vic in the neighborhood and our communities agreed rule was noone buys a vic. worrying as last time they red flagged a family when they got back from the gun range and killed the parents and baby {shot mom in the head while holding baby, then baby, then husband} then tried to murder the 14 year old girl but only managed to hit her shoulder before she got away. she was found dead at her aunts house with 2 gunshots to the head after story started going public before the feds shut shit down.

[@aliceplaysroblox3265]

This guy is like a dad that teaches you way cooler stuff

[@eniggma9353]

or teaches you anything at all in some cases

[@brianboykin4965]

Thanks youtube for this suggestion! I don't even use "radios" but the wisdom in these videos is unrejectable.

[@alexwild4350]

When you say "I don't even use 'radios' " that means you don't use any form of smart phone or mobile phone, or any Wifi device or Bluetooth device.

[@jctedsap]

I used to be an active participant in Amateur Radio Fox hunts or Bunny hunts looking for hidden transmitters. One time the Bunny was inside a metal dumpster. That one had a few of us fooled. That same friend had access to a dopler receiver setup that put 4 antennas on a car and would allow them to drive right to the transmission.

[@jeepdriver7603]

Another possibility - string up a bunch of wires in places you might want to use, and some you won't - all over the place. LEAVE THEM IN PLACE. Choose your transmitting site and hook up to an antenna you left earlier.

[@beefstuart8769]

Great video, really loving the content! Ham radio guy here. NVIS (horizontally oriented antenna) makes it a bit tougher to be RDF’d. Especially using low wattage for digital modes, I’ve hit dudes hundreds of miles away on 5watts...RX and TX using digi modes. And NVIS antennas are basically a length of wire with length being dependent upon the frequency you’re operating in. Easy to deploy and hard to spot (excluding SAR)...good practice is if TX, then change locations. Also, Roanoke was my hometown and I’ve hiked up to that radio site on Ft Lewis Mtn numerous times lol. Small world.

[@andyaskew1543]

A directional antenna would also be useful in limiting where the transmission is sent.

[@teotwaki]

Typical center fed dipoles for HF frequencies (2-30MHz) are horizontal and they are two lengths of wire, each about 1/4 wavelength long. An end-fed HF antenna will be a single half wavelength piece of wire and also horizontal. What can make them an "NVIS" antenna is lowering them to about 0.15 wavelength or less above the ground, forcing most of the radiation pattern straight up. There is still a fair amount of radiation in the ground wave so they can still be RDF'ed. There is a 1 watt NVIS HF weather beacon on 4,095.7 MHz that is heard across the US and Canada.

[@jplacido9999]

What kind of digimodes ?

[@fpvnwv1493]

A couple of weeks ago right after the conflict ended and everybody came home your channel and a few others not all necessarily related just appeared on KZbin and in my suggested videos. It literally made my year. Please don't stop whatever happens unless they make you but I would make a suggestion along the lines of learning. You are " teaching" a lot of us on subjects that we necessarily wouldn't come into contact with any other way. So anyway thank you! Keep your powder dry.

[@stefanschleps8758]

Semper Paratus.

[@slavicslav7459]

can you please recommend the other channels? :)

[@forloop7713]

@@slavicslav7459 .

[@donnyking5635]

@@forloop7713 .

[@adamcollins8313]

I often find my self rewatching your videos like this one so this type of info sinks in and I really remember and understand how this stuff works.

[@randomamerican471]

Back in my CB days I had to hunt a few people down that dead keyed the mic for extended periods. Dead keying is when the mic is keyed and left open for petty reasons in an attempt to disrupt all communications on the channel. So I made a handheld directional antenna and used an antenna switch. From there it's just a matter of ascertaining the direction of the signal. And following the signal strength until it's maxed out. People were surprised when they finally unkeyed their mic. Only to find me breaking on the channel to let them know I knew exactly where they were. I never had to outright dox anyone. But they simply wouldn't be convinced I tracked them without some details. Like the first and last character of the street name and address. Or I'd tell them the model of their antenna and exactly where it's mounted. The shortest time it took me to track a constant signal was 45 minutes. The signal originated from a point 22 miles away.

[@w.e.s.]

U found them big deal what r u gonna do? Nothing so go waste some more gas

[@supremeleader5516]

CB days means?

[@mastur_grunt4244]

@@supremeleader5516 Back when they'd use CB radios on a regular basis

[@supremeleader5516]

@@mastur_grunt4244 what's CB?

[@mastur_grunt4244]

@@supremeleader5516 Citizen Band radio. In the United States it's a set of 40 channels that are free for non-commercial use. Typically used by truckers to chat with other truckers to pass the time, or to discuss road conditions. There are emergency channels as well, but overall it's a rather unique community of radio operators.

[@alexwild4350]

While I am only 23 minutes in, one of the best methods to employ for free is the shortest message transmission time you can manage. That means your transmitter is on for the shortest time, giving the DF team the least amount of time to lock on to your signal and make an accurate Direction Find. In this context normal speech is slow. So use a digital method for sending coded signals. The Germans in their Uboats later in the war used a number code method to report weather information from the Atlantic back to Germany. So a rough and simple example is Wind, North, Force 5, would be sent simply as numbers 1,1,5. There were methods to use mechanical encoders and sending equipment making comprehensive weather reports happen, from Uboats, in under a second of transmission time. Obviously back then there were no weather satellites so the only way the German military and airforce could plan missions was to get their own weather information. What better than their fleet of Uboats at sea in the Atlantic where the weather was coming from ? This information was absolutely critical in the launch of the Battle of the Bulge for example. However the British set up listening stations the length of the UK with DF antenna's and employed a man to sit in this 'tub' in the middle of nowhere day and night. When the Ministry picked up a signal of interest, they'd ring the man in the tub on a landline and play him the sound of signal they were interested in, which he would hear in one side of his earphones. Then he'd use his own radio and df antenna to find and lock on to the same sound, when the same signal would be heard in each earphone. That's why god gave us two ears you see, it was for hunting Uboats with radios. The operator would then read off the bearing from his tub station, and give this information to the Ministry. This operation was repeated by the Ministry to several DF stations simultaneously up and down the country making for a very fast and pretty accurate DF system, locating Uboats in the vast Atlantic ocean. And that is basically how Britain kept track of German submarines throughout the war and knew where they were. Modern equipment make this much easier and does not require a man sitting in a tub in the middle of nowhere. Suitable 'steerable antenna' systems can work out the direction, or bearing that a signal is being received on, and several of these stations connected together via their own wired or wireless network over tens or hundreds of miles apart, allows them to share signal information and return their received relative bearings. Being computer controlled, only a micro second of transmission time is all that is needed to DF the station of interest. Collating the information from several stations makes the location instantly identified. If the receiving station cannot hear the transmission, then it can't DF what it can't hear - low power transmissions win again. Directional transmitting antenna's put the direction of communication and hence power where you need it. A win a gain. Spread Spectrum makes your transmission frequencies hard to keep track of, but needs synchronising at both ends. High power portable radios require high power portable batteries, usually heavy and expensive, and as we see, more often low power is what keeps you safe - think about your real needs twice, and buy once. A radio with many more low power settings might be much better than another with twice as much total power but no way to regulate it beyond two settings of "way too much" and "all its got". Talking of valleys and terrain shielding, when watching Vietnam war films you'll see the radio men always have their antenna's folded over a right angles, across their backs. This is so the radiated signal would travel straight up into the sky and be reflected down into the next valley. This is how they overcame the hills that otherwise blocked their comms. Radio men were a prize target to the VC so the VC would always try to kill them first, because these men could call in additional support - air strikes with Napalm for example. Commanders or Platoon leaders were second and usually with or around the radio man. General infantry were next. Isolate your enemy first, then annihilate him. We saw this same process play out in Iraq, the first targets were communications and radar sites. Blind and isolate your enemy first so no one is coming to help him, then blow up everything else of value to him. Then he is done.

[@Jimimac73]

The Royal navy can detect a Russian submarine in the mouth of Hudson river from the English channel by it's engine signature

[@supremeleader5516]

Interesting

[@supremeleader5516]

@@Jimimac73 really?

[@Jimimac73]

@@supremeleader5516 so i believe and this came to my knowledge over 10yrs ago from a retired fleet air arm mate.

[@slik560]

An eye opener. I had always considered direction finding as a ground-based activity; not ever considering the aerial tools / methods used by governments. This is an excellent video that bears re-watching. It's in a special folder now. :) LOVE practial and well presented content like this.

[@CharlesHuse]

One trick you can use to narrow your radio signature when communicating is directional antennae, such as a yagi. Depending on the antenna design and quality, there may be some back scatter and such. I’m not saying that it will all but eliminate your chances of being detected, but your signal out will be more focused in a general direction. Think of it as using a flashlight as opposed to a table lamp with no lampshade. If you work hard enough, the flashlight will still be detected from behind, it is just a little harder to do.

[@jarink1]

They can also give you some signal strength gain.

[@NotALot-xm6gz]

The good news is that you can’t use RDF to track cellular phones running a CDMA based air interface protocol. The bad news is that anyone with access to the inner workings of the cellular network can find out where your last connection to the network came from with an accuracy of +/- 10 metres. How? Because your cellphone is reporting the signal strength of the serving cell and the strongest 6 neighbour cells as well as RF path loss figures for each cell. Unless you are right out in the sticks where you have very low cellular coverage, your phone will be reporting on the received signal strength (RSSI) of three different cell towers. A simple path loss/propagation modelling tool can turn this data into your estimated distance from at least 3 fixed points factoring in terrain attenuation, differences in altitude and up/down tilt of cell tower antenna panels.

[@stefanschleps8758]

Simply ditch all electronics.

[@bashkillszombies]

That's why you check to see cell towers in reach before calling through the ransom! "Bring ten thousand dollars in unmarked small bills to ... wh ... why are you laughing?"

[@RavemastaJ]

@@bashkillszombies Or it's why you only bring out your cell phone in populated places surrounded by hundreds of people, and then reveal it was just a game camera with cell service sending texts.

[@teaser6089]

Yep, always funny when criminals think they are safe by changing Sim Cards haha

[@2x2is22]

@@stefanschleps8758 Pretty much. The cell phone is the first thing that needs to go if you think you're being RDF'd

[@Esper320]

Definitely freaked me out that you showed a map of where I lived

[@SilverBullet93GT]

i bet the video is so advanced, we each see a map of where we live :)

[@peterbehringer63]

Good intro tutorial to RDFing.(Roanoke? I lived there briefly over 30years ago) Brings back fond memories of the "Fox Hunt" competitions we used to do as hams years ago to find hidden transmitters. Now, this topic plays a big role in a post-Apocalyptic tropical adventure novel i am finishing up .. where the hero protagonist on the run to a sanctuary is using a portable 2meter VHF FM/SSB/CW set and is being tracked by mercenary bounty hunters.

[@SigHellion]

Growing up Dad took us to amateur radio clubhouses to learn. One activity we did was “Fox Hunts”, where we used a directional antenna and had to find the transmitter in the city. SO FUN!!! Would note that carefully placement of transmitters can echo into canyons making precise location take longer.

[@Raao1]

Imagine a TV series and the protagonist is an amalgamation between Born, Reacher and Rambo. And he is facing challenges based on the topics of this channel, like in depth tactical representation of what can be done.

[@VH-ew7oq]

I would prefer a show exactly as you described except for the character. Every episode a new city or county or country and every protagonist a new specialist in 1 or 2 things who needs to rely on support for his weaknesses to further the realism.

[@1066marvin]

Bearing accuracy of the receiver and the skill of the operator play a HUGE part in the success of the intercept

[@jaredneaves7007]

Man this is the kind of info that I keep trying to give to dummy preppers and civil war larpers. So glad I found this so I can point to it easily

[@jaredneaves7007]

@Emmanuel Goldstein man you took this comment a little bit personally. You make little to zero sense in your comments.

[@RecalcitrantObserver]

We used to play a game called the rabbit and the fox. One person with a CB hides his vehicle and at an appointed time keys his mic for 1 minute (repeating every 10 min) everyone else drives in circles watching their meter and by signal strength, you can find each other. semi-adult hide and seek.

[@TwentyTwoThirtyThree]

That sounds like so much fun hahaha

[@libertyordeathfjb1618]

I've been using the "Whaling" technique since about 2015 or so. Although I never had a name for that technique nor can I claim credit for it as I doubt that I am the first to think of it. With a lot of the methods and techniques I think of and start using I usually think to myself, "There's probably someone somewhere out there who is smarter than me and thought of it first."

[@jero37]

For the code name rotating, might be good to have a list of words in pair sets, one set rotates weekly and another daily, but you have some numerical value for you specifically that you apply to the code list plus starting from the week you launched somewhere. Maybe also have a two digit number if the two words together refer to a group that that number you started with gets modulo with so maybe I would be Potato Yikes 37 one day, then the next day I'm Potato Astronaut 12 the next, and then a week later I'm Laser Grandma 03.

[@keithrushforth4019]

A few bits of extra info people might find useful are: 1: A directional antenna can help avoid detection. This is not really practical at frequencies lower than VHF due to the physical size of the antenna required, but at higher frequencies can be very useful. For example a UHF Yagi would be quite manageable. and a microwave parabolic dish would be very difficult to detect. So be aware of the pattern of the radiation envelope of your antenna. 2: Even if they don't know your location, and your traffic is encrypted, Big Brother can still learn a lot just from traffic analysis. For example the time of your transmission or the amount of traffic it contains. If you transmit at a regular time of day then they'll know it's you. If you transmit just after or before a certain event has happened, then that can link you to that event. If you regularly send short messages to your oppo and long messages to your controller then they'll know who your talking to, even if they can't read it. 3: Getting a bit technical with this one but due to local oscillator leakage in superhet style receivers, they can also be detected. So you may be just listening and not transmitting and they can still find you, and they'll also know what frequency you were listening on. For more details on this google "Operation RAFTER".

[@RetiredRadioChaser]

I used to work at a place that had full wavelength rhombic antenna. Four of them. There were several beverage antenna as well, but they stopped using those before I started working there.

[@TwentyTwoThirtyThree]

How in the world can we hide then? I just want to hide

[@williampeterson333]

Thanks for putting this out. I took a course in this but at the time did not take it seriously tbh. Now I do. This is important for people to understand

[@lenwhatever4187]

Look at any old flight training manual for more info on RDF. It used to be one of the standard ways of finding one's own position by the direction known transmitter sites are from you. Used both in flight and on ships before GPS.

[@Jimimac73]

They used RFID beacons that tapped out 3 or 4 letters of morse code to identify an airfield

[@danielomalley1031]

This is a comment to assist with comment interaction... Lol I am very grateful for the information put out thank you

[@Nullzero98]

Please do an episode on sigint and cell phones. Thats what 99% of people are using.

[@dananorth895]

Easy turn off gps location. Although rumer is that ain't enough. Notwithstanding cell constantly transmiting to locate tower. I noticed this with gps trackers, even with large battery pack if the gps cannot locate tower/satelite it will keep broadcasting till batteries are run down.

[@slipknnnot]

there's no way to use a cell phone and not be tracked. cell towers are constantly pinging your device id and location and any law enforcement or military has access to it at any time to triangulate your location. You can use a faraday cage or be outside the range of cell tower but that would mean you cant use your phone anyway

[@54l68l65l20l47l61l6D]

@@dananorth895 All cell phones use wifi for fine gps location and are constantly pinging servers at google and apple (depending on OS). Furthermore up to 4G can determine your location to within a couple hundred meters and 5G towers know your location within a few cm. Current cell phones are glorified tracking devices.

[@spacebound1969]

@@54l68l65l20l47l61l6D No they are instruments used for a variety of purposes. In order to facilitate better service your location is tracked (because the towers need to know where you are for the system to work). Things that take advantage of that system are nefarious, not the system itself. That's like saying a car is a glorified carbon monoxide generator. That's certainly a function of a car but not it's purpose.

[@John-oz1do]

Super informative, thank you and well done! Love your stuff

[@jargero8203]

Remember class, the second you hit that transmit button... They have that transmission logged and stored by every repeater within earshot.. With that info alone, they can triangulate everything real-time...or past transmissions

[@danielrollerd6048]

Probably the best youtuber out there, thank you S2

[@seandeterman2499]

Huge fan of the channel. Just wanted to say thanks for the content 👍

[@Kelgeron]

All your stuff that i have seen is solid gold brother. Keep on doing it because i know they are trying thier hardest to shut down free speeech and knowldge.

[@puppetguy64]

Really enjoy your presentation and content. I ve watched 3 videos so far, I have subbed but haven’t purchased a rig yet, I will be soon . I want to buy multiple sets for comms with family in natural disaster/ emergency situations. Keep up the good work

[@averagelibertyenjoyer3217]

Thanks brother. Your efforts are appreciated 👍

[@guillermocortes3783]

Everyone is so concerned with their guns and gear in case of SHTF. I wonder how many people don’t even realize that their radios they carry to communicate with their “teams” will get them lit up like a Christmas tree. Love the channel. Currently making myself hard to kill. Act accordingly.

[@CharlesHuse]

And yeah, radar can detect your antenna. Anything with a round cross-section will reflect radar back to the source. I read a few years ago how the US Navy changed all the handrails and stanchions exposed on deck to a diamond cross-section to reduce radar visibility. A diamond cross section will reflect, but it will reflect back at an odd angle to the source.

[@IFFIdentificationFriendOrFoe]

This is true, I can attest

[@smde1]

Drone mounted cross band repeater !

[@kaganbozok7303]

Man im proud i took physics and high school serious. Cuz i understand everything and the reason behind it. Remember kids. Games may be cool. But you can read books, get knowledge and play games with your life.

[@tonyrandall8703]

Haven’t finished the video but wanted to mention, every single radio has small identifiable attributes that allow the right person with the right equipment to tag an identity to your carrier signal. So even when you move around and send digital or voice the right people can “see” those small attributes and know it’s “you”.

[@xntumrfo9ivrnwf]

"You can't mask your heat signature" What if you're dead?

[@GeneralThe3rd]

@John Falcon If the temperature of the cold wet clay is different from that of your surroundings, it is easy to silhouette yourself. If your body temperature is the same as your backdrop you would be extremely difficult to locate. Keep in mind the time of day and where the sun is shining. different materials heat up and cool down at different rates (roads versus dirt for example). Also the color of an object will effect how quickly it will heat up from sunlight.

[@folkishappalachian6827]

you can with survival blankets or pool tarps.

[@folkishappalachian6827]

If you youtube thermal camera for $100 you can get a kit and learn how to build the hardware and program it. All on a video. Similar videos on Synthetic Aparture radar, if you can use it and build it, you can figure out how to defeat it because you intimately know it's weaknesses.

[@bobyoung1698]

The decomposition process creates some heat and has been used to find bodies under debris.

[@stefanschleps8758]

@@bobyoung1698 Exactly. Great minds work alike.

[@FirearmsofAmerica]

Thank you for making this video. Very informative!

[@SideWays8Productions]

I used to play airsoft at a field in Whitehouse Station, NJ so your first map graphic is probably showing one of the many radio transmissions I made back home for mom to heat up some pizza rolls.

[@bloozee]

The rdf i built in the 80s used virtual rotating antennas to produce a dopler shift ( and the resulting synchronised freq modukation of the signal) but using high speed PIN diodes to switch between a ring of antennas.

[@Christine4music]

That’s for sure. The internet is hiding you. I’m glad you’re still on KZbin but they are definitely not letting us know when you have new videos. Thanks for all ag the amazing educational material.

[@stephendavidcavuoti6548]

Thank you for the knowledge!

[@jeremylozier7339]

This was fun to listen to. Thanks!

[@isettech]

It's a fun hobby if you like to build directional antennas, phased arrays, and other directional antennas. I've done turkey tracking from VLF to UHF. In avoiding detection, add use high gain directional antennas to the list. For example in the open field, of you are in the microwave band and using low power and using a 24 db gain antenna, one of the 3 bad guys in the example may see you, but with reduced power, and none in your line of bearing, they would not see you at all.

[@theminer49erz]

Fortunately, I do not have a need to apply such things, but it makes for excellent thought experiments! Thanks!

[@RTPTechTips]

Great channel / video. Interesting stuff. Follower pointed me here (cover some related topics). Subscribed. 👍

[@johnsynapse2407]

Great use of graphics to demonstrate the concepts (Y)

[@bingwrite]

Funny to see you use the 540 for the example. Troutville represent!

[@georgej2058]

Great channel! FYI: Russia and China are neither the only nor the primary foreign actors in US affairs. That distinction goes to Israel, hands down.

[@cliccclacc6561]

AIPAC 🥴

[@georgej2058]

@@cliccclacc6561 Including, but certainly not limited to. ADL, literally all the media orgs, banks, Federal Reserve, as well as the entire government Deep State itself. The ADL "trains" (i.e. indoctrinates) virtually every police recruit, including taking many of them on trips to Israel for "training" and handing out awards to those who prove themselves the most subservient to their interests.

[@cliccclacc6561]

@@georgej2058 Nothing more insane than the ADL deciding who the FBI should target as “terrorists”

[@the_bigdaddy420]

This is just encouragement at this point

[@helamanrivera6321]

Awesome video. Thanks!

[@johnbutler370]

Appreciate your work 🙏

[@vidoman362]

Have any information on Stingray and DRT(box)? I've noticed for quite some time now, using ADS-B Exchange, the R135s and others have been flying loops in certain areas. This has been happening at all times of the day and night. Some areas they have been hitting repeatedly. Never mind, just watched another video of yours where you mention Stingray..

[@RadioPrepper]

Short range, it is possible with sensitive receiving equipment, to pick up the signal of the oscillator inside the radio, even if it is not transmitting, just receiving.

[@MrBarstow]

A video about drones being used such as what came up as evidence in the Rittenhouse case would be interesting.

[@theredneckbuddha2763]

Yeah I found it interesting how the FBI had already been running surveillance on the scene

[@MrBarstow]

@@theredneckbuddha2763 I just saw a video by Rick at "good luck america" where an off duty cop was accidentally killed by police. The whole thing was on thermal but they had no dash cams and no body cams. To be fair it may have been from a police helicopter, but I would like a detailed video on domestic drone capabilities and use.

[@theredneckbuddha2763]

@@MrBarstow I believe the first drones were used in WWII, operated from Naval ships. Drones didn't hit the general market until Y2K+, and that really sets a perspective about how much we DON'T know about current technology, since most of it is classified.

[@MrBarstow]

@@theredneckbuddha2763 I agree.

[@americanpsyop1364]

God Bless you 💙

[@2aprecisionninja897]

What faraday bag do you recommend? Great content btw…one of my favorite on KZbin

[@jarink1]

When I served back in the early 90s, our TOC used a rough guide to pass on "shoot" targets based on a combination of unit level and CEP size.

[@folkishappalachian6827]

24:51 then just hide the hf wire in a clothes line that is already there

[@Cybrludite]

Or a fenceline, like Art Bell used to do.

[@davagain]

@@Cybrludite Art Bell had an unfair advantage - he could always run his wire from a handy UFO

[@mikeb1960]

Invaluable content

[@jasonprivately1764]

Wonderful series. Well thought out and presented. I however use encoded laser to receptor methods heavily modified by compressed digital packets coupled to analog fm (and or) am common transmissions of public radio with a variable delays due to surface or landmark mitigation or frequency propagation through the medium involved. Though it is line of sight it has not been decoded as of yet

[@ababab678]

Thank you for your effort

[@76dg15]

You got some rad information right there

[@gemnicherry2670]

Yeah they are doing all of that A-I-R program here in Massachusetts as well. I can verify fixed wing aircraft, fixed wing drones, as well as quadcopters

[@creative27feb]

Old memory, 46 years back in polytechnic, RDF Marconi made Receiver

[@Andrewbreeze316]

Everything you’re saying…. Amen

[@vivianp5962]

A 2nd video on tbis topic would be appreciated. Like "how to" posts.

[@daklakdigital3691]

This video explains why Zip transmitters are so effective. Zip messages can conclude with next transmit frequency (encrypted) will be and can be used control an SDR receiver. Two way SDR transmitter / receivers can be fixed location and high powered that are almost impervious to detection.

[@larresh]

I'd love a follow up on this, such as a discussion on the equipment that a civilian can get hold of or MDA (Make Do Adapt) to support their SIGINT. I would really like to see how someone blend radio detection with an off the shelf drone (a frankenbuild?)

[@Englishkin]

Assemblies have to be unconcealed to recruit the numbers needed for mass defense. Operational security must consist of posting inner (100 meters or one city block away) and outer (1,000 meters or a mile away) North, South, East and West Guard patrols to tactically defend against and sound the alarm of any breach by enemy forces. Reconnaissance in force is the surest defense against enemy breaches.

[@robertjackson1407]

Thank you 😊

[@jarink1]

Jamming does not jam the transmitter, it jams the receiver. Effective Radiated Power measured *at the receiver* is what matters. A good rule of thumb is that the closer the receiver is to the transmitter, the more difficult it will become to jam. This is especially true given how radio strength is affected by the inverse square law (2x distance = 1/4 power)

[@dontlook3650]

Hey, in regards to codewords and cryptological messaging, you should read into General Malespín's Central American War coded language if you haven't already. Easy enough for civvies to understand it and it just sounds like slang for something

[@djghouls]

You can use bread crumbs to miss lead surveillance. Put your phone in friends car as he does errands and you go dark somewhere else. Let them think they can re-lie on the easy way to track you, instead of the more expensive.

[@NevilofMars]

13:28, If you are using the example of two transmitters that are operating on VHF/UHF, it would be easy to locate either one using a mobile DF vehicle. I know, I have experience doing it. The only time I was unable to locate a transmitter site, was when it was a system that had two different antennas, located 1/2 mile apart and were simulcasting the same voice communications. I gave up after working two hours on that case. If your example at this time frame of the video, had those two different transmitters operating on HF, then that example would show my experience with trying to locate two transmitters from a fixed asset DF system. Still, at some point, if the transmitter continued to operate on a regular or even irregular time schedule, a mobile DF unit would be sent in and both sites would eventually be located, as long as they continued to transmit. One aspect that I have not heard in the video yet, having only reached this time hack, is "Radio Fingerprinting". Any radio can be identified by it's electronic fingerprint. I did it years ago in Vietnam, I did it not so many years ago in the U.S. of A.. I am positive that radio fingerprinting technics has been vastly improved and much easier to do now, than it was back in the 1970's and from my experiences in the 1990's through the mid 2000's! Radio Direction Finding (RDF) has improved tremendously over the last couple of decades. What used to take a few hours, days, or weeks to obtain a single line of bearing (LOB) on a transmitter, from a 3 second transmission, if the RDF operator was lucky to be on frequency, listening, and quick enough to see the LOB, can now be done with your single 3 second transmission. With modern equipment, the operator does not have to be actively monitoring a frequency to obtain not just one LOB but in the case of shortwave transmissions, can obtain 3000 LOBs in that 3 second transmission, with a fix, just by reviewing the recorded data of the entire shortwave bandwidth (and more) stored on a computer hard drive, hours, days, or weeks after the 3 second transmission!

[@gikhristkhuugzairs5755]

Thanks

[@CatDaddySteve]

DIRECTIONAL ANTENNA: We Ham radio types use highly directional transmit / receive antennas. Search for Yagi Beam antenna. Say a bad guy is behind you a mile away and good guy in front of you a mile away you then take off the typical unidirectional antenna and install the Yagi Beam antenna and now your acts kind of like a flashlight transmiting / receiving in a beam cone.

[@bradydavidow4470]

Thank you

[@RetiredRadioChaser]

An experience mobile DF operator would not shoot one line of bearing (LOB) from that location on route 31, then drive west of the reservoir and shoot another line of bearing. He/she would continue shooting LOB's while driving north on route 31, then turning right on one of the streets heading towards the Reservoir. As an experienced DF operator and if the transmitter is in the approximate location as indicated in the video, I could find it in less than 30 minutes, possibly in under 15 minutes!

[@fabreezethefaintinggoat5484]

thanks

[@SM18272]

Great video. What tools are good for modelling RF propogation over terrain? Are there any decent free tools for this?

[@RetiredRadioChaser]

26:20, Changing callsigns? That might not help. I am not aware of what civilian agencies (i.e. law enforcement) capabilities are, but I have experience with issues of callsign and frequency changes from the Vietnam era is. I worked HFDF and there were people who worked communications intercept of the enemy in Vietnam. NSA provided call sign and frequency lists of enemy units that we targeted. Those lists consisted of the current callsigns and frequencies and future callsigns and frequencies. NSA had algorithms that developed the next callsign and frequencies, that in some cases, we believed we knew before the enemy units knew what they would be. The enemy units would not know what their next callsign or frequency would be until just before the change, due to secrecy issues. This might not make sense to some people but it did happen.

[@sethmyers8491]

Great video very depressed this makes me lol can you do one on facial recognition if you know anything about it?

[@S2Underground]

We certainly can add it to the list of topics to cover. The problem with facial recognition is that it's such a broad area...there isn't just one system, there are hundreds of facial recognition software packages. All of which are very unique

[@ianwall3620]

Just keep clear tape stretched randomly on your face.

[@disposabull]

@@ianwall3620 If you now what hardware/software algorithms the "enemy" is using it is quite easy to evade using strange makeup. You will look strange to a human observer but to a camera you won't register as a human. The computer first has to detect that there is a face in the picture it is looking at and only afterwards does it compare that face against a database it has access to in order to establish the identity of the face using facial recognition. It's a two step process, detection and then recognition. By radically altering the way your face reflects visible light or IR light with makeup the computer can't detect that a face is in the picture and simply ignores it.

[@ianwall3620]

@@disposabull agreed. I am in surveillance security and I agree. Thanks for the input.

[@disposabull]

@@ianwall3620 If you ever need to test your human detection avoidance you can use a newer iphone with faceid or use the openCV library on a raspberry pi as a cheaper way. Register your face in your database and confirm that faceID is working than apply the make up patterns and confirm it breaks the facial recognition from multiple angles.

[@donjohnswaggert]

Regarding your parting words this has been my sentiment regarding the police which although I have no love for them I can understand the functionality of law enforcement yet and still my only true gripe is when the so-called law enforcement break the law or when they infringe upon our god-given rights etc and when they do do that I can only wish them destruction outside of that there's no issue

[@AR15andGOD]

Exactly. A lot of people aren't nuanced enough to realize that there's a legitimate need to protect those who cannot protect themselves, for whatever reason. Not everyone is mobile enough or trained enough to grab their gun and get to work, even if that capability would be nice for them to have. Total loss of police is the idea of an idiot

[@ninja5672]

In your flat desert example, if the "receiver" and "sender" have cheap radios with cheap antennas, but the "Bad guys" have expensive DF antennas, could they still "hear" you even when using minimum power to reach the "receiver"?

[@S2Underground]

It really depends on the technical data of the radios, the exact terrain, the weather, and even the atmospheric conditions; direction finding rigs cannot create a signal when none exists, but since a signal does carry much further than we think it does, yes this can happen. In other words, the sender and the receiver might not be able to hear each other...but the DF rig in between them can

[@dananorth895]

Ha, much like coastal navigation triangulation. A big part also is S/N ratio or signal to noise ratio. A low power radio w low background noise/interference transmits/receives farther. A reflector/directional shield drops noise. Antennas out of alignment are harder to pickup. Of course if your triangulated all manner of hellfire can rain from the heavens in very short order.

[@dananorth895]

Also a small antenna might transmit 2 mi. And a longer one 4 mi. But the second radio will need a longer antenna to receive 4 mi. As well.

[@roflchopter11]

Definitely. Directional antennas (key for direction finding) inherently have high gain and so, all else being equal, will receive a stronger signal from the direction they are pointed than an omnidirectional antenna.

[@Ianfantastic2]

In general if two radio operators on the ground are able to communicate, then an airborne receiver with be able to "hear" the signal from much further away.

[@dellawrence4323]

What about stringing up an antenna between two washing lines and hanging your washing on it? it could stay there permanently and blend in.

[@memowilliam9889]

Pick up several loads of “clothes” from a thrift store and swap it out every other day.

[@slavicslav7459]

13:00 So what I took from this is that I have to scatter dozens of repeaters around my AO, rig them up to send random transmissions and good luck trying to find me.

[@xntumrfo9ivrnwf]

Is it 70% of the signal came from the smaller ellipse, or 70% confidence level that it came from there? Thanks

[@DeFiPonzi]

70% of the signal came from the smaller ellipse, confidence level would be dependent on the end-user doing the analysis, which can be highly correlated if 70% of the signal came from the smaller ellipse.

[@PlasmaFreak]

Can phased arrays be used to convolve the ellipse? Use a wider beam to detect initially and then narrow your beam and direct it around that area until you find an more exact target area?

[@viewatyourownrisk]

Could you expand this knowledge base to address the use of NVIS and beam antennas in countering DFing? EDIT: That was poorly worded. Could you expand this to include what beam antennas and NVIS?

[@firefox5926]

8:12 i assume this only applies to omni directional transmission and not for narrow cast transmission or sort say a trasmitter with some sort of radar directed shield not sure if thats even a thing but presumably such drones will have their transponders on and as such you could move something around the transmitter to block the view of the huff duff ?

[@lyfandeth]

When satellite photography was still actually dropping FILM cartridges and entirely analog, the actual ground resolution of the images was classified. Images that were released were often simply degraded to protect this. However, anyone with basic open knowledge could calculate the image resolution of the best films, the coverage area of the images, the satellite height, and the maximum possible size of the optics, and then come out with reliable real numbers. Of course when you are told a device has two meter resolution, but the released images clearly show the six inch wide stripes in a parking lot...oopsie. That's why a lot of imagery is simply and totally classified, to prevent unintended release of data about the imaging sources or capabilities.

[@Something_Outdoors]

yes

[@mr.v2689]

S2 I know your a busy man but I would love to ask you to look into an odd beam that appears on the Doppler radar durning large precipitation events in the northeast. A Doppler beam appears in the radar when it’s raining or snowing hard over the tri state area of ny nj and pa. It originates from Brookhaven Nat Lab in Long Island ny and shoots north west toward upstate ny. I’ve seen it many times over several years and have a bunch of screen shots and was just curious if you maybe able to point me in the right direction to get some info on it. Thanks for all your work man!