Melville/Mineola NY -2 NY congressman propose law on fire radio jammers

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w2lie

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The character who was interfering with Melville FD was at it for months on end. The jamming sounded like middle eastern prayer chants. Anyone who has listened to my SCFD feed that I send to BCFY most likely heard first hand what this guy sounded like.

I have countless hours of audio from this clown, but will not make it public. There is no need for this guy to gain any additional attention from his jamming.
 

GrumpyGuard

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I have countless hours of audio from this clown, but will not make it public. There is no need for this guy to gain any additional attention from his jamming.

I agree, these audio clips don't need to be made public as it just gives this person a few more minutes of fame that he does not deserve.
 

gesucks

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what they need to do is fund and staff the FCC enforcement units. Does not matter what the penalty is if you do not have the manpower and time to catch them.
 

Bruce42

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Interference

The lawyer to engineer ratio of the FCC has totally reversed from the old days. Now they just auction spectrum to collect money for the government and don't have the guts to declare standards. Remember AM stereo? How about digital interoperability? The engineers are fading away and the lawyers don't know what a direction finder is.

Bruce....
 

teufler

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can any local hams df on this guy. Who is the OO or OOC in that area. Sure this is not ham radio interference but they have the equipment to triangulate on the signal. I was the OOC for Missouri. I had Doppler equipment on my car and spent countless hours dfing on interference. Its all gone away now. Ham radio calls it "Fox Hunting". Where you have an active Fox Hunt Group, you do not have interference.
 

Septa3371CSX1

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Here in Delco (PA) there was a random whistler that would come on the fire radio channels usually during an incident. The whistler would often cause problems for the FF's on the fireground trying to communicate time sensitive information. When command would ask what ID was on the whistler's radio it would come up as no ID (of course). Haven't heard the rogue whistler in quite some time thus I hope the county did something about it. That's the one drawback of conventional radio systems - anyone can buy a radio and program it for the frequencies whether they are allowed to transmit or not.
 

mikepdx

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That's the one drawback of conventional radio systems - anyone can buy a radio and program it for the frequencies whether they are allowed to transmit or not.

I wouldn't presume that trunking systems (digital or analog)
are immune from jamming by conventional transceivers.
 

newsnick175

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It took many hours of RDF to locate this offender. Primarily by our members. We were shocked at the minimal punishment involved with a conviction. Much thanks to our representatives for there support in making changes to that.
 

djewel6

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It took many hours of RDF to locate this offender. Primarily by our members. We were shocked at the minimal punishment involved with a conviction. Much thanks to our representatives for there support in making changes to that.

Locally probably the state laws are limited. Where they really couldve nailed this guy tot he wall wouldve been the Feds. FCC fines for such things are in the thousands (I believe 8k+) for each occurance especially when its repeated. They couldve hammered that guy into bankruptcy (except you cant bankrupt federal fines like that I dont believe)
 
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DaveNF2G

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Was he convicted of Obstructing Governmental Administration? 2nd degree? AFAIR, that's only a misdemeanor.
 

RayAir

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This is why departments concerned with the security of their radio systems need to go proprietary digital and/or encrypted.

On our digital TRS, radios cannot join the system or even receive traffic without being logged in and authenticated to the radio system. Each radio has its own IP address and 10- digit ID. Legit subscriber radios can be shut down OTA as well as GPS tracked if stolen. A log in password can also be required when powering the radio on and a password is required to enter encrypted TGs.

For a lower budget department, they should consider MotoTRBO or NXDN with enhanced 40 bit encryption.
Dispatch can be digital in the clear with all TAC/ops channels encrypted.
 

box23

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This is why departments concerned with the security of their radio systems need to go proprietary digital and/or encrypted.

On our digital TRS, radios cannot join the system or even receive traffic without being logged in and authenticated to the radio system. Each radio has its own IP address and 10- digit ID. Legit subscriber radios can be shut down OTA as well as GPS tracked if stolen. A log in password can also be required when powering the radio on and a password is required to enter encrypted TGs.

For a lower budget department, they should consider MotoTRBO or NXDN with enhanced 40 bit encryption.
Dispatch can be digital in the clear with all TAC/ops channels encrypted.

Yes, of course, because we all know that an encrypted digital system no longer follows the laws of physics. It will work no matter what, just because. That's what the OpenSky salesman told you so it has to be truth, right?

Honestly I don't necessarily have an issue with OpenSky itself, just the whole firestorm that usually surrounds it. The system itself is very good at showing just how egotistical, ignorant, and downright stupid many people are that have control over public safety agencies. As for the system itself, it may work or it may not. Nobody actually knows. There is absolutely zero factual information available to the public from inside an OpenSky system that an informed individual could use to understand the issue. It's all just political crap.

Back on topic, as I've mentioned before, anyone can interfere with and cause disruption of on scene radio traffic no matter what kind of system. Conventional, trunking, analog, digital, encrypted, they are all vulnerable. All it takes is a few skills and some brain power. Although a little more difficult, wide area communications can also be hindered in a lot of cases. It's actually a plus when digital is being used because it's less obvious that interference is even occuring.

Spread spectrum is one way effectively eliminate this ability, but how many public safety agencies use such things?
 

w2xq

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Err, don't we already have law, regulations or whatever at the federal level? Someone needs to light a fire at the local FCC to do enforcement. Congressmen ought to put some light on the mess using the power of their offices. Not to say the idiot doesn't deserve punishment but why not enforce what is already there?

Reminds me of what the states are doing with driving and banning phones, coffee, sandwiches, smoking, kids, Google glasses, etc., with specific statutes rather just call it all distracted driving in one statute. Here comes the judge. :D
 

jdobbs2001

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what they need to do is fund and staff the FCC enforcement units. Does not matter what the penalty is if you do not have the manpower and time to catch them.

They are busy catching people running pirate fm stations on unused fm channels.
 

jdobbs2001

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This is why departments concerned with the security of their radio systems need to go proprietary digital and/or encrypted.

On our digital TRS, radios cannot join the system or even receive traffic without being logged in and authenticated to the radio system. Each radio has its own IP address and 10- digit ID. Legit subscriber radios can be shut down OTA as well as GPS tracked if stolen. A log in password can also be required when powering the radio on and a password is required to enter encrypted TGs.

For a lower budget department, they should consider MotoTRBO or NXDN with enhanced 40 bit encryption.
Dispatch can be digital in the clear with all TAC/ops channels encrypted.

Digital is even easier to jam via preamble jamming.
 

w2lie

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His name is in the article, but there is no call associated on the FCC.gov site with his last name in NY. I have to wonder if it is just an assumption from the reporter that he liked radios, so he must be a ham.
 

giguchan

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Hmmm,
Interesting... Dunno . I would have assumed that he would have been too.. now I feel a tad silly. oh well.. Glad he was caught... what he was doing was dangerous. hope he saved his electrician money.
 
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