Hey there, I do military aircraft spotting and photography and I recently got an SDS100 to give me some early warning for approaching aircraft. The SDS100 lets me record what I receive which is awesome because I can listen back later and get callsigns and such. I post my photos and sometimes video on social media and I recently thought it might be cool to edit the video to include the audio I recorded from that specific aircraft. Is it legal to post this audio on the internet if it is a part of a video of the aircraft? I tried to do some research and I couldn't find anything, but because it's the military, I thought it would be smart to get some advice before I do it. Perhaps its one of those things where if you have to ask, you probably shouldn't, but I am not privy enough to know. (its not a live stream or youtube or anything like that, just the occasional video on my own social media accounts)
Advisable to post received military aircraft transmissions on social media?
- Thread starter StinkJet
- Start date
letarotor
Member
I strongly advise not doing it personally. I don't think anybody's going to come out and arrest you but some of the sensitive stuff heard or talked about at times, and especially dealing with frequencies and locations, I recommend not doing it. I would personally find a group of friends that don't make public posts, and this is very easy to do and you will come across people interested in the radio community in the same thing as you, enthusiasts are out there. I can 100% state that there have been a lot of regular communications, especially in military communications In federal communications, that have gone encrypted due to seeing posts in the internet age regarding their traffic and operations as they are ongoing. And these types of public posts have disappeared and could disappear easily due to the reasons that they have been posted in groups that are publicly viewed. I'm a big military communications monitoring enthusiast and have been for quite a number of decades. And with people that I've gotten to know I have no problem sharing information and radio traffic and frequencies and things like that that I've heard. But not to the masses of people out there that you do not even know is the way I play it safe.
Back in the 1990s, during the Haiti conflict, I was listening as SAM 972 or 976, I can't remember exactly now, had ex-president Carter flying into Haiti to trying to negotiating a deal before the US was getting ready to invade. This was on HF radio on the Mystic Star frequencies used by the military Special Air Mission (aka SAM) aircraft out of Andrews Air Force Base. It was fascinating to listen to ex-President Carter calling his wife at home through a phone patch and you could tell he was used to the old days where giving his home phone number and things like that we're done over an unsecured network. He wanted to see if he left his reading glasses on the table in the vestibule. There was a timeline and he had to be out by a certain time, which was just a few hours away if I remember right, and as he was departing Haiti he called Crown (the White House Communication Agency) and told them he had secured a deal and we didn't need to invade. He was headed back to Washington. This was real cool and impending events going on and some fool that was also listening in, and we do know who it was but I'm not going to mention any names, called CNN and reported everything. They had it on the news before Carter ever even made it back to Washington and could tell the government. The military and federal government was very ticked off about this happening and within a few years HF radio was almost dead with military traffic or anything of interest anyway. HF use to be spectacular and fascinating to listen to. But nowadays you don't hear the phone patches or any of the cool stuff that used to be there because of events like this happening. This specific incident I'm mentioning was definitely a nail in the coffin of this great and fascinating radio traffic. It was even publicly mentioned on the news what this person had done later.
Here's a link to an article I just pulled up, and really haven't read yet, but thought I'd post if you're not familiar with the incident I'm talking about. I don't know if this mentions anything about the communications but it's the Haiti conflict story and what was going on.
President Carter Leads Delegation to Negotiate Peace With Haiti .
I highly recommend not posting things publicly that have to do with any military communications you really want to continue listening to. It's not that all of the communications are super important or anything like that. It's just that when the military or federal government starts seeing and hearing about things that have been posted, they do not like seeing this and they will make changes so that we can't hear this traffic. For the most part, the federal government are very cool things that have gone encrypted and you can't hear much of that traffic anymore across America. The military I don't believe is so concerned with somebody posting something about hearing an aircraft on an air traffic control frequency or minuscule stuff like that. But it's better to be safe than sorry because if they become aware of things like more important communications intercepted being heard, they'll go encrypted And we want hear them anymore. It's happened over and over with the traffic we used to could hear and lost. Thankfully they've not seemed too concerned with the UHF and VHF military aviation traffic through the years. It is mostly in the clear. Other than when there is something really important or there's some kind of issue going on with the monitoring of the traffic, they haven't done much hiding the communications or encrypting them on those bands. You'll occasionally hear some encryption and a lot of times it's just the aircraft testing their radios and making sure stuff works as it is supposed to.
I've listened to military traffic for close to 40 years. And if there is something really big going on, I make sure I do not post that kind of stuff publicly. I've got a group of friends I've met through the years and I may let them know because I know they won't do it either. It's fascinating to be able to listen to a lot of this stuff but you don't want to put it out there where just anybody can tune to it is my personal opinion. We want to be able to keep listening to these communications that are still able to be monitored and the quickest way to see them disappear is to post them on a public forum. And especially when you're putting the specifics down like frequencies and areas in a post. Technology has increased so much through the years that it's nothing for them to be able to easily use something like SATCOM and encrypt their traffic or even just encrypt the traffic they are transmitting on the frequencies they want to use. I'm sure there's a lot of people that would disagree and they just want to get the information. But I could write a book on things we used to could hear and what we've lost and a lot of it has been lost because of the internet and forums that post things anybody can see. I hate that it's become this way but it truthfully has. I'm glad we have forums like this one and we can discuss things and even post frequencies for agency ABC or whatever. It's great to be able to find others who are interested in the same thing. But when a lot of things, and especially things they don't want people to hear, start getting talked about, well, it leads to it disappearing many times.
I'm glad you asked about this question and I'm glad I could post my perspective and opinion. It sounds like a cool project you're interested in making with your photos too. But I do recommend being really careful, if you decide to do it, with what you post. And truthfully I would say that you would probably be better off not doing this. But if you do, just put general air traffic control type communications in it and not things like dog fights, exercises, missions, etc in the projects you make.
Again, this is my opinion and I'm sure there's tons of others who don't care or just want to hear this kind of stuff but they don't know necessarily where to find it. I'll shut up and stop now but it's a good question that you asked and hopefully not one that we will have to worry about losing and not being able to monitor. It's fascinating listening to the cool stuff like this. 73!
Back in the 1990s, during the Haiti conflict, I was listening as SAM 972 or 976, I can't remember exactly now, had ex-president Carter flying into Haiti to trying to negotiating a deal before the US was getting ready to invade. This was on HF radio on the Mystic Star frequencies used by the military Special Air Mission (aka SAM) aircraft out of Andrews Air Force Base. It was fascinating to listen to ex-President Carter calling his wife at home through a phone patch and you could tell he was used to the old days where giving his home phone number and things like that we're done over an unsecured network. He wanted to see if he left his reading glasses on the table in the vestibule. There was a timeline and he had to be out by a certain time, which was just a few hours away if I remember right, and as he was departing Haiti he called Crown (the White House Communication Agency) and told them he had secured a deal and we didn't need to invade. He was headed back to Washington. This was real cool and impending events going on and some fool that was also listening in, and we do know who it was but I'm not going to mention any names, called CNN and reported everything. They had it on the news before Carter ever even made it back to Washington and could tell the government. The military and federal government was very ticked off about this happening and within a few years HF radio was almost dead with military traffic or anything of interest anyway. HF use to be spectacular and fascinating to listen to. But nowadays you don't hear the phone patches or any of the cool stuff that used to be there because of events like this happening. This specific incident I'm mentioning was definitely a nail in the coffin of this great and fascinating radio traffic. It was even publicly mentioned on the news what this person had done later.
Here's a link to an article I just pulled up, and really haven't read yet, but thought I'd post if you're not familiar with the incident I'm talking about. I don't know if this mentions anything about the communications but it's the Haiti conflict story and what was going on.
President Carter Leads Delegation to Negotiate Peace With Haiti .
I highly recommend not posting things publicly that have to do with any military communications you really want to continue listening to. It's not that all of the communications are super important or anything like that. It's just that when the military or federal government starts seeing and hearing about things that have been posted, they do not like seeing this and they will make changes so that we can't hear this traffic. For the most part, the federal government are very cool things that have gone encrypted and you can't hear much of that traffic anymore across America. The military I don't believe is so concerned with somebody posting something about hearing an aircraft on an air traffic control frequency or minuscule stuff like that. But it's better to be safe than sorry because if they become aware of things like more important communications intercepted being heard, they'll go encrypted And we want hear them anymore. It's happened over and over with the traffic we used to could hear and lost. Thankfully they've not seemed too concerned with the UHF and VHF military aviation traffic through the years. It is mostly in the clear. Other than when there is something really important or there's some kind of issue going on with the monitoring of the traffic, they haven't done much hiding the communications or encrypting them on those bands. You'll occasionally hear some encryption and a lot of times it's just the aircraft testing their radios and making sure stuff works as it is supposed to.
I've listened to military traffic for close to 40 years. And if there is something really big going on, I make sure I do not post that kind of stuff publicly. I've got a group of friends I've met through the years and I may let them know because I know they won't do it either. It's fascinating to be able to listen to a lot of this stuff but you don't want to put it out there where just anybody can tune to it is my personal opinion. We want to be able to keep listening to these communications that are still able to be monitored and the quickest way to see them disappear is to post them on a public forum. And especially when you're putting the specifics down like frequencies and areas in a post. Technology has increased so much through the years that it's nothing for them to be able to easily use something like SATCOM and encrypt their traffic or even just encrypt the traffic they are transmitting on the frequencies they want to use. I'm sure there's a lot of people that would disagree and they just want to get the information. But I could write a book on things we used to could hear and what we've lost and a lot of it has been lost because of the internet and forums that post things anybody can see. I hate that it's become this way but it truthfully has. I'm glad we have forums like this one and we can discuss things and even post frequencies for agency ABC or whatever. It's great to be able to find others who are interested in the same thing. But when a lot of things, and especially things they don't want people to hear, start getting talked about, well, it leads to it disappearing many times.
I'm glad you asked about this question and I'm glad I could post my perspective and opinion. It sounds like a cool project you're interested in making with your photos too. But I do recommend being really careful, if you decide to do it, with what you post. And truthfully I would say that you would probably be better off not doing this. But if you do, just put general air traffic control type communications in it and not things like dog fights, exercises, missions, etc in the projects you make.
Again, this is my opinion and I'm sure there's tons of others who don't care or just want to hear this kind of stuff but they don't know necessarily where to find it. I'll shut up and stop now but it's a good question that you asked and hopefully not one that we will have to worry about losing and not being able to monitor. It's fascinating listening to the cool stuff like this. 73!
Listen all you want but keep it to yourself. Remember its the military its a whole different set of rules even for civilians. If you absolutely want to share what your doing use existing RR posts as a guideline on what and when to post. Also look at what happened to Law Enforcement communications 90+% encrypted now. Start posting real time audio and its not going to end well for the community in general.
I would almost suggest contact a RR moderator/admin. If you wish to share your videos with audio RR may be the place to do it. You can then link the RR posts in your social media (if RR approves of that type of linking). There are many here who would quickly be able to direct you on what would be considered appropriate, interesting and relevant. Who knows if allowed such posts and links may encourage others to join the monitoring community.
I would almost suggest contact a RR moderator/admin. If you wish to share your videos with audio RR may be the place to do it. You can then link the RR posts in your social media (if RR approves of that type of linking). There are many here who would quickly be able to direct you on what would be considered appropriate, interesting and relevant. Who knows if allowed such posts and links may encourage others to join the monitoring community.
Thanks for taking the time to give a detailed response so that I really understand how these kinds of things can go. I am fairly new to military scanning, and scanning in general so I didn't even consider that the military might encrypt the communications. (seems obvious now) I definitely want to continue to listen to these communications, and I want others to have the same opportunity so I think its definitely better to be safe and not post than to be sorry. I really appreciate the kind reply, happy to be able to learn from a knowledgeable community about this question.
Yeah, I see now it makes a lot more sense to keep the videos to myself, for the interest of the whole community. I may take a look at posting on RR in the future, but it seems like the risk of encryption is probably high enough that its better to just show the videos to friends and family, and not to post them on the internet. Thanks for the guidance.
letarotor
Member
You bet and thanks for the reply back. Welcome to the hobby of military scanning and just scanning in general too! There's a ton of interesting stuff out there to listen to indeed. It took me a good while to get used to some of the terminology and lingo listening to military communications. It's still something I learn new stuff about even today. I hope you keep enjoying it 😁
If you have any MOAs (military operations areas) in your area, those can be real interesting to listen to and you may hear things like fighters being ACM training (fighting) each other and other testings and interesting communications. They are restricted air spaces and a lot of fun to listen to in my area. A lot of times they're out in the middle of nowhere and often times people don't even realize they have one near them. The frequencies are usually unpublished but if you scan the military aviation bands you will eventually find them. It can be a lot of fun and I'm sure you will enjoy it!
If you decide to post anything regarding an actual operation, post it with a significant delay, as in weeks later. (On a public post. If you have a circle of people you trust with real-time info, let your conscience be your guide.)
Also be mindful of information that might be too identifying, or otherwise compromising, and not including that in public posts.
Also be mindful of information that might be too identifying, or otherwise compromising, and not including that in public posts.
n6hgg
Member
Yea, it's not cool to be a "LOOK AT ME!" internet presence sometimes.
Last edited:
spacellamaman
Member
Look most all transmissions are lies anyway.
When the pilot says he's about to engage a squirter coming out of the disabled technical beside the hardball, and follows that up with
"rat-a-tat-tat-tat! Get sum sucka!"
I doubt posting that is going to threaten national security. Dignity perhaps, but not national security.
If I am making a video and it picks up my scanner, I am not going to the trouble to strip out the audio. I am doing this for kicks, photography and the sort. StinkJet, for your purposes and for what you are thinking about, don't worry about it. An example of Super Secret audio starts at 0:53
They publish the exact route and frequencies to transmit on and when to transmit, so super secret it ain't. If it was secret there would be more mid-air collisions.
You're not going to be monitoring HF to begin with and it wouldn't be of any assistance to your photography pursuit if you heard where Jimmy left his glasses anyway.
I imagine you're smart enough to know what matters and what doesn't. I can assure you 99.9 percent of what you hear doesn't matter, don't let the cautions impact your pursuits. The military knows we're listening, we have a public forum where we argue about it for LeMay's sake!
When the pilot says he's about to engage a squirter coming out of the disabled technical beside the hardball, and follows that up with
"rat-a-tat-tat-tat! Get sum sucka!"
I doubt posting that is going to threaten national security. Dignity perhaps, but not national security.
If I am making a video and it picks up my scanner, I am not going to the trouble to strip out the audio. I am doing this for kicks, photography and the sort. StinkJet, for your purposes and for what you are thinking about, don't worry about it. An example of Super Secret audio starts at 0:53
They publish the exact route and frequencies to transmit on and when to transmit, so super secret it ain't. If it was secret there would be more mid-air collisions.
You're not going to be monitoring HF to begin with and it wouldn't be of any assistance to your photography pursuit if you heard where Jimmy left his glasses anyway.
I imagine you're smart enough to know what matters and what doesn't. I can assure you 99.9 percent of what you hear doesn't matter, don't let the cautions impact your pursuits. The military knows we're listening, we have a public forum where we argue about it for LeMay's sake!
There's no such thing as security by obscurity.
Ask these folks what they think Military Air & Space Communications | Facebook
zob-slantzero
Member
Seems like StinkJet is talking about air traffic control frequencies. These frequencies cannot be encrypted.
spacellamaman
Member
Speaking of, has milradiocomms successor ever come online somewhere? Hopefully with all the GD data that was put into the database by us users imported into whatever the new configuration might be?
Remember this about publishing ANY overheard radio conversations. Even if 100% legal and no security issue, anyone who finds out that you're listening in on them is not going to talk as freely, and won't be as fun to listen to. If you're catching some traffic as part of a video, that's one thing, but sometimes there are juicy conversations that you should just enjoy, learn from, and discard.
73/Allen (N4JRI)
73/Allen (N4JRI)
Simple - use your common sense.
If it sounds like there's a REAL need to censor it then do so.
I'd say that about emergency comms too but in the US it seems that people think those should all be braodcast live anyway. Are 'military' communications any more sensitive really?
If someone doesn't want you to listen then they'll make sure you can't. Legality is a rather strange way to think about it as almost everyone breaks laws (probably EVERY car driver).
If it sounds like there's a REAL need to censor it then do so.
I'd say that about emergency comms too but in the US it seems that people think those should all be braodcast live anyway. Are 'military' communications any more sensitive really?
If someone doesn't want you to listen then they'll make sure you can't. Legality is a rather strange way to think about it as almost everyone breaks laws (probably EVERY car driver).
JvdK
Member
Just my two cents;
Personally I think one should always be carefull regarding publishing military communication onto the internet. For you it might just be a nice bit of ATCC under a video however for others (AKA the not so friendly) this is information. The combination of video and ATCC can tell them if there is perhaps a new callsign, where it was, at what time, flying what type of A/C, joining up in what kind of exercise etc. So, this extra information you put under your video might be a missing part in someone’s puzzle. Sometimes military pilots post video’s themselve. Ever wondered why these video‘s are accompanied by music….😉
Personally I think one should always be carefull regarding publishing military communication onto the internet. For you it might just be a nice bit of ATCC under a video however for others (AKA the not so friendly) this is information. The combination of video and ATCC can tell them if there is perhaps a new callsign, where it was, at what time, flying what type of A/C, joining up in what kind of exercise etc. So, this extra information you put under your video might be a missing part in someone’s puzzle. Sometimes military pilots post video’s themselve. Ever wondered why these video‘s are accompanied by music….😉
Sorry to go off topic, but I still don't know why the cell phone frequencies are still blocked on scanners, when it's all encrypted anyway.
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