DNC: Wireless jamming / Denial of service

[RFsponge]

Discreet jamming possible?

Let's take a look at the CELLULAR 800 band shall we. Mobiles Talk in from 823 MHz to 850 MHz. Towers transmit from 869 MHz to 894 MHz. PS and LMR Talk in from 806 MHz to 823 MHz and Towers operate from 851 to 869 MHz.

That puts PS right in the middle of the bandspread. So wide band jamming would interefere with PS and LMR. They are not gonna jam the 800 MHz range in Denver.

Not trying to perpetuate or even start an argument here, just wanted to add this: I was told today, by some very smart RF guys, that the Secret Service and other elements at the Federal level have the gear to jam cellular frequencies while leaving the PS and LMR bands unaffected. This can be done in very localized areas, such as only within Invesco Field. Yes? No? Maybe so?

Perhaps a combination of ESN blocking and frequency jamming is to be used? It certainly seems more and more likely that this will be intentional and not just an affect of limited bandwidth...

 

[donc13]

Just attended a very interesting meeting (can't say where) in were I and my colleagues were informed to "not count on our wireless devices working" downtown during large portions of DNC week and especailly during The Messiah's visit to Invesco Field. This comes from logistics people inside the DNCC. They refused to provide further details.

My speculation only: Like the latest earthquake in LA, I imagine that the cell towers will simply deny service to civilian use and only allow it by emergency / operational personnel.

Not knowing too much about the science of RF propagation, can anyone inform me on how realistic it would be to "jam" the frequencies cellphones and blackberry-type devices use over the central core of the metro area? I think the cooperation of cell companies is needed to carry out this plan.

And what warrants this act, anyway?

Simple answer....there's not enough additional capacity to take on 50,000 additional cell phones, especially at certain times of the day. And no one is going to build out the current systems to handle that much of an overload to handle just 4 days of traffic.

There's only so many frequencies, so many towers, so many mini-cells and so many phone lines available
once they are in use...they are in use and no one else can get in, until someone gets off the system.

 

[donc13]

Not trying to perpetuate or even start an argument here, just wanted to add this: I was told today, by some very smart RF guys, that the Secret Service and other elements at the Federal level have the gear to jam cellular frequencies while leaving the PS and LMR bands unaffected. This can be done in very localized areas, such as only within Invesco Field. Yes? No? Maybe so?

Perhaps a combination of ESN blocking and frequency jamming is to be used? It certainly seems more and more likely that this will be intentional and not just an affect of limited bandwidth...

Think about what you're saying. "Can" it be done...sure, given enough time, money and effort, anything can be done. "Will" it be done....nope, not reason to do so. Those that need (must have) radio communications will have other ways than the civilian cell phone networks. The rest of the folks will simply have to share the available resources.

Now...if someone were to start shooting at Invesco....sure, the feds can do lots of things to cut off cell phones. But there are LOTS of other frequencies and methods for a dedicated team to use if they wished. There is NO equipment that can jam every frequency from ULF to SHF and still leave pubic safety comms working fine. It can't be done.

go into any sporting goods store...there's several kinds of walkie talkie radios there, that don't operate on frequencies anywhere near the cell frequencies such as CB's FRS and GMRS radios. there's tons of other kinds of radios readily available that would not be affected by cell phone jamming. Aircraft radios, marine radios, etc. All very common, and very easy to obtain, etc.