Frequency Sources

[SCPD]

Last year I PM'ed two members who posted links that accessed some very good federal agency frequency information. In fact, the web addresses were not really meant for public access. I expressed to these members my concern that federal agency employees follow our forums and when these types of links are posted they remove them from their websites. This winter two very good links disappeared.

I've spoken with a computer tech in one of the agencies (NPS, USFS, BLM, USFWS) and found that the computers keep track of the servers or ISP's that access their sites.
When a lot of hits start coming from non agency ISP's it shows up like a sore thumb. They then realize that the public has a link they are not supposed to have. We publish the link and their hits increase above the numbers expected as a result of people on RR using the link.

If you find one of these website addresses, don't include it in a post. This can nearly guarantee is will be disabled. You can share information from the website, but providing the link for everyone to use is the problem. We access to a couple of very good sites and we don't want to lose more. Keep it to yourself or share in PM's, but not out in the open.

 

[nr2d]

I don't know how an outside user can access a restricted US Government web site with radio frequencies.

I work for the FAA. When I have to do work at home and need to access the Government Master File (GMF) database I have to sign into the FAA VPN then go to the GMF web site and sign in there.

But to have an agency web site and it's frequency database accessible by outside users without signing in is wrong.

 

[DaveNF2G]

Except for the FCC, I suppose. License data are public records by law.

 

[AZScanner]

I dunno, ExSmokey. I think there's some value in the ever-curious RR userbase finding these links and posting them, even if they aren't meant for public consumption. If they truly shouldn't be public facing, we're helping identify those sites so they go back behind the firewall where they belong. Otherwise we end up with a situation like our former Secretary of State (and now candidate for President - God help us), sending emails of a seriously sensitive nature over a private, unsecure smtp mail server. Our government officials are not the most internet security savvy people on the planet. I think we help keep them honest.

-AZ

 

[ke6gcv]

If it's not meant for public consumption, then it shouldn't be made public!

 

[zz0468]

Except for the FCC, I suppose. License data are public records by law.

Most federal agency frequencies are classified, and are not administered or published by the FCC. They are handled by the NTIA, who doesn't make them, ANY of them, available to the public.

 

[zz0468]

If it's not meant for public consumption, then it shouldn't be made public!

That should apply to everything you have programmed into your scanner except amateur and broadcast frequencies. Just saying... =)

 

[ke6gcv]

That should apply to everything you have programmed into your scanner except amateur and broadcast frequencies. Just saying... =)

Touché...

 

[flythunderbird]

I don't know how an outside user can access a restricted US Government web site with radio frequencies.

Careless site administrators, poor website security, and a lack of site penetration testing. Speaking as someone who works for the US government, it happens a lot more often than we know.

 

[DeeBotchery]

You guys missed the gist of Exsmokey's warning. SHARE the information, PROTECT the source. (Protect the source and it may be available again next year. Expose the source and they'll realize what they don't have protected...and they'll fix it.)

 

[SCPD]

I dunno, ExSmokey. I think there's some value in the ever-curious RR userbase finding these links and posting them, even if they aren't meant for public consumption. If they truly shouldn't be public facing, we're helping identify those sites so they go back behind the firewall where they belong. Otherwise we end up with a situation like our former Secretary of State (and now candidate for President - God help us), sending emails of a seriously sensitive nature over a private, unsecure smtp mail server. Our government officials are not the most internet security savvy people on the planet. I think we help keep them honest.

-AZ

This is pretty straightforward, post the link and lose access. Philosophical or ideological discussion is trumped by pragmatism.

 

[SCPD]

You guys missed the gist of Exsmokey's warning. SHARE the information, PROTECT the source. (Protect the source and it may be available again next year. Expose the source and they'll realize what they don't have protected...and they'll fix it.)

Precisely!

 

[mancow]

I would love to hear a non hilarious reason as to why a frequency allocation should remain a "secret".

 

[Voyager]

National Security.

 

[mancow]

National Security.

Lolz

 

[Voyager]

Well, you only said non-hilarious and not something you alone would find funny.

 

[mancow]

This is true.

 

[ecps92]

OPSEC

National Security.

 

[nd5y]

A while back somebody posted a link to the Executive Order that the president signed in 1982 that made all federal government frequency assigenments classified or FOUO or whatever it is called.

 

[ecps92]

Executive Orders Disposition Tables
Where it all began
Executive Order 9132-A
Assignment of Frequencies to Government Radio Stations (Confidential)

Signed: April 13, 1942
Superseded by: EO 9427-A, February 29, 1944
Note: This Executive order was not received for publication in the Federal Register.

A while back somebody posted a link to the Executive Order that the president signed in 1982 that made all federal government frequency assigenments classified or FOUO or whatever it is called.