spacellamaman
Member
i dunno what the landscape looks like now, but mostly around 2011-13 i found an insanely effective way to do something similar using a basic netbook, a program called netstumbler (many others out there but liked the way this one worked) and some usb extension cords and various usb wifi adapters.
it started out just driving around trying to find good wifi signals, cause i am cheap, and generally privacy oriented, and noticing the router names, some with interesting patterns. NC LE was just getting rolling hooking up in car networks. I first noticed it with NCSHP and, living in raleigh at the time, RPD soon had virtually everything that rolled set up. Small town PDs not so much, but last time i bothered sniffing at all was prob 5 years ago, but even then the local NCWRC boys had em. I can only imagine what its like now.
verizon/novatel mifi cards were quite popular, with a handful of others and you could set the program to audible alert on things like specific mfg, which quite luckily the ones i was interested in were not broadcasting a widely used mfg like huiwei or lyncsys etc. all networks were locked of course, which was fine with me, but my lord were they detectable. i might get 2% signal strength on the first hit, but it gave me all the specifics from that, and at 80mph and distances as high as a mile range, frankly i thought i was in heaven.
On long stretches of Hwy 64 outside of Raleigh where speed traps were well suited, you would have sections of gently rolling highway, that was dead straight, 4 lane and lightly used, begging to be driven at least 150% the speed limit. The troopers knew this, would be in the median at the bottom of one of these gentle rolls, setting up for an easy short range shot. Troopers tend to to be the most dangerous of hunters, keeping their radar guns quiet, waiting til they can see the whites of our eyes, and then manually triggering the radar gun. Being quite aware of LOS signal travel, if the trough was deep enough, there was little to worry about just leaving it on, wide open. They were aware that those suckers with radar detectors would hear narry a peep until we... um they would pop over the crest, catching a little air and a kiss-me-quick to be met by the thrill and horror of the deafening lightshow emanating from the dash of our own car, swiftly followed by a similar show viewed in the rearview mirror.
Multiple test runs showed a wifi adapter merely hooked on the rearview mirror with rubber bands via coax extention to a netbook in the passenger seat, gave me 5-10 seconds warning prior to my radar detector giving me notice. The crazy thing was, occasionally i got Over The Horizon reception at sometimes unbelievable ranges.
It became a rather intensive hobby for a while.
Anyhoo, something to think about
it started out just driving around trying to find good wifi signals, cause i am cheap, and generally privacy oriented, and noticing the router names, some with interesting patterns. NC LE was just getting rolling hooking up in car networks. I first noticed it with NCSHP and, living in raleigh at the time, RPD soon had virtually everything that rolled set up. Small town PDs not so much, but last time i bothered sniffing at all was prob 5 years ago, but even then the local NCWRC boys had em. I can only imagine what its like now.
verizon/novatel mifi cards were quite popular, with a handful of others and you could set the program to audible alert on things like specific mfg, which quite luckily the ones i was interested in were not broadcasting a widely used mfg like huiwei or lyncsys etc. all networks were locked of course, which was fine with me, but my lord were they detectable. i might get 2% signal strength on the first hit, but it gave me all the specifics from that, and at 80mph and distances as high as a mile range, frankly i thought i was in heaven.
On long stretches of Hwy 64 outside of Raleigh where speed traps were well suited, you would have sections of gently rolling highway, that was dead straight, 4 lane and lightly used, begging to be driven at least 150% the speed limit. The troopers knew this, would be in the median at the bottom of one of these gentle rolls, setting up for an easy short range shot. Troopers tend to to be the most dangerous of hunters, keeping their radar guns quiet, waiting til they can see the whites of our eyes, and then manually triggering the radar gun. Being quite aware of LOS signal travel, if the trough was deep enough, there was little to worry about just leaving it on, wide open. They were aware that those suckers with radar detectors would hear narry a peep until we... um they would pop over the crest, catching a little air and a kiss-me-quick to be met by the thrill and horror of the deafening lightshow emanating from the dash of our own car, swiftly followed by a similar show viewed in the rearview mirror.
Multiple test runs showed a wifi adapter merely hooked on the rearview mirror with rubber bands via coax extention to a netbook in the passenger seat, gave me 5-10 seconds warning prior to my radar detector giving me notice. The crazy thing was, occasionally i got Over The Horizon reception at sometimes unbelievable ranges.
It became a rather intensive hobby for a while.
Anyhoo, something to think about
