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How to Jam a Worldwide Satellite TV Broadcast

An anonymous reader submits: "According to an MSNBC article, 'it's simply a matter of aiming a strong signal at the uplink transponder on the satellite and overwhelming the...broadcaster's signals...You need a dish, some power, not too much. You put up a test pattern ... and do a sweep and find the transponder on the satellite you want to jam. It could even be smaller than the standard 6-meter dish. It could be a small dish with a lot of power.' This was apparently how an Iranian satellite television station was knocked off of Loral Skynet's TelStar-12 a few days ago. Loral contacted TLS, a company which specializes in satellite broadcast security, who quickly located the source of the jamming to Cuba."

24 of 326 comments (clear)

  1. Wow, a Denial of Service attack by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    How original. I hope someone doesn't try that on the internet.

    1. Re:Wow, a Denial of Service attack by Anonym0us+Cow+Herd · · Score: 2, Funny

      What if they only DOSed the satellite during the commercials?

      Replace obnoxious commercials with something less irritating, such as Cowboy Neal running around naked.

      --
      The price of freedom is eternal litigation.
  2. Cuba, eh? by DoorFrame · · Score: 4, Funny

    I know how to solve this problem... SANCTIONS! That'll show 'em.

    1. Re:Cuba, eh? by Rolo+Tomasi · · Score: 2, Funny

      The hawks in congress must be pretty confused ... Cubans vs. Iranians - whom are we going to send the military aid?

      --
      Did you know you can fertilize your lawn with used motor oil?
  3. Noooo! by deman1985 · · Score: 3, Funny

    This information can't leak out! We'll be subjected to Mystery Science Theatre 24/7! God save us all!

  4. Obligatory Simpsons Quote. by sweeney37 · · Score: 4, Funny

    "And may God help you if that thing carried the Spice Channel."

    -Moe Syzlak

  5. timothy == good, michael == bad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Taco... fire michael, promote timothy, and then take a sabbatical and let someone else run the show for a while, until you get some passion for the job and stop hating the readers so much.

    Thank you.

    Regards,

    Hank Kingsley

  6. Dangerous by Flamed+to+a+Crisp · · Score: 5, Funny

    This could get very very dangerous. Imagine if some terrorists got ahold of a dish (not very hard these days) and knocked out some vital communication systems. Chaos! Our only hope is that since the instructions have been Slashdotted, the terrorists can't get through.

    --
    It's... News for Nerds! Stuff that Matters! La-de-da-de-da-DE-da!
  7. MSNBC giving out hacking instructions?? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Funny, the other divisions of MS seem to think it's some kind of horrible, immoral, illegal thing when you describe how to hack hardware. What happened to "very committed to respect for others' intellectual property and we request the same respect applied to our innovations"?

  8. In other news.... by mrpuffypants · · Score: 4, Funny

    In other news, DirecTV was knocked off the air permanently for unexplained reasons today.

    Comcast, AOL/TW, and Cox all declined to comment.

  9. Aw ah...Uh huh! by da3dAlus · · Score: 3, Funny

    "Not if we JAM IT!"
    "Ah ha!"
    "Down scope."
    "Down scope!"
    "Radar...about to be...JAMMED!"

    --

    Sometimes I doubt your commitment to Sparkle Motion.
  10. Logistically hard by gilesjuk · · Score: 3, Funny

    You need a huge knife and gallons of jam.

    1. Re:Logistically hard by SuiteSisterMary · · Score: 2, Funny

      Sir, the radar, sir...it's being..jammed.

      *lick*

      Raspberry! I hate raspberry! There's only one man who'd DARE give me the raspberry....LONE STAR!

      --
      Vintage computer games and RPG books available. Email me if you're interested.
  11. Hah! That's nothing. by Talisman · · Score: 4, Funny

    I work as a communications officer aboard a ship. We pulled into Cape Town on day 1 of the World Cricket Championships. One of the games was being broadcast nearby, until our active radar filled the air with distortion.

    The second the gangway hit the deck, two sweaty, panicked cameramen came charging up, asking to speak to me. I was already at the gangway because I needed to meet a technician.

    "You have to turn off your radar! We're broadcasting the World Cricket Chapmionships LIVE AND YOU KILLED OUR SIGNAL!"

    Me: "Oh. Who's playing?"

    Them: "Pakistan and Bangladesh."

    Me: "Pakistan, eh? Yeah, I'll turn it off ASAP."

    And 20 minutes later, I did ;)

    For any of you gusy that were watching that game, sorry.

    Kinda ;)

    Tal

    --

    "Study your math, kids. Key to the universe." -The Archangel Gabriel
  12. Mandatory T3 joke. by tcc · · Score: 1, Funny

    > Iranian satellite television station was knocked off of Loral Skynet's TelStar-12

    And so it begins... Skynet has become self-aware... and picked a country that supposedly has loads of WMD and terrorists. Guess even AI can be fooled :)

    --
    --- Metamoderating abusive downgraders since my 300th post.
  13. DMCA Violation!! by heli0 · · Score: 4, Funny

    How to Jam a Worldwide Satellite TV Broadcast

    "According to an MSNBC article, 'it's simply a matter of aiming a strong signal at the uplink transponder on the satellite and overwhelming the...broadcaster's signals...You need a dish, some power, not too much. You put up a test pattern ... and do a sweep and find the transponder on the satellite you want to jam'."

    So who from Microsoft or General Electric is going to prison for this DMCA violation?

    --
    Whenever the offence inspires less horror than the punishment, the rigour of penal law is obliged to give way...
  14. Signal Replacement by HeX86 · · Score: 2, Funny

    C'mon, lets get creative, instead of blocking out boring TV, lets replace it with eppisodes of Mystery Science Theater 3000 or something.

    Think creative!e

  15. Re:The tricky thing is.... by heli0 · · Score: 5, Funny

    The international enforcement arm of the FCC is the DOD.

    --
    Whenever the offence inspires less horror than the punishment, the rigour of penal law is obliged to give way...
  16. Re:Hah! That's nothing. by dr3vil · · Score: 3, Funny

    No problem. In any given twenty minutes of a cricket game, the chances that anything actually happened are pretty low.

  17. Re:The tricky thing is.... by usotsuki · · Score: 4, Funny

    And the international enforcement arm of /. is the DoS.

    -uso.

    --
    Dreams, dreams, don't doubt dreams, dreaming children's dreaming dreams. Sailor Moon SS
  18. Double Whammy by MochaMan · · Score: 4, Funny

    Bad day for NITV... first their satellite gets jammed, and then we slashdot their site.

  19. Re:Hah! That's nothing. by Talisman · · Score: 2, Funny

    And if I was in the military, you might have had a point.

    --

    "Study your math, kids. Key to the universe." -The Archangel Gabriel
  20. Test pattern? How quaint. by graybeard · · Score: 2, Funny

    Once upon a time, the announcer would announce, "This is the end of our broadcast day. Please rejoin WWWW at 6AM." Perhaps this announcement followed an inspirational moment from the Reverent Billy Bob Cross, or the Navy Hymn, or the Star-Spangled Banner, complete with fly-over. If one were lucky, one had just seen the Late Movie, or the Late-Late Movie. Now, it Infomercials as far as the eye can see.

  21. Gyro Stabalised by Porag_Spliffing · · Score: 2, Funny

    I Sail on a rather small boat with sat comms using a gyro stabalised dish in a little dome. If you take the dome off it is some fun to watch the thing stay pointed while the boat pitches and rolls every which way (as long as you do not suffer from seasickness*). It does a fantastic job of keeping a (two way) signal even in rather rough weather.

    * Watching the dish track is not the problem, getting the bloody dome on and off in bad weather is sure to send you for the leeward rail

    --
    Maybe you live in interesting times