Slashdot Mirror
Dutch Radio Geek Tracking Libyan Airstrikes
jfruhlinger writes "The days when citizens could only learn about a distant war from the government or the institutional press are long over. A Dutch ex-military geek exemplifies the new way information comes out, tracking attack flights on Libya, and even tweeting messages to the US command responsible for the strikes."
Hitting his house in 3... 2... 1...
is what I call real geek!
Respect, meneer Huub!
The US military wants to "talk" this guy for his "spying".
Some bastard could come along and accuse him of unauthorized "retransmission" of "illegally" intercepted signals
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
- what *is* the ICAO airport code for the USS Barry?
Give a man a fish and you have fed him for today. Teach a man to fish, and he'll say "WHERE'S MY FISH, YOU IDIOT?"
I was amazed at how little detail there was in the article. Its just, like all magic and stuff because he's so smart and experienced. And we're only going to use one syllable words here, because you're... not. What a Pulitzer of modern journalism, almost worth catching a fish so I can wrap it.
Sounds a lot like a scanner guy with an ADS-B receiver, either homemade or purchased something like this:
http://www.radargadgets.com/.
Google for ADS-B and 1090 MHz and terms like that, you'll get the idea real quick of how he does it.
"Science flies us to the moon. Religion flies us into buildings." - Victor Stenger
And you idiots are out there believing the lies and defending this war as mindlessly as you did Iraq and Afghanistan. Shameful
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
I like how the article deems the craft a "Propaganda Plane", but then goes on to describe it's message, as a transmission on maritime frequencies saying: "If you attempt to leave port, you will be attacked and destroyed immediately”... I was expecting something more along the lines of "Qaddafi is sleeping with your camel"...
but I guess in the good-ole' euroweenie tradition of bashing anything American, "Propaganda plane" makes it sound more ominous and spooky, and makes the intent seem more underhanded
@USAfricaCommand be advised, one of your WEASEL's F-16CJ from 23th FS Spangdahlem Germany has his transponder Mode-S on! NOT secure!
Has the article's author ever heard of ham radio?
I've been able to track a lot of aircraft movements on Shortwave/HF radio from Ireland - and it's surprising just how much information still goes out over unencrypted links. Friday night, there was a marked increase in French AWACS and support aircraft activity - and then on Saturday other frequencies came alive with a whole host of NATO aircraft; for instance RAF Transports, Tankers, Surveillance, Strike and Fighter aircraft. Some aircraft discussed the targets they'd hit, the ordinance they had used and their current bearings and distance from Benghazi. There have been some intriguing transmissions - for instance aircraft operating at altitudes which are beyond their published service ceilings and voices co-ordinating movements from countries whose governments voiced opposition to the NFZ. Over the years frequency hopping and encryption have reduced the number of military transmissions to be read and understood on HF, but clearly there's still interesting ones out there. On a tangent - an Israeli Numbers Station , designated E10 and famous for lending the title to a Wilco album amongst other things, stopped transmitting on March 1st of this year - given the recent events in Egypt, it's interesting timing.
I've got news for Mr. Santayana: we're doomed to repeat the past no matter what. That's what it is to be alive.
I wonder if transmissions from the actual attackingaircraft can be received in the clear.
Set your phasers on "funky"!
@USAfricaCommand be advised, one of your WEASEL's F-16CJ from 23th FS Spangdahlem Germany has his transponder Mode-S on! NOT secure!
That means the F-16 in question was transmitting both its altitude and GPS position for all to see. Then again, if its truly a wild weasel platform, that may be entirely its intent.
I fully support bombing the crap out Tito Jackson for his crimes against fashion.
why ALL aircraft transmissions (civilian or otherwise) aren't encrypted. ... we're only talking about a few hundred tons of metal flying through the air with thousands of gallons of jet fuel. What could possibly go wrong?
WHAT could go wrong? Let me tell you what could go wrong. There's a hundred tons of metal flying around. Its position is *secret* because some dumbfuck thought it would be better to encrypt all its transmissions.
Then comes uncle Bill in his Cessna. He doesn't know where the big passenger aircraft is, because its position is *secret*, since some dumbfuck though it necessary to encrypt all transmissions from the aircraft.
Do you begin to see now why aircraft transmissions *cannot* be encrypted?!!!
OK, I know your next argument; Imagine all aircraft transmissions are encrypted and all aircraft must have a receiver able to decode those transmissions. Only registered aircraft owners have access to the receivers, so what could possibly go wrong?
Think of the thousands of small airfields all over the world. Climb a fence, cut a padlock at night, pick a receiver. Or buy it from a salvage firm, grease some hands, whatever. It wouldn't stay secret very long (ask Sony about that).
doesn't the military know where the bombs are falling/aimed? if 'some guy' is tweekyleaking it, can't that throw a terrorist advantage into an already overly secret process? are investigative desponses in the works? austin powers was right about the dutch?
Dear Slashdot Editors:
I have informed CentCom that Slashdot is a Gaddafi operation.
I'll let the Slashdot editors come to their own conclusions.
FU,
Kilgore Trout
P.S.: Post some news instead of your usual CRAP !
The news media wasn't particularly helpful with geographic details either before the airstrikes or after. Their maps are very generalized and sometimes erroneous or omit important sites. The media would say "battles in Ras Lanuf in eastern Libya", and there was a poor sense of where exactly that was or how far it was from Benghazi (how long would it take Ghaddafi's forces to drive from there to Benghazi, for example?). And where exactly are the airfields and military bases that were either the source of Ghaddafi's attacks or the places being attacked by the local people?
So, in frustration, I spent a weekend finding all the visible airfields, military bases, surface-to-air missile, oil pipeline/storage tank/refinery/oil port infrastructure, etc. that I could spot in the Google Earth imagery. The Google Earth program is best for hunting, but Google Maps can show some of the results. For example, here's a SAM site to the south of Tripoli airport, here's a SAM site in Tripoli itself. These seem to be two different types of missile setups, with missiles visible on the second one, but hidden in sheds in the first picture. Here's Mitiga air base in Tripoli. If you look in the SE corner you can see MIGs parked on the ground. There are also some helicopters, including some big, twin-blade Chinooks. Here's a big ammo/weapons dump in the SE of the city. Here's the ammo/weapons dump south of Adjdabiya that the Ghaddafi forces bombed a few times to try to prevent the rebels from getting the stores there. Notice the difference in color of the ground -- the security fences keep the grazing wildlife out, so there are more plants inside the fence == darker. An easy way to spot the secure fenced-in areas even if you can't see the fence itself. Practically every major city has military bases of some size (usually high security fences with guard towers) where you can see APCs parked, or occasionally tanks and tank transporters and other heavy weapons. Even if you can't see them out in the open air you can often recognize the warehouses that have this sort of equipment because of the security fences and the very WIDE turns in the roads around the buildings. The various military airbases around the country (at least 8 or 10 of them) often have the planes hidden in earth-covered bunkers, but this centrally-located base near Hun has plenty of visible aircraft, including ones recognizable as Tu-22 bombers and MiG-25 fighters. This large airbase south of Sirte has quite a few small fighters visible in addition to transport aircraft on the big tarmacs.
Besides military assets, there are other types of infrastructure that are important, such as this large storage tank area to the SW of the Ras Lanuf oil port/refinery, where several pipelines converge. There are several storage/port areas like this at coastal points along the southern end of the Bay of Sirte. The oil fields them
you may only see this on radiation 'free' /.. the holycost is rising by the minute, so at movingrightalong.pr they're pushing both the forward & backward prospects of the 'adjustment. as for april's fools days; there's no money, & no current excess of humor to fret about with that one. so, we're going with the advance bunny day, with full approval of all the deities.
there are also plans to suspend the fake weather program, & the exploding everything holycost, for that one day, so get out there & buy some stuff. no need to be afraid, as this might be an approved/survivable festival. then, if jesus HAS TO (last resort, as we are not currently a popular 'destination') show up on his death/rebirth day, there'll be no conflict?
Sure tweeting is all cute and everything, but soon we will start getting YouTube videos of "Cruise Missile FAIL".... Then the inevitable "fake." comments.
I've been enjoying his tweets as well as MilcomMP. I live kinda under one approach into McGuire AFB so a few times a year I get to see America's military build-up up close and personal. I have to admit it was creepy seeing a C-17 Globemaster III take a low approach into McGuire only to then see one of them pop up over the Mediterranean about 36 hours later. I was passing the AFB a couple times a day in the early post-9/11 days and those (huge!) planes were in and out of there at all times. I am a 20+ year scanner nerd and ham radio geek, so I have been known to sit under an airport's flight path running an ACARS decoder. It is pretty cool watching a private jet shoot by overhead, put out a burst over ACARS and see their flight plan pop up on my laptop, complete with pictures of the jet courtesy of airliners.net. Good times for radio geeks. The big bummer about not having real conflict in my hemisphere is missing out on the good radio traffic this guy is hearing. I have to think detecting Tornadoes in the area and running outside to see them in the sky must be pretty cool.. well, at least once.
What's flying really high and who is involved?
http://twitter.com/FMCNL -- for anyone else who just wanted to see the twitter feed.
We also posted a little blog entry about this story @ http://blog.operationreality.org/?p=1808 Hope you enjoy! Feel free to drop us any feedback you may have.
Leads to an article, about an article, about an article that links to: http://twitter.com/FMCNL
It took me three websites to get to the guy's twitter, which is the focus of the story.
Watch this and know the true: youtube.com/watch?v=xUDTRfbs-oM + "3 Ways Of USA To Overturn a Dictatorship"
Recipes for USA bankrupt - http://tinypaste.com/0d66f dd = dollar deluge (printed in the infinity)