2 April 2003
To: tscm-l@yahoogroups.com From: "Steve Uhrig" <steve@swssec.com> Date: Wed, 02 Apr 2003 12:46:53 -0500 Subject: [TSCM-L] Re: legal question On 2 Apr 2003 at 8:33, Andre Holmes wrote: > ===== I have rolled up on a Police covert operation and I had with me > a Icom R2 in full scan. > ===== The Icom R2 locked on 434 MHz with 5 KHz spacing, I was approx > 400 ft from the target area in a vehicle. > ===== I noticed that they were using a 434 MHz wireless camera > with the undercover agent in a lighted area to compensate for lux. 40 > ft away was the recording team, it was great to see it all in real > time and pick off the wireless camera at the same time so if you are > within the radius of a real bug you should have no problem locking on > the signal. Well, Andre, you stumbled onto an illegal surveillance operation. In the U.S., 434 megacycles is ILLEGAL to use for surveillance. That frequency is an amateur radio (ham radio) frequency, legal ONLY for hobby operation. No local, state or federal agency can use it for surveillance. Federal agencies MUST get an IRAC coordination to use anything other than frequencies licensed to them. IRAC *will not* coordinate any amateur frequencies for law enforcement surveillance. So, whomever the LE agency was surveilling, their evidence is no good because it was gathered illegally. If things ever go to court, and the defense attorney is sharp enough, that evidence and anything subsequent will be thrown out. Doesn't matter that the spy shops sell stuff there. It's cheap and easy to relabel inexpensive ham radio equipment and sell it illegally at inflated prices to naive agencies. To use anything on amateur frequencies, you must have a ham radio license of the proper class for that frequency, be engaged in two way communication, identify with your ham callsign every ten minutes, and commercial uses are forbidden. It is impossible for a law enforcement agency to meet these criteria in surveillance. There is an exception for 434 and other frequencies to be used for low power data transmissions, like car alarm remote controls, but the field strength limits restrict range to a very short distance. Effective power out for a legal data device on 434 is less than one milliwatt, although it is not measured that way. And that is for data only, not video or voice or anything. Another problem with using amateur frequecies is that many hams spend all their waking hours listening for weak signals all around the bands. The probability for intercept is very high. And, many amateur frequencies are used as inputs to repeaters. 434 megacycles is the input to one of the amateur repeaters in the LA basin. Transmit there and you'll be sharing your signals with thousands of hobbyists over several hundred square miles. It's happened, and the hams have had to DF 'surveillance' transmitters used to monitor a parking lot. In two different cases I've had, one LE agency using spy shop stuff got into the TV system in a hotel where they were working, and anyone on the proper channel in any hotel room could watch the surveillance in another room in the hotel. In another, at El Dorado airport in Bogota, the military was using some wireless video purchased from a spy shop and got into the video system of the entire airport. Their surveillance was seen on many many video monitors throughout the airport, for the few minutes before they discovered it and shut it down. With equipment most of us would have, it would be extremely difficult to intercept a properly done LE video surveillance. Virtually all of it is at microwave, you need to be in the path or very close, and more and more of it is being encrypted. So, in a different way, you uncovered an illegal surveillance. Steve ******************************************************************* Steve Uhrig, SWS Security, Maryland (USA) Mfrs of electronic surveillance equip mailto:Steve@swssec.com website http://www.swssec.com tel +1+410-879-4035, fax +1+410-836-1190 "In God we trust, all others we monitor" ******************************************************************* ======================================================== TSCM-L Technical Security Mailing List "In a multitude of counselors there is strength" To subscribe to the TSCM-L mailing list visit: http://www.yahoogroups.com/community/TSCM-L It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion. It is by the juice of Star Bucks that thoughts acquire speed, the hands acquire shaking, the shaking is a warning. It is by caffeine alone I set my mind in motion. =================================================== TSKS