Military jamming of GPS in Scotland suspended…

Jamming of global positioning signals (GPS) during Europe’s largest military exercise has been suspended, following complaints from fishermen. The Royal Navy issued warnings in September and October that GPS in parts of Scotland would be disrupted during Exercise Joint Warrior.

RF jammer project at Electric Jet Interactive @ The Adafruit Jobs Board…

I’m an open source software developer and consultant by trade but I’m currently working on behalf of a well-funded group that wishes to develop and prototype a vehicle-mounted RF jammer similar to this… but with some significantly different requirements and applications (more details available after initial contact.)

Our immediate needs are two-fold:

1. Initial consulting — discuss feasibility of our approach, provide solid advice on other approaches we may not have considered. Expert level knowledge of RF jamming technology required.

2. Prototype development — if feasible, they’d like to move directly into prototype development with the end-goal of creating a working model that could be used in a controlled demo.

If this sounds interesting and you’ve got the right skill set please apply online and we will follow up directly. Compensation is generous and will be based on your expectations and experience. We anticipate an hourly rate for initial consulting, followed by a fixed price contract for prototype development (but we’re open to options).

NOTE: If you are not a maker/prototype builder but can provide expertise and guide us through a prototype phase that would be fine.

READ MORE.

Jammers saving lives…

The Navy sent to Iraq hundreds of electronic warfare specialists, to bring the cacophony produced by 14 kinds of jammers into some sort of harmony. Protocols were established, to allow one device to send its signal and then go silent for a few milliseconds, so another gadget could broadcast; that allowed Warlock Red and Warlock Green to be packaged into a single, combination unit…The intelligence specialists at the Combined Explosive Exploitation Cells got faster and faster at analyzing which frequencies the insurgents were using. That, in turn, allowed the jammers to be updated more quickly, so they could counter emerging threats.

Giant article, tons of interesting info…

Cute cell phone jammer via DVICE.

There are a lot of “interesting” questions about the government putting a tracking on a car (please discuss that elsewhere) – we’re more interested in the hardware used, check it out!

A California student got a visit from the FBI this week after he found a secret GPS tracking device on his car, and a friend posted photos of it online... It took just 48 hours to find out: The device was real, the student was being secretly tracked and the FBI wanted their expensive device back, the student told Wired.com in an interview Wednesday.

…A reader quickly identified it as an Orion Guardian ST820 tracking device made by an electronics company called Cobham, which sells the device only to law enforcement.

The former agent, who asked not to be named, said the device was an older model of tracking equipment that had long ago been replaced by devices that don’t require batteries. Batteries die and need to be replaced if surveillance is ongoing so newer devices are placed in the engine compartment and hardwired to the car’s battery so they don’t run out of juice. He was surprised this one was so easily found.
“It has to be able to be removed but also stay in place and not be seen,” he said. “There’s always the possibility that the car will end up at a body shop or auto mechanic, so it has to be hidden well. It’s very rare when the guys find them.”

Interesting article in TIME magazine (kid version) –

Government agents can sneak onto your property in the middle of the night, put a GPS device on the bottom of your car and keep track of everywhere you go. This doesn’t violate your Fourth Amendment rights, because you do not have any reasonable expectation of privacy in your own driveway — and no reasonable expectation that the government isn’t tracking your movements.

That is the bizarre — and scary — rule that now applies in California and eight other Western states. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which covers this vast jurisdiction, recently decided the government can monitor you in this way virtually anytime it wants — with no need for a search warrant.

It is a dangerous decision — one that, as the dissenting judges warned, could turn America into the sort of totalitarian state imagined by George Orwell. It is particularly offensive because the judges added insult to injury with some shocking class bias: the little personal privacy that still exists, the court suggested, should belong mainly to the rich.

…Chief Judge Alex Kozinski, who dissented from this month’s decision refusing to reconsider the case, pointed out whose homes are not open to strangers: rich people’s. The court’s ruling, he said, means that people who protect their homes with electric gates, fences and security booths have a large protected zone of privacy around their homes. People who cannot afford such barriers have to put up with the government sneaking around at night.

We think this will also increase the GPS jammer market (above google search) – and perhaps some will just build their own.

Dale was on NBC’s Press:Here talking about the upcoming Maker Faire Bay Area, MAKE magazine, the maker movement in general and its larger import. (Dale in a suit — worth the price of admission.) – Press:Here.

On a related note, a big congrats to MAKE & Make: television – nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award! It’s in the Outstanding Lifestyle Program category, up against This Old House, Martha Stewart Show and others, more here – (above video of Ladyada from the Make: television series).”Ladyada Wavebubble”

Equipment that jams cell phones will get its first federally sanctioned test inside a prison in Maryland this week, as state officials try to show Congress how the technology can prevent inmates from using the contraband devices to commit crimes, a governor’s spokesman said Tuesday.

The state wants to show the equipment can be used without interfering with emergency response and legitimate signals outside the prison perimeter, said Shaun Adamec, Gov. Martin O’Malley’s spokesman.

The Federal
Communication Commission can only allow federal agencies — not state or local authorities — permission to jam cell phone signals. But a bill that passed the Senate and awaits action by the House would allow states to petition the FCC to block the use of cell phones from prisons.

Previous:

Schools wanted to spend a lot of $$ on jammers and now jammers may be legal soon… in prison….

The nation’s prisons are one big step closer Wednesday to being allowed to jam mobile phone signals to keep prisoners from using the phones to commit further crimes, despite strong opposition from digital rights groups that say there are better ways to fight the problem.

The bill — passed by a bi-partisan vote in the Senate Commerce committee — would create the first ever exception to the FCC’s ban on jamming devices.

The measure could be voted on by the full Senate as soon as early as this, before it takes its August break, according to Texas Republican Kay Bailey Hutchinson, the bill’s primary sponsor who is also running for Texas governor.

Randy Cohen

New York Times’ “ethical advice” columnist Randy Cohen gives his take on RF jammers (like, say, Wave Bubble) in NYT Magazine:

The Ethicist
The Phone Ranger

By RANDY COHEN
Published: March 4, 2007

Each day people are more brazen and rude with their cellphones. My husband bought a device that can block the signals of cellphone users who annoy him, although he knows such gizmos are illegal. Isn’t his vigilante behavior worse than that of the rudest cell user? — Name Withheld, Connecticut

Your husband may not stifle someone’s behavior merely because he deems it annoying. So capricious a standard would mean constant peril for people who talk baby-talk to their excessively small dogs. Living among other people requires us to tolerate conduct we find vexing.

Or so my head tells me. But my heart says, Your husband is a hero, an acoustic Robin Hood who robs from the rude and gives blessed silence to the poor in spirit.

I propose these guidelines: If someone is yammering into a cellphone on the pavement and you don’t like it, walk away. It is open public space, and opinions vary about its use. Some people place a lower value on quiet than on prattling about what they saw on TV last night. (An immutable law of nature: The louder the phone voice, the duller the conversation.)

But if someone is using a cellphone in a closed space — on a commuter train, in a restaurant — from which you cannot escape, let the jamming begin. We properly limit our freedom when we harm others. It is the cellphoner’s jabbering that prevents you from reading your book or thinking your thoughts, not the other way around.

Those who control shared closed spaces — a theater, a physician’s waiting room — should jam and disclose. Post a sign that says “No Cellphone Service” so people know what they’re getting into. Anyone anticipating an urgent call can ask to use the land line. For decades, doctors on call did just that, and we all survived. Sadly, this solution — ethical, courteous and humane — is frowned on by the F.C.C., but tell your husband I’ll visit him every week in jail.

Handheld 2.4 GHz Spectrum Analyzer via HaD – Miguel writes:

After visiting some web pages about 2.4 GHz ISM band spectrum analyzers based on the CYWM6935 module, I tried to build my own analyzer, but with some improvements. The references I found on the net used the parallel port or a serial link to a host computer. I want the analyzer to be portable, and easy to transport, so I will use a microcontroller and a graphical LCD. I had also some old Nokia phones, so maybe I can use phone plastic box and build in LCD to make my own portable analyzer, but… Does it can be done? Let’s see…

Awesome.

You will receive the Designs (Plans) for this RF Jammer in Electronic form. The Listing picture is for showing how the RF jammer looks like. This listing is only for the Design of the RF Jammer, it does not include the Device itself!!! You will receive RF Jammer Designs upon Payment. The Designs will be delivered to you on CD by Priority Mail.

A CD!

The nation’s prisons are one big step closer Wednesday to being allowed to jam mobile phone signals to keep prisoners from using the phones to commit further crimes, despite strong opposition from digital rights groups that say there are better ways to fight the problem.

The bill — passed by a bi-partisan vote in the Senate Commerce committee — would create the first ever exception to the FCC’s ban on jamming devices.

The measure could be voted on by the full Senate as soon as early as this, before it takes its August break, according to Texas Republican Kay Bailey Hutchinson, the bill’s primary sponsor who is also running for Texas governor.

Ooh, yeah! All right!
We’re jammin‘:
I wanna jam it wid you.
We’re jammin’, jammin’,
And I hope you like jammin’, too.

Ain’t no rules, ain’t no vow, we can do it anyhow:
I’n'I will see you through,
‘Cos everyday we pay the price with a little sacrifice,
Jammin’ till the jam is through

ST. ANSGAR, Iowa (AP) – School officials in St. Ansgar in northeast Iowa are considering buying equipment to jam cell phone signals if they can do so legally.

New York Times’ “ethical advice” columnist Randy Cohen gives his take on RF jammers (like, say, Wave Bubble) in this week’s NYT Magazine:

The Ethicist
The Phone Ranger

By RANDY COHEN
Published: March 4, 2007

Each day people are more brazen and rude with their cellphones. My husband bought a device that can block the signals of cellphone users who annoy him, although he knows such gizmos are illegal. Isn’t his vigilante behavior worse than that of the rudest cell user? — Name Withheld, Connecticut

Your husband may not stifle someone’s behavior merely because he deems it annoying. So capricious a standard would mean constant peril for people who talk baby-talk to their excessively small dogs. Living among other people requires us to tolerate conduct we find vexing.

Or so my head tells me. But my heart says, Your husband is a hero, an acoustic Robin Hood who robs from the rude and gives blessed silence to the poor in spirit.

I propose these guidelines: If someone is yammering into a cellphone on the pavement and you don’t like it, walk away. It is open public space, and opinions vary about its use. Some people place a lower value on quiet than on prattling about what they saw on TV last night. (An immutable law of nature: The louder the phone voice, the duller the conversation.)

But if someone is using a cellphone in a closed space — on a commuter train, in a restaurant — from which you cannot escape, let the jamming begin. We properly limit our freedom when we harm others. It is the cellphoner’s jabbering that prevents you from reading your book or thinking your thoughts, not the other way around.

Those who control shared closed spaces — a theater, a physician’s waiting room — should jam and disclose. Post a sign that says “No Cellphone Service” so people know what they’re getting into. Anyone anticipating an urgent call can ask to use the land line. For decades, doctors on call did just that, and we all survived. Sadly, this solution — ethical, courteous and humane — is frowned on by the F.C.C., but tell your husband I’ll visit him every week in jail.

I jammed Santa’s GPS so he couldn’t find his way to your house.

“In a high-population-density city, inhabitants must be prepared to defend their own personal space. Technologies that increase personal productivity are on the rise, even though they may intrude on others. The unavoidable reaction is to create technologies that counteract other people’s devices. Wave Bubble is a product that counters the all-too-familiar annoyance of loud ring tones and overt cell-phone conversations in public.“

Part of the “Social Defense Mechanisms” projects designed for my MEng thesis.

Wave Bubble was developed under support by EYEBEAM during my R&D fellowship at the Open Lab, thanks!

At HOPE I got to look at a cell-phone jammer owned by a friend. This one is interesting because 1) its extremely well designed 2) it’s very small and 3) it actually has a PLL instead of just being open-loop controlled. The entire package fits into a pack of cigarettes.

(For more disassembly photos & comments…)

The design is made of 3 PCBs bolted together.

The silkscreened cover is also the microstripline antenna for the two VCOs

The battery is a large LiIon, there’s a protection circuit that looks like it was removed from something else and soldered on. And a somewhat questionable LM317 charger. I’d only trust a 317 for a lead acid, but I guess if you’ve got a protection circuit the worst is just that you’ll reduce the battery life

I didn’t get too much time with it so I just took photos of the disassembly. Looks like there’s some boost converters, 2 PLLs (16-TSSOP parts), a micro to control them, and the VCOs. A very nice design! And I like the idea fitting it into a cigarette pack.