FC: More on bin Laden's radio communications system, clarifications

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

Previous message:

"Details on bin Laden's radio communications system"
http://www.politechbot.com/p-02932.html

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Date: Mon, 17 Dec 2001 14:07:09 -0500
To: declan () well com
From: e cummings <bernies () netaxs com>
Subject: Re: FC: Details on bin Laden's radio communications system
In-Reply-To: <5.1.0.14.0.20011216130939.00a83a30 () mail well com>

declan,

there are several technical inaccuracies and no real information about " 
bin Laden's radio communications system" in the information you were sent 
and forwarded to the list.  in the interest of promulgating accurate 
information, please note the following:

there is no such thing as a "high power HF SSB handset."  any handheld unit 
would necessarily be low power (5 Watts or less) or it would drain the 
batteries in a few seconds or minutes.

CODAN HF radios are not addressable, although they can be optionally 
equipped to be and used in that manner a user-selectable basis.  in nearly 
all cases, HF (high-frequency, 3-30mhz) radios are not like cellular phones 
or network interface cards which do transmit unique identifiers along with 
their signals.

it is laughable to assume that afghans, taleban, or others using radios 
stolen from UN personnel would use UN callsigns, or bother with using 
callsigns at all.  they might use some code names to differentiate 
themselves, but certainly not UN callsigns.  if they wanted to try to 
confuse listeners, they could use any two-way radios and callsigns they 
wanted to.

HF radios with voice encryption are readily available on the commercial 
market from two-way companies like motorola, racal, etc.  it's a question 
of bandwidth: if you're only using a 5khz voice channel it's not possible, 
but if you're using wider bandwidth spread-spectrum HF, then it is possible 
and often used by US military.  it's not likely the taleban uses these, but 
it's a certainty the u.s. military there is.

5-bit "Baudot" code (more properly called Moore coding) was once popular 
for low data rate radioteletype (RTTY) data over HF channels, but it's 
rarely used anymore.

the two-way radio held by usama bin laden (seen in that frequently 
rebroadcast archive video) is a VHF transceiver that operates somewhere in 
the 30-300mhz range.  other handheld radios used by the taleban and 
"northern alliance" include those that operate somewhere in the 300-500mhz 
UHF spectrum.

it's certainty that u.s. forces have sophisticated radio direction-finding 
equipment in several locations in afghanistan that scan and record all 
radio activity in the region, including bearing (direction) data.  this 
gathered data is shared and triangulated for intelligence and targeting 
purposes: http://www.washtimes.com/national/20011215-68264047.htm

in addition to SIGINT from radio transmissions, US military has probably 
dropped thousands of small, ground-based sensors that detect and transmit 
vibration, noise, temperature and other data.  some of these are very 
sophisticated and network with each other.  some even use small lasers to 
transmit signals between each other and to ground, air, or space-based 
collection stations: http://cipherwar.com/news/00/smart_dust.htm

-ed




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