WEBVTT - Jamming the Signal 0:00:04.480 --> 0:00:12.399 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 0:00:12.440 --> 0:00:16.000 and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland. 0:00:16.040 --> 0:00:19.159 I'm an executive producer with iHeart Podcasts, and how the 0:00:19.239 --> 0:00:23.320 tech are you? You know, there's this classic scene in 0:00:23.400 --> 0:00:27.640 Mel Brooks's documentary film space Balls, in which a radar 0:00:27.760 --> 0:00:32.000 operator aboard the bad Guy's spaceship announces that he has 0:00:32.080 --> 0:00:36.400 lost the bleeps, the sweeps, and the creeps. Why because 0:00:36.440 --> 0:00:40.919 the radar has been jammed Raspberry jam to be specific, 0:00:40.920 --> 0:00:43.520 and there's only one man who would Dare give Darth 0:00:43.600 --> 0:00:46.800 Helmet the Raspberry. But I'm ARII getting sidetracked. I thought 0:00:46.840 --> 0:00:50.239 I would do a short episode about signal jamming and 0:00:50.280 --> 0:00:54.520 signal intrusion and broadly how it works, maybe a few 0:00:54.560 --> 0:00:57.800 interesting examples. So let's get the bare basics out of 0:00:57.840 --> 0:01:01.600 the way, because it's actually really simple. Signal jamming occurs 0:01:01.600 --> 0:01:04.920 when someone uses a transmitter to send out signals over 0:01:05.120 --> 0:01:09.680 certain radio frequencies at a strength powerful enough to interfere 0:01:09.800 --> 0:01:13.560 or overwhelm communications equipment in the area. We can use 0:01:13.600 --> 0:01:16.160 an analogy here. It's kind of like trying to have 0:01:16.200 --> 0:01:20.240 a conversation with someone in a really loud environment. Like 0:01:20.480 --> 0:01:23.080 let's say it's a really loud party and you're just 0:01:23.120 --> 0:01:26.320 trying to chat with somebody, and every time you or 0:01:26.360 --> 0:01:29.000 your friend talks, the noise in the space just gets 0:01:29.120 --> 0:01:32.240 louder and you can't hear one another. There's too much 0:01:32.480 --> 0:01:35.720 noise not enough signal. That's essentially what's going on with 0:01:35.840 --> 0:01:41.160 signal jamming, except we're talking about electromagnetic or specifically radio signals. 0:01:41.280 --> 0:01:45.600 No raspberries are involved, sadly. Now, let's really get stuck 0:01:45.640 --> 0:01:49.400 in by talking quickly about the origins of radio, simply 0:01:49.440 --> 0:01:51.400 so that we can kind of have a working understanding 0:01:51.520 --> 0:01:53.920 what's going on here. So the full story of the 0:01:54.000 --> 0:01:57.160 history of radio is a really long, complicated one, with 0:01:57.200 --> 0:02:01.600 lots of important scientists and engineers who made discoveries that 0:02:01.680 --> 0:02:05.200 led up to our ability to make radio transmitters and 0:02:05.240 --> 0:02:07.800 receivers and that kind of stuff. I'm not going to 0:02:07.880 --> 0:02:11.519 do the full rundown. I've done it before in other episodes, 0:02:11.680 --> 0:02:14.760 but here's just sort of like the highlights. So James 0:02:14.760 --> 0:02:18.400 Clerk Maxwell's first stop in the mid nineteenth century. Like 0:02:18.440 --> 0:02:22.680 the eighteen sixties, Maxwell proposed a hypothesis that later developed 0:02:22.680 --> 0:02:26.440 into the theory of electromagnetism. He believed that with an 0:02:26.440 --> 0:02:30.920 oscillating electric or magnetic field, one could generate electromagnetic waves 0:02:30.960 --> 0:02:34.480 that are capable of traveling outward from the source through space. 0:02:34.880 --> 0:02:37.760 You didn't need wires or any other kind of connection. 0:02:38.520 --> 0:02:42.160 You could just beam this energy, which was a pretty 0:02:42.240 --> 0:02:44.359 radical idea at the time, but it was a radical 0:02:44.400 --> 0:02:47.320 idea that would turn out to be correct. So about 0:02:47.360 --> 0:02:53.520 twenty years after Maxwell had published his mathematical equations explaining electromagnetism, 0:02:53.720 --> 0:02:56.800 there was a German scientist named Heinrich Hertz, and he 0:02:56.880 --> 0:03:00.639 created an interesting setup to test the idea of these 0:03:00.680 --> 0:03:04.520 electromagnetic waves. Hertz created what ended up being a very 0:03:04.520 --> 0:03:09.519 simple radio transmitter. So he had a pair of metal 0:03:09.560 --> 0:03:13.000 plates that had these little metal balls extending from them, 0:03:13.200 --> 0:03:15.000 and he put the two metal balls so that they 0:03:15.040 --> 0:03:17.680 were close to each other, but not actually in contact 0:03:17.800 --> 0:03:20.359 with each other, so there was a gap between the 0:03:20.400 --> 0:03:24.959 two balls, and they connected to an oscillating power source, 0:03:25.000 --> 0:03:27.840 so alternating current. In other words, the current would go 0:03:28.080 --> 0:03:31.240 in one direction, then reverse and go the other direction, 0:03:31.480 --> 0:03:34.360 and would do this many times per second. So the 0:03:34.400 --> 0:03:37.720 power source meant since it was alternating, it meant that 0:03:37.760 --> 0:03:41.560 the polarity of the two balls was alternating too, and 0:03:41.960 --> 0:03:44.520 if you had a great enough difference in voltage between 0:03:44.560 --> 0:03:47.160 these two balls, it would induce a spark to jump 0:03:47.200 --> 0:03:49.160 from one ball to the other. It had to be 0:03:49.240 --> 0:03:52.119 a great voltage to do that. If it's too low voltage, 0:03:52.280 --> 0:03:54.840 then you get a charge build up, but it's not 0:03:55.040 --> 0:03:58.360 enough for the charge to discharge. Right now, the fact 0:03:58.360 --> 0:04:01.040 that it was an oscillating current that was going back 0:04:01.040 --> 0:04:04.520 and forth and reversing this polarity, in the words of 0:04:04.520 --> 0:04:07.680 star Trek, meant that the spark would actually oscillate too. 0:04:07.960 --> 0:04:09.960 They would go like from left to right and then 0:04:10.040 --> 0:04:11.960 right to left, and left right and right to left, 0:04:12.160 --> 0:04:15.640 so it was zapping back and forth. Next, Hertz set 0:04:15.720 --> 0:04:19.080 up a length of wire and at the end of 0:04:19.760 --> 0:04:22.040 each end of this length of wire he put another 0:04:22.320 --> 0:04:25.480 metal ball, and he bent the wire into a loop. 0:04:25.720 --> 0:04:28.240 And the two metal balls were close to each other, 0:04:28.279 --> 0:04:30.599 but still having a gap between them, but you know, 0:04:30.640 --> 0:04:33.040 they were on either end of this loop. He put 0:04:33.040 --> 0:04:37.440 this loop close to the oscillating power source where the 0:04:37.800 --> 0:04:41.520 balls were sparking, so again not in contact, but close 0:04:41.560 --> 0:04:45.240 to those first pair of balls, and this loop with 0:04:45.360 --> 0:04:47.520 the second pair of balls Once it got close enough, 0:04:47.839 --> 0:04:51.760 sparks started to go between those two balls too, so 0:04:52.320 --> 0:04:54.400 the balls which were not in contact with the power 0:04:54.440 --> 0:04:59.080 source were also sparking, and what Hurts had created was 0:04:59.200 --> 0:05:04.320 a simple spark gap transmitter. Hertz's experiment was the first 0:05:04.440 --> 0:05:08.159 radio transmission in history. Now, this kind of radio transmission 0:05:08.480 --> 0:05:12.520 covers a broad span of radio frequencies, right, This isn't 0:05:12.520 --> 0:05:16.000 something that was tuned to a particular band. It was 0:05:16.040 --> 0:05:19.600 just kind of blasting out a raw signal of noise 0:05:19.720 --> 0:05:24.839 across effectively the entire radio spectrum. Other folks like Marconi 0:05:25.080 --> 0:05:28.680 and Tesla would make improvements in Hurtz's basic design and 0:05:28.720 --> 0:05:32.279 allow for wireless signaling. But the early days of wireless 0:05:32.279 --> 0:05:36.640 communications were really primitive. You were broadcasting a very simple 0:05:36.760 --> 0:05:39.760 series of signals. Essentially, you were either blasting out noise 0:05:40.240 --> 0:05:43.120 or you weren't blasting out noise. So you can blast 0:05:43.120 --> 0:05:46.280 out noise in tight patterns, such as in Morse code, 0:05:46.520 --> 0:05:49.800 and then you could send meaningful communications. But that was 0:05:49.839 --> 0:05:53.320 about it. These broadcasts were also public, right, anyone who 0:05:53.400 --> 0:05:55.360 had a radio receiver would be able to pick up 0:05:55.400 --> 0:05:58.800 those transmissions. So wireless in the early days was not 0:05:58.880 --> 0:06:02.000 suitable for any sort of communication of a sensitive nature, 0:06:02.120 --> 0:06:06.479 because anyone with a radio receiver who was within transmission 0:06:06.600 --> 0:06:09.240 range would be able to hear the message. One smarty 0:06:09.320 --> 0:06:12.720 pants who worked on this problem was Sir Oliver Lodge. 0:06:12.800 --> 0:06:15.400 Now I should probably do a full episode about him 0:06:15.400 --> 0:06:18.440 at some point because he was a really quirky dude. 0:06:18.800 --> 0:06:21.240 So on the one hand, he was pushing back the 0:06:21.240 --> 0:06:25.840 boundaries of ignorance, right he was exploring radio and a 0:06:25.920 --> 0:06:28.880 time when we were just starting to get a handle 0:06:28.920 --> 0:06:31.200 on it. But on the other hand, he was also 0:06:31.279 --> 0:06:34.400 a believer in the paranormal. He was a spiritualist. So 0:06:34.680 --> 0:06:38.159 I think it's an interesting dichotomy there, right, Like you've 0:06:38.160 --> 0:06:42.839 got a person who is fundamentally adding to our scientific 0:06:43.080 --> 0:06:47.440 understanding of a new technology, and on the other hand 0:06:47.640 --> 0:06:51.080 he believes in ghosts. Anyway, in the late eighteen hundreds, 0:06:51.200 --> 0:06:55.520 Sir Oliver presented a paper on using special radio transmitters 0:06:55.520 --> 0:06:59.200 and receivers that would be tuned to work in specific 0:06:59.279 --> 0:07:02.440 bands of radio frequencies, so instead of blasting out a 0:07:02.480 --> 0:07:07.440 signal across essentially all radio frequencies, these devices would only 0:07:07.480 --> 0:07:11.440 work within this relatively narrow band. Now, Marconi had developed 0:07:11.480 --> 0:07:14.080 a similar technology and the two of them got into 0:07:14.160 --> 0:07:17.240 kind of a patent dispute over the matter, with Marconi 0:07:17.360 --> 0:07:21.680 wanting to put his tuning technology to use, but it 0:07:21.800 --> 0:07:27.200 was infringing essentially on Sir Oliver's patent. So ultimately they 0:07:27.200 --> 0:07:31.040 were able to settle their dispute, and Marconi bought Sir 0:07:31.080 --> 0:07:34.480 Oliver's patent and gave a good old alie and honorary 0:07:34.560 --> 0:07:36.800 title with the Marconi Company, though as far as I know, 0:07:37.080 --> 0:07:40.440 Oliver never actually did a day's work over at Marconi. 0:07:40.800 --> 0:07:43.920 Tuning would mean you could send a radio signal across 0:07:43.960 --> 0:07:47.840 a specific frequency, and radios tuned just to that frequency 0:07:47.840 --> 0:07:50.040 would be able to pick it up. But this also 0:07:50.080 --> 0:07:53.960 meant you could send signals across lots of different frequencies simultaneously, 0:07:54.080 --> 0:07:57.520 and those transmissions wouldn't interfere with one another, because if 0:07:57.520 --> 0:08:00.160 you had a radio that you could similarly tune, it 0:08:00.200 --> 0:08:03.200 would pay attention to a specific set of frequencies and 0:08:03.280 --> 0:08:06.480 ignore everything else. Right, So if I needed to receive 0:08:06.520 --> 0:08:09.800 a message on one frequency band and you needed to 0:08:09.920 --> 0:08:12.480 receive one in another frequency band, and we happen to 0:08:12.520 --> 0:08:14.679 like live next to each other, we could each tune 0:08:14.680 --> 0:08:18.800 our respective radios into our respective radio frequencies and receive 0:08:18.840 --> 0:08:22.480 those messages without worrying about them getting mixed up. Now, 0:08:22.800 --> 0:08:26.720 I'm going to skip over eight ton of radio history 0:08:26.720 --> 0:08:29.040 at this point because we don't really need to have 0:08:29.080 --> 0:08:31.640 a deep understanding of how radio signals work to get 0:08:31.720 --> 0:08:34.120 to the jammy bits. And besides, like I said, I've 0:08:34.160 --> 0:08:36.800 done several episodes about the history and evolution of radio 0:08:36.880 --> 0:08:39.880 in the past, so no need to go over all 0:08:39.920 --> 0:08:44.800 of that material. It's the same like people have traveled 0:08:44.840 --> 0:08:47.240 back into the past and changed the history of radio, 0:08:47.360 --> 0:08:49.959 so no need to go through it. If they did, 0:08:49.960 --> 0:08:52.520 I'm sure that the Tesla fans would have made sure 0:08:52.600 --> 0:08:56.440 Tesla got his due. Anyway. The radio tuning thing, along 0:08:56.520 --> 0:09:01.360 with signal modulation like amplitude modulation and then frequency modulation, 0:09:01.640 --> 0:09:05.520 these would become important components for transmitting broadcasts with sound, 0:09:05.679 --> 0:09:10.240 as would be manipulating an oscillating signal. Right, a standard 0:09:10.280 --> 0:09:15.880 consistent oscillating signal. Amplitude modulation you you, obviously you manipulate 0:09:15.920 --> 0:09:20.040 the amplitude of that wave frequency. You modify the frequency 0:09:20.080 --> 0:09:23.200 within certain parameters. You can't modify the frequency, you know, 0:09:24.000 --> 0:09:27.360 all higlidy piglidy. You have to do it within the 0:09:27.400 --> 0:09:30.600 bandwidth of that frequency band. But this meant you didn't 0:09:30.720 --> 0:09:33.280 have to blast out as signal and just use Morse 0:09:33.360 --> 0:09:36.320 code or something similar to get your point across. You 0:09:36.320 --> 0:09:38.800 could actually speak or I don't know, you could. You 0:09:38.800 --> 0:09:42.440 can blast out Abbas' greatest hits if you wanted to. Okay, 0:09:42.880 --> 0:09:45.520 we're gonna come back in just a minute to talk 0:09:45.559 --> 0:09:48.880 about jamming, but first let's jam out to these messages 0:09:49.080 --> 0:10:01.680 from our sponsors. Okay, we a quick down and dirty 0:10:01.720 --> 0:10:04.280 overview of how radio works. But what if someone else 0:10:04.360 --> 0:10:06.960 wanted to send a signal on the same frequency that 0:10:07.080 --> 0:10:09.680 you were already using. And maybe you're using it to 0:10:09.800 --> 0:10:12.560 just listen to music, maybe you're using it to communicate, 0:10:12.640 --> 0:10:17.040 maybe you're using it as an infrastructure for wireless communication 0:10:17.120 --> 0:10:20.360 between lots of different devices in your home. Well, if 0:10:20.360 --> 0:10:24.320 someone wanted to use that same frequency band, that same channel, 0:10:24.360 --> 0:10:26.839 if you will, and they happen to be really close 0:10:26.880 --> 0:10:29.200 to you, that could be a problem. It'd kind of 0:10:29.240 --> 0:10:31.720 be like putting a bunch of people who are all 0:10:32.080 --> 0:10:35.320 picking up telephones on old landline systems and talking. Or 0:10:35.360 --> 0:10:37.160 we go back to an analogy where you're trying to 0:10:37.160 --> 0:10:39.959 hold a one on one conversation with somebody, but you 0:10:40.320 --> 0:10:42.280 happen to be sitting at a table with six other 0:10:42.320 --> 0:10:45.000 people and there's lots of cross talk going on. It 0:10:45.000 --> 0:10:49.000 gets confusing. With radio. It could mean that whatever signal 0:10:49.160 --> 0:10:52.640 is strongest wins. You might have been in this experience 0:10:52.679 --> 0:10:55.360 where let's say you're on a road trip and you've 0:10:55.400 --> 0:10:58.320 tuned to a radio station and you're starting to get 0:10:58.360 --> 0:11:02.719 to that point where the radio station signal is weakening 0:11:02.840 --> 0:11:05.920 and it's not as consistent or strong as it has 0:11:06.040 --> 0:11:08.880 been and you're starting to lose it. Meanwhile, you might 0:11:08.880 --> 0:11:12.840 be coming into the range of a competing radio signal, 0:11:13.240 --> 0:11:17.439 and so for a while, your car radio sounds like 0:11:17.480 --> 0:11:20.079 it's tuning to two different stations at the same time. Right, 0:11:20.120 --> 0:11:22.880 you might hear little bits of one song versus chatter 0:11:22.960 --> 0:11:25.880 on another station or whatever it may be, until eventually 0:11:26.280 --> 0:11:29.559 it turns over to the other, the secondary radio station, 0:11:29.880 --> 0:11:33.440 because that's the signal that is strongest and is speeding 0:11:33.480 --> 0:11:37.640 through to your entertainment system. Well, if you're you know 0:11:37.720 --> 0:11:40.640 that's unintentional. That's just two different radio stations that are 0:11:40.679 --> 0:11:44.119 in the same broadcast range, that are on the same frequency. 0:11:44.480 --> 0:11:46.560 But you could also do this on purpose, right, You 0:11:46.559 --> 0:11:50.600 could blast out a radio signal, and you can use 0:11:50.640 --> 0:11:53.320 one that is already in use for something else and 0:11:53.360 --> 0:11:56.640 try to overwhelm it, and the devices in that area 0:11:56.679 --> 0:11:58.560 that pick up radio are going to listen to whichever 0:11:58.600 --> 0:12:02.240 signal is strongest. Countries around the world have over time 0:12:02.360 --> 0:12:05.800 designated bands of frequencies in the radio spectrum for very 0:12:05.800 --> 0:12:08.840 specific purposes, and you're not supposed to use them for 0:12:09.000 --> 0:12:13.160 anything else. So this is intended to avoid interference as 0:12:13.200 --> 0:12:16.160 well as clogging up the airwaves with competing signals. So, 0:12:16.360 --> 0:12:20.040 for example, here in the United States, AM radio frequencies 0:12:20.080 --> 0:12:23.960 amplitude modulated radio frequencies. They range from five hundred thirty 0:12:24.040 --> 0:12:27.480 killer hurts, which is actually reserved for travelers information stations. 0:12:27.520 --> 0:12:30.199 I don't think any AM radio stations are allowed to 0:12:30.720 --> 0:12:34.120 broadcast at five thirty, but it goes up to seventeen 0:12:34.320 --> 0:12:37.640 hundred killer hurts. So five thirty to seventeen hundred that's 0:12:37.679 --> 0:12:42.320 the AM broadcast range. Each station has a bandwidth of 0:12:42.480 --> 0:12:45.480 ten killer herts, so it's ten killer hurts wide, and 0:12:45.520 --> 0:12:48.839 that goes five killer hurts above the signal and five 0:12:48.920 --> 0:12:51.520 killer hurts below the signal. So technically you could say 0:12:51.559 --> 0:12:54.400 five hundred and thirty that's really around five twenty five 0:12:54.480 --> 0:12:56.959 killer hurts up to five thirty five killer hurts if 0:12:56.960 --> 0:13:00.000 you were talking about you know the basic rules here. Meanwhile, 0:13:00.240 --> 0:13:03.040 FM stations here in the United States range from eighty 0:13:03.040 --> 0:13:06.920 eight point zero megahertz to one hundred and eight megahertz. 0:13:07.040 --> 0:13:10.760 These channels have two hundred killohertz of bandwidth. Other nations 0:13:10.760 --> 0:13:13.960 have slightly different parameters. You know, it's not universal. And 0:13:14.480 --> 0:13:17.560 these radio signals are used for all sorts of things 0:13:17.600 --> 0:13:21.960 besides just radio broadcasts. Right. Some are used for navigational purposes, 0:13:22.120 --> 0:13:26.520 some are for mobile communications, some are for fixed communications, 0:13:26.559 --> 0:13:30.240 some are for television broadcasts, some are for amateur radio, 0:13:30.480 --> 0:13:33.040 et cetera. And it took a lot of time to 0:13:33.080 --> 0:13:36.520 sort out which frequencies would be used for specific types 0:13:36.559 --> 0:13:40.240 of communications and thus would be off limits to anything else. 0:13:40.520 --> 0:13:43.920 And as I said, different countries have slightly different standards 0:13:43.920 --> 0:13:46.440 for the sort of thing. But back to jamming. So, 0:13:46.640 --> 0:13:49.959 during World War One, radio was still a very young 0:13:50.080 --> 0:13:53.439 science and as such, while it served a purpose during 0:13:53.480 --> 0:13:57.160 the war, it was limited as far as its utility 0:13:57.280 --> 0:14:01.080 was concerned. Transmissions were typically very short range and nature, 0:14:01.160 --> 0:14:04.000 and they could be affected by atmospheric conditions, like if 0:14:04.000 --> 0:14:06.480 you had a storm or something that could really affect 0:14:06.720 --> 0:14:09.200 whether or not you could pick anything up, Like just 0:14:09.240 --> 0:14:13.559 the things like lightning would really mess up your radio communications. 0:14:13.760 --> 0:14:17.439 According to the Digital Public Library of America, and aircraft 0:14:17.559 --> 0:14:21.000 outfitted with a radio during World War One typically had 0:14:21.000 --> 0:14:25.320 a maximum transmission range of two thousand yards, so that's 0:14:25.840 --> 0:14:29.600 not much further than a single mile, and you can 0:14:29.680 --> 0:14:33.320 imagine that in most wartime situations the radio would not 0:14:33.400 --> 0:14:36.280 be instrumental to the success or failure of emission just 0:14:36.280 --> 0:14:40.120 because of that limited transmission distance. Right, you wouldn't be 0:14:40.360 --> 0:14:44.480 in contact with anyone for very long unless you were 0:14:44.520 --> 0:14:48.280 just flying very tight circles in a very small region. 0:14:48.720 --> 0:14:52.520 But by World War Two things had evolved considerably. Radio 0:14:52.640 --> 0:14:57.520 technology was much more sophisticated than capable, and radio transmissions 0:14:57.520 --> 0:15:01.080 would become integral to the war effort on both sides 0:15:01.120 --> 0:15:05.520 of the conflict, and as such, interfering with radio transmissions 0:15:05.680 --> 0:15:10.960 would become part of warfare. Interrupting enemy communication channels obviously 0:15:11.200 --> 0:15:16.120 a high priority whenever you're talking about wartime conflicts. On 0:15:16.200 --> 0:15:19.080 the ally side, there were outfits like the thirty sixth 0:15:19.200 --> 0:15:22.520 Bombardment Squadron the thirty six BS. It was part of 0:15:22.520 --> 0:15:26.400 the Mighty eighth Air Force, and the thirty six BS 0:15:26.440 --> 0:15:29.800 would fly missions over enemy territory and attempt to jam 0:15:30.120 --> 0:15:35.280 or spoof radio axis communications, and sometimes that also meant 0:15:35.360 --> 0:15:39.600 jamming radar stations, just as our little silly example at 0:15:39.640 --> 0:15:42.200 the top of this episode was. Now in this case 0:15:42.240 --> 0:15:46.600 it didn't involve dropping raspberry jam on anybody. They would 0:15:46.640 --> 0:15:49.240 release what was called well, they were called windows, but 0:15:49.440 --> 0:15:52.480 you might know it better as chaff. These are thin 0:15:52.520 --> 0:15:55.560 strips of metal, and it's a way to fool radar 0:15:55.600 --> 0:15:59.080 stations that are on the ground that there are enemy 0:15:59.120 --> 0:16:02.280 fighters overhead, right, because the strips of metal will actually 0:16:02.320 --> 0:16:05.560 interact with the radio waves the radar is sending out, 0:16:05.800 --> 0:16:09.280 and the radar will mistakenly believe that there are enemy 0:16:09.320 --> 0:16:13.480 fighters overhead, when in fact it's just this chaff that's 0:16:13.560 --> 0:16:17.560 falling from bombers that are dropping it. And this becomes 0:16:17.560 --> 0:16:21.400 a distraction for radar stations. And if you're doing this 0:16:21.520 --> 0:16:24.480 as part of an effort of an actual attack, it 0:16:24.520 --> 0:16:26.560 can mean that eyes are on the wrong part of 0:16:26.600 --> 0:16:29.640 the sky, or that anti aircraft weaponry are trained on 0:16:29.680 --> 0:16:31.240 the wrong part of the sky, which is the most 0:16:31.240 --> 0:16:33.760 important bit right, and then you can carry out your 0:16:33.800 --> 0:16:38.360 attack with less resistance from the enemy. But with radio 0:16:38.480 --> 0:16:42.240 often the strategy was to use powerful transmitters to commandeer 0:16:42.360 --> 0:16:47.880 enemy communications and send incorrect information. So this was a 0:16:48.000 --> 0:16:52.120 spoofing attack. You may be familiar with that term spoofing. 0:16:52.240 --> 0:16:55.760 It means that the attacker is pretending to be someone 0:16:55.880 --> 0:17:00.360 or something else and is trying to trick you into 0:17:00.400 --> 0:17:04.879 thinking that a communication is from this particular source, but 0:17:04.960 --> 0:17:08.679 in fact it's a hacker or attacker posing as that source. 0:17:08.800 --> 0:17:12.800 So in this case, the attackers would pose as the 0:17:12.960 --> 0:17:18.040 enemy and would give bad intel or false orders in 0:17:18.080 --> 0:17:21.200 an effort to gain an advantage. So the Royal Air 0:17:21.240 --> 0:17:24.480 Force of the UK had a project called Operation Corona 0:17:24.760 --> 0:17:28.359 that was dedicated to this effort. The RAF found native 0:17:28.400 --> 0:17:33.760 German speakers to pose as flight controllers to confound German pilots. Eventually, 0:17:34.080 --> 0:17:38.239 the German Luftwaffe caught onto this and their response was 0:17:38.440 --> 0:17:42.320 to replace all their flight controllers with women, so that 0:17:42.680 --> 0:17:46.399 if a pilot heard a male voice speaking in German 0:17:46.520 --> 0:17:50.560 giving them new orders, they would know, oh, that's one 0:17:50.600 --> 0:17:55.240 of the allies posing as a flight controller. Disregard those orders. 0:17:55.520 --> 0:17:59.320 Of course, the UK they figured this out too, and 0:17:59.359 --> 0:18:03.879 they began to employ women to serve as these spoofed 0:18:04.080 --> 0:18:07.080 German flight controllers. So it went back and forth in 0:18:07.160 --> 0:18:11.240 an old seesaw. Now, obviously, signal jamming in warfare has 0:18:11.320 --> 0:18:15.359 continued since World War Two. Russia has been doing it 0:18:15.440 --> 0:18:20.159 like crazy to Ukraine, for example. Some methods allow the 0:18:20.920 --> 0:18:25.960 one attacker to suppress radio communications by effectively broadcasting silence. 0:18:26.400 --> 0:18:28.520 You know, in the old days, it was that you 0:18:28.560 --> 0:18:31.600 were using it to intrude upon their signal and send 0:18:31.680 --> 0:18:37.560 something else. Now you can actually just suppress the communications entirely, 0:18:37.680 --> 0:18:40.800 not just you know, intruding on the signal. If your 0:18:41.280 --> 0:18:44.320 targets are unaware that they're being jammed, they might not 0:18:44.400 --> 0:18:47.560 even realize for a bit that no communications are going 0:18:47.600 --> 0:18:50.320 through like other people might be desperately trying to get 0:18:50.359 --> 0:18:52.800 in touch with them, but none of the signals reached 0:18:52.880 --> 0:18:56.359 their destination. And that could be really handy if you 0:18:56.400 --> 0:18:59.640 know you are an enemy of this target and your 0:18:59.680 --> 0:19:03.320 plan an assault of some sort. But outside of warfare, 0:19:03.640 --> 0:19:07.280 there are other uses for signal jamming and signal intrusion, 0:19:07.800 --> 0:19:11.679 though we are largely talking about the murky world of 0:19:11.880 --> 0:19:16.720 illegal activity. In most cases. Keep in mind, the use 0:19:16.760 --> 0:19:21.359 of specific frequencies is a highly regulated affair in most countries, 0:19:21.600 --> 0:19:26.200 and folks founded to have intruded upon those uses typically 0:19:26.240 --> 0:19:30.680 face some stiff penalties when they're caught. We'll talk more 0:19:30.880 --> 0:19:35.359 about these nefarious uses of signal jamming and some famous 0:19:35.440 --> 0:19:39.639 examples after we take this quick break to thank our sponsors. 0:19:48.960 --> 0:19:53.280 We're back, all right. Let's say that you are an 0:19:53.440 --> 0:19:58.199 enterprising young person, maybe Christian Slater, and you want to 0:19:58.200 --> 0:20:01.720 build your own pirate race station so that you can 0:20:01.840 --> 0:20:06.760 broadcast without first securing a broadcast license. So you could 0:20:06.800 --> 0:20:09.400 get in real hot water because you don't actually have 0:20:09.600 --> 0:20:13.080 permission to use the radio frequencies, even if the frequency 0:20:13.119 --> 0:20:17.439 is unused in your area, right like, no one is 0:20:17.520 --> 0:20:20.760 broadcasting on this particular frequency. If you don't have a 0:20:20.800 --> 0:20:24.480 license to broadcast in that range, assuming you're not like 0:20:24.560 --> 0:20:28.440 just broadcasting across amateur radio, well you're going to get 0:20:28.600 --> 0:20:31.240 some trouble. Although a lot of people have gone ahead 0:20:31.240 --> 0:20:33.960 and done it anyway, because I mean tracking down who's 0:20:34.000 --> 0:20:36.280 doing it, that's a different matter. It actually is pretty 0:20:36.320 --> 0:20:40.399 tricky to zone in on the specific location of where 0:20:40.440 --> 0:20:43.280 someone is doing this. If you're transmitting over a really 0:20:43.400 --> 0:20:46.240 large area, it narrows things down because you do have 0:20:46.280 --> 0:20:50.359 to have an antenna to push a transmission out. So 0:20:50.640 --> 0:20:54.159 if you're doing so with a high power transmitter, chances 0:20:54.200 --> 0:20:56.880 are people by'd say, oh, maybe it's the house that 0:20:56.920 --> 0:21:00.639 has the fifty foot broadcast tower behind it. But assuming 0:21:00.680 --> 0:21:04.680 you're not doing a massive area, it could be a 0:21:04.760 --> 0:21:08.399 lot trickier to track the location down. Now a lot 0:21:08.480 --> 0:21:11.320 of this ends up being kind of moot anyway, because 0:21:11.359 --> 0:21:14.960 the Internet and streaming platforms have really made pirate radio 0:21:15.160 --> 0:21:20.160 kind of a quaint and arguably obsolete form of punkish disobedience. 0:21:20.440 --> 0:21:23.200 You still might have to deal with consequences if you're 0:21:23.280 --> 0:21:27.080 choosing to stream and you're including a lot of licensed 0:21:27.119 --> 0:21:31.760 material that you don't you know, actually license, But that's different, right, 0:21:31.960 --> 0:21:35.280 you might get banned from the streaming platform because you 0:21:35.880 --> 0:21:41.680 know you're violating policies by playing ip covered music without 0:21:41.720 --> 0:21:43.800 actually having the license to do so. So I guess 0:21:43.840 --> 0:21:46.320 I'll have to wait on launching my internet radio station 0:21:46.440 --> 0:21:49.280 dedicated to glam punk and new wave hits. But you 0:21:49.359 --> 0:21:52.720 know my time will come now. Some folks have used 0:21:52.720 --> 0:21:57.879 transmitters to overwhelm the airwaves and transmit absolute nonsense and mischief. 0:21:58.119 --> 0:22:01.200 Sometimes they actually do so in an effort to push 0:22:01.200 --> 0:22:05.480 out a public message that in itself isn't necessarily nonsense, 0:22:05.840 --> 0:22:08.879 but the framing of it tends to be a little weird. So, 0:22:08.960 --> 0:22:13.240 for example, in nineteen fifty nine, on April first, one 0:22:13.480 --> 0:22:19.320 or more jokesters used broadcast intrusion. They overpowered the audio 0:22:19.480 --> 0:22:22.199 part of a television signal that was coming from the 0:22:22.240 --> 0:22:27.439 TV station KATV in Arkansas, and if you were tuned 0:22:27.480 --> 0:22:31.840 in to watch the news on KATV on this day, 0:22:31.880 --> 0:22:35.359 April first, nineteen fifty nine, audio would suddenly drop out 0:22:35.560 --> 0:22:37.919 and then you would hear a voice claiming to belong 0:22:38.000 --> 0:22:41.240 to Powell Clayton. Powell Clayton was a general for the 0:22:41.359 --> 0:22:43.880 Union during the US Civil War. He was very much 0:22:44.000 --> 0:22:46.919 dead by nineteen fifty nine. He had also served as 0:22:46.960 --> 0:22:49.680 the governor of Arkansas at one point, and this voice 0:22:49.760 --> 0:22:54.439 was telling KATV viewers that they needed to quote share 0:22:54.640 --> 0:22:58.400 in the Great Awakening end quote. So by that, presumably 0:22:58.520 --> 0:23:02.120 the late general meant that Arkansas citizens were to embrace 0:23:02.320 --> 0:23:05.679 racial integration in the state, which is a serious and 0:23:05.840 --> 0:23:11.240 applaudable message, right integration, Great, that's a great message. It is. However, 0:23:11.280 --> 0:23:15.680 a questionable means of delivering that message. So an investigation followed. 0:23:15.880 --> 0:23:18.520 But while the assumption was whomever pulled off the stunt 0:23:18.560 --> 0:23:21.840 had a good working knowledge of radio, no one was 0:23:21.880 --> 0:23:25.480 actually identified like it was assumed, Okay, this person knows 0:23:25.520 --> 0:23:28.760 their way around radio transmissions or else they wouldn't have 0:23:28.800 --> 0:23:32.760 been able to pull this off. So that eliminates a 0:23:32.880 --> 0:23:36.160 huge number of the folks in the region, right, it's 0:23:36.200 --> 0:23:39.480 just the people who know radio. But it's entirely possible 0:23:39.520 --> 0:23:41.600 it was like a college student who maybe had some 0:23:41.720 --> 0:23:44.760 experience working at the college radio station. There were plenty 0:23:44.880 --> 0:23:47.840 of those in Arkansas in nineteen fifty nine. So while 0:23:47.880 --> 0:23:50.640 it narrowed it down, it didn't eliminate like nearly all 0:23:50.640 --> 0:23:53.280 the suspects. There's still plenty of people it could have been. 0:23:53.640 --> 0:23:55.480 And maybe it wasn't a college student at all, or 0:23:55.480 --> 0:23:58.760 maybe it was someone who had learned in college but 0:23:58.920 --> 0:24:02.679 had long since grad We'll likely never know. But that 0:24:02.720 --> 0:24:06.800 didn't stop some people from proposing outlandish theories about who 0:24:06.880 --> 0:24:09.840 was behind this, and they ranged from everything from a 0:24:09.960 --> 0:24:13.200 communist takeover, because keep in mind, nineteen fifty nine, that's 0:24:13.280 --> 0:24:17.240 like height of the Cold War. To quote an inevitable 0:24:17.480 --> 0:24:21.840