WEBVTT - TechStuff Goes Transmitter Hunting - Part One 0:00:04.160 --> 0:00:07.200 Get in text with technology with tex Stuff from how 0:00:07.240 --> 0:00:14.880 stuff Works dot com. Hey there, and welcome to tech Stuff. 0:00:14.920 --> 0:00:18.439 I'm your host, Jonathan Strickland, senior writer for how stuff 0:00:18.440 --> 0:00:21.200 Works dot com and today in the studio, I am 0:00:21.239 --> 0:00:25.280 not by myself. It is so amazingly awesome. Only am 0:00:25.280 --> 0:00:27.360 I not by myself? But I didn't even have to 0:00:27.400 --> 0:00:30.800 pick the topic. My guest did it for me. And 0:00:30.840 --> 0:00:33.600 my guest, of course, is someone you all know and love, 0:00:33.720 --> 0:00:38.120 Joe McCormick. Beloved in our office. We sing his phrases 0:00:38.159 --> 0:00:40.800 when he's not around. Joe. Welcome back to the show. 0:00:40.960 --> 0:00:43.120 Thank you for having me. Jonathan, You're welcome, Joe. It's 0:00:43.159 --> 0:00:45.280 like a little it's like a two thirds forward thinking 0:00:45.320 --> 0:00:49.279 reunion right now. So I wanted to talk today a 0:00:49.320 --> 0:00:52.920 little bit about a subject that is recently near and 0:00:52.960 --> 0:00:56.560 dear to my heart. Not a long time fascination, a 0:00:56.640 --> 0:01:02.480 recent obsession, and that is the idea of radio direction finding. Yeah, 0:01:02.560 --> 0:01:06.160 this was something I knew. I mean really, I knew 0:01:06.200 --> 0:01:08.760 nothing about it when you brought this to my attention. 0:01:08.959 --> 0:01:11.200 And the more I learned about it, the more I realized, 0:01:11.240 --> 0:01:13.919 not only is it a fascinating subject, but it also 0:01:14.720 --> 0:01:17.480 in many ways. It's kind of a spiritual cousin to 0:01:17.600 --> 0:01:21.240 some other topics I've covered, like geo cashing. Just for 0:01:21.319 --> 0:01:24.600 one specific part of radio direction finding that we'll get 0:01:24.640 --> 0:01:29.160 into in this episode. Okay, so, uh to introduce you here, 0:01:29.680 --> 0:01:32.600 I want you to imagine you have a favorite radio station. 0:01:33.440 --> 0:01:35.360 You don't have to imagine, you really do it. What 0:01:35.400 --> 0:01:37.200 do they play on Power nine. Well, they don't play 0:01:37.240 --> 0:01:41.480 anything anymore because now it's but back in the nineties, 0:01:41.520 --> 0:01:45.880 Power ninety nine was the station that slowly introduced Atlanta 0:01:46.000 --> 0:01:50.080 to the wonderful world of alternative music. Okay, so R 0:01:50.120 --> 0:01:51.640 e M got a lot of play. In fact, the 0:01:51.680 --> 0:01:53.360 very first time I ever heard R e M Losing 0:01:53.400 --> 0:01:56.760 my religion was on Power ninety nine. Yeah. Do you 0:01:56.800 --> 0:02:00.440 listen now to point one the River? You know what? 0:02:00.920 --> 0:02:02.600 Not a big not a big fan of the River, 0:02:02.680 --> 0:02:04.800 but I do still listen to ninety nine X, which 0:02:04.880 --> 0:02:08.600 is not one seven anymore. I can't remember which station 0:02:08.639 --> 0:02:10.880 it's on, but I still listen to that. Okay, Well 0:02:11.040 --> 0:02:13.480 take yourself back in time, Jonathan, go back to the 0:02:13.560 --> 0:02:18.280 days of power and imagine. You know, Power ninety nine. 0:02:18.320 --> 0:02:20.640 It just gets you through the morning. You wake up 0:02:20.680 --> 0:02:24.440 every day, you know. Uh, it gets you through the 0:02:24.440 --> 0:02:27.040 t d M of peeling those thirty seven hard boiled 0:02:27.040 --> 0:02:31.040 eggs you're gonna eat for breakfast and accurate so far, 0:02:31.280 --> 0:02:33.800 and it's just it's your favorite part of the day. 0:02:34.840 --> 0:02:38.000 But one morning you switch on your radio to Power 0:02:38.080 --> 0:02:40.079 ninety nine. You think you're gonna hear some great new 0:02:40.240 --> 0:02:44.760 R E M singles, But instead, something is wrong. Instead 0:02:44.800 --> 0:02:48.359 of the regular programming of your of your regular favorite 0:02:48.440 --> 0:02:51.520 radio station, you are treated to an unending loop of 0:02:51.639 --> 0:02:56.080 Mick Jaggers solo love ballad hard Woman. Is this the 0:02:56.120 --> 0:02:58.600 one that has the terrible music video? Yeah, that was 0:02:58.960 --> 0:03:02.799 put together by a Ray supercomputer. Yeah, now I remember this. 0:03:02.960 --> 0:03:05.400 I remember you showing me that music video. And and 0:03:05.480 --> 0:03:08.160 the only thing worse than the music video was, in fact, 0:03:08.200 --> 0:03:12.400 the song itself. It's it's hard to know which is worse, 0:03:12.520 --> 0:03:15.400 but yeah, so it's looping. In fact, they don't even 0:03:15.480 --> 0:03:18.440 let the song finish. Each time it plays, the loop 0:03:18.520 --> 0:03:24.400 begins about ten to fifteen seconds before the song's over. Maddening. Yeah. Uh, 0:03:24.560 --> 0:03:26.799 so you call up the station, You call up Power 0:03:26.880 --> 0:03:28.880 nine and nine, say hey, what's up with hard Woman 0:03:28.919 --> 0:03:31.919 all the time? Where's my R E M? And they say, 0:03:31.960 --> 0:03:33.720 I don't know what you're talking about. We're running our 0:03:33.760 --> 0:03:39.160 regular programming. Somebody is jamming you. So what they're doing 0:03:39.440 --> 0:03:43.840 is they're using a transmitter, presumably one much closer to 0:03:43.920 --> 0:03:47.520 you than the radio station's transmitter, and had a power 0:03:47.680 --> 0:03:51.360 that overpowers the incoming signal for that radio station. Right, 0:03:51.400 --> 0:03:54.160 because they're closer to you than the radio station is. 0:03:54.240 --> 0:03:56.120 They can do this because the only other way they 0:03:56.120 --> 0:03:58.240 could do that is if they were actually putting in 0:03:58.320 --> 0:04:01.120 more power in their transmitter than the radio station is, 0:04:01.160 --> 0:04:05.200 which is not likely. But somebody in your neighborhood, somebody 0:04:05.240 --> 0:04:08.880 near your house with a with a vendetta against R. E. 0:04:09.120 --> 0:04:14.840 M or maybe just an unending, powerful, overflowing love for 0:04:14.960 --> 0:04:18.400 Mick Jagger's hard woman, or some sort of curmudgeon in between, 0:04:19.560 --> 0:04:23.719 is broadcasting this malicious interference on the same frequency as 0:04:23.720 --> 0:04:28.120 your beloved station. Now, obviously this is intolerable, but the 0:04:28.200 --> 0:04:31.080 station themselves, well, they probably can't do anything about it. 0:04:31.680 --> 0:04:34.640 So you contact the FCC. Right, this should be their 0:04:34.720 --> 0:04:37.000 job to deal with here in the US. That's exactly 0:04:37.000 --> 0:04:39.400 who I would have got them on speed dial. Right, 0:04:39.560 --> 0:04:42.560 Signal intrusion. Right, you're supposed to regulate the airwaves. So 0:04:42.720 --> 0:04:45.200 you call up the FCC, but they tell you to 0:04:45.240 --> 0:04:47.840 take a hike. They're busy undoing net neutrality too, So 0:04:50.400 --> 0:04:52.440 what are you gonna do? Are you just going to 0:04:52.480 --> 0:04:56.240 allow this radio freak to jagger up your mornings for 0:04:56.279 --> 0:05:00.000 the rest of your life. That doesn't sound like me, Joe. Uh, 0:05:00.040 --> 0:05:02.880 if you're If that's not your style, One thing you 0:05:02.920 --> 0:05:06.520 could do is try to take matters into your own hands. Now, 0:05:06.520 --> 0:05:08.480 how would you do that? You would have to track 0:05:08.600 --> 0:05:12.279 down the jagger jammer yourself and give this creep a 0:05:12.279 --> 0:05:14.760 piece of your mind. But how could you do that? 0:05:14.839 --> 0:05:17.200 Like the song loop doesn't say, hey, by the way, 0:05:17.240 --> 0:05:22.160 here's the address of my secret jamming transmitter, at least 0:05:22.160 --> 0:05:25.080 not explicitly, So then I'd have to figure out some 0:05:25.160 --> 0:05:30.279 way independent of the content of the signal to track 0:05:30.400 --> 0:05:33.839 the location of the transmitter. Yeah, and that's what today's 0:05:33.839 --> 0:05:35.960 episode is going to be about. If you know a 0:05:35.960 --> 0:05:39.320 few techniques, and if you have some special equipment on hand, 0:05:39.400 --> 0:05:43.720 you actually should be able to locate this jammer through 0:05:43.760 --> 0:05:46.800 the art of radio direction finding or r DF as 0:05:46.839 --> 0:05:49.600 I'm sure we'll refer to it throughout this episode. It's 0:05:49.640 --> 0:05:53.400 the act of hunting a radio broadcast to its physical source. 0:05:54.240 --> 0:05:56.320 UM So today we're gonna talk a little bit about 0:05:56.360 --> 0:05:58.640 r DF in general, a little bit about the history, 0:05:58.720 --> 0:06:01.560 about the science behind it. But we also wanted to 0:06:01.600 --> 0:06:05.280 focus somewhat on the sport of transmitter hunting, also known 0:06:05.320 --> 0:06:09.479 as t hunting or fox hunting, which turns this activity 0:06:09.520 --> 0:06:13.719 of radio direction finding into a recreational activity. And this 0:06:13.720 --> 0:06:16.760 this ties into a lot of those other subjects I 0:06:16.800 --> 0:06:19.920 was talking about, like from the aspect of geocashing, where 0:06:19.920 --> 0:06:23.840 we're using technology for some sort of recreational activity that 0:06:23.920 --> 0:06:28.000 it wasn't necessarily intended to be when we first started 0:06:28.040 --> 0:06:31.680 developing that tech, all the way to the story Chuck 0:06:31.720 --> 0:06:36.320 and I did about the infamous Max Headroom incident right 0:06:36.400 --> 0:06:39.719 where somebody another case of signal intrigues exactly, someone was 0:06:39.760 --> 0:06:44.000 able to do signal intrusion in the Chicago market and 0:06:44.320 --> 0:06:50.799 uh overpower television signals and present a an absurd, slightly 0:06:50.839 --> 0:06:56.479 disturbing and very surreal Max Headroom type of intrusion. Well, 0:06:56.480 --> 0:06:59.240 those those things, I mean, that's that's kind of why 0:06:59.279 --> 0:07:02.520 we're talking about this, is like, how would you detect 0:07:02.680 --> 0:07:05.200 where such an intrusion is coming from if you had 0:07:05.360 --> 0:07:07.440 enough time to do so. In the case of the 0:07:07.480 --> 0:07:11.840 Max Headgroom incident. Yeah, by the time anyone knew what 0:07:11.920 --> 0:07:14.920 was happening, it was too late to really figure out 0:07:14.960 --> 0:07:17.960 where's the signal coming from. They had general ideas just 0:07:18.000 --> 0:07:22.600 based upon the architecture of the city, because things like 0:07:22.720 --> 0:07:25.320 buildings and stuff can get in the way of radio signals, 0:07:25.320 --> 0:07:29.560 so that that limits where a signal can come from. 0:07:29.600 --> 0:07:32.920 But you need something more sophisticated in order to narrow 0:07:33.040 --> 0:07:38.320 down the actual direction and specifically the locality of a transmitter. 0:07:38.760 --> 0:07:42.880 So this has a really long history. It dates back 0:07:44.240 --> 0:07:49.440 pretty much shortly after we started sending radio signals. Uh. 0:07:49.480 --> 0:07:53.160 In fact, the very first person to kind of associate 0:07:53.240 --> 0:07:58.520 directionality with radio signals was Heinrich Hurts. And that name 0:07:58.600 --> 0:08:01.640 Hurts probably rings some bells. We're gonna be talking about 0:08:01.680 --> 0:08:05.760 a lot about Hurts, the unit of measurement, and not Hurts, 0:08:05.800 --> 0:08:11.239 the person in this episode. He discovered with an open 0:08:11.280 --> 0:08:13.800 loop of wire which was acting like an antenna, or 0:08:13.840 --> 0:08:18.280 it really wasn't antenna wasn't acting like one. Yeah, but 0:08:18.360 --> 0:08:20.559 this was a loop of wire that had a gap 0:08:21.160 --> 0:08:23.480 between the two ends of the loop. So it's not 0:08:23.520 --> 0:08:26.160 a closed loop. It's an open loop, it had some 0:08:26.200 --> 0:08:29.280 direction finding properties to it. He found that if he 0:08:29.640 --> 0:08:33.440 used this loop near a transmitter, and if the looper 0:08:33.520 --> 0:08:37.120 position so that it's ends faced the transmitter. In other words, 0:08:37.120 --> 0:08:39.400 if you're looking at the face of a transmitter and 0:08:39.400 --> 0:08:41.400 you're looking at a loop, the loop is at a 0:08:41.480 --> 0:08:44.880 ninety degree angle, it's it's the wire part is facing 0:08:45.760 --> 0:08:48.000 the ends of the wire parts facing the transmitter as 0:08:48.000 --> 0:08:51.400 opposed to the open face. UH, it would create a 0:08:51.400 --> 0:08:55.079 real big spark between those two ends. If he started 0:08:55.120 --> 0:08:57.760 to rotate the loop of wire so that the open 0:08:57.880 --> 0:09:01.000 face the o if you will, of the loop faced 0:09:01.080 --> 0:09:06.040 the transmitter, it didn't create that spark. So rotating it 0:09:06.080 --> 0:09:09.120 would create sparks. And the biggest spark would be if 0:09:09.160 --> 0:09:13.400 it was in this ninety degree alignment with the transmitter. 0:09:13.440 --> 0:09:16.160 And that showed that there was some directionality with radio 0:09:16.200 --> 0:09:20.040 waves and antenna Yeah, and that specifically you could put 0:09:20.120 --> 0:09:23.960 together an antenna receiver in certain ways that it would 0:09:24.000 --> 0:09:28.200 respond differently depending on how it's oriented exactly with respect 0:09:28.200 --> 0:09:31.880 to the source of transmission exactly. So the next one 0:09:31.920 --> 0:09:34.360 you would talk about the actual One of the earliest 0:09:34.400 --> 0:09:39.680 successful UH implementations of this idea would be the Balini 0:09:39.800 --> 0:09:46.120 Tosy apparatus. Uh not the only early direction finding antenna. 0:09:46.200 --> 0:09:48.960 Why am I imagining some kind of dessert making machine 0:09:49.360 --> 0:09:52.760 the Bellini tocy apparatus. Like it's like a large box 0:09:52.840 --> 0:09:55.600 out of which comes big blobs of icing, right, or 0:09:55.600 --> 0:09:59.280 gelato or something. I'm on a diet, Dude, you are 0:09:59.360 --> 0:10:04.439 killing me on diesel. I would eat diesel powered gelato 0:10:04.920 --> 0:10:07.679 right now in a heartbeat, but instead I'm going to 0:10:07.760 --> 0:10:11.240 stick to my Brussels sprouts. Uh So, two Italian officers 0:10:11.320 --> 0:10:15.559 named a Torre Bellini and Alessandro Tosi came up with this. 0:10:15.720 --> 0:10:19.359 Sometimes it's actually called the Marconi Balini Tosi because Marconi's 0:10:19.440 --> 0:10:22.800 name gets attached to everything that might be a little 0:10:23.120 --> 0:10:28.600 bitter tesla left over issues that I have about Marconi's 0:10:28.679 --> 0:10:33.000 name getting associated with stuff that certainly he was instrumental 0:10:33.000 --> 0:10:36.080 in the development of, but perhaps not the primary source 0:10:36.559 --> 0:10:39.760 of that technology the way his name would indicate. Yeah, 0:10:39.760 --> 0:10:43.880 the wireless telegraph. You'd want his name all over everything. Yeah, yeah, 0:10:44.240 --> 0:10:47.080 don't worry about people who worked on that stuff, you know, 0:10:47.720 --> 0:10:52.000 before him, or or had originally secured a patent before 0:10:52.080 --> 0:10:56.280 he had and then had their patents overturned. That's another episode. 0:10:56.280 --> 0:10:59.000 In fact, I've talked about it in previous episodes. So 0:10:59.120 --> 0:11:01.600 the way this worked is that they actually created uh, 0:11:01.840 --> 0:11:05.040 two loops of wire arranged at right angles with respect 0:11:05.040 --> 0:11:06.720 to one another. So you can think of these as 0:11:06.760 --> 0:11:09.280 kind of like a casing, these two big loops of 0:11:09.320 --> 0:11:12.080 wire at right angles in the middle of which they 0:11:12.080 --> 0:11:14.800 put a third coil of wire, but this one could 0:11:14.880 --> 0:11:20.320 rotate freely within those two fixed ninety degree angle loops. Okay, 0:11:20.360 --> 0:11:23.959 so it's like a wire globe and then another loop inside. Yeah, 0:11:24.040 --> 0:11:26.920 and that wire loop inside can freely rotate, and that's 0:11:26.960 --> 0:11:30.440 where they were able to create this directional antenna, this 0:11:30.520 --> 0:11:35.079 direction finding antenna. They the the rotating element is called 0:11:35.080 --> 0:11:38.600 a rotor or sense coil, and then the other two 0:11:38.640 --> 0:11:42.520 are called stators or field coils. And folks, I apologize, 0:11:42.559 --> 0:11:44.680 I'm still over getting over at cold, So you're gonna 0:11:44.720 --> 0:11:48.679 hear me be raspy throughout this episode, just like last time. Yea. 0:11:50.320 --> 0:11:55.439 So these original ones were big, big devices. Yeah. The 0:11:55.480 --> 0:11:58.200 first picture I saw it showed the operator sitting at 0:11:58.200 --> 0:12:01.679 a desk, and the actual TENNA was about twice the 0:12:01.679 --> 0:12:03.839 height of the desk he was sitting at. Now, what 0:12:03.880 --> 0:12:06.360 was this used for At the time, these were used 0:12:06.400 --> 0:12:12.320 as land stations around primarily Europe, and we're used mainly 0:12:12.679 --> 0:12:15.720 to help with navigation. So so how would that work. 0:12:15.920 --> 0:12:20.800 You would have this enormous UH antenna that was detecting 0:12:20.840 --> 0:12:25.920 transmissions coming from other vessels, let's say navy vessels or 0:12:26.080 --> 0:12:29.760 or maritime vessels, and they would be able to detect 0:12:29.800 --> 0:12:35.400 what direction the that transmissions coming from and send information 0:12:35.440 --> 0:12:39.280 back out via radio vessel. So the lost ship says 0:12:39.400 --> 0:12:44.120 where am I sends a transmission saying where am I southwest? 0:12:44.440 --> 0:12:46.679 It knows where it is, and if it knows the 0:12:46.679 --> 0:12:49.640 direction your transmission is coming from, then it can tell 0:12:49.679 --> 0:12:52.439 you where you are in general. Yes, And then eventually 0:12:52.480 --> 0:12:56.400 you actually saw these devices being placed on the craft themselves. 0:12:56.960 --> 0:13:02.280 So then you could have a stationary radio transmission center 0:13:02.679 --> 0:13:07.839 sending out a basic signal sometimes and frequently having the 0:13:07.840 --> 0:13:12.320 the location for that that transmission center encoded in the 0:13:12.360 --> 0:13:17.160 signal itself sent out to sea, and then the the 0:13:18.080 --> 0:13:20.520 vessels would have these type of antenna aboard them. They 0:13:20.559 --> 0:13:23.560 could then use the antenna to figure out what direction 0:13:24.000 --> 0:13:27.280 the transmissions coming from because they know the specific location 0:13:27.440 --> 0:13:30.960 of that center because it's in the signal itself, but 0:13:31.040 --> 0:13:35.120 inverse exactly. So early ones were land based, then later 0:13:35.160 --> 0:13:38.400 on they were actually based on the vehicles themselves, whether 0:13:38.440 --> 0:13:41.520 it was it started off with shops and eventually also 0:13:41.559 --> 0:13:46.720 incorporated aircraft. Now I know that the idea of finding 0:13:46.760 --> 0:13:50.240 the physical location of a radio transmitter, whether it's a 0:13:50.360 --> 0:13:53.760 vehicle or a station of some kind, must have played 0:13:53.840 --> 0:13:57.720 a big role once radio was used in warfare. Absolutely 0:13:58.040 --> 0:14:02.880 there were some instrumental battle in which UH one side 0:14:02.960 --> 0:14:06.560 or the other frequently actually was the Allies had determined 0:14:06.840 --> 0:14:12.080 the that a certain German group of units, typically U boats, 0:14:12.480 --> 0:14:15.480 was really effective naval warfare in World War One, world 0:14:15.480 --> 0:14:18.320 War two. Actually world War One there was some, but 0:14:18.400 --> 0:14:21.160 world War two it really came into play. World War One, 0:14:21.480 --> 0:14:25.000 certainly the U boat communications, which were using very low 0:14:25.040 --> 0:14:29.160 frequency radio waves, it was very important. By the World 0:14:29.160 --> 0:14:32.520 War Two you're talking about more high frequency and radio 0:14:32.560 --> 0:14:35.040 waves being put into use. It's where we get the 0:14:35.120 --> 0:14:39.640 huff duff because it's high frequency direction finder antenna's hf 0:14:39.720 --> 0:14:42.600 DFS or huff duff was the nickname. You get the 0:14:42.640 --> 0:14:47.600 huff duff antennas that would indicate the direction of a 0:14:47.640 --> 0:14:51.520 transmission and that would help be able to track like 0:14:51.680 --> 0:14:55.840 enemy movements, enemy troop movements, particularly in the in the Navy. 0:14:56.000 --> 0:14:59.560 And it can you imagine how disappointed these antennas are 0:14:59.640 --> 0:15:03.200 when they get sorted. Yeah, now right, like you know, 0:15:03.280 --> 0:15:05.640 they all want to be slythering because that's my house. 0:15:06.360 --> 0:15:08.560 I don't know what the house you belong to. I 0:15:09.360 --> 0:15:11.400 that's not for me to say. I've never been sorted. 0:15:11.560 --> 0:15:14.040 I got sorted into slythering. I mean, I'm just saying 0:15:14.120 --> 0:15:17.600 I didn't try to. It just happened. Um, you just 0:15:17.640 --> 0:15:19.920 put on the hat. I do what the hat tells me. Man, 0:15:20.240 --> 0:15:30.520 I live my life that way. So this type of 0:15:30.520 --> 0:15:33.880 antenna was originally meant not for military purposes. It was 0:15:33.920 --> 0:15:38.440 actually meant to help meteorologists learn more about lightning. Was 0:15:38.480 --> 0:15:43.040 developed by Robert Watson Watt back in nineteen six, and 0:15:43.160 --> 0:15:47.120 it was to help locate where a lightning strike occurs, 0:15:47.240 --> 0:15:50.440 because you know, lightning, it gives off electromagnetic rays just 0:15:50.680 --> 0:15:53.760 or waves, I should say, not raised, but waves, just 0:15:53.840 --> 0:15:57.280 as a radio antenna would. And so you would use 0:15:57.320 --> 0:16:00.800 these antenna to detect the location of lightning strikes. That 0:16:00.840 --> 0:16:05.000 also helped you track the pathway of electrical storms. So 0:16:05.080 --> 0:16:07.640 that's what it was intended for, but in World War 0:16:07.680 --> 0:16:09.920 Two it got put to other uses to try and 0:16:09.960 --> 0:16:16.160 track movements of enemy troops. Very important now. Uh. After 0:16:16.240 --> 0:16:20.240 World War Two, we started seeing more development in radio 0:16:20.280 --> 0:16:25.520 direction finding technology, not just in military but also commercial applications. Uh. 0:16:25.560 --> 0:16:28.040 In fact, we also saw a lot of amateur radio 0:16:28.320 --> 0:16:33.400 operators get interested in it, and particularly once ham radio 0:16:33.600 --> 0:16:37.760 in the United States was really starting to take off. Yeah, 0:16:37.800 --> 0:16:40.640 forties and fifties really were really post world War two, 0:16:40.640 --> 0:16:43.920 because during World War Two they were very very picky 0:16:44.000 --> 0:16:48.280 about who got a chance to actually broadcast radio. They 0:16:48.280 --> 0:16:50.680 were like, you know, guys, we need you, guys to 0:16:50.680 --> 0:16:53.760 to unless we're telling you to do it, don't do 0:16:53.800 --> 0:16:58.760 that thing, right. So, but once World War two was over, 0:16:58.960 --> 0:17:00.760 we saw a lot more develop them and go into 0:17:00.800 --> 0:17:03.360 that and there are a lot of a lot of 0:17:03.800 --> 0:17:06.840 purposes for our DF. We talked about navigation, it's not 0:17:07.000 --> 0:17:09.679 really used for navigation that much anymore because we have 0:17:09.840 --> 0:17:15.080 more sophisticated methods for navigation. Yeah, we've got we've got 0:17:15.119 --> 0:17:20.159 stuff beyond like a radio transmitter and a receiver. That 0:17:20.240 --> 0:17:24.840 being said, there's still some places that use radio beacons 0:17:24.920 --> 0:17:29.240 as a means for emergency backup, uh some around the UK, 0:17:29.440 --> 0:17:31.919 not really any in the United States at this point, 0:17:32.359 --> 0:17:36.440 um maritime vehicles held onto it longer than aircraft did. 0:17:36.920 --> 0:17:41.399 But even today you don't really see that as a 0:17:41.400 --> 0:17:45.480 as a even a tertiary method for navigation because we 0:17:45.520 --> 0:17:49.600 have so many other more sophisticated systems at play. But 0:17:49.800 --> 0:17:52.480 there are other reasons that we do still use them. 0:17:52.480 --> 0:17:55.000 I mean, well, one would be like the example hunting 0:17:55.040 --> 0:17:58.879 down illicit broadcasts and jammers. Absolutely, yeah, Now this was 0:17:59.000 --> 0:18:01.600 huge and World War two as well. The UK actually 0:18:02.400 --> 0:18:06.840 ended up getting a big volunteer force of interceptors about 0:18:07.480 --> 0:18:11.160 folks in the UK who were amateur radio operators and 0:18:11.400 --> 0:18:15.120 use them to help suss out any uh enemy transmissions 0:18:15.160 --> 0:18:18.240 that were coming from the UK. Because there a period 0:18:18.240 --> 0:18:21.200 piece movie about this year there should be, although it'd 0:18:21.200 --> 0:18:24.000 be kind of boring because I think they only found 0:18:24.280 --> 0:18:27.040 they found like two and one of them was one 0:18:27.119 --> 0:18:29.639 that they were doing on purpose. Well, that could be 0:18:29.680 --> 0:18:31.840 the angle. Maybe maybe there was a cover up, there's 0:18:31.880 --> 0:18:35.800 some big secret or like like there's the crowd of 0:18:35.840 --> 0:18:41.480 ham operators carrying pitchforks storming the transmitter room of this 0:18:41.600 --> 0:18:45.200 one perceived enemy of the state and it turns out 0:18:45.200 --> 0:18:48.040 that they're just following orders from the UK government to 0:18:48.200 --> 0:18:53.160 send out false UH commands, because that was a thing, right, Like, 0:18:53.200 --> 0:18:56.480 it wasn't just secret information, it was disinformation. There were 0:18:56.480 --> 0:18:59.280 a lot of different campaigns going on in the information 0:18:59.320 --> 0:19:02.920 and intelligence worlds in World War Two. So, but that's 0:19:02.920 --> 0:19:07.159 glorious the image of an army of hams radio hams 0:19:07.200 --> 0:19:10.600 coming at you to to VHF you up, yep, that's right. 0:19:10.760 --> 0:19:14.479 There's there's so much opportunity there for UH edge of 0:19:14.520 --> 0:19:19.520 your seat drama. But the the interesting thing to me 0:19:19.600 --> 0:19:22.320 was that the UK, they were using m I five 0:19:22.560 --> 0:19:27.280 to head this operation because that's their domestic intelligence agency, 0:19:27.320 --> 0:19:30.399 but they determined that really this was a bigger problem 0:19:30.400 --> 0:19:34.800 in Europe. They had a lot more clandestine operators in 0:19:34.840 --> 0:19:40.280 Europe on both sides, really sending out messages via radio transmission, 0:19:40.800 --> 0:19:44.439 and so they switched this operation over to m I six, 0:19:45.000 --> 0:19:49.560 which looked at UH intelligence coming from outside the UK 0:19:49.800 --> 0:19:52.159 rather than from within it. So it's kind of in 0:19:52.160 --> 0:19:54.760 the United States, the difference between our FBI and our 0:19:54.800 --> 0:19:58.439 c I a same sort of thing, and UH in 0:19:58.480 --> 0:20:00.439 Europe was a much different story. Like the r d 0:20:00.560 --> 0:20:03.600 F was incredibly important during World War Two, because there 0:20:03.600 --> 0:20:07.679 were so many different operators using radio transmission as a 0:20:07.680 --> 0:20:13.320 way of getting either spy reports or orders across various borders. 0:20:13.520 --> 0:20:16.960 It eventually got to the point actually where the access 0:20:17.000 --> 0:20:24.480 powers were, um, really shy about transmitting any information because 0:20:24.880 --> 0:20:27.119 they were still worried about it getting intercepted and caught. 0:20:27.400 --> 0:20:30.560 And this is the same era as the Enigma machine, right, 0:20:30.880 --> 0:20:34.679 and once the Allies were able to crack some of 0:20:34.680 --> 0:20:39.280 the Enigma codes, it was a it really became apparent 0:20:39.359 --> 0:20:42.240 that you had to be super careful with your intelligence 0:20:42.600 --> 0:20:47.440 otherwise you were handing the enemy all of your game plans. 0:20:47.640 --> 0:20:53.400 So really interesting story though. Um, then there's other methods, 0:20:53.520 --> 0:20:55.600 are other reasons to use r d F. There's search 0:20:55.640 --> 0:20:59.080 and rescue, Yeah, how about that, so coast guard or 0:20:59.280 --> 0:21:01.760 rescuing it down on plane. Either one. You might have 0:21:01.800 --> 0:21:05.359 a vehicle that is equipped with radio transmission capability, but 0:21:05.520 --> 0:21:08.480 is itself stranded. Yeah, there's a lot of civil aircraft 0:21:08.560 --> 0:21:10.120 that have this. There are a lot of like if 0:21:10.160 --> 0:21:13.399 you are if you're hiking in an area that is 0:21:14.680 --> 0:21:17.680 prone for two avalanches, you may even have a transmitter 0:21:17.880 --> 0:21:22.359 on you as a means for emergency signaling. In the 0:21:22.400 --> 0:21:25.720 case of an avalanche. So this is still a thing, right. 0:21:25.720 --> 0:21:29.240 It's it's something that can send out a steady signal 0:21:29.720 --> 0:21:33.720 with perhaps an encoded message, usually a unique identifier to 0:21:33.800 --> 0:21:37.600 whatever the transmitter is, so that once you tune into it, 0:21:37.680 --> 0:21:40.280 you know that you're actually listening for the right signal. 0:21:40.320 --> 0:21:42.600 You're not going to get distracted by a signal on 0:21:42.680 --> 0:21:46.160 a similar frequency that is not what you're looking for, 0:21:46.400 --> 0:21:48.840 and you can try and narrow down your search to 0:21:49.320 --> 0:21:51.879 find whatever it is that's lost. Now, one thing we 0:21:51.920 --> 0:21:55.560 mentioned earlier is hunting malicious interference, people who are intentionally 0:21:55.680 --> 0:21:59.480 jamming a radio station or broadcasting propaganda or something like that. 0:21:59.520 --> 0:22:03.199 But there's also unintentional interference, and this could be useful 0:22:03.200 --> 0:22:06.840 too for tracking down you know, uh something maybe uh 0:22:07.200 --> 0:22:10.240 radio frequencies are leaking out of some sort of device 0:22:10.400 --> 0:22:14.560 and they're interfering with the broadcast band around there. Yeah, 0:22:14.640 --> 0:22:17.880 I mean, it's uh, it's not necessarily something that's done 0:22:17.880 --> 0:22:21.080 with malicious intent. Really, anything that creates an electrical field 0:22:21.160 --> 0:22:24.679 is creating electromagnetic radiation, and that some form of that 0:22:24.800 --> 0:22:27.480 is in radio waves, and depending upon the power of 0:22:27.520 --> 0:22:30.400 the the device in question, it could be putting out 0:22:30.480 --> 0:22:34.400 radio waves strong enough to interfere with transmission of normal signals. 0:22:34.760 --> 0:22:37.520 You'll hear about this also, Like I remember hearing about 0:22:37.600 --> 0:22:41.360 this with um uh theaters, in fact, theaters that we're 0:22:41.480 --> 0:22:45.040 using wireless radios in order to have back of house 0:22:45.640 --> 0:22:49.040 talk to front of house for stuff like like stage 0:22:49.040 --> 0:22:51.320 managing and lighting changes and stuff, and then you would 0:22:51.359 --> 0:22:55.320 end up getting truckers talking over your system and it 0:22:55.320 --> 0:22:58.679 would just Peter Pan became an entirely different show at 0:22:58.760 --> 0:23:01.439 that point. Like, but but this is the sort of 0:23:01.440 --> 0:23:04.639 thing about the speed trap up there. Yeah, And it 0:23:04.680 --> 0:23:07.280 all has to do with with the frequency you're using 0:23:07.280 --> 0:23:09.640 in the power of the radios in question, right, or 0:23:10.080 --> 0:23:15.040 perhaps more problematically, having that transmission of a high school 0:23:15.040 --> 0:23:18.160 production of Peter Pan being transmitted out to people who 0:23:18.160 --> 0:23:22.520 are using radio for really important reasons. Uh. This is 0:23:22.560 --> 0:23:25.960 one of the reasons why most places around the world 0:23:26.000 --> 0:23:29.760 have very strict rules of what types of equipment can 0:23:29.880 --> 0:23:33.840 use which frequency bands so that it avoids that kind 0:23:33.840 --> 0:23:36.720 of cross contemning. You don't have the problem where officer 0:23:37.119 --> 0:23:40.000 Officer hurts tries to radio in for backup, but instead 0:23:40.040 --> 0:23:42.919 he's being jammed by Peter Pan, right, or suddenly Captain 0:23:42.960 --> 0:23:45.040 hook and a bunch of pirates show up, like, this 0:23:45.119 --> 0:23:48.040 is not the backup I was hoping for. That wasn't 0:23:48.040 --> 0:23:50.760 hoping for a chorus line, I really need physical people 0:23:50.920 --> 0:23:54.480 to help back me up for this dangerous situation. Another 0:23:54.640 --> 0:23:56.879 use that you have here that I didn't even think of, 0:23:57.000 --> 0:24:01.000 but very smart wildlife tracking. Yeah, yeah, and I get 0:24:01.000 --> 0:24:04.760 tagged exactly. These are transmitters that send out a study 0:24:04.800 --> 0:24:08.760 signal so that scientists can continue to monitor the movement 0:24:08.880 --> 0:24:12.399 of various wildlife. Usually you do this to track migration 0:24:12.440 --> 0:24:15.720 patterns and how those might change, particularly in light of 0:24:15.760 --> 0:24:22.160 things like human uh enter like humans moving into what 0:24:22.480 --> 0:24:26.680