Comm and ID'ing ourselves post SHTF

One of my old Ham Clubs used to have a fox hunt. Chasing a .25 watts signal on 2 meters about 20--25 air miles; it took a few mobiles and 4 base stations with stacked Yagis under 3 hours to be driving the road I was hiding near.
Military would be under a few minutes with a response of any thing from an eagle flight, tact air or an artillery barrage as incoming.

 

Consider brevity codes and short transmissions with frequent, pre-approved frequency hops. A one time book code would work also, instead of a brevity code.

 

Their capabilities:
SwRI Tactical Products Department

There is a flash movie at the bottom of the page.

SwRI develops and provides HF and V/UHF (high-frequency and very/ultra-high frequency) tactical communications intelligence (COMINT) products

That is what could be listening..

 

Field phones. The "I'm here to help you" crowd has ulta-sensitive DF capabilities. You radio, any code, and freq, and warheads will impact your pos in minutes.

 

The last time I was at a tactical SigInt unit, in 1995 (a long time ago in technology years), our computerized intercept/DF suite could provide a pretty accurate fix on a low-power VHF transmitter, to within a hundred yards or so, with five to ten seconds of transmission time. The more hits, or the longer the transmission, the more accurate the fix.

Our portable system was capable of being vehicular mounted, and was digitally interconnected, meaning that only one intercept operator needed to press his DF button on his lap top, and all three units would automatically take a Line Of Bearing (LOB). The originator of the DF request would get all three LOBs on his screen, along with an estimated fix (location of transmitter), overlaid on a topographic map, that could include roads, administrative boundaries, etc, at the operator's preference.

That was 15 years ago, and that was our basic intercept suite. I taught for another six years after I left a tactical unit, and had the opportunity to see even more interesting items hitting the field than what we had. I'm not even going to get into drone mounted intercept systems, and the more sophisticated assets that our civilian clothes counterparts could make available to us on request.

Hiding communications from minimally sophisticated raiders is very possible with a little bit of preparation. Hiding them from a government agency, particularly our own government, is less likely. It depends on how much data you're trying to transmit, how many outstations are in your network, how often your network is active, what your power setting is, and how badly they want you.

Staying under the radar would be my best suggestion for avoiding government-sponsored SigInt elements - Short transmissions. Innocuous sounding transmissions. The more sophisticated the encryption system is, the more interest it will generate. You may only be saying hello, but to the intercept operator, if you are going to that much trouble to hide it, it must be something important. More and more assets will be called in until the stations are identified or nullified.

Just some personal thoughts from someone who spent years under the headphones, looking for signals.

 

And we now know what to target.

 

All I have to say is :
Smoke signals and flashing mirrors. Nothing to intercept.
Me knowum nothing, me seeum nothing.

 

If comm is not needed immediately, dead drop
send a runner, raise a flag, fire a flare if needed to communicate in a more timely fashion.

either way, change your cypher regularly and don't re-use it.

 

That was a given; so is such assets are always protected a certainty.

Why would one desire to seriously peeve off the enemy when all one needs to do is not transmit?

 

Sometimes, over vast distances, one MUST communicate with a patrol, outpost, or community. The Pony Express is dead. In a SHTF scenario, a post rider would be a brave, and possibly dead man. Expedient comms in a battle scenario are key as well, unless you have telepathy.

Damned if you do, damned if you do not. Pick yer poison.

 

Using Vietnam era TO&E, if you see a few 81mm mortars; you are looking at a line company. If you see 4.2" mortars it is H&HC which also means there are line companies in the AO.
To be effective at "recon;" one must learn how to interpret what one sees. If and when one sees RDF gear etc and "must" transmit; advise your whoever don't answer unless they are looking for a fight.
Remember, the RDF gear is there to locate targets for the Infantry or arty or air. So keying microphones is what they want. If you are looking at a platoon; most likely they wouldn't have RDF gear etc.
AFA, a battle, if and when you are in contact; it really doesn't matter anymore.

 

Somehow, I can't see a mode of transmission so stealth secure the military could not detect it could exist. However, intercepting FHSS (freq hopping spread spectrum) then reassembling the messages even with the messages not being encrypted sounds close to impossible. Detecting the existence of a signal, IMO, is another story.

If undetectable communications exist it would change every form of communications in land, naval or air warfare. Espionage could bug anything; real time covert communications from any place in the world..

However, I can easily see it being possible if they aren't looking or remotely paying attention.

The remotely was a reminder of when the Russians bugged the US embassy with a voice activated bug for six years.
The Great Seal Bug Story - Russian Eavesdropping - Leon Theremin

Civilian eXRS (Extreme radio service ); if anyone is interested in a 900 MHz narrow band FM radio which frequency hops: TriSquare - 2-way Radio - Beyond FRS Beyond GMRS eXRS (TM) eXtreme Radio Service

The Frequency hopping model is around $80 on Amazon.

 

I wonder if i remember my morse code and semaphor from my old boy scout days....

 

Hey BT how about recommending a common printing of the bible to all for a simple book code for future use. .

 

I used to raie pigeons. Slow and subject to predation and can carry only small
(coded) messages. But they work.

Just need to get some birds over to whomever I need to hear from.

Think of it as really slow texting.

 

BTP,
If and when the world crumbles; who will be looking?

The "Mototalk" iDEN supports ptt for short range phone to phone off network transmissions would probably suffice for 99%. The 1% is probably too close to a major force to worry about.
In typical LE work, they lean towards wanting to know what is said; military just wants a location.