A short thread on training tips & lessons learned from the Signals Intelligence Course last weekend in southern MO.

Packed house and a very diverse set of experience among the students ranging from having never touched a radio to a retired SOT-A instructor. I brought the gamut of equipment ranging from scanners (uniden SDS-100) & communications receivers (AOR DV-10) to supplying the class with TinySA Ultras spectrum analyzers. The winning combo for targeting the broadest range of signals is the TinySA and the AOR DV-10, hands down.

(THREAD) Had a mountain of good feedback after last night's quick thread on HF. Had a few questions on resources / references also.

BLUF, HF has a very steep learning curve and can be a major source of frustration without solid help. So let's dive in. As I pointed out last night, antenna is everything. Just like with rifles, brands and features are meaningless if your fundamentals suck. Think of your antenna as the barrel of your weapon - nothing makes up for a shitty barrel.

(THREAD) Let's talk a little HF and antennas. What's HF? High Frequency (3-30mHz) that allows for regional and even global communications. HF is extremely important for long-distance regional, off-grid communications. This evening I was contacted by a friend and retired Marine Officer with questions regarding one of his local guy's HF struggles. The learning curve is steep, even more so when you're not in a class with a competent instructor to break down the complex into the simple.

(thread) Let's talk a little communications tradecraft; Backchannels.

Back channels are, in short, a compartmentalized method of communications that isolated one covert from another, overt, method of communicating which is likely under surveillance. Back channels are created with contacts for clandestine purposes. You may or may not have an overt connection to these persons (whether that's in person or digitally) but the requirement for clandestine communication exists.

THREAD: So, since someone just asked about Single Side Band (SSB), let's dive into it. There's a few different ways RF is modulated by a radio: Frequency Modulation (FM), Continuous Wave (CW), Phase Modulation and finally, Amplitude Modulation (AM). SSB is part of AM. Anyone who's worked HF knows that voice (AKA phone) is done via SSB, either lower (LSB) or upper (USB). What this means in layman's terms is that an AM signal is split in half for efficiency's sake.

A short thread on radio references, since a BUNCH of you are asking...

Here's what's on my bookshelf and why. I wrote the antenna chapter in my book intended to be an easy to follow, step by step instruction manual to build a few very basic utility antennas. The SF Antenna Handbook from 1974 goes deep into it in a simple to read way:
amzn.to/3Rchdrk

Let's talk about some of the reasons your metadata, and specifically what's tied to your phone, is a big problem. (thread) So the question surrounding messaging apps, encryption, security, device tradecraft, legalities, so on an so forth. We can distill this down to a simple concept: if you're at all involved in anything political, consider yourself a target of interest.

(thread) So, looks like its time for a little pro bono education and a crash course in real world clandestine communications.

https://twitter.com/Shadzey1/status/1696547134743408808

White / Red / Black.

Its a process of compartmentalization that creates the baseline of tradecraft regarding who you're talking to. White is surface level, or known associations between individuals, best understood as overt.

1/ Suggested gear from the book, since so many people are asking for links (THREAD):
amzn.to/3Ck5YVk 2/ Much of the book's contents apply to literally any VHF / UHF radio, and some of the techniques, particularly digital operations can be done on HF as well. That said, the basic model of Baofeng radio with tri-band capability:
amzn.to/3Qcom8E

@k9_reaper @madmanactual @usgeneral25 @COLMikeBennett1 @DolioJ @wayofftheres

Alright, as promised, SigInt mitigation lesson time. So I have three tools pictured.

1. Baofeng AR-152
2. frequency counter
3. Alinco DJ-X11T wideband receiver

Everyone knows what #1 does. #2 displays the closest strongest frequency transmitting at a given moment and displays it with any CTCSS tones. #3 also does this, and scans