4 ms·

Interesting...the article posits, if frequencies can be discovered, it might be possible to intercept/capture transmissions from the satellite, when in range, u

Interesting...the article posits, if frequencies can be discovered, it might be possible to intercept/capture transmissions from the satellite, when in range, using something as simple as a ham radio or SDR dongle (police scanner)... My understanding of satellite coms is that many satellites are of the "relay" class, and use TDRS--Tracking and Data Relay Satellite--to bounce signals from satellite to satellite when a ground station is not in line of sight...NASA, for instance... I wonder what the N. Korean coms protocol is...?

viraptor 11y ago
That's assuming it's not encrypted. A lot of the data coming in is transmitted in plain right now, (comms, images, telemetry, ...) because it's just not worth encrypting, or simply could be of interest to other parties. But if anyone wants to put encryption on the data, you're not going to find out much. That said... it's passing right over me in a few minutes, so I'll be out monitoring the 4xx freqs :) Edit: in case anyone was wondering - nothing exciting happened. No sign of new signals during a perfect pass: https://i.imgur.com/rMC6gIE.png https://i.imgur.com/rMC6gIE.png (at least not at those freqs they used previously)
- Outdoorsman 11y ago
  Agreed... Three years ago they put a satellite in orbit...orbit is decaying for that one... Of course, there's quite a bit of speculation that they're more interested in testing rockets than orbiting a functioning satellite... http://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-missile-idUSKCN0RR00R20150927 http://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-missile-idUSKCN...
- VeilEm 11y ago
  > because it's just not worth encrypting That seems unlikely to be the reason but I don't know much about how satellites are programmed. On the terrestrial plane a $5 raspberry pi with free software can encrypt and decrypt secure communication. It's trivial and cheap to encrypt.
  - jjoonathan 11y ago
    Raspi isn't rad-hardened and wouldn't last long (about a month is typical if memory serves). Still, rad-hardening a processor wouldn't exactly be the hardest part of the project so the point stands.
    - mschuster91 11y ago
      Just wrap it up in 5cm lead to protect it from alpha, beta and most gamma radiation.
- marak830 11y ago
  I was checking back to see what you got. Thank you for the update.

viraptor 11y ago

That's assuming it's not encrypted. A lot of the data coming in is transmitted in plain right now, (comms, images, telemetry, ...) because it's just not worth encrypting, or simply could be of interest to other parties. But if anyone wants to put encryption on the data, you're not going to find out much. That said... it's passing right over me in a few minutes, so I'll be out monitoring the 4xx freqs :) Edit: in case anyone was wondering - nothing exciting happened. No sign of new signals during a perfect pass: https://i.imgur.com/rMC6gIE.png https://i.imgur.com/rMC6gIE.png (at least not at those freqs they used previously)

Outdoorsman 11y ago
Agreed... Three years ago they put a satellite in orbit...orbit is decaying for that one... Of course, there's quite a bit of speculation that they're more interested in testing rockets than orbiting a functioning satellite... http://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-missile-idUSKCN0RR00R20150927 http://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-missile-idUSKCN...
VeilEm 11y ago
> because it's just not worth encrypting That seems unlikely to be the reason but I don't know much about how satellites are programmed. On the terrestrial plane a $5 raspberry pi with free software can encrypt and decrypt secure communication. It's trivial and cheap to encrypt.
- jjoonathan 11y ago
  Raspi isn't rad-hardened and wouldn't last long (about a month is typical if memory serves). Still, rad-hardening a processor wouldn't exactly be the hardest part of the project so the point stands.
  - mschuster91 11y ago
    Just wrap it up in 5cm lead to protect it from alpha, beta and most gamma radiation.
marak830 11y ago
I was checking back to see what you got. Thank you for the update.