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United Nations Expert Arrested in Tunisia for Using an RTL-SDR
- WrtCdEvrydy 7y agoReminds me of the 'This shirt is a munition'
- hawaiian 7y agoDoes an RTL-SDR usually lack a passive/monitor mode?
- sephamorr 7y agoRTL-SDR refers to repurposed USB TV tuners using RTL2832U chipsets. They do not have any transmit ability.
- markovbot 7y agoI'm not aware of an RTL-SDR that posses anything other than a passive/monitor mode
- errantspark 7y agoIt's possible, but hacky and not that useful [0] [0] https://www.rtl-sdr.com/using-the-rtl-sdr-as-a-transmitter/ https://www.rtl-sdr.com/using-the-rtl-sdr-as-a-transmitter/
- anilakar 7y agoThey do however leak their local oscillator through the antenna, albeit at really low signal levels. Two ham friends experimented with slow FSK across the room.
- LeoPanthera 7y agoRTL-SDR dongles cannot transmit. They are receivers only.
- gpm 7y ago> As Kartas holds UN diplomatic immunity, and as Tunisia is a member of the UN, the arrest and detainment is seen as illegal. This seems like it should be the bigger (though less on topic) deal.
- thrower123 7y agoIf the UN was some sort of real power in the world, it might be. However, it is really only as powerful as the US military makes it, and the current administration has a very dim opinion of the importance, the usefulness, and even the necessity of the UN.
- Iv 7y agoUS sphere of influence is huge, but the French-speaking Maghreb is not a place where US is the #1 influential foreign power. UN has the power that its members collectively attribute to it. It is far more than a US tool.
- colechristensen 7y agoUS foreign policy since WWII has been to maintain hegemony by (successfully) gently discouraging European military strength. The power of the rest of the membership is limited by design and has led to quite a lot of world peace. If you want evidence look at the long list of treaties the US has not signed [1] in order to not lose sovereignty to the international community. 1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_treaties_unsigned_or_unratified_by_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_treaties_unsigned_or_u...
- pjkundert 7y agoTranslation: “Don’t take us seriously, as a nation or a military power”.
- Iv 7y agoOn the contrary, the reason for this kind of arrest is usually a military paranoia over the import of military equipment. You may not take them seriously as a technological country, but such arrests indicate that the army is worried about the smuggling of military tech and has power to enforce checks.
- pjkundert 7y agoIf a $20.00 RTL-SDR dongle presents a risk to your military infrastructure — then you are confirming your incompetence. Now, this can be a valuable tactic; it is good to be underestimated by your opponent. I doubt this is intentional, though.
- ILMostro7 7y agoIf they're arresting people for even a $20 component/tool, then it stands to reason that they are more authoritarian and vigilant; not less of a threat or incompetent!
- Dylan16807 7y agoYou can be both vigilant and incompetent. For example, when you're being extremely vigilant over civilians noticing a glaring weak point instead of fixing it.
- errantspark 7y agoDamn, I wonder what countries my EDC kit could get me arrested in. I often carry one of those around, it's a lot of fun to listen in on ATC or just scan the spectrum for interesting signals.
- d6e 7y agoWhat does ATC stand for?
- pacificmint 7y agoAir Traffic Control
- gumby 7y agoNot clear as the article speculates that the SDR was simply used as a fig leaf for the real arrest motivation. They used to be illegal in Germany (along with wifi-specific sniffers): is this still the case?
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- CamperBob2 7y agoThese SDRs are technically illegal here in the US because they can pick up the old AMPS mobile phone band. AMPS is completely gone now, and that provision of the ECPA hasn't been enforced against individuals in a long time as far as I'm aware. But it's still on the books. ("When there aren't enough criminals, one makes them.")
- erlangNewb 7y agoMy EDC includes a Glock 30, would that get me in trouble?
- cheeze 7y agoFolks who feel a need to carry guns always have to let everybody on the internet know they pack heat. There isn't anything wrong with concealed carry, but damn if it isn't annoying to hear all of them talk about it.
- p1necone 7y ago> There isn't anything wrong with concealed carry As someone not from the US (New Zealand) the whole idea of regular people carrying concealed handguns around in public seems fucking insane to me.
- CamperBob2 7y agoAs someone who has read a history book or three, the idea of giving the government, military, and police a monopoly on weaponry (or radio receivers, for that matter) sounds even more insane. I guess it's a matter of perspective. Nominally off-topic for the thread as well, although I'd argue that both "gun control" and "SDR control" are two points on the same continuum. (Don't worry about the downvotes -- you'll get the karma back in a few hours, as soon as the Europeans start waking up.)
- ddeck 7y ago>the idea of giving the government, military, and police a monopoly on weaponry (or radio receivers, for that matter) sounds even more insane. I've heard this line of reasoning often when discussing this topic and never really understood. I'm curious - the government/military have tanks, aircraft, nuclear weapons etc. There is a massive imbalance of power regardless of whether citizens have guns. In what scenarios with respect to the government/military/police do you see being armed as providing an advantage? I can see the advantage from the police side in terms of more easily justifying shooting people ("he had a gun / I thought he had a gun"), but not from the citizens' side. I'm not advocating either side, I'm just curious to understand the genesis of this argument.
- maouida 7y agoOMG. I am Tunisian and was planing to buy an sdr dongle next month for research purposes. I guess if I had done it I would be in big trouble by now. It is well known here that customs are very suspicious about any device they do not recognize. Back in the early 2000s they were questioning people about their USB sticks!
- etrautmann 7y agoIt seems like this was politically motivated and if one were off the radar it may not be an issue. If you're concerned about someone looking for an excuse to arrest you, that might be an unfortunate cause for concern.
- maouida 7y agoHaving a beard is very enough to raise their suspicion as they will link you to terrorism without thinking twice. In 2015 I bought a metal detector online and they thought I will use it to search for monuments. They returned it and I was lucky it ended there.
- etrautmann 7y agoThat makes me appreciate what I currently take for granted here in the US
- necovek 7y agoLike having your phones and laptops searched (with you unlocking them) on entry? Or do you mean "here in the US if I am a citizen"? :)
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- sjfnsdug 7y ago>I bought a metal detector online A fellow Tunisian here, I tried several times to buy stuff online (listed with foreign currencies) using a regular credit card. But the transaction always fails. Since we don't have paypal either, I'm interested, how do you purchase stuff online using a foreign currency?
- amingilani 7y agoI'm getting a Cloudflare error 524. Hug of death? Here's a backup: https://web.archive.org/web/20190509030015/https://www.rtl-sdr.com/united-nations-expert-arrested-in-tunisia-for-using-an-rtl-sdr/ https://web.archive.org/web/20190509030015/https://www.rtl-s...
- ignoramous 7y agoMirror: https://outline.com/aeeu8G https://outline.com/aeeu8G
- Abishek_Muthian 7y agoSo if a tourist carries RTL-SDR device to listen to local music on FM radio, he/she/other is going to rot in jail or worse? Tunisia being a tourist hot spot I expected their customs to be knowledgeable enough to differentiate a malicious device. I think they had already made their mind to arrest this person and RTL device is just a scape goat (or) they were super paranoid for some reason & this person was just unlucky to have a USB device with a antennae which for the uninformed has spy gadget written all over it.
- oasisbob 7y agoGiven that an RTL-SDR is a device capable of receiving and intercepting all sorts of radio signals, I would be very careful of traveling with one unless I was intimately familiar with the relevant laws of the country I was traveling to.
- jwandborg 7y agoThe thing about an RTL-SDR is that it's just a TV/FM tuner, sold for that purpose, but with alternative drivers on the host you can use it for general RF tuning. My RTL-SDR is a cheap Chinese TV tuner dongle. They need access to his PC in order to prove that it's being used for other things than watching TV.
- antsar 7y agoThey [would] need access to his PC [if they needed] to prove that it's being used for other things than watching TV. Fixed that for you :)
- soulofmischief 7y ago> In Tunisia a charge of espionage could be punishable by death. > Tunisia is a member of the UN Umm... what? Logic tells me these two statements should be incompatible.
- sb057 7y agoThat would mean excluding Egypt, the United States, China, India, Russia, and Indonesia, or roughly half the world's population, or 3/5 permanent UNSC members.
- soulofmischief 7y agoGreat. Let's do it. Let's not give power to an international organization which condones this behavior.
- anonymousab 7y agoIt's hard to accomplish worldwide goals if you exclude half of the world - and the most powerful half at that - from the table.
- JimmyAustin 7y agoThe goal of the United Nation is to prevent another world war. Minor atrocities are accepted as long as everyone stays at the table.
- soulofmischief 7y agoI'd say it's failing in that respect as well.
- amanaplanacanal 7y agoI know I'm out of touch, but was there a world war I missed?
- kissickas 7y ago> RTL-SDR is a very cheap ~$25 USB dongle that can be used as a computer based radio scanner for receiving live radio signals in your area (no internet required). Depending on the particular model it could receive frequencies from 500 kHz up to 1.75 GHz. Most software for the RTL-SDR is also community developed, and provided free of charge. https://www.rtl-sdr.com/about-rtl-sdr/ https://www.rtl-sdr.com/about-rtl-sdr/
- themodelplumber 7y agoI believe you can still get in trouble with these in the US; last I checked, for example, New York has a law forbidding the use of police-radio-monitoring equipment to monitor police frequencies when placed in a vehicle, at least. I wouldn't be surprised to hear there are other cities with stricter laws, even NYC itself.
- jyriand 7y agoSorry for the stupid question, but why isn’t police using some kind of signal encyption, if they don’t want others listening in?
- mschuster91 7y agoBecause replacing analog radio with digital is expensive as everyone using it must be issued with new hardware (cops, fire trucks, EMS, public transport, military, secret services) and all relay/transmitter stations must be replaced too. Sometimes you actually have to build new stations especially underground/in big buildings because what in analog could be a bad, but understandable signal is undecipherable gibberish for a digital radio. It took Germany until something like ~3 years ago to finally do the switch.
- adrianN 7y agoI've heard multiple times that you sometimes get understandable speech out of an analog radio where a digital signal wouldn't work. That doesn't make sense to me. If there is enough signal left for a human to understand speech, surely there is enough signal left for a computer to understand something if you have an appropriately chosen amount of ECC applied in your protocol.
- csomar 7y agoCitizen of the said country here. > As Kartas' business in Tunisia was to present his findings on the arms embargo violations, other experts believe that the arrest is politically motivated, and that ownership of the RTL-SDR for espionage is simply being used as an excuse. No kidding. The government is failing on several fronts; and is trying to gain popularity by making fake moves (like finding and arresting a spy). They did that to several business man. The good news, they released them (no charges, no evidence, no nothing). The bad news, some of them were released only a year later. They had no right to a lawyer or a trial during that time. It was "investigation". This is possible because technically speaking the country is under martial-law which keeps getting renewed every month. The sad thing people are quite busy these days trying to find gas, milk and basic necessities. The interest on political and freedom-related news is way down from the first few years of the said revolution. It is funny because looking at the pictures, some parts of Tunisia are now in more dire straits than Venezuela. It is just not getting the media coverage.
- karatchov 7y agoTunisian here. The part about the goverment failing on mutiple fronts and trying to get popularity is mostly true. Comparing to Venezuela on the other hand is ... an overstretch at best.
- csomar 7y agoI used to think so. I think part of it is getting "used to the situation" and the other part is dramatization of the Venezuela crisis by the media. Our roads are worse, the streets are much dirtier, and unless you are living around lamarsa/lac, then food shortages are real. If you can afford them in the first place. I live in a "wealthy" neighborhood and yesterday there was a water cut. Yesterday I was at the airport. Looking at Venezuela/Caracas airport and comparing, the one here is much more degraded. What do you think is Venezuela situation? No electricity? It might as well be a reality here if the government doesn't get its shit together very soon.
- adventured 7y ago
- charliebrownau 7y agoUN and WHO are the puppets of the GLOBAL MARKIST LEFT
- house_atr 7y agoWell it was French spies that instigated the war against Libya..