4 ms·
> Unless it was literally impossible to block internet access at all (some kind of unjammable starlink with undetectable receivers/transceivers?). Yah, these t
by mlyle 4y ago
> Unless it was literally impossible to block internet access at all (some kind of unjammable starlink with undetectable receivers/transceivers?).
Yah, these types of things would be hard to detect (just point an LNB at the southbound sky... no dish... cheap electronics...)
What it's not is turnkey or filled with a good feed of information that people would want at baseline. There's no adoption model besides being a dissident, and people tend to start planning for that too late.
- MichaelZuo 4y agoStarlink dishes are trivial to detect with even 1990s military technology when active. There's no way any satellite uplink can be hidden from a motivated adversary.
- mlyle 4y agoYes, but we're not talking about Starlink. I'm talking about Othernet, which I mentioned above. It is receive only-- not an uplink. (I'm sure a tiny bit of RF leaks out of the LNB, but that could be mitigated as it is not designed for stealth).
- lazide 4y agoSounds useless for the internet (where every protocol is fundamentally two way), but great for ‘Radio America’ type broadcasts. Of course, so is shortwave. definitely not solving the same ‘problem’ at all though.
- mlyle 4y agoYou're replying to a thread where I started by saying "Maybe the internet as a whole is intractable."
- runsWphotons 4y agocould you say this seven more times?
- mlyle 4y agoI'm worried I'll have to :/
- retrac 4y ago> I'm sure a tiny bit of RF leaks out of the LNB Any receiver using the heterodyne principle (this includes most current digital radio modems) is trivially detected by its local oscillator, often to some considerable range (potentially hundreds of metres). In the UK, the BBC used to exploit this, with radio detection vans patrolling the streets for unauthorized receivers, to fine people for watching TV without a license. So did the USSR with shortwave receivers, where the penalty was potentially more than a fine. A satellite receiver is the same, in principle.
- mlyle 4y ago> Any receiver using the heterodyne principle (this includes most current digital radio modems) is trivially detected by its local oscillator, often to some considerable range (potentially hundreds of metres). I'm sorry. This is not intrinsic; this is a design choice. Yes, most LOs just care about getting under legal emission masks, but there's nothing to prevent one from bringing it much lower. Further, as I explained: the LO frequency of the LNB for the first conversion is often the exact same frequency as you'd use to downconvert digital TV broadcast. > In the UK, the BBC used to exploit this, with radio detection vans patrolling the streets for unauthorized receivers, to fine people for watching TV without a license. They never found anyone in a way that could be used for prosecution. "A freedom of information act has revealed that TV Detector vans have never to date provided evidence to be used in court against the TV Licence Non-payer, and have therefore never succeeded in enforcing the TV licence." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TV_detector_van https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TV_detector_van
- retrac 4y agoIt's not intrinsic, no. It's possible to design a receiver with its local oscillator emissions to be down to an arbitrarily low emission standard. (But who actually does that?) And not all reception techniques require a local oscillator at all. Still. My point was merely that with an average radio, which was designed to just not be harmfully interfering, such as typical satellite TV receiver? It's quite possibly lit up like a beacon if you know what to look for.