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> including satellite phones, walkie-talkies, cellular towers, and GPS. How can they track gps devices? I thought gps devices are passive in the sense that the
by phero_cnstrcts 3y ago
> including satellite phones, walkie-talkies, cellular towers, and GPS.
How can they track gps devices? I thought gps devices are passive in the sense that they don’t emit any signals but only read signatures from satellites.
Or am I reading the article wrong?
- Aloha 3y agoEvery radio has a local oscillator that can be detected at some distance - from space however? I am highly skeptical.
- dreamcompiler 3y agoI think the gist of the article is that they are detecting active transmitters, not the IF of receivers.
- 1letterunixname 3y agoSMH. The majority of oscillators are shielded to prevent interference and to pass regulatory approvals. Civilian GNSS receivers are passive devices.
- jon_richards 3y agoThere are some dedicated GPS devices that phone home for things like tracking trucks.
- beebeepka 3y agoAh, but do they use cellular networks, which I presume is the standard, or some other technology?
- jon_richards 3y agoProbably application-specific. Satellite for ships, cellular for commercial trucks, radio for remote mining trucks. There are also panic buttons for remote backpackers that collect gps coordinates and send them to a satellite. All things I wouldn't call satellite phones, even if they're basically just more rudimentary versions. Looks like the quote was referring to something else, though.
- petre 3y agoThey use cell service or sat phone or some kind of sat service like GlobalStar. And they're suggestively called trackers, so there is no expectation of privacy. GNSS receivers are passive devices just like regular radio receivers, but in addition to regular radios they use math to process the deltas from GNSS satellite clock signals to pinpoint their position.
- 1letterunixname 3y agoThis isn't a function of GNSS modules. It's a combination of a cell phone module, a GNSS module (or a combination) with an embedded controller comprising an element of a field force/fleet management system.
- toomuchtodo 3y agoGNSS jamming devices. > (U//PROPIN) Additionally, HawkEye 360 satellites can detect RF signals in the GPS bands, as well as other GNSS systems, e.g. GLONASS. If detected by all three spacecraft, the RF energy from a GNSS interference can be geolocated to its point of origin using an adaptation of the company’s existing geolocation techniques. Due to the global coverage of the constellation, geolocation of GNSS jamming or spoofing can be conducted over denied areas without exposing airborne or terrestrial sensors or personnel to hostile conditions. So you can target these jamming devices with force projection and disable them to improve location services for local assets (force projection can typically switch to ring laser INS or terrain guidance when GNSS is degraded or unavailable during terminal phase).
- sudhirj 3y agoJust to be clear "force projection" is a euphemism for bombing the shit out of something?
- raccoonDivider 3y agoParking an aircraft carrier 2km from your shores counts I guess?
- justinjlynn 3y agoYes. The employment of which is also euphemistically known as a "kinetic military action".
- mrtksn 3y agoThe article claims: > HawkEye 360 satellites can detect RF signals in the GPS bands, as well as other GNSS systems, e.g. GLONASS Seems like a misunderstanding. They claim detection in that frequency, not GPS devices that listen to that frequency. So jammers, probably.
- thereisnospork 3y agoWithout knowing anything resembling specifics: (most) antennas are senseable -- they absorb a given frequency by design and ergo appear as 'black' when imaging a given spectrum. Exceptions to (most) include plasma antennas, which can disappear on demand.
- madengr 3y agoMost antennas actually have a large radar cross section (RCS), with simple dipoles being some of the worst. An infinitely thin dipole (a current filament) has a non zero RCS even though it has no physical cross section. In theory, a reflector antenna can have a zero RCS, so putting a reflector behind a dipole will reduce the RCS. It’s totally non-intuitive.