Communication in times of emergency

glenn kangiser · October 29, 2008, 11:32:33 AM

Quote from: peternap on October 29, 2008, 11:18:09 AM
Foil Doesn't work against all scanners Glenn.

This quote will help you make a proper helmet.

I make helmets out of em. An armadillo shell is one of the only helmets that will block brain waves. Also make a pretty good soup bowl.

Thanks, Peter. Do they come in size "large"?

glenn kangiser · October 29, 2008, 11:34:47 AM

Quote from: Whitlock on October 29, 2008, 11:26:39 AM
Quote from: benevolence on October 29, 2008, 01:11:39 AM
Hey maybe we should all build our homes radio wave proof...Wouldn't that eliminate big brother from listening in?

I have built a few of these rooms. they were built out of 3x3x1/8 in. tubing for the framing With 1/8 in. sheet steel welded up solid. Basically they are a big square water tank. Over 3 miles of weld in the last one we built. No pin holes in the welds or the room will not pass.Big money for the doors. They are built similar to a large safe door. The big money is in the way they seal there is 8k gold moldings that are attached to the door and the door frame when the door is closed they line up kind of like a reverse dovetail joint. We never did the doors But I was there when they were installing one on one of the rooms and I asked if I could hold one of the 8k gold moldings. It was a small one and just by guessing I would say it weighed about 30 pounds!
Before you ask I only saw what was going on in one room that we had built. It seems someone had drilled a hole in the room to bring in some wiring. I was there to weld up the hole.
In this room they were doing laser testing. The room was 40x60 and at two corners and in the center of the room they had large crystals set up on pedestals with wires going to one or all of them I don't remember. The room was covered with large egg crate type material on the walls and at the other end of the room there were a lot of computers built into the walls.

Later,W

See -- there really is black chopper stuff going on....

October 29, 2008, 05:48:36 PM

Nothing is going on in that room Glenn, other than lazer testing

glenn kangiser · October 29, 2008, 09:53:45 PM

I still don't trust them...

muldoon · October 30, 2008, 03:01:57 AM

I work with comms a bit, mostly corporate in day to day but open to everything else on the side as personal interest.

Shortwave is good, very good. Even if you only have a receiver, hell even the 50 dollar radio from radio shack is quite decent for receiving but it would be better to have the ability to transmit as well. Ham radio is the best setup, and quite attainable for normal people to acquire if interested.

Also, dont discount 802.11 wireless. Consider the cantenna directional (yagi) antennas that can get IP connectivity line of site for long distances. Back in 2001 when I lived in Colorado I ran an 11megabit pipe from Pueblo to Pikes peak (some 80 miles or so) on consumer grade hardware that was point to point. Today I would add some additional pieces like a radius server and run WPA2 with EAP-TLS using x509 certificates that I seft signed to help lock it down and reject any other CA's. Then if your even more paranoid, use scp/sftp with AES for your normal transfers. Simple reliable tcp/ip communications are simply fantastic because it is stable, reliable, well understood, and available in every OS and with commodity hardware. Yes you may need to add some crypto components and use personal media to connect -- but its golden. Add an asterisk server and run voip over the link. bridge it off a neighbors wifi access point (most are open or just WEP) and leach internet access where you can.

I would add in a 3G cellular modem if the budget was open, because it does a decent job of giving digital data service. A 3meg satellite service is an option, or really even 5meg too if your Bill Gates.

With simple voice SIP backend you can source your dialtone out of anywhere in the world, you can get internet from a dozen or so sources (none linked back to you quite easily), and if you wanted you could even run a fax machine from it with an ATA adapter.

For personal radios, cant go too wrong with simple CB radios. The older ones have crystals, the newer ones all digital. Both can be manipulated to provide a "working set", ie buy 3 or 4 of them and alter them to be on the same freuqnecies that are not (exactly) fcc open or visible to others. If you have big coin you can get it directly as a service to have dedicated channels.

Farady cages are great for EMP pulses as they keep electronics alive and operational under an EMP action. One thing to consider is that the physiscs of a faraday cage is exactly met with a simple microwave, so get a dead one and keep your gear in it when not in use of you can.

October 30, 2008, 03:11:57 AM

a few other things come to mind on secure communications.

1 time pad. the concept is that you have a set of symbols(cypher) that essentially map to a message. It can be cryptic ie 0x0045 0x342a etc.. or it could be simple mapped.

Consider the following on craigslist:
"bail of hay, sitting in the field too long and need to get it off the hill, come and get it asap. signed. zxcasdqwe"

someone else could know to watch for that signature or other non obvious characterist and nknow in advance to interpret it as:
time to bail, headed for the hills, come when you can

..
block deception, there are many non obvious ways to hide data. In fact, an entire science around what is called stenography, or the art of hiding data in the open. well really, its hiding data within noise. Consider you turn your tv on and its not on a a channel, you get the gray fuzzy blur and the obnoxious noise. Could there be data in there? Could it be sine waves in the audio? Could there be subliminal data in the images?
look at http://steganography.qarchive.org/ for some more ideas... the key to getting away with it is to not be over the top.

glenn kangiser · October 30, 2008, 09:23:08 AM

Cool info, muldoon. I'd have to study to get up to date on this stuff but have a friend who send his internet from Madera to a place in the foothills - 20 miles or so I think.

apaknad · October 30, 2008, 12:14:56 PM

intersting about an old microwave being a faraday cage muldoon. i don't have the expetise to do some of the things you talked about but a cb w/line amplifier and a ham radio was about all i could afford or think of. if you have any other ideas or suggestions that would be helpful for us non-tekkies please let us know(KISM(variation on KISS)).

StinkerBell · October 30, 2008, 01:55:53 PM

--. --- / .-.. --- .-- / - . -.-. ....

October 30, 2008, 04:00:33 PM

go low tech

StinkerBell · October 30, 2008, 04:09:03 PM

MountainDon · October 30, 2008, 05:13:09 PM

.... .- ...- . / .- / --. .-. . .- - / -.. .- -.-- / ... - .. -. -.-

Interesting topic, but we're all over the place.

Emergencies come in different types...
Local
Regional
National
World Wide

And in different time frames
Short term
Longer term

Communications have two basic sub-categories
Receive information only; newspapers, radio including shortwave from around the world, television - over the air local, cable/satelite
Two way exchange; telephones, letters, CB & ham radio, internet

So what is it that concerns most here?

MountainDon · October 30, 2008, 05:19:33 PM

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StinkerBell · October 30, 2008, 05:26:55 PM

I will have a great day! Thanks!

.. / -.-. .- -. / .-. . .- -.. / .. -

October 30, 2008, 05:32:01 PM

Too

MountainDon · October 30, 2008, 05:33:27 PM

.... --- .-- / .-- .... . .-. . / -.. .. -.. / -.-- --- ..- / .-.. . .- .-. -. ..--..

StinkerBell · October 30, 2008, 05:36:03 PM

.... - - .--. ---... -..-. -..-. -- --- .-. ... . -.-. --- -.. . .-.-.- ... -.-. .--. .... .. .-.. .-.. .. .--. ... .-.-.- -.-. --- -- -..-. .--- - .-. .- -. ... .-.. .- - --- .-. .-.-.- .... - -- .-..

MountainDon · October 30, 2008, 05:46:23 PM

I struggled with the :// for a moment or so

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-.-. --- --- .-.. / .--. .- --. .

StinkerBell · October 30, 2008, 05:53:40 PM

--. .-.. .- -.. / -.-- --- ..- / .-.. .. -.- . / .. - .-.-.- / .-- .. - .... / .- / -. ..- -- . .-. .. -.-. / -.- . -.-- / .- -. -.. / .- / -.-. --- -- .--. ..- - . .-. --..-- / --- -. . / -.-. .- -. / -- .- -.- . / .- / - -.-- .--. . / --- ..-. / -- --- .-. ... . / -.-. --- -.. . / - .... .- - / .. ... / ..- -. -... .-. . .- -.- .- -... .-.. . .-.-.-

StinkerBell · October 30, 2008, 05:54:15 PM

Ya know glenn is going to accuse us of speaking martian.

October 30, 2008, 05:56:37 PM

Well I think we should sit back and smugly wait and see if anyone figures this out.

It's been fun.

MountainDon · October 30, 2008, 05:57:47 PM

--. --- - - .- / --. --- / -.-. --- --- -.- / -.. .. -. -. . .-.

MikeC · October 30, 2008, 09:21:13 PM

as the chicken farmer in napolean dyna_mite replied, i don't understand a word of what you just said.

muldoon · October 31, 2008, 02:45:23 AM

I got to check this out today in real life and was blown away. the cisco nerv truck; simply too cool. I was thinking about this thread during the presentation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-7Yw3WqQOSE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4pfRjWwyO8k

glenn kangiser · October 31, 2008, 01:13:56 PM

Stink and Don, it has been way too many years since I studied any of that. Surprising what you guys come up with.

I have several WWII ship signal shutters - using one as a window in the bedroom door.