We’re Moving
I’ve given this some thought, and after 30 years it’s time for a little evolution, and a change to a new direction. This domain will expire in a couple months, and I won’t be asking the sponsor to renew it. What was known as “Cyber-Tek” will be getting rebranded.
Our new home is at:
Https://www.dystonautlabs.com/
See you there!
Thank you Brian for giving us a place on the Net to hang our hat while we figured a few things out.
Don’t visit DC on January 6th.
As January 6th. approaches, the accountant in us does a cost analysis.
Three days wages at $15/hour – $360
Two Night Hotel Stay – $450
Round trip Plane Ticket – $250
Meals for 3 days – $150
Car Rental for two days – $75
Total – $1,285
A trip to DC to go rally for a loser would cost you around $1,300. Most of us who have lives in the real world barely have two Nickels to rub together, yet alone $1,300 to go spend a day in a shithole. If we did happen to come across the money, we have much better things to invest in. Stuff that will be helpful in the future.
The election was not “stolen” from Donald Trump. He either alienated the unaffiliated and undecided voters more than Joe Biden did, or if the system is truly corrupt and rigged, failed to play the game better than Biden. I’m saying it was the former because HUMINT and OSINT indicated that many conservative voters, especially those in the RKBA movement and in the rural West, did not vote for him out of spite because of his executive order bump-stock ban, and because they considered him a fake conservative. The simple fact that he wants his supporters to blow almost a week’s worth of wages on an 11th hour rally tells me a lot about him, and it paints him in a poor light.
The reality is that based on my experiences and observations from living on the East Coast and Intermountain West, both the Democrats and the Republicans have some good ideas mixed in with some really bad ones, and that it takes the unaffiliated voters who just want a normal fucking life to keep both parties in line and have them rein in their more extreme elements. The simple fact, based on voter registration records, is that both of the two major parties are more or less evenly matched in numbers on a nationwide basis, and have to avoid pissing off the rest of us if they want to stay in power.
Republicans and Conservatives need to start planning now so that maybe they have a chance again in four years. Democrats and Liberals need to check themselves and not be total ass-hats for the next four years or they too may find themselves on the outside because they pissed off enough unaffiliated and undecided voters to the point where the Republicans are the lesser evil the next time around. Discussion of governmental corruption and voter fraud, and the possible responses to same is something that is probably best done in a SCIF, if you catch my drift. If you don’t know what a SCIF is, then you have a bit to learn. The word “insurrection” has come up in discussion before on both sides of the fence, and the next administration might do a little more than just talk.
So what to do then?
Those of you within RF LOS of DC might have a great opportunity this week if enough people ignore my advice. Hopefully you have SIGINT gear up and running so you can take advantage of it. For the rest of you, the seed catalogs have come in, and Spring will be here soon enough. While the morons and gullible asshats go blow their money at their pity party and circle-jerk session, you can help make America germinate again, and at the end of the day have something useful to show for it.
When you have everything planted, perhaps you might want to learn something new and useful. Here are a couple websites to help you out:
http://www.forrestmims.org/
https://www.tinaja.com/
https://hackaday.com/
https://makezine.com/
http://www.adafruit.com/
http://www.thegoodlifelab.com/
https://www.elenco.com/
https://www.cavemanchemistry.com/
Some of those sites sell interesting books and items that you will find useful, educational, and beneficial. You will be much better off afterwards, and will have spent much less than $1300. Maybe $50-$100 to get started.
What an I doing on January 6th? I have a day job, and will be working that day. When I get home, I’ll probably go fuck around in my lab if I have some free time after doing all the daily adult shit you need to do when you own a house. While I have enough paid vacation time to take a few days off, DC in the Winter is not even close to being on the list of potential destinations when there are plenty of places in the North Country that are less crowded and have excellent trails for snowshoeing. I could bring the family here, or we could go here.
If you are reading this, and have a favorite place in the Northeast to go snowshoeing or cross-country skiing, please send me an email – ticom.new.england@gmail.com.
Agent Lee Reports
Nashville
I’m going to start by saying I don’t give a fuck about who the guy was, or why he chose to park his VBIED in front of an AT&T Switching Center. I am glad he at least had the decency to warn people that he was about to blow himself up, and while I have no love for the phone company, there are, if the reviews have any credence, a lot of decent restaurants that were caught in the blast zone who now have yet more bullshit to deal with besides COVID-19. So, in my opinion “Anthony Quinn Warner” was an asshole just for the fact that he fucked with the livelihoods of a bunch of people who provide folks with good food and good times when they take their family or significant other out for a nice evening. He might have been an asshole with some morals, but he was still an asshole.
The one piece of truth that did come out of this incident is the necessity for having some back-up communications capability on hand for when your phones and Internet stop working. We recently had some typical winter weather in New England, and Nashville just had someone set off a bomb in front of the phone company. Both incidents had the same effect.
Have your family members get their Technician class ham license. Put a 2 meter (or 2 meter/440) base in your house with a decent antenna. Install a mobile rig in your cars. Toss an HT in your day bag with extra batteries. Figure out what repeaters you can hit from both home and work, and if you can communicate along your commute on simplex. Now when your phone stops working you have a way to let your spouse know that 1. You’re OK, and 2. You’re on your way home and should be expected within NN minutes.
The next thing your should do is get a police scanner and program in whatever local public safety communications systems are monitorable in your locale. Now you are set to know what’s going on whether it’s a blizzard or a bombing without having to deal with the establishment mass media talking heads.
You don’t have to believe in Civil War 2, TEOTWAWKI, QAnon conspiracies, or any other nonsense like that, because anyone with a whit of common sense is able to easily observe first hand that things break, and that it’s a good idea to have a few things in place for when they do. As far as the nonsense goes, if you’ve read, practiced, and applied the material in those intelligence manuals I shared earlier, you should be on your way to building up a rather nice bullshit filter.
In the meantime, here are some sites to help you out:
http://www.arrl.org/exam-practice
http://www.arrl.org/find-an-amateur-radio-license-exam-session
| Posted in Amateur Radio, COMINT, communications, Communications Monitoring, Conspiracy Theory, DIY, Idiots, Assholes, and Nutjobs, Preparedness, self-reliance, SIGINT | No Comments »
Saturday Night’s All Right For Scanning
I reported two weeks ago about the loss of my primary VHF/UHF communications monitoring antenna after almost 20 years of yeoman service. Despite being a unity-gain, albeit wide-spectrum, antenna, the Diamond discone performed well, and monitoring distances out to 60 miles in certain directions were possible, allowing us to hear as far as Long Island and the Catskills.
Last night I decided to make two determinations. The first was to see how far one might possibly listen with an inside antenna, and the second was to see what one could listen to in this locale that was not P25 Phase II or encrypted. I listened for one hour (2100-2200 EST) yesterday evening monitoring the VHF & UHF public safety, and VHF aircraft bands. Listening location was Plymouth, CT ( Maidenhead Grid FN31lq). Elevation was ~800′ ASL which is maybe a little higher than average terrain in the area. Equipment was a whistler WS1040 handheld scanner with a 22″ telescoping whip antenna (approx resonant frequency 130 MHz.).
In the course of one hour I logged 28 frequencies. Six of those frequencies were VHF aircraft band. One was VHF-low band. Four were P25. None were encrypted. Overall it was a quiet evening. Longest distance received on public safety bands was 35 miles. Not surprisingly this distance was achieved with the aid of terrain as Stratford, CT is right down the Naugatuck River valley on the Long Island Sound shore, and Clove Mountain, NY is at 1400′ ASL giving it a decided height advantage being 600 feet above us, and 200 feet above the next highest elevation on the RF path. Being that the frequency was on VHF-low band didn’t hurt either. VHF Aeronautical band reception was typical, and >100 Mile reception range of in-flight aircraft is to be expected when the transmitter is up at >30,000′ ASL. Being snuggled up against TRACON N90 ensures that there is always plenty of radio traffic to be heard from 118-137 MHz., and plenty of it can be heard with just a rubber duck antenna indoors.
The following frequencies were logged during this exercise:
- 46.360 – FM – CSQ – Dutchess County, NY FD
- 118.475 – AM – Waterbury/Oxford TWR
- 132.175 – AM – ZNY Elk Mountain
- 132.825 – AM – Albany (NY) APP/DEP
- 133.425 – AM – ZBW Woodstock
- 134.3000 – AM – ZBW Kingston
- 135.800 – AM – ZBW Islip
- 151.0325 – NFM – PL 67.0 – Beacon Falls, CT FD
- 151.3700 – NFM – PL 82.5 – Seymour, CT FD
- 152.3225 – P25 – NAC 033 – Torrington, CT PD
- 153.1250 – NFM – PL 179.9 – Tolland County, CT Dispatch “TN”, West/Vernon (FD/EMS)
- 154.1300 – NFM – PL 74.4 – Meriden, CT FD
- 154.1900 – NFM – DPL 205 – Farmington, CT FD
- 154.3100 – NFM – PL 167.9 – Hartford, CT FD
- 154.3100 – P25 – NAC FD2 – Stratford, CT FD
- 155.1075 – PL 82.5 – Litchfield County, CT Dispatch “LCD” (FD/EMS)
- 155.2275 – NFM – PL 179.9 – Vernon, CT FD
- 155.2350 – NFM – PL 97.4 – American Medical Response (AMR), Bridgeport, CT
- 155.4900 – NFM – PL 162.2 – East Hampton, CT PD
- 158.7750 – NFM – DPL 343 – Washington, CT “town channel”
- 158.7825 – NFM – PL 186.2 – Oxford, CT FD
- 158.9775 – NFM – PL 162.2 – Oxford, CT EMS
- 159.0300 – P25 – NAC 110 – Plainville, CT PD
- 453.1875 – NFM – DPL 743 – Tolland County, CT Dispatch “TN”, West/Vernon (FD/EMS)
- 460.3250 – NFM – PL 203.5 – Watertown, CT PD
- 460.6000 – P25 – NAC 293 – Thomaston, CT PD
- 462.9500 – NFM – PL 192.8 – Northwest CT C-MED
- 462.9750 – NFM – PL 118.8 – North Central CT C-MED
Connecticut has a bit of a reputation in the scanning community with the recent upgrade of the state’s trunked system to P25 Phase II and the widespread use of encryption on public safety radio systems. It has led many to claim that communications monitoring with low to mid-tier equipment is difficult to impossible in this state. Yet, at present there is still plenty of COMINT potential with a simple P25 Phase I capable unit monitoring conventional (non-trunked) radio systems in the state.
Like many other matters dystonautic, when it comes to local COMINT it is important for you to do your own independent research and not reply on the often incorrect information found online.
| Posted in COMINT, communications, Communications Monitoring, SIGINT | No Comments »
Applied Critical Thinking
This is “officer grade” material from TRADOC G2 Intelligence Support Activity (TRISA) in Ft Leavenworth, KS. As such, your average prepper bloggers would not be aware of its existence, until now. I present it for your personal education and edification.
https://fas.org/irp/doddir/army/critthink.pdf
When you have asshole pundits and bloggers posting fake news stories about Chinese invasions, and throwing out dire warnings of events they make up in their head, the ability to perform critical thinking is necessary these days.
In 1990 when Consumertronics published my first book, I had estimated that the country would have at most six years before a total collapse. Thirty years later the status quo remains. So when some Johnny-come-lately who has only been blogging for five years says there is going to be a civil war tomorrow, I’m skeptical because Johnny has not been around long enough to make that prediction. Especially when Johnny was barely out of kindergarten when I wrote my first book. If he, however, uses the methodology in ATP 2-33-4 and shows his work, I might lend some credence to the claim.
Want to learn more? Check out https://fas.org/irp/doddir/army/.
| Posted in military intelligence, OSINT, Preparedness, red team, self-reliance, survivalist | No Comments »
Hal Turner – China, Fact & Fantasy
Unlike many writers affiliated with the self-reliance and preparedness scene, Cyber-Tek/Dystonaut Labs and most of our affiliates maintain communications listening posts to collect and process Signals Intelligence (SIGINT), and specifically COMINT (Communications Intelligence). Since for the majority of our 30 year existence we and most of our people have been located in the Northeast, it’s safe to say that we have this region covered pretty well. Well enough that we can hear the proverbial flea fart in a windstorm, especially if the flea is in New England.
Considering this capability, it came as a surprise to discover we might have missed hearing and noticing two Chinese Divisions coming into Maine, particularly the 200-plus transport flights that would have been required just for the personnel, not to mention all their gear and provisions. Having had a front row seat for the Desert Shield deployment at Ft. Sill, and then later having to get a reserve component Field Artillery unit ready for activation, I can tell you from personal experience that the preparations for invading a country are very noticeable even to someone who is not paying attention.
Upon hearing that this bit of fake news came from Hal Turner, we considered his past as an FBI informant, and figured it was just a bit of creative fiction to make a little money and get a few of his more stupid, gullible, or unstable listeners to go do something that will get them arrested.
We’ve talked about Honey Pots and Wire-Jiggling in a previous blog entry. That’s when a someone tries to get their opposition to do something stupid, in the hopes they get busted or are otherwise neutralized. A lot of Maine is rural with small towns where everybody knows one another. Some batshit crazy conspiracy theorist from New Jersey going up there to do something about a fake Chinese invasion would stand out as much as a division of PLA, and would be easy to identify, isolate, and incarcerate.
With that said, pundits such as Hal Turner serve a useful purpose for several private groups that are loosely affiliated with Dystonaut Labs. They are used as a filter in part of the process to disqualify prospects who might cause the group problems later. If your group is smart it will do the same.
And now it’s the time for facts instead of fantasy.
Those of you looking for accurate information of Chinese military capability can consult the following links:
https://www.dia.mil/FOIA/FOIA-Electronic-Reading-Room/FOIA-Reading-Room-China/
https://news.usni.org/2019/01/15/dia-chinese-military-power-report
Readers on the West Coast who are into hobbyist SIGINT and COMINT would find China to be a worthy target, and have a better chance of successful collection efforts. For starters, refer to the following links:
http://chinesemilitaryradio.blogspot.com/
http://www.numbersoddities.nl/Chinese-military-nets.pdf
Unlike conspiracy theory informant assholes such as Hal Turner, we would rather not feed bullshit to, nor see our readers go to jail for doing stupid shit, and instead would rather provide factual information to help our readers conduct proper OSINT and SIGINT operations so they can know what’s really going on in the world around them. Hopefully the background information we’ve provided to you gets your off to a good start.
If you found this article useful, please consider making a donation to help offset our costs for research and development.
| Posted in China, COMINT, Communications Monitoring, Conspiracy Theory, Hal Turner, Idiots, Assholes, and Nutjobs, maine, New England, PLA, SIGINT, social media | No Comments »
Service Life Of Deployed Antennas
During some antenna maintenance this past weekend, two antennas that have been deployed for quite a while failed their functional checks, and were removed from service. The cause of failure on both antennas was due to degradation by weather and other environmental conditions.
The first antenna was an Alpha J-Pole Jr. originally installed in 2009 or 2010, and had been in service until this past weekend. After 10 or 11 years in service, moisture had finally penetrated the seal on the transformer unit. This issue caused a significant change in the normal SWR readings across the HF bands during transmit (100 watts power output). SWR readings via an Antenna Analyzer gave no indication of a problem. The antenna was retired after usable parts were salvaged. While unfortunately moisture had migrated through the SO-239 connector and into the coax, the zip cord used for the radiating element was still in serviceable condition, and 4:1 balun could be substituted for the original transformer, getting one on the air again with a J-pole, or as the OTs called it, and end-fed Zepp.
The second antenna was a Diamond Discone that was installed in 2001. This antenna had finally suffered the effects from UV degradation of the plastics insulating the top from the bottom elements. This issue was detected by the noticeable degradation in received signal strength of several transmitter stations used for RX check/reference purposes. This antenna had performed yeoman service dealing with the New England climate over the past 20 years.
Nothing lasts forever, but considering the varying weather conditions these antennas have had to deal with over the years, their longevity in service has left me suitably impressed.
How’s that secure email service working?
Not very well, it seems.
Elsewhere
https://ticom.livejournal.com/386252.html