Seems like your average, everyday grocery getter, right?
Yeah, social engineering is fun, eh?
It houses open source SDR software and hardware not too different from “other” SIGINT programs .gov uses.
Interesting article and an interesting video from the developer– well worth your time. And while this exercise’s goal was to prove a couple points- being that cell phone SIGINT can be done relatively cheap when open sourced, and to prove that you are indeed being spied upon- the pointers given are not far out of reach, and can be done for far less than his $5000 price tag if one is more concerned with the simpler tactical communications realm of two way communications.
It can be as simple or as complicated as you want to make it, but SDR is an amazingly powerful piece of kit and an incredible frontier, and the options are nearly limitless. 
There’s no reason not to take advantage of it, even a basic $25 dongle and used laptop(preferably with a Linux build OS), if for nothing else to see what’s out there. And while Red’s setup is far more complicated than what’s shown at right, everything has to start somewhere.
Exploit the opportunity granted by cheap technology.
Does anybody know if a Wilson cell phone booster could be useable component for a home built cell system or in the SDR above? Lot of people use them in the Appalachian mountains, many places it is the only way to have signal. They work very well with the higher gain antennas, seem to me like a simple device, maybe it is possible to modify them for other uses? They are not large power hogs either.
It’ll increase your signature, for sure, as it was designed.
Otherwise, I’m not familiar enough with them to say one way or another.
Reblogged this on Starvin Larry.
Great – more stuff to dig into. Thanks.
yup…once again, BB highlights why RX is 2x more important than TX…As an IT guy, this system naturally fell into my realm with the addition of an RTL-SDR usb dongle, the mini F to M so239 adapter cable, up to a radshack wide band discone in attic, mounted on flag pole kit, totally covert, and running http://airspy.com/ SDR Sharp, between 24MHz and 1.8GHz i can sit in my little commo toc, and listen till my hearts content…lots of open source add ons too…
I will be adding this to a linux laptop for mobile RX as well…..For now, i am mainly concerned with my home AO/AI….
With Air Spy and your Discone, do you run into any issues with front end overload? With a 30ft random wire I had to do a lot of playing with the filters to get a usable product.
Neg….Failry intuitive, good layout, lots of support, you tube vids and stuff…Can add in HF scanning too…and virtual radar and plan plotter….its a linux or windows GUI, so pretty easy to use, imo….
http://airspy.com/quickstart/
also, the radshack discone specs are:
model 200-0043
Omni-directional Reception
25-1300MHz coverage
Stainless steel construction; 44″ height
Also transmits on 50, 144, 220, 440, 900
and 1296MHz ham band
Resonator and tunable whip for 50MHz use
Fits mast up to 1.5″ in diameter
Accepts PL-259 connector
Includes hardward for mounting to a mast
again, this little gem satisfied my needs, in my AO/AI and skill set/budget…
Wunderbar!