[BC] FCC Modulation measurements

[Dana Puopolo]

15 years ago, I went to the FCC office in Quincy, MA to pick up a form. Vic
was there and he saw that I had my 2 way walkie with me. He said to me "check
this out"  We went back into their radio room and he asked me for my radio. It
was a modified Heath/Standard walkie and was on (oh oh) WHDH's 2 way repeater
frequency (I was CE at the time). He looked, grinned at me (He knew!), punched
the frequency into a computer keyboard and pushed the transmit button.
IMMEDIATELY, the screen on the computer popped up and showed a map with a
mark-right where we were!  THEN he hit a function key and this funny looking
trace appeared. He smiled and said, "This is our newest tracking system. It
works immediately!".
And that-he pointed to the screen-is the fingerprint of your radio's
transmitter! No two are exactly the same.

He told me that they used three sites (including one right where they are-they
are on a big hill-not by accident!) and it was accurate to better than 100
feet.

I was blown away.

NOW, I understand they can use this capability from their Explorers...

-D


------ Original Message ------
Received: Wed, 03 Oct 2007 07:08:22 PM EDT
From: R A Meuser <rameuser at ieee.org>
To: "Broadcasters' Mailing List" <broadcast at radiolists.net>
Subject: Re: [BC] FCC Modulation measurements

This is true but the military has had the capability for over 50 years.




WFIFeng at aol.com wrote:
> In a message dated 10/03/2007 6:35:52 PM Eastern Daylight Time, 
> rameuser at ieee.org writes:
> 
> 
>>I seriously doubt that is the case. If it were you would see similar 
>> gear in the commercial market. The FCC needs a traceable standard and I 
>> doubt there is anything around that exceeds their tried and true method.
> 
> 
> The Military has stuff like this... monitoring constantly, to grab any
little 
> signal from potential enemy sources... no matter how fleeting, if it's
there, 
> they know about it and can ID the transmitter next time it keys.
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