Communications Systems and Technology

Technology

There is a great deal of communications technology available to us today. I’m going to cover, very briefly, a few devices I think anarchists could use.

Scanners

Radio scanners are invaluable tools for gathering information that is being broadcast by someone else. They work by scanning through a great number of frequencies in a short amount of time looking for active broadcasts. When an active broadcast is found, the scanner stops so the user can listen to it.

The FCC—the agency responsible for allocating radio frequencies for different uses—typically allocates a certain “band,” or group of frequencies, for each technology. This means that if, for example, you wanted to listen to the transmissions of air traffic controllers, you could get on the internet and find out that the FCC has allocated the range of frequencies from about 960 MHz to about 1215 MHz for that purpose. You could then use a scanner to search rapidly between these frequencies, picking up any transmission that occurred. With the right scanner, potentially connected to the right computer, you could listen in on almost anything.

For the purposes of this article, I’ll focus on monitoring police frequencies. Believe it or not, most police frequencies are broadcast in the clear for anyone with a scanner to listen to. I guess it’s done that way so reporters and military veterans can listen in and feel up-to-date or something.

Getting Started

Scanning your local police department may be easier than you ever imagined. I suggest going online and using google.com to search for local frequencies. Radio hobbyists are a resourceful and charitable bunch, and they usually post the frequencies they find on the internet. Another place you can find frequencies is in books or magazines. Radio Shack carries a book that lists many of the police, fire, and EMT frequencies in the country. If all else fails, you can usually find police channels by scanning around, especially between 150Mhz and 160Mhz. They’re not difficult to recognize!

Once you have the frequencies, consult your scanner’s manual (you did keep it, right?). Depending on your scanner, you should be able to program all the police frequencies into a “bank” of frequencies, so as to scan only that bank. If you can do this, you’ll hear just the police frequencies. Next, you’ll have to adjust the squelch. What is that, you ask? Typically, there will be a knob on your radio next to the volume knob. This is squelch. When you turn it all the way down, you will hear that nasty radio noise you hear when your car radio isn’t turned to a station. Slowly turn up the squelch and the noise will go away. This is a necessary step, because it adjusts your scanner for the amount of noise that is in your area. If you don’t do this, your radio won’t be able to differentiate between a real signal and mere noise. OK, now you’re ready to start scanning.

When you first start scanning, the police may sound like they’re speaking some utterly unrecognizable dialect of English. Don’t be put off—keep listening, and things will start to make sense. The first thing you’ll probably pick up on is them running names, license plates, and so on. They’ll broadcast full names, birth dates, addresses, and social security numbers. You’ll also start to recognize when they’re being dispatched, to which locations, and what for. Sometimes an officer will even announce his home phone number right over the air! The more you listen, the better you’ll get at figuring out their jargon.

Tip: You may find that a key to the “police code”—the jargon used on the air by your local police department—is available for download off the internet.

Trunking

When looking for frequencies on the internet, you may find that the agency you want to listen to uses a “trunking” system. What the hell is that?

The term “trunking” refers to a system that uses advanced technology to split up a limited amount of radio frequencies. Imagine that the government of a large city—say, Chicago—wants to set up a radio network. Chicago is a very big city and has a great deal of communications needs. The Police Department, the Fire Department, the Parks Department, the Water Department, the garbage collectors, and many more all need to communicate, and many of these agencies will need to use at least a few frequencies. This creates a problem, because radio frequencies are not an abundant resource. Even a hundred or so frequencies might be impossible to come by. So, someone figured out how to utilize fewer frequencies for more activity. Most people using a radio aren’t using it all or even most of the time. Let’s say that Chicago needs a hundred separate channels, but they'll only use each channel about ten percent of the time. That means that if there were a way to share frequencies, they could put all 100 channels on only ten frequencies. This is what trunking does.

When dealing with a trunking system, one is presented not with frequencies but with “workgroups.” Every radio is assigned to a workgroup, and each workgroup has a different purpose. The police, for example, might have five different workgroups representing different districts. The system is controlled by a computer that broadcasts a digital signal on its own frequency. Whenever someone in a certain workgroup presses the button to broadcast something, the computer assigns them a frequency to broadcast on and tells every other radio in that workgroup to listen to that frequency. In use, the system is totally transparent; it doesn’t seem any different than using any other radio.

What does this mean for you? First, if the agency you want to listen to uses a trunking system, you will need a trunking scanner. There are several different trunking systems, so before getting a scanner, figure out which kind you’ll need. The scanner I have can scan Motorola or EDACS trunked systems, which account for almost all of them. You’ll also have to read your manual and learn how to program in the system you want to listen to. It’s not that hard, I promise! Also, if you’re scanning around and hear a bunch of random tidbits that don’t relate to one another all on the same frequency, you’re probably listening to bits of a trunked system.

A very small amount of agencies are now using “digital” trunking. I don’t know much about this yet, except that you have to get a really expensive scanner to follow it. If your local department uses this, you might be shit out of luck.

If used properly, a scanner can keep you one step ahead of the police in the streets. At a recent small-scale street protest in a little college town, we used one to learn where police were setting up, how many of them there were, and what their standing orders were. They even unknowingly helped us find the local Starbucks and Army recruiting station! This allowed us to maneuver around town without getting cornered, and to disperse before they were ordered to arrest us. Not bad!

FRS/GMRS Radio

I most frequently see people at protests attempting to communicate by means of FRS (Family Radio Service) or GMRS (General Mobile Radio Service) walkie-talkies. These radios are often available on the “optional payment plan” at department stores, outdoor stores, Wal-Mart, and so on. Though they are cheap or free, these radios have severe limitations.

The Family Radio Service is one of the “Citizen’s Bands” designated by the FCC to permit families and friends to communicate over short distances. You don’t have to have a license to use one. However, the FCC has severely limited the output power on FRS radios, which means that at most they have only a one mile range. In practice, this range is much shorter, especially in major cities where there are many tall concrete buildings and other kinds of interference. My humble opinion is that these radios are totally useless in any important situation. They are simply not reliable, not to mention static-ridden. I’ve seen FRS radios fail to communicate over a distance of only one block!

The General Mobile Radio Service is a radio service specifically established by the FCC “for short-distance two-way communications to facilitate the activities of an adult individual and his or her immediate family members.” The regulations allow for more powerful transmitters (1 to 5 watts), which means that GMRS radios have a significantly greater range. These radios tend to be much higher quality. However, in order to legally operate a GMRS radio, you must first obtain a license from the FCC. I am still somewhat dubious about how effective these radios can be in direct action, but they are definitely a much better option than FRS radios.

The operation of FRS and GMRS radios is basically the same, and usually very simple. There is typically a small LCD screen that displays a number prominently. This is the channel you’re operating on. Everyone who wishes to communicate together must set their walkie-talkie to the same frequency. Some radios also have what is referred to as a “decoder” or “digital decoder.” If your radio has this, a smaller number will appear next to the channel number. This is the decoder number. A decoder allows your radio to filter out unwanted transmissions by only letting those with the right decoder message through. If you are communicating in a network that has some radios with decoders and some without, those radios with decoders must set their decoder number to “0” in order to be understood by the others. Check your manual to learn how to do this. Channel: Each channel on a radio refers to a different frequency. Band: A band is a range of frequencies. Tip: Only one person can broadcast on a radio frequency at a time, so keep your transmissions brief, and don’t try to talk over anyone. Tip: When using a radio, speak calmly, and keep the microphone six to twelve inches from your mouth. Talking too loudly or too close will turn your transmission into a garbled mess.

Amateur Radio Service (Ham Radio)

Ham radio is a service specified by the FCC to allow individuals solely with a personal interest (as opposed to economic interest) to operate on several different radio bands. The ham radio specification gives an operator a lot of freedom as to the frequencies and equipment she can legally use.

The benefits of ham radio are extensive. The specification allows the use of transmitters as powerful as 1000 watts in some cases! It also allows you to use frequencies that are so low that their wavelength can be 10 or 20 or more meters long. This means that the signal can travel extreme distances before fading. People have often used ham radio to communicate with people halfway around the world! You can even use ham radio to bounce a signal off satellites or the moon.

Like any thing else, though, ham radio has its downsides. For one, legally, you have to be licensed to operate a ham radio. Also, the equipment can be relatively expensive and difficult to obtain. It can also be a bit more complicated to operate.

The licensing process for ham radio is pretty straightforward. Local ham radio hobby groups sponsor testing all over the country. You can find out where the nearest test is being given at www.arrl.org. To study for the test, I recommend finding a copy of Now You’re Talking! This book covers everything you need to know for the test. Honestly though, the test is very easy. If you’re pressed for time, consider just reading through the questions in the back of the book: these include every possible question that could be given on the exam.

First, you’ll want to take the “Technician” exam. This will give you access to the most popular ham radio bands. If you get really interested, you might consider taking the “Tech Plus” (for which you’ll need to learn Morse code), “General,” or “Extra” exams, each of which offers added privileges. Another reason to own a ham radio license is that it often gives you the right to carry a scanner on the street. Many states have ordinances prohibiting this, but they usually have exceptions for licensed amateurs.

Ham radios have a great deal of potential for our purposes. There are many handheld ham radios available that would be perfect for use in the streets. Because these radios are relatively small, they are usually limited to only 5 or 6 watts, which is relatively low. However, amateur hobbyists have set up a network of “repeaters” all over the country that allow you to extend the range of your radio. Essentially, a repeater is a station that receives broadcasts on one frequency, and then rebroadcasts them on a slightly different one; for example, a repeater could pick up a transmission from a relatively weak handheld radio and rebroadcast it at a few hundred watts or more. Suddenly, the range of that relatively weak handheld becomes immense. Imagine a comms team able to communicate not only throughout a whole city, but an entire region!

All in all, I think ham radio is a valuable resource. I find it to be a much better option than FRS or GMRS for anyone that can acquire the technology and take the time to get the license.

SMS Text Messaging

For anyone that’s been living in a cave recently—I’m envious. But you may not have heard about this wonderful technology! SMS text messaging is the same thing that people all over the place are using to send little notes back and forth between cell phones. Basically, it’s a protocol that allows people to send simple plain-text messages to each other via wireless devices.

SMS doesn’t just work on cell phones either. You can also receive messages with an alphanumeric pager. They’ve even created little two-way pagers that have a full keyboard so you can receive and respond to text messages.

A corporate defector I know grabbed a few of these two-way pagers for me once. They turned out to be very useful. Messages came in without any possible loss of clarity. They worked almost anywhere, and you could respond quickly. I’m not sure how much the service cost because a major investment firm was paying for mine, but I’ve heard that it’s somewhere between $10 and $20 a month.

The recent release of txtmob.com really established text messaging as a tactical tool. Txtmob.com is the brainchild of those lovely people over at the institute of applied autonomy (appliedautonomy.com). Essentially, the service acts like an email list. People subscribe to a group, and messages sent to the group get rebroadcast to everyone else in the group. Just like an email list, a txtmob group can be invite-only or open for anyone to join, and it can be moderated (only one person can send messages to the group) or unmoderated (anyone can send to the group).

Txtmob was created for use during the Democratic National Convention protests in Boston. It was used by the Indymedia collective to rebroadcast reports as they received them. In this way people were sent timely and clear information regarding the activities of police and protesters in the streets.

I find this technology to be one of the most promising to protesters in the next few years. To begin with, SMS enable devices are all over the place, many people have SMS enable cell-phones, and pagers are pretty cheap. SMS can enable a large number of people to communicate almost simultaneously and with little risk of distortion or confusion. In addition, SMS devices are almost always in signal range, and messages can be broadcast across the country. [Insert:]

Remember: Any transmission that goes out over radio waves can and will be heard by the authorities.

Putting It All Together

I can already hear you squirming impatiently in your seat, dear reader. You’re saying, “The technology’s all fine and good, but how can we use it to form effective comms teams?” In all honesty, I’m not a hundred percent sure. I have yet to operate with a comms team that worked to my complete satisfaction. However, I do have some good tips about using comms, and some ideas as to what a really good comms team might look like.

Comms Team Structure

The most important step in forming a solid communications infrastructure for an action is getting right people for the job. Those participating in a comms team should, ideally, be cool, calm, and quick-witted. There are many roles individuals can play, and it’s important to match the right person to each one.

The most visible member of the comms team is the scout. Scouts are primarily useful in a mass-protest or march situation. It is their job to collect information about the movements of the police or any other potential threat to the action actually occurring. Scouts should make efforts to make themselves hard to spot and hard to capture. To this end, I’ve used two basic approaches: bicycles and disguises. Bicycles are great for scouts because they allow them to move very quickly about a large area. A quick and experienced bicyclist is also very difficult to stop and arrest. Disguise is a more effective technique if the group needs continuous updates on or from a given location. In the past, I’ve scouted an area by donning a nice suit and drinking coffee on a patio of interest. No one thinks twice about a “business person” drinking coffee and talking on a cell phone or typing on a laptop.

Tip: Don’t use too many codes. In a stressful situation, militants will be hard-pressed to remember the meaning of codes they’re supposed to use on air, and the quality of communication will deteriorate.

I believe a solid comms group should also include someone whose sole job is to monitor police transmissions. In some cases, it is actually beneficial to have several people doing this. I say this because a person can only listen in on one transmission at a time, but in a mass-protest situation there will likely be lots of police transmissions occurring simultaneously. It would be the duty of those filling this role to report back on any announced police strategies, movements, arrests, standing orders, and so on.

Scouts and radio monitors will, in many circumstances, be generating a great deal of information—too much, perhaps, to make any sense to the great majority of people participating in the action. For this reason, I believe that it can be necessary to have several people whose task it is to sort through the information, pick out the pertinent parts, and re-broadcast these to the masses. Perhaps we could call these people the vanguard! Seriously though, I do think that some situations might warrant a small level of centralization in this regard. Individuals occupying this position could make sure that important information is relayed by as many types of media as possible: e.g., radio, text messaging, cell phone calls, and so on. They could also find and disseminate crucial logistical data, such as potential alternate routes, by looking at street maps, sewer maps, and such.

At the protests against the World Bank that occurred in Prague late in 2000, there was an information clearinghouse in the form of a room with several telephones operated by people equipped with maps. They received constant updates as events developed, and plotted the movements of police and protesters on these maps; they also took phone calls from demonstrators in need of this information. By many accounts, this service was critical to the success of the protests. Of course, your comms team may find it handy to have a tech-geek around. (I volunteer!) This person could make sure that the radios are working right, the scanners are programmed, the txtmob list is set up, the repeaters are functional, and so forth.

By the by…

You can make a radio repeater very simply with two radios. A repeater receives a signal on one channel, and rebroadcasts it on another; this is handy for increasing the range of a radio signal, or for allowing someone to hear the same signal on several different bands—for example, you could pick up a ham radio signal and rebroadcast it on a GMRS frequency.

To do this, you need a radio capable of receiving the signal in question, and another radio capable of broadcasting on the desired output frequency. You’ll need to take these radios to an electronics store and find a cable or an adapter that allows you to connect the headphone (output) jack of the receiver to the microphone (input) jack of the transmitter. Connect the two devices. Depending on your output radio, you may need to turn on “vox” or “accessory vox.” You may need to fiddle around with it, but it should work just like that.