Jamming Drive Thru Restaurants

There is a lot of trouble you can cause with a 6.5536 Mhz crystal. You may not be aware that many restaurants use radio to connect to the drive thru speaker. There is a bit of debate if the video is real. You certainly can modify a CB radio to jam the system at a drive thru. It would be a bit sloppy and illegal. If you accidentally jammed the nearby aeronautical band you'd get a visit from the man. But it is doable. However, I don't think you will find that rectifier in your toaster. 

855-55-NOJAM

I just caught this in the news the other day.  Signal jamming is considered poor form by most in our industry. At best it's an act of protest, perhaps just a prank.. the rest of the time it's rude, or possibly a crime.  The FCC often reaches for a can of whupass. Actually in 2012 they opened a Jammer Tip Hotline to report such kinds of criminal activities. It's 855-55-NOJAM.

They have been dishing out fine for jamming for years. In 2011 Phonejammer.com won themselves a $25,000 fine for selling cell jammers online. Citations went out to a number of less overt offenders at the same time. This year CTS Technology received a record 34 Million dollar fine, though they're based in China and it may not be possible to collect. They also hit a Hillsborough County, FL employee 48k, and R&N Manufacturing got hit with a a $29,000 fine. While small compared to the CTS fine, this jamming was just particularly unscrupulous. More here and here.

"...Marriott Hotel Services, Inc will pay $600,000 to resolve a Federal Communications Commission investigation into whether Marriott intentionally interfered with and disabled Wi-Fi networks established by consumers in the conference facilities of the Gaylord Opryland Hotel in Nashville, in violation of Section 333 of the Communications Act"

I think they got off light. They were selling it to conference attendees and exhibitors for as much as $1,000 per device. It's the worst price gouging I've ever seen. Marriott admitted to the violation. They agreed to a $600k fine to settle complaints that they were deliberately and willfully jamming WiFi frequencies to force their guests to pay them for Internet service. Marriott also has to start up ans maintain a compliance plan and file compliance and usage reports with the FCC quarterly for 3 years. Despite the "resolution" Marriott Hotels is still keeping a different public face. Their most recent comment was as follows:

"Marriott has a strong interest in ensuring that when our guests use our Wi-Fi service, they will be protected from rogue wireless hotspots that can cause degraded service, insidious cyber-attacks and identity theft. The Gaylord Opryland protected its Wi-Fi network by using FCC-authorized equipment provided by well-known, reputable manufacturers. We believe that the Gaylord Opryland’s actions were lawful.”

I think they should get a second fine for gall.

NO JAMMING

You're just not allowed to jam licensed broadcasts. It's a no-no. Despite the fast that you may wish to stop cell phones televisions or other irritating devices from operating in certain areas, even areas on your own property you don't have that right. This has always disturbed me a little. To my own way of thinking you should be able to block or interrupt any signal within the confines of your own property. Providing you do not inadvertently provide this unwanted service on your neighbors property. Alas, that is not the case. The FCC spanked 3 companies this week for related silliness.

Phonejammer.com (of the UK) for unauthorized sale of a cellular and other PDA device jammers . HERE

David Steele Enterprises of Newpot Beach, CA for unauthorized sale of a "GPS Jammer." HERE

DPL Surveillance Equipment of Reseda, CA for unauthorized sale of cell phone jammers, GPS blocker and a Wi-Fi jammer). HERE

The Art of Radio Jamming

Governments that make use of jamming argue that they have the rights to protect their citizens from dangerous ideas. For me (as a Free-speech minded American) the idea, that some ideas are dangerous, is the most dangerous idea of all.

Radio jamming is an invention of politics and not radio. No radio station (that I know of) ever got jealous at another staitons share and began full-scale jamming operations. Yet there is a massive technological effort directed toward forcibly censoring unacceptable broadcast content in many countries. My short list includes the USSR, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Bulgaria, East Germany, China, Cuba, Iran, Syria, Lithuania, Vietnam and many other countries.

great site here: http://www.radiojamming.info/

The first occasions of jamming of military radio telegraph were recorded back in the beginning of the 20th century. Germany and Russia were the first to engage in jamming. The jamming signal most frequently consisted of co-channel characters. In the late 20’s Berlin started to jam the programs of Radio Komintern. In 1931 the USSR jammed the Romanian radio, in 1934 Austria jammed the German radio. The Lithuanian language broadcasts of the Vatican radio were jammed by the USSR in 1940. By 1940 Everyone was jamming someone else.

What interests me most is Jamming by the U.S. or alternately, jamming of the U.S. Thsi illustrious history starts of course with our infamous Fearsome Communist Nemisis... CUBA!

March 27th 1990 we began broadcasting TV Marti into Cuba from the U.S. air balloon Fat Albert. Thsi was part of the U.S. border surveillance system that floating over Cudjoe Key, South of Florida. The Cuban government had installed many small jamming transmitters beforehand that effectively killed the earlier TV Marti programs.

This jamming became inadequate in the face of fat Albert and his floating transmitter. To extend the jamming range, Castro’s engineers and pilots equipped several Russian made Mi-17 helicopters with jamming equipment. The Cubans got so exited that they even started jamming Radio Marti’s services from transmitters in Greenville, NC, and Bethany, OH. Prior to this Radio Marti had not been successfully jammed by Cubans for at least 5 years.

Nifty how-to info here: http://www.milspec.ca/jammers/jammers.html