Hello Big Brother, listen to any cell phones today??

The Air Force launched a top secret satellite today for the National Reconnaissance Office, which operates the United States' fleet of spy spacecraft.

This satellite is believed to be able to monitor extremely faint electrical signals, even individual cell phone conversations.

The article goes on to say that it's believed that similar satellites have been used to monitor and track terrorists.

Thanks to the Patriot Act there is no longer need for a warrant to listen in on conversations so I wouldn't be surprised if all conversations aren't screened. A type of echelon that does a voice character recognition.
Sounds a lot like what was in the original Charlie's Angels Movie.
Well people this could be as bad as the president that kept files on many, many people. (Sorry his name has completely slipped my mind at the moment.)

The story can be found here.

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Be Cool
K_OS

[Edited on 9-9-2003 by K_OS]

well the it is just good thing that i mostly keep my cell phone closed (turned off..) as i really dont want answer to it when people call me.. they never have anything nice / good / intressing to say.

And also even today if one keep hes cell phone powered, your movements are tracked every second.. you location is every second known to your operator, and god knows to who else in accuracy of 200m.

K_Os, Big Bubba has had the ability to listen in on the local level for years... There are D.E.A. vans roaming the streets of every major city with what amounts to be a cell phone scanner, in the tradition of a "police band scanner", listening in for dope dealers...

This has been going on sonce the late 80's when the current cell technology was accepted as the standard. The government needed the cell companies to pick a standard and stick with it so they could count on being able to listen in on ANY system...

This satellite sounds like a REAL BIG version of the van huh?

PEACE...
m...

Originally posted by Springer

This satellite sounds like a REAL BIG version of the van huh?

It certainly does.... Now they should be able to track anyone from anywhere using this satellite.
Maybe its time to go back to using cans and string to communicate.

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Be Cool
K_OS

The GSM "grid" allready tracks every god damn phone, i must as it doesnt work if it doesnt.

And our police has told that the accuracy of this tracking is "200m", by infact it must be something like 1-20m.

Yup. It's the little rectangle chip in the back of the phone. It's the same one that comes with the Visa (?) smart card. This chip emits a unique electronic signature that identifies your cell phone (or you depending on how you look at it). When the phone is off the chip still has access to the battery so it can still emit it's signature.

"But I can concentrate just fine, I don't need to go to camp"

Originally posted by FULCRUM
The GSM "grid" allready tracks every god damn phone, i must as it doesnt work if it doesnt.

And our police has told that the accuracy of this tracking is "200m", by infact it must be something like 1-20m.

Does the phone have to be turned on for it to track it, or does it automatically send out the signal?

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Be Cool
K_OS

It is only tracked then the phone is powered on, ready to take or make calls.

That's interesting. I don't know if any of you have ever noticed the effect a cellphone signal has on nearby TV/monitor screens (It causes the picture to distort)
Anyhoo, the other day, I had left my phone beside the TV,when the picture "rippled", indicative of an incoming call. However,the phone never rang. Does this mean that someone sent to,or received from my phone some kind of locating signal?

Originally posted by FULCRUM
The GSM "grid" allready tracks every god damn phone, i must as it doesnt work if it doesnt.

And our police has told that the accuracy of this tracking is "200m", by infact it must be something like 1-20m.

nope, it's 200m, and not in all areas yet. I forget the date this was supposed to be implented by, but cell phone providers were required to figure out a way to pinpoint cell calls as a way to find out where 911 calls originated from. in many places right now, cell calls can only be traced to the nearest tower, and they really don't do it unless someone figuratively puts a gun to their heads.

edit: and as for the cell phone standardization, IIRC, the FCC said 'let's let the market do whatever', and the providers themselves eventually sort of decided on a standard. I think in the US we use CDMA and in Europe and Asia GSM or G4 (?) are standard, which is also why if you take a US phone abroad, it won't work unless it's a tri-mode phone. (don't quote me on the acronyms, though.) sorry for the length. I've had to take so many exceedingly boring classes on the subject, so I like to toss in the info wherever I can

[Edited on 9/10/2003 by MorningtonCrescent]

Originally posted by Snoogans
That's interesting. I don't know if any of you have ever noticed the effect a cellphone signal has on nearby TV/monitor screens (It causes the picture to distort)
Anyhoo, the other day, I had left my phone beside the TV,when the picture "rippled", indicative of an incoming call. However,the phone never rang. Does this mean that someone sent to,or received from my phone some kind of locating signal?

I noticed the very same thing. Also a very specific sound on the radio just before the phone rings. I think it has something to do with the frequency of the phones.
This disturbance in the TV and audio signal occured, just like in your case, even if there wasnt any calls. I havent noticed any pattern in it...

Are there any experts here who can solve the mystery?

Just before I get a call on my cell phone, My Modem and Monitor blink. So yes, the cell phone sends out a signal to the tower that Says I am able to take calls. Its on a very specific signal that disrupts other electronic equipment.

I wonder if they can pick up, 802.3 Wireless internet. It would only stand to reason.

I dont have a cell phone and refuse to get one even though my mom have offerd me one several times. Primarily because of this, and because I dont want to make fruit juice out of my brain (yeah I know official reports say there are no helth dangers by using a cell phone, but I dont trust them one second). The fact that cell phones are #ing irretating and that the phone companies earns a # load of money whenever people use them are also good reasons for not having one.

The phones do 'talk' to the network at regular intervals, so that they know they are in range, if they have the strongest base station selected, etc. There are lots of articles on how the mobile phone network works available on the internet....
Also, mobile phone tracking is no longer restricted to government anymore... Check out www.findamobile.com (which is unavailable at the moment) and www.findmychild.com.

Also check out www.mapamobile.com

Originally posted by FULCRUM
well the it is just good thing that i mostly keep my cell phone closed (turned off..) as i really dont want answer to it when people call me.. they never have anything nice / good / intressing to say.

And also even today if one keep hes cell phone powered, your movements are tracked every second.. you location is every second known to your operator, and god knows to who else in accuracy of 200m.

So thats how they've been able to keep track of us!

Phones are in constant communications with the main systems. You will notices that if you're in an area with No Signal, your battery will die quicker. That's because instead of it's usual routine of checking in with the service, it is constantly scanning the whole time to try and find a system.

If you have a cell phone near a computer or certain other devices like a clock radio, you will know when a call is coming in before it comes in. A very odd sound (sort of similar to a ticking, but fuller... maybe like a putt putt putt) will eminate from the speakers. Then a second or so later, the phone will ring. The system has to communicate with your phone, to 1) know that it's able to accept the call and 2) route the call to your phone. Try it outgoing too. Same thing. You dial a number, putt putt putt, then it connects.

Most US phones are CDMA, TDMA etc. GSM isn't so common here yet though most services seem to be moving towards it.

What to do about GPS positioning on phones? Well what do people want? They don't want to be traced, however, they want emergency services to know where someone calling for help is. It's a very hard situation to sort through.

Djarums, my new cell phone is GPS equiped but I am able to set it to only allow "location sharing" when I place an emergency call. Its curious but its default setting is to allow it for all the networks. You have to change it in the settings menu. I did as you people have made me quite paranoid even though I really could care less who knows where I am.

I too see a distortion on my monitor when my phone checks into the repeater. It does this on about 5 minute intervals unless its looking for service or placed in field test mode in which case it's constantly connected. (That lets techs look at signal strength), or changes cell sites..which can be seen in field test mode. Also, the repeater can trun the transmit power up and down on your phone according to how far away you are to save your battery as well as not overload their switches when you're right upon a tower. In reality, a cell phone is little more than a sooped up two-way radio and when you key one of those up next to something as sensitive as your PC monitor, you'll see a pattern of inetrference.

I used to keep my old Nokia 5165 in field test mode because those older batteries really last but my newer 3585i doesn't last as long so I try to conserve it's talk time and haven't really tried to enable that in it. I'm sure it can be done. You have to enable it as you turn your phone on and go into the NAM programming. Not sure of the steps since once you do it, it comes up as a menu option you can turn off or on and I only did it that once.

If anyone is interested, I can try to find it but its nothing very spectacular.

There are a few types of interference that would alter electronical signals that are transmitted via copper cable(Speakers/modems) and also effect the EMF of your monitor because the electrical signal sent goes through the cable shield and thus is added to the signal. When this happens the jitters in your monitor occur, the change in sound of the radio and the interuption of wireless and wired internet. There are few types of cables that are not affected by this type of interference (Radio/Electromagnetic/Laser) and these types include fiber and STP cable. There are devices you can buy that will grab a signal from a device, (Cell/garage door opener/Wireless Internet) These devices while expensive are on the market. They are used by anyone who wants to get the signal. If you saw Gone In 60 Seconds, they used a signal grabber like this. If you are worried about your movement being tracked you could either not carry a cell phone, get a lead case for your phone, or buy a phone from the gas station and not register it to your name. The later is illegal but would work if you were into that kind of thing.

I wouldn't be surprised if all conversations aren't screened.

The good news is, it would take an insane amount of manpower to listen to all of these calls, and it simply isn't being done. I hardly think that Big Brother would be interested in my grocery shopping list anyways....