You can learn more about the KrakenSDR system at their website, here: www.krakenrf.com UPDATE: The jammer has been confronted, and the jamming from that location has stopped.
There's more to the story here I imagine. You've left us with more questions then answers. I think there's probably more you can tell us in an update video without disclosing the person's identity. Motive would be interesting if you could tell us why. Angry ex? Bored kid with dad's equipment? Jeep club rivalry!? What in the world would motivate someone to be so persistent! To me it makes no sense.
Great result, well done, everyone 👏. I am just ordering a KrakenSDR and 5 antennas for myself. One trick the military taught me was whilst the jamming station are transmitting is to switch our radio from normal mode to CW, the electronic circuits of the jamming station will be broadcasting a certain electronic tone, that tone can be used as evidence in a court of law, no other tuned circuit will make the exact same sound.
I loved the story. It was intense. I was sitting on the edge of my sofa the whole time. And then you found him. I was so happy to hear that. But then you ended the story. You didn't tell us what happened to that Jammer. Did you take him out? Is he swimming with the fishes now? Did he get arrested? Did the FCC raid his house? Is there going to be a sequel to this video? You know, Randy... even the old Dragnet show told us what happened to the bad guys at the end of each episode. Jack Webb would be so disappointed with you if he was alive today. :)
Good job!!! I used to have a LoJack tracking unit in my patrol car (now retired) which operates exactly the same way with different display. I could find an activated transponder in under 15 minutes and it was actually one of the more fun parts of law enforcement at the time.
#Rj Greek About 2005 I asked one our Regional Auto Theft Taskforce (RATT) Investigators about LoJack in San Diego, CA (aka Alta California). He told about a day he was working San Ysidro along the Border. He got a really strong "hit." Just across the border in Mexico was the stolen SUV. Now it had a red and blue light bar on the roof and an official looking emblem on the door. Amazing, but true. Maybe that has all changed now ...
Great story Randy! I am happy an Amateur Radio guy helped you. Your story shows that gmrs people and ham radio people can and should work together for the good of all. Thank you for sharing this story.
My local GMRS group has a lot of hams in it. We are all radio people with overlapping interests. There is so much knowledge that gets shared over my local airways. It’s amazing.
Very cool... and timely info too! We have a butt hole surfer of a jammer on a repeater that ties it up for hours by using some kind of program to control his radio to repeatedly key up (Kerchunk) the repeater in 1 second intervals. I'm seriously considering buying that KrakenSDR and try to duplicate your results. Congrats on the win!
Nice! I’m very glad that you gave us this update - I’ve been very curious about how that worked. But . . . I am so glad that you stopped this guy - it was a HUGE pain on Delta with that clown jamming it all the time. Thank you, the GMRS team and the Happy Ham!
great job Big R ...... Jammers are Juveniles Adults looking for attention .... in the marines back in the 80 i use to use similar equipment to look for jammers but these jammers used 1000s of watts ... and we used harm missiles to end the jamming ..
Could a ham club buy some surplus HARMs and convert them to ham and GMRS bands? I assume you'd need an aircraft to carry them unless you can come up with a way to loft them high enough from a ground vehicle. 😉
We have a jammer on a local repeater here in NY, we know who he is and where he lives. He is a convicted jammer and had (at the time) the largest fine ever placed on an individual by the FCC. He never paid it and continues to jam. I spoke with an agent with the FCC, he said they have to catch them in the act, also said they do not have enough staff. Also said he will just keep doing it even after getting another fine, there is no jail time for jammers. I know how to stop him, I just don't want to go to jail.
Spoof his phone number and call the head of a local street gang. Tell them what you think of them and be sure to include ethnic slurs appropriate to the gang contacted. Tell them you live at (his address) and you doubt they have the spherical or ovoid objects necessary to "come here and do something about it". 😄
That's where people have to send warnings... Nothing wrong with placing repeated letters in the mailbox. I'd get a bit more local if it didn't stop, maybe shining a flashlight in the window when he keys up to really show you are on to him.
Might be worth it to talk to an attorney and see if you can sue him in civil court too. Sure he might not pay that judgement either but you could make his life more miserable and ruin his credit.
We had a local jammer in central Pennsylvania who was jamming several GMRS and Ham repeaters. He got bumped up in priority when he started jamming emergency channels and the state police and fcc did their own fox hunt. Pretty fun stuff.
well only way fcc will actually do something is if you jam public saftey or big money licenses... or pirate on am/fm hurting the commercial hack stations feelings. if the guy just stuck to ham/part95 dude could have jammed away till he finally kicked over from old age.
@@Dratchev241 FM bootlegging yes... But if you pirate on AM, they won't do anything about it. Promise. Been there and saw it with my own eyes. 1kw pirate on AM playing oldies. Authorities did not care.
Someone in our area was doing this too. As soon as the authorities got involved the guy was arrested and now is in prison. do to the law here he is probably glad no one got hurt or lost life due to his actions in jamming emergency spectrum.
You might want to just make a cheap wooden mounting board to hold it that can be mounted on a luggage rack. Then you could even swap it between vehicles without worrying about the transmitters moving out of alignment. You'd need to be careful to fasten it properly, but you could just use the same fabric straps you'd use for any other luggage.
You once again made this happy ham spit his beer and your subluminals made me hit the sub button. And that's a good "Hunter" out there doing real work (no laptop required). Thanks for what you do. Keep at it, good sir 🤙🏽
Good work! My Doppler DF setup has a CRT screen and crystals and you use a dry erase marker to plot a location then take bearing and put it on a map. Takes a little longer but does the same thing! I need to get a kraken SDR! We just don’t have jamming very often in rural Kansas! Even working for a public safety communications agency we don’t see much. Tracking down local noise sources at our sites are far more common
What a wicked looking piece of kit. Once it's setup right and with some radio knowledge to be able to home in on a signal source with ease, nice. From what I know of the ham community over there in the States it's pretty tight nit and they pretty much self police themselves, and are well experienced in tracking down abusers of the spectrum.
"No one will ever find you if you only key up for a few seconds lol" Yeah... okay 😆 glad there's guys out there willing to do this. It's necessary to keep people from abusing it like this. Thanks for the video
Jammers don’t have that kind of self control to stay away very long. Also nobody is going to expend effort vs the weirdo that just farts into a mic once in awhile, on the other hand if someone is really disruptive it won’t be long before people start getting serious…..
I like how you are now emphasizing happy ham. I'm not the referenced ham obviously. But I am The_Happy_Ham! Glad you know the practical side of radio. You're a HAM at heart Randy lol.
Really great stuff, Randy! Eveyone wants specifics on how the jammer was handled and whether he's stopped, and so do I, but what about the second jammer you mentioned? Gonna track him down, too? Thank you, sir! John
Hey Randy I'm glad you finally got somewhere with this it happens on ham repeaters also and we have one here in Indianapolis they do it to and a group of hams go after them find them and send a letter to them and it usually stops then. Back in the day they would get their coax straight pined and that would damage their radio but can't do that these days 😢 Happy gmrsing and love to hear you on the ham bands someday!
@@chublez You're likely to get shot in vast areas of the USA for going into people's backyards unannounced, or mauled to death by big fluffy dogs. In places like where I live you run good odds of both happening.
@@chublez " Is coax armored nowadays?" It's too easy to kerchunk a repeater with a walkie-talkie and rubber duck. It is pretty hard to do something physical when that is all that is being used to be a nuisance.
Joseph WRQC308, It was quite obvious that your group was trying to make the jammer to stay on line to make it easier to trace him. I am also glad you came to an agreement instead going judicial, getting involved. Good job with friends.
Outstanding!!! I need to get one, eventually. There's a jammer on a repeater I'm on every morning. Some days it just a couple of kurchunks, and others, it's malicious interference. I've noticed that there's specific auditable tone on the PTT of the radio that the individual uses. If I was retired and had the time to hunt the offender down, I'd do it.
We had a jammer on a local repeater in the Denver area. Guys direction finding were able to narrow down to what block it was emitting from but no external antennas to give it away. I just stopped getting on the radio, left my radio off and eventually just got out of the habit of talking with the usual guys and gals on that repeater. That was a couple years ago. Started listening again and what used to be a super active repeater now hardly gets used, sad that one bad seed can ruin a hobby.
When I was young my friends and I all had CBs and we played "CB tag". One person would hide somewhere in town and occasionally key up and give hints while everyone else drove around trying to see if their signal was increasing or decreasing while they tried to figure out the clues. First person to get to the hider's location won and became the next hider.
Excellent video! Thanks to your excellent channel, I hold you personally responsible for making me buy a WOUXUN KG-UV9D PLUS and enjoying a new hobby as I enter retirement.
Randy, this is my 3rd viewing of your videos and I have to tell you that I LMAO at your presentations . The subtle comments ( which all are true ) the T Shirts the subliminal images in the corner of the screen and so much more are unmatched : ) . The explanations are clear ( even for a tech challenged person, Like Me ) and I am so grateful. I will watch more of your presentations before I get started as I want to communicate with my son and family about 25 miles away and there are trees everywhere so I will continue my education on your channel. Thanks for everything. Ed...Michigan.
i'm just a rtl-sdr user with a pizza pan antenna; studying how folks use k-sdr and wow, what a presentation! Thanks. some pirates simply want to run a lo power radio station; mostly at freqs that won't interfer with folks ...then... some pirate are just mean and cut throat i'm glad you caught this blackbeard without any harm to yourself wishing you and yours the very best but do invest in a Byrna pistol, a cattle taser in the event things go south. Don't need to remind everybody that some folks go a bit overboard when they get caught wrong doing.
I am not a HAM / Armature Radio person but I enjoyed your story and hunt. Can you please explain jamming (what it does) and lay out what actions were taken once you located and identified the person? Did the FCC get involved or did you handle it on a lower level? Thank you.
Jamming is when an immature person uses their radio to prevent others from talking/using their radios. We confronted the jammer, and the jamming from his location has stopped. The FCC does not care about things like this.
Jamming is transmitting on the same frequency and same mode (think AM or FM) to override another transmission. Example: Billy and Jenny have toy walkie talkies and live 6 houses apart. Kenny lives closer to Billy and whenever he hears Jenny talk, he talks too (or just makes fart noises) so then Billy hears flatulence more than he hears Jenny. That is jamming. Jamming a repeater (as in this story) is a bit different, but the idea of transmitting to deny use of the frequency to others is the same.
@@TheNotaRubicondude like every video I watch from you, you crack me up I do like the radios you show and talk about however I'll never have that kind of money and besides I only have one radio anyway someone a long time ago gave me which is a camouflage little hand held gmrs radio works great I sometimes put it in the window of my apartment and can actually hear the Mexicans talking so I usually tell them to shut the fuck up hopefully it's not the office from the complex but even if it is I don't care I'm going to continue to talk on it till I get a knock on the door and that will probably never happen, I can't hear a lot and I'm not sure where it's coming from but I amuse myself when I have it on telling them to fuck off. If you want to show this comment on one of your videos that would be great please do it, like I said I just like watching your videos and laughing at how sometimes you make fun of the TH-cam expert's I don't know anything about these except for the fact I like these radios even the one that was given to me and my goal is to eventually piss someone off.
Great story......and another testament to the fact that the FCC has no desire to enforce amateur radio rules. Licensing is a gentleman's agreement in reality.
DANG IT! I've been trying to get one of these for a while. They are available at the moment, too much money for me. This Direction Finding SDR looks absolutely amazing . Thanks!
This is basically the same technology that LoJack uses. Some police cars have an array of 4 antennas that are processed in a similar way. The readout is different, though.
Thank you for sharing!! I will have to book mark that Kraken in case I need it one day for my repeaters.. I run a couple of Amateur Radio repeaters here in Olney.. KC9zhv here 73!
I’m from SoCal and dabbling in amateur radio for the first time. I picked up a TIDradio and i scan the default channels . I think I heard this jammer on a Friday evening 2 weeks ago. I’m glad he was caught and I’m also now aware how close knit this community really is. I hope to apply for my license very soon and join in the conversation. 🙌🏽
One of the best holiday stories I have heard! Thank you for the eloquent reading of this exciting tale of a "fox hunt". Thanks to the HAPPY HAM that helped!
There is another repeater in Los Angeles area that covers LA, OC and IE pretty good. But about 2 months ago someone stater to jammed with noise like bells and some that sounds like police sirens and they started the same way slow at the beginning and now they spend a lot of time jamming the repeater. I noticed that there is at least 2 people doing it, one has an older voice and the second one look more younger since now they talked over the repeater frequency with none sense and offensive demeanor. That could be that the idiots just change repeater. This video is very informative, THANK YOU!.
In West Virginia if something like that happens, all you would have to do is get on a mountain (which are ubiquitous in the "Mountain State") and wait for him to transmit and spin your yagi around and look at who's in that direction on Google Maps, and investigate a total of probably 5 locations. Gotta love the population density out here.
Some cheap chicom wireless intercoms can cause harmful interference on GMRS repeater input frequencies. When my group DF'ed them, most of the users cooperated quickly. We also let AmASSon know that they were selling these offending items. Intercoms were Hosmart brand, FYI
I had a video baby monitor that would take out WiFi 2.4 GHz in at least a 50+ yard radius (many homes) completely. It didn't use WiFi, but it's own spread-spectrum protocol. This was back when 5 GHz WiFi wasn't common.
"...i will explain everything in very simple terms so that even someone wearing a mask while driving alone in their car will be able to understand" 😂😂😂😂😂 im dying
I have a mountain top ranch(about 8000 feet high). I think that I would like to set up a repeater for family use as well as have an open channel without a tone that people visiting our forest could use for emergency. Any advice on this project would be greatly appreciated.
If you haven't already, mount the antenna to a board, and then attach board to car, only have to aline the board according to the front of the vehicle going forward.
Had a jammer that the FCC didn't seem to care that he was doing his illegal station operation and active jamming so we did the same thing using a home made version of that gear. Every time he'd key up under his normal operation, three of the five local repeaters would be completely unusable. Once we found him, we contacted the FCC. They told us to get bent and just deal with it until they decided if we were priority enough to address him. A month went by and two of us local HAM's paid him a visit and asked him to get within legal limits and he had some pretty clear directions for us to follow. Problem persisted. So.... we watched him and found out when he went to work. Drove over there to his place and wrapped a tow strap around the heliac sticking out of the wall that ran to his tower tucked away in the trees. I guess the drivers foot fell on the accelerator, completely by accident of course because who would be that much of a jerk, right? 80 feet of wire made itself visible before the zip ties broke on the way up the tower leg and the antenna went on holiday. There was a crash loud enough inside the house that it could be heard clearly at the street and the cable went down the road behind the pickup with the tow strap. FCC never did show up. Never heard from the station again though.
So what did you do when you found him> Walk up and knock and the door and say "Hey can you quit jamming our signals" just to see the shocked look on his face?
If he's an otherwise respected member of the local radio community, just the implied threat of exposure might be enough to re-train him. I suppose it depends on the individual.
Very entertaining Randy. Another victory for the good guys. BTW, those ecotank printers are really worth it. It was over two years before I added mor black ink and nearly three years and I haven't added any color ink. Four users and two of them are college students. And no, I have no stock in Epson.
I agree. Buy the Epson eco tank. I have one and refilling is easy. And the ink lasts and lasts. Saving $100’s of dollars on not having to buy ink cartrges.
I agree Ecotank is the way to go. Just don't expect to buy them for $49.97 at Walmart. They are expensive for a reason. What you spend extra in initial cost is made up for over time by not buying those cartridges in which ink is like $75 per oz.
Watch these models thanks to the waste ink pads & tanks... think the newer ones you can get the parts for without having to pay Epson or someone who's cracked the software... Or just get a laser printer.
We had three jammers here. Word got out I had a Kraken SDR and was testing it.. Haven't heard a jammer on the air since I tested my Kraken SDR working. Guess they heard i was coming.
@@coolelectronics1759 and then who ever ripped the radio out of the jammers hand would be sitting in a jail cell for robbery maybe armed robbery. just like if you go "cut his coax" you get caught or caught on tape you get criminal charges and maybe the shit sued out of you or worse as in some states you end up with a hole in your head.
I'm curious, given the current state of available technology, to wit: the KrakenSDR device featured here, why not have such a device direction find and log every activation of your repeater? That would give you a head start on any search for a troublemaker. I presume the KrakenSDR uses time of arrival and signal strength as input data for it's algorithm. Were these not staples of direction finding prior to the appearance of this particular device? Where were the fox hunt guys during those few weeks where everyone was focused on "the usual suspects"?
where i live in high desert is dead zone for wifi and cellphone signal. i've built my own cantenna and i got signal to have inside the house. yes i had cable before but why should i pay twice for something my phone provide outside my house. i don't want my DIY antenna's interfering with anyone, how do i find out. anyway by looking into making these i came across your channel and i've learned something new. question a jammer is illegal i believe my daughter school jams phone reception because she can text me in certain time but when there's been trouble at the school, we can't communicate. here's what i found on the FCC website: The use of a phone jammer, GPS blocker, or other signal jamming device designed to intentionally block, jam, or interfere with authorized radio communications is a violation of federal law. There are no exemptions for use within a business, classroom, residence, or vehicle. Loved the story telling nothing wrong with star fish child's pattern.
We have a Nuisance Guy on our Repeater also He just makes as many noises while transmitting for hours on end only when people are having a conversation we are tracking him found out he os mobile in New Mexico always Messing with our Pinal 675 repeater in South Az @NotaRubicon Productions
This should be called "A Ham Radio Christmas Story". 11:34 - 11:41 my personal favorite! Watched a bunch of your videos you just got my sub! 73 DE KO4KKX
My currently Nicotine stained fingers are glad to know somebody is still warning the world about finger stains. I don't suggest YOU tie half your brain behind your back tho. And that's from me, your favorite viewer
You can learn more about the KrakenSDR system at their website, here: www.krakenrf.com
UPDATE: The jammer has been confronted, and the jamming from that location has stopped.
Awesome story! We could use your help on Orange now :)
I was about to ask where that's affiliated link? It's below and above!
Did they say why they were doing it? Personal beef or just to be a dickhead?
Was it Bondy? LoL
There's more to the story here I imagine. You've left us with more questions then answers. I think there's probably more you can tell us in an update video without disclosing the person's identity. Motive would be interesting if you could tell us why. Angry ex? Bored kid with dad's equipment? Jeep club rivalry!? What in the world would motivate someone to be so persistent! To me it makes no sense.
Great result, well done, everyone 👏. I am just ordering a KrakenSDR and 5 antennas for myself. One trick the military taught me was whilst the jamming station are transmitting is to switch our radio from normal mode to CW, the electronic circuits of the jamming station will be broadcasting a certain electronic tone, that tone can be used as evidence in a court of law, no other tuned circuit will make the exact same sound.
I loved the story. It was intense. I was sitting on the edge of my sofa the whole time. And then you found him. I was so happy to hear that. But then you ended the story. You didn't tell us what happened to that Jammer. Did you take him out? Is he swimming with the fishes now? Did he get arrested? Did the FCC raid his house? Is there going to be a sequel to this video?
You know, Randy... even the old Dragnet show told us what happened to the bad guys at the end of each episode. Jack Webb would be so disappointed with you if he was alive today.
:)
He sent him a very rude letter which made him sad so he stopped.
What I was thinking as well. and this vid is over a year old so I guess no outcome is forthcoming.
Good job!!! I used to have a LoJack tracking unit in my patrol car (now retired) which operates exactly the same way with different display. I could find an activated transponder in under 15 minutes and it was actually one of the more fun parts of law enforcement at the time.
#Rj Greek About 2005 I asked one our Regional Auto Theft Taskforce (RATT) Investigators about LoJack in San Diego, CA (aka Alta California). He told about a day he was working San Ysidro along the Border. He got a really strong "hit." Just across the border in Mexico was the stolen SUV. Now it had a red and blue light bar on the roof and an official looking emblem on the door. Amazing, but true. Maybe that has all changed now ...
Lojack uses a doppler direction finder. It works on a different principle. The Kraken is a synchronous phase comparator.
Great story Randy! I am happy an Amateur Radio guy helped you. Your story shows that gmrs people and ham radio people can and should work together for the good of all. Thank you for sharing this story.
My local GMRS group has a lot of hams in it. We are all radio people with overlapping interests. There is so much knowledge that gets shared over my local airways. It’s amazing.
@@Leonarco333 Same here in New Mexico.
I liked the story too and I don’t even do radio! Though I do enjoy eating ham…
trust me he didnt need help.
Very cool... and timely info too! We have a butt hole surfer of a jammer on a repeater that ties it up for hours by using some kind of program to control his radio to repeatedly key up (Kerchunk) the repeater in 1 second intervals. I'm seriously considering buying that KrakenSDR and try to duplicate your results. Congrats on the win!
Everyone does
Do it, it's now by far my favorite piece of kit. It totally blew my expectations out of the water.
Nice! I’m very glad that you gave us this update - I’ve been very curious about how that worked. But . . . I am so glad that you stopped this guy - it was a HUGE pain on Delta with that clown jamming it all the time. Thank you, the GMRS team and the Happy Ham!
what happened to him?
great job Big R ...... Jammers are Juveniles Adults looking for attention ....
in the marines back in the 80 i use to use similar equipment to look for jammers but these
jammers used 1000s of watts ... and we used harm missiles to end the jamming ..
Prowlers? Jam, strike, win!
Could a ham club buy some surplus HARMs and convert them to ham and GMRS bands? I assume you'd need an aircraft to carry them unless you can come up with a way to loft them high enough from a ground vehicle. 😉
As an Ex Navy Ordinanceman I approve of this message 👌
Fantastic work Randy!
We have a jammer on a local repeater here in NY, we know who he is and where he lives. He is a convicted jammer and had (at the time) the largest fine ever placed on an individual by the FCC. He never paid it and continues to jam. I spoke with an agent with the FCC, he said they have to catch them in the act, also said they do not have enough staff. Also said he will just keep doing it even after getting another fine, there is no jail time for jammers. I know how to stop him, I just don't want to go to jail.
Spoof his phone number and call the head of a local street gang. Tell them what you think of them and be sure to include ethnic slurs appropriate to the gang contacted. Tell them you live at (his address) and you doubt they have the spherical or ovoid objects necessary to "come here and do something about it".
😄
That's where people have to send warnings... Nothing wrong with placing repeated letters in the mailbox.
I'd get a bit more local if it didn't stop, maybe shining a flashlight in the window when he keys up to really show you are on to him.
You could always ground his coax feedline some dark night...
I could lend you my cable cutter. That and a short piece of bare wire placed between the center conductor and shield could be helpful.
Might be worth it to talk to an attorney and see if you can sue him in civil court too. Sure he might not pay that judgement either but you could make his life more miserable and ruin his credit.
Nicely done! I attended a fox hunt with SFARC and they demonstrated the Kraken... what a cool piece of tech!
Great story! I love the touching family picture of the Big Guy and his son, too.
I was having a hard time telling who that was as I watched this video on my phone and the image was small. So is he sniffing Hunters hair?
@@mrbyamile6973 looking for his 10%
@@mrbyamile6973 it looks a bit more erotic that all that.
I thought it was Randy and Jordan Peterson. I was like go ahead with your bad self Randy! 😉😀
We had a local jammer in central Pennsylvania who was jamming several GMRS and Ham repeaters. He got bumped up in priority when he started jamming emergency channels and the state police and fcc did their own fox hunt. Pretty fun stuff.
well only way fcc will actually do something is if you jam public saftey or big money licenses... or pirate on am/fm hurting the commercial hack stations feelings. if the guy just stuck to ham/part95 dude could have jammed away till he finally kicked over from old age.
@@Dratchev241 FM bootlegging yes... But if you pirate on AM, they won't do anything about it. Promise. Been there and saw it with my own eyes. 1kw pirate on AM playing oldies. Authorities did not care.
Someone in our area was doing this too. As soon as the authorities got involved the guy was arrested and now is in prison. do to the law here he is probably glad no one got hurt or lost life due to his actions in jamming emergency spectrum.
@@KlodFather good.
...go on....
Arrow antennas makes a “base station” antenna kit for the kraken. Could likely mount the arrow kit in a truck bed
You might want to just make a cheap wooden mounting board to hold it that can be mounted on a luggage rack. Then you could even swap it between vehicles without worrying about the transmitters moving out of alignment. You'd need to be careful to fasten it properly, but you could just use the same fabric straps you'd use for any other luggage.
what
Thanks!
Thank YOU!
As a passive member of your repeater I thank you. I monitor it when I head up to Big Bear. Merry Christmas to you and your family.
To quote Todd from Project Farm, "Very Impressive!"
I think you're one of the best story tellers I've ever listened too. Thank you for such a fun informative channel
I love that even your side rants like "those color ink cartriges are a scam" are logically consistent and verifiably true. Keep up the good work.
Haven't spotted any laughs relating to your "photo" in the background yet, so I have to say A+ 😂😂
You once again made this happy ham spit his beer and your subluminals made me hit the sub button. And that's a good "Hunter" out there doing real work (no laptop required). Thanks for what you do. Keep at it, good sir 🤙🏽
Good work! My Doppler DF setup has a CRT screen and crystals and you use a dry erase marker to plot a location then take bearing and put it on a map. Takes a little longer but does the same thing! I need to get a kraken SDR! We just don’t have jamming very often in rural Kansas! Even working for a public safety communications agency we don’t see much. Tracking down local noise sources at our sites are far more common
I take it that's the 2 "Jammers" on the wall in the background! LOL!
They're jamming alright....but at very short range.
I'm looking for someone to come track me down this way in the wilderness
Hope u get a reply.
That would be a cool demo Grunt Proof. I hope he reaches out to you.
That would get a couple million views lmao. I'm already subscribed to your channel and hit the bell so I won't miss it lol
What a wicked looking piece of kit. Once it's setup right and with some radio knowledge to be able to home in on a signal source with ease, nice.
From what I know of the ham community over there in the States it's pretty tight nit and they pretty much self police themselves, and are well experienced in tracking down abusers of the spectrum.
"No one will ever find you if you only key up for a few seconds lol"
Yeah... okay 😆 glad there's guys out there willing to do this. It's necessary to keep people from abusing it like this. Thanks for the video
Only a few second signal, yes it can be done just takes a little longer.
If you do it at random times with short transmissions they're gonna go bald before they find you
Jammers don’t have that kind of self control to stay away very long. Also nobody is going to expend effort vs the weirdo that just farts into a mic once in awhile, on the other hand if someone is really disruptive it won’t be long before people start getting serious…..
Well if you do it consistently for the next few months someone will eventually catch you because you're being a nuisance to everyone else.
Thank you uncle Randy for the great bedtime story
I like how you are now emphasizing happy ham. I'm not the referenced ham obviously. But I am The_Happy_Ham! Glad you know the practical side of radio. You're a HAM at heart Randy lol.
Really great stuff, Randy!
Eveyone wants specifics on how the jammer was handled and whether he's stopped, and so do I, but what about the second jammer you mentioned? Gonna track him down, too?
Thank you, sir!
John
I wish there was a way to like a video more than once. This is top notch comedy.
Randy gives about the best deadpan delivery I think I've ever seen. And the background music is the cherry on top!
Hey Randy I'm glad you finally got somewhere with this it happens on ham repeaters also and we have one here in Indianapolis they do it to and a group of hams go after them find them and send a letter to them and it usually stops then. Back in the day they would get their coax straight pined and that would damage their radio but can't do that these days 😢 Happy gmrsing and love to hear you on the ham bands someday!
I don't understand. Is coax armored nowadays?
@@chublez You're likely to get shot in vast areas of the USA for going into people's backyards unannounced, or mauled to death by big fluffy dogs. In places like where I live you run good odds of both happening.
@@chublez " Is coax armored nowadays?"
It's too easy to kerchunk a repeater with a walkie-talkie and rubber duck. It is pretty hard to do something physical when that is all that is being used to be a nuisance.
You sneak around in someone's yard now days you might get shot. Be careful lot's of nuts out there....
What does straight pined mean?
Joseph WRQC308, It was quite obvious that your group was trying to make the jammer to stay on line to make it easier to trace him. I am also glad you came to an agreement instead going judicial, getting involved. Good job with friends.
Outstanding!!! I need to get one, eventually. There's a jammer on a repeater I'm on every morning. Some days it just a couple of kurchunks, and others, it's malicious interference.
I've noticed that there's specific auditable tone on the PTT of the radio that the individual uses. If I was retired and had the time to hunt the offender down, I'd do it.
We had a jammer on a local repeater in the Denver area. Guys direction finding were able to narrow down to what block it was emitting from but no external antennas to give it away. I just stopped getting on the radio, left my radio off and eventually just got out of the habit of talking with the usual guys and gals on that repeater. That was a couple years ago. Started listening again and what used to be a super active repeater now hardly gets used, sad that one bad seed can ruin a hobby.
Your videos are incredible, I could sit down with you for hours and ask so many questions regarding Ham. Thank you sir.
When I was young my friends and I all had CBs and we played "CB tag". One person would hide somewhere in town and occasionally key up and give hints while everyone else drove around trying to see if their signal was increasing or decreasing while they tried to figure out the clues. First person to get to the hider's location won and became the next hider.
Excellent video! Thanks to your excellent channel, I hold you personally responsible for making me buy a WOUXUN KG-UV9D PLUS and enjoying a new hobby as I enter retirement.
Randy, this is my 3rd viewing of your videos and I have to tell you that I LMAO at your presentations . The subtle comments ( which all are true ) the T Shirts the subliminal images in the corner of the screen and so much more are unmatched : ) . The explanations are clear ( even for a tech challenged person, Like Me ) and I am so grateful. I will watch more of your presentations before I get started as I want to communicate with my son and family about 25 miles away and there are trees everywhere so I will continue my education on your channel. Thanks for everything. Ed...Michigan.
i'm just a rtl-sdr user with a pizza pan antenna;
studying how folks use k-sdr
and wow, what a presentation! Thanks.
some pirates simply want to run a lo
power radio station; mostly at
freqs that won't interfer with folks ...then...
some pirate are just mean and cut throat
i'm glad you caught this blackbeard
without any harm to yourself
wishing you and yours the very best
but do invest in a Byrna pistol, a
cattle taser in the event things go south.
Don't need to remind everybody that
some folks go a bit overboard when
they get caught wrong doing.
Love to watch your videos and you always make me smile or laugh out loud everytime .
I am not a HAM / Armature Radio person but I enjoyed your story and hunt. Can you please explain jamming (what it does) and lay out what actions were taken once you located and identified the person? Did the FCC get involved or did you handle it on a lower level? Thank you.
Jamming is when an immature person uses their radio to prevent others from talking/using their radios.
We confronted the jammer, and the jamming from his location has stopped.
The FCC does not care about things like this.
Jamming is transmitting on the same frequency and same mode (think AM or FM) to override another transmission.
Example: Billy and Jenny have toy walkie talkies and live 6 houses apart. Kenny lives closer to Billy and whenever he hears Jenny talk, he talks too (or just makes fart noises) so then Billy hears flatulence more than he hears Jenny. That is jamming. Jamming a repeater (as in this story) is a bit different, but the idea of transmitting to deny use of the frequency to others is the same.
@@TheNotaRubicon did the jammer deny that they were responsible? Any excuses etc?
@@TheNotaRubicondude like every video I watch from you, you crack me up I do like the radios you show and talk about however I'll never have that kind of money and besides I only have one radio anyway someone a long time ago gave me which is a camouflage little hand held gmrs radio works great I sometimes put it in the window of my apartment and can actually hear the Mexicans talking so I usually tell them to shut the fuck up hopefully it's not the office from the complex but even if it is I don't care I'm going to continue to talk on it till I get a knock on the door and that will probably never happen, I can't hear a lot and I'm not sure where it's coming from but I amuse myself when I have it on telling them to fuck off. If you want to show this comment on one of your videos that would be great please do it, like I said I just like watching your videos and laughing at how sometimes you make fun of the TH-cam expert's I don't know anything about these except for the fact I like these radios even the one that was given to me and my goal is to eventually piss someone off.
@@TheNotaRubiconhaha you had me at: “ simple terms even someone wearing a mask alone driving a car can understand” 🤣 well done sir!
Great story......and another testament to the fact that the FCC has no desire to enforce amateur radio rules. Licensing is a gentleman's agreement in reality.
This isn’t amateur radio. This is gmrs - which they care about even less.
DANG IT! I've been trying to get one of these for a while. They are available at the moment, too much money for me. This Direction Finding SDR looks absolutely amazing . Thanks!
Excellent sleuthing, Happy Ham!! Now I want to know what you did to the jammer!
Yeah, how did it end ? We need a part 2
This is basically the same technology that LoJack uses. Some police cars have an array of 4 antennas that are processed in a similar way. The readout is different, though.
Thank you for sharing!! I will have to book mark that Kraken in case I need it one day for my repeaters.. I run a couple of Amateur Radio repeaters here in Olney.. KC9zhv here 73!
Great catch. WTH is up with that picture over your right shoulder? Am I the only person catching these hilarious Easter Eggs in your videos?
Whats the picture in the back? 😂
Here in Florida we have SARNET run by dot it is the most kurchunked system ever. During hurricane activity the jammers come out. It’s very sad.
I’m from SoCal and dabbling in amateur radio for the first time. I picked up a TIDradio and i scan the default channels . I think I heard this jammer on a Friday evening 2 weeks ago. I’m glad he was caught and I’m also now aware how close knit this community really is.
I hope to apply for my license very soon and join in the conversation. 🙌🏽
I don't know shit about radios I watch because Randy is funny AF he's just entertaining as hell
Loved the story and the narration.
73
VK3BT
Melbourne, Australia
Randy as always you have done such a good job on this subject!
We need more stories from Uncle Randy.
One of the best holiday stories I have heard! Thank you for the eloquent reading of this exciting tale of a "fox hunt".
Thanks to the HAPPY HAM that helped!
There is another repeater in Los Angeles area that covers LA, OC and IE pretty good. But about 2 months ago someone stater to jammed with noise like bells and some that sounds like police sirens and they started the same way slow at the beginning and now they spend a lot of time jamming the repeater. I noticed that there is at least 2 people doing it, one has an older voice and the second one look more younger since now they talked over the repeater frequency with none sense and offensive demeanor. That could be that the idiots just change repeater. This video is very informative, THANK YOU!.
In West Virginia if something like that happens, all you would have to do is get on a mountain (which are ubiquitous in the "Mountain State") and wait for him to transmit and spin your yagi around and look at who's in that direction on Google Maps, and investigate a total of probably 5 locations. Gotta love the population density out here.
Like others, I am wondering what, if anything, happened to your jammer and whether you've been able to get him/her to stop.
Some cheap chicom wireless intercoms can cause harmful interference on GMRS repeater input frequencies. When my group DF'ed them, most of the users cooperated quickly. We also let AmASSon know that they were selling these offending items. Intercoms were Hosmart brand, FYI
I had a video baby monitor that would take out WiFi 2.4 GHz in at least a 50+ yard radius (many homes) completely. It didn't use WiFi, but it's own spread-spectrum protocol. This was back when 5 GHz WiFi wasn't common.
A very suspenseful story Randy. Did you beat him to a pulp or call the FCC cops.? Is there a part 2 of the story, awesome product and outcome! 👍
lol I was thinking the same. I also wondered did you tell his mother? and was he living in the basement?
Waiting for part 2
Randy should mail one of his iconic shirts to the guy's house. The message would be loud and clear.
Is this person in the digestive system of a shark now?
@@joannehart9624 I love his shirts lol
This is some fantastic tech! Thank you for sharing this overview and in-use view.
"...i will explain everything in very simple terms so that even someone wearing a mask while driving alone in their car will be able to understand" 😂😂😂😂😂 im dying
That one sentence he made said volumes about what kind of person he is and that makes me follow his channel
I have a mountain top ranch(about 8000 feet high). I think that I would like to set up a repeater for family use as well as have an open channel without a tone that people visiting our forest could use for emergency. Any advice on this project would be greatly appreciated.
@frictionhitch He has a series of videos wherein he sets up his repeater. Posted about 2 years ago
If you haven't already, mount the antenna to a board, and then attach board to car, only have to aline the board according to the front of the vehicle going forward.
Had a jammer that the FCC didn't seem to care that he was doing his illegal station operation and active jamming so we did the same thing using a home made version of that gear. Every time he'd key up under his normal operation, three of the five local repeaters would be completely unusable. Once we found him, we contacted the FCC. They told us to get bent and just deal with it until they decided if we were priority enough to address him. A month went by and two of us local HAM's paid him a visit and asked him to get within legal limits and he had some pretty clear directions for us to follow. Problem persisted. So.... we watched him and found out when he went to work. Drove over there to his place and wrapped a tow strap around the heliac sticking out of the wall that ran to his tower tucked away in the trees. I guess the drivers foot fell on the accelerator, completely by accident of course because who would be that much of a jerk, right? 80 feet of wire made itself visible before the zip ties broke on the way up the tower leg and the antenna went on holiday. There was a crash loud enough inside the house that it could be heard clearly at the street and the cable went down the road behind the pickup with the tow strap. FCC never did show up. Never heard from the station again though.
Mine just came in the mail the other month, ive been having a lot of mostly harmless fun with it so far.
So what did you do when you found him>
Walk up and knock and the door and say "Hey can you quit jamming our signals" just to see the shocked look on his face?
So do you have a video of the beat down on the jammer?
Thats pretty awesome, good job by your happy ham!!
Great story how would you go about confronting and punishing a jammer ?
If he's an otherwise respected member of the local radio community, just the implied threat of exposure might be enough to re-train him. I suppose it depends on the individual.
Very entertaining Randy. Another victory for the good guys. BTW, those ecotank printers are really worth it. It was over two years before I added mor black ink and nearly three years and I haven't added any color ink. Four users and two of them are college students. And no, I have no stock in Epson.
I agree. Buy the Epson eco tank. I have one and refilling is easy. And the ink lasts and lasts. Saving $100’s of dollars on not having to buy ink cartrges.
I agree Ecotank is the way to go. Just don't expect to buy them for $49.97 at Walmart. They are expensive for a reason. What you spend extra in initial cost is made up for over time by not buying those cartridges in which ink is like $75 per oz.
Watch these models thanks to the waste ink pads & tanks... think the newer ones you can get the parts for without having to pay Epson or someone who's cracked the software... Or just get a laser printer.
Nice.
This earned you a subscriber.
Back in the early 90s, our club did some transmitter hunts and they were a hoot!
73 W0TTM
Oh good. My credit card will break, but I really want this freaking device. I love it.
Nice Holiday Season Story
The Grinch who Jammed the Repeater
We had three jammers here. Word got out I had a Kraken SDR and was testing it.. Haven't heard a jammer on the air since I tested my Kraken SDR working. Guess they heard i was coming.
I'm glad you have happy ham friends. That's so healthy.
I’m surprised someone would want to jam, anyway so cool you caught them awsome thanks for sharing with us
What...no affiliate link for the KrakenSDR device?
its top secret goverment technology that only NotaRubicon has been granted access to.
There is a link to their website in the info section, but yah, not an affiliate link.
I remember listening that day and it got heated
some members where upset due to the jamming and interrupting every time.
Who went and knocked on the a%%holes door? And what happened next?
Good job.
he got his radio ripped out of his hand.
@@coolelectronics1759 and then who ever ripped the radio out of the jammers hand would be sitting in a jail cell for robbery maybe armed robbery. just like if you go "cut his coax" you get caught or caught on tape you get criminal charges and maybe the shit sued out of you or worse as in some states you end up with a hole in your head.
Randy I'm new to your show you're a trip keep up the good work brother
the fresh image each video in the foreground is priceless!!!!!
So what happened after you found the jammer?
Someone is jamming us on DILA550 Help!! Lol. Good stuff Randy
Have the repeater owner contact me at randy @ notarubicon . com and i'll put our best guy on it.
@@TheNotaRubicon i just emailed chris
I'm curious, given the current state of available technology, to wit: the KrakenSDR device featured here, why not have such a device direction find and log every activation of your repeater? That would give you a head start on any search for a troublemaker.
I presume the KrakenSDR uses time of arrival and signal strength as input data for it's algorithm. Were these not staples of direction finding prior to the appearance of this particular device? Where were the fox hunt guys during those few weeks where everyone was focused on "the usual suspects"?
I wish you could catch the guy that’s screwing with the WIN System repeater network. Thank you for the demonstration of the kraken
Man, there is some incredible technology available at the consumer level! Cheers and Merry Christmas!!
where i live in high desert is dead zone for wifi and cellphone signal. i've built my own cantenna and i got signal to have inside the house. yes i had cable before but why should i pay twice for something my phone provide outside my house. i don't want my DIY antenna's interfering with anyone, how do i find out. anyway by looking into making these i came across your channel and i've learned something new. question a jammer is illegal i believe my daughter school jams phone reception because she can text me in certain time but when there's been trouble at the school, we can't communicate. here's what i found on the FCC website: The use of a phone jammer, GPS blocker, or other signal jamming device designed to intentionally block, jam, or interfere with authorized radio communications is a violation of federal law. There are no exemptions for use within a business, classroom, residence, or vehicle. Loved the story telling nothing wrong with star fish child's pattern.
This wasn't on the Papa System was it? That's huge in California
Yay story time with Uncle Randy!
You didn't say what happened after? Did you knock on the door? Did you call the FCC? Did you write him a strongly worded note?
upset here a jammer hit the repeater up here in Bakersfield and had to pull it off the network so it is standalone now
So did you nail his doors shut and burn the house?
My grandson asked who the two men were in photo behind you. I said "actors from The Bosom Buddies".
This is really cool! I wonder if the whole system could one day be mounted on a cheap commercial drone.
I love your channel🤘
I about fell out of my chair over your shirt😂🍻
We have a Nuisance Guy on our Repeater also He just makes as many noises while transmitting for hours on end only when people are having a conversation we are tracking him found out he os mobile in New Mexico always Messing with our Pinal 675 repeater in South Az @NotaRubicon Productions
This should be called "A Ham Radio Christmas Story". 11:34 - 11:41 my personal favorite! Watched a bunch of your videos you just got my sub! 73 DE KO4KKX
My currently Nicotine stained fingers are glad to know somebody is still warning the world about finger stains. I don't suggest YOU tie half your brain behind your back tho. And that's from me, your favorite viewer
I like your videos and your snarky dry humor .
So after you found the "egg hole" who did you get to confront him to make him stop?