bballjh wrote:
That's like a giant middle finger to the other guys
It's more of a giant middle finger to those who have no compunctions posting every damn thing they find, never stopping to think about the consequences. We've seen some great examples in the past, such as:
-people posting about a real-time SWAT event or the like, with updates every time someone transmits;
-people hearing an unlicensed (but allowed under FCC rules) LE tactical channel and blabbing it all over the web, only to find it silent within days;
-people posting PII they may hear over the air (i.e. SSNs, addresses, medical info, etc); and
-people posting little-known federal things that soon go silent as a result.
Hobbyists aren't the only ones perusing these boards, and hobbyists aren't the only ones looking for specific information about an agency.
Example: I hear XYZ County Sheriff using an abnormal, and unlicensed freq for close-quarters tactical ops, i.e. surveillance, SWAT, etc. I throw it out on the web. A deputy, radio tech, administrator or someone else is randomly Googling along looking for hits about XYZ County SO. Lo and behold, up pop my excited delirium ravings about hearing all this cool stuff. A phone call or two later, and XYZ Sheriff's SWAT (or whatever) is now using cellphones, AES encryption, FRS radios, semaphore or what-have-you for these ops.
Whoops.
Wait, don't laugh. I can cite two examples of this to date. I could also tell you about a buddy that did something a lot like this and ended up getting fired from a PD close to you as a result...If it goes on the web, it's forever there.
Folks, just use common sense. Ask yourself "Is posting this going to see it go away?" "Will it endanger someone?"
No, not every hostage-taker, terrorist, robber or burglar is going to be looking for here for info about the SWAT team moving into position outside their house, and decide it's a good day to die....But what if one does? Just one?
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President-in-Exile, Seattle Area Radio Communications And Scanner Traffic Intercept Crew (SARCASTIC)
Don't feel bad if you can't use your STD100/200; there are still people using Digital Frequency Search!Bunnery definition for the under-fives