New ID Card Tracking? You’re Already A Beacon

New ID Card Tracking? You're Already A Beacon

Ted Twietmeyer / February 2, 2007

Much has been uttered and printed regarding the new national ID card, coming soon to a pocket near you. Many are upset by this little gem of technology, fearing big brother and Orwell's ideas. But is it the first way they will have to personally track you? First, let's take a look at the essential factor for spying-at-a-distance without optics: Radio frequencies. To begin with, it is generally accepted that frequencies of 50 Megahertz (MHz) and higher will travel from Earth's surface, through the ionosphere and into space. 50 Megahertz is actually the start of the VHF television band, channel 2 in the United States and Canada.

A former member of the intelligence community went public on a television documentary about the first Gulf War in Iraq, in 1991. When Saddam purchased all new printers and computers for his military installations everywhere, a special chip was provided to the printer manufacturer by an American Intelligence agency. It did everything the normal chip in the circuit did to make the printer work, plus one additional function. The chip acted like a beacon when pinged by a satellite signal, enabling American forces to drop a bomb on every single military installation. And that was 16 years ago! Now imagine how advanced things are now. The rule of thumb has been the military advances 44 years, for every year of civilian technology. That's right - high density, high pin count microchips date back to the 1960s. That's when THEY had them. Everyone else was still working with individual transistors.

You may wonder what all this has to do with RFID. The answer is everything, because spy satellites orbiting Earth 200 miles up cannot detect radio signals very well below 50 MHz! These lower frequencies bounce off the Earth's ionosphere as though it were a mirror, returning them back to Earth or in some cases, completely absorbing them.
In the earlier days of "remote control USA," garage door openers first operated near the 27MHz citizens band frequency. Remote control systems for model airplanes and boats also used this band in the 1970s. There were no personal devices like cell phones, PDAs, WiFi networks, GPS or other toys. All of today's electronic toys operate at far higher frequencies - and all are well within the listening capability of spy satellites. These satellites have directional antenna arrays as large as a football field, that fold out and deploy upon reaching orbit. Super-cooled, ultra-high gain amplifiers can pull a signal out of the mud for almost any given frequency of interest. The shuttle is used to deploy these satellites for the defense dept. on classified missions. Satellite launches are not televised.

Below are just a few of the FCC assigned frequencies for today's toys. This data was extracted from a lengthy 56 page table [1] which came straight from the FCC, the keeper of all things for communications in the USA. Canada's regulatory body generally follows the same spectrum assignments, being a close geographic neighbor. With the exception of the television band included for reference only, I have left out numerous bands reserved for satellite data, Earth to space communications, etc… and other frequencies reserved for non-personal use:
Fixed and land mobile communications - 152 to 156MHz, 161MHz etc…

Maritime Mobile - 156MHz.

TV channels 2 through 13 - 174 to 216MHz.

Amateur radio - 222 to 225MHz. (One of many bands for amateurs)

Fixed mobile - 225 through 328MHz divided into numerous bands

Garage door openers - 317MHz.

Amateur radio location as needed - 420 to 430MHz.

Remote Vehicle Starters - 433MHz

Private land mobile - 451 to 460MHz. divided into numerous bands

Cell phones - 824 to 894 and 1900MHz.

Private paging - 929 to 930MHz.

Broadband PCS - 1850 to 1980 MHz divided into numerous bands

Computer WiFi networking - 4.9GHz [2]

Newer cordless Phones - 5.2GHz. These started at 49Mhz, then went to 900MHz and higher.

The above list is just a small sample of assigned frequencies. Every time you push a talk button on a radio, use a cordless phone (newer cordless digital phones operate at 5.2GHz.,) start a car, activate a garage door opener remote control, place a phone call, page someone etc… you and/or they light up like an airport beacon in the government's satellite tracking system.

Starting your car in the winter by using your remote car starter is a dream invention for intelligence agencies - you're telling them you're about to leave!

The frequencies used by the national ID card will not be officially published of course. However, it won't be long before some enterprising person finds out what they are with testing, and jams the daylights out of them. The FCC has declared a drop-dead date for all current analog commercial television broadcasting from channel 2 through 83 to cease. This date came and went, and has been changed by the Senate to Feb. 17th 2009. [3]
How did they arrive at Feb. 17th 2009? A bigger question still remains unanswered - what will the government dp with the 500 megahertz of spectrum this ban suddenly frees up? No one to date has discussed this issue. This spectrum is not attractive to manufacturers, because these lower frequencies by necessity require very big antennas, as compared to those on cell phones, WiFi boxes and computers, etc… It's also not useful for human RFID implants either which currently use very low frequencies, less than 1 MHz.

With all the "broadcasting" everyone does now using all these electronic devices and many others - why is everyone is worried about being tracked by the ID card?

It would seem to be the least of our problems.

Ted Twietmeyer

www.data4science.net

Strange footnote: UHF television channel 37 is now reserved by the FCC for radio telescope use.

REFERENCES

[1] - http://www.fcc.gov/oet/info/database/spectrum/spinvtbl.pdf
[2] - http://www.apcointl.org/frequency/4-9GHz/WiFiPS.htm
[3] - http://www.cnet.com/4520-7874_1-5108580-3.html

Hat tip to Andre at Outlaw news!