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Mark Borgerson

In article ,
says...
Mark Borgerson wrote:
In article ,
says...
Jack Linthicum wrote:
[snip]

I think that a spread spectrum burst type transmission can be
intercepted and given a rough bearing. The money to do this is
miniscule in comparison with making Trident missiles into hand
grenades.
The command post does not move between transmissions. Spread
spectrum/frequency hopping systems return to previous frequencies every
few seconds. Just use several bursts to home in on the transmitter.

Why are you assuming that the command post does not move? I see no
reason that a mobile command post and multiple mobile transmitters
could not be used.

This comes down to the definition of mobile. If the command post stays
in the same place for half an hour it is static. A constantly moving
command post would need a vehicle the size of a bus to hold the
operators and long range transmitters, possible but hard to camouflage.

So you don't think the Iranians have buses or semi-trailers? Suppose
there are 100 semis on the coastal road. Which one do you target?

Spread spectrum and frequency hopping systems do use a finite number
of frequencies---but the sequence of freqencies used may not repeat for
many hours. That leaves you with a broadband collection problem
and having to sort out multiple emitters on the same bandwidth with
different hopping schedules. I suspect that is a problem handled
offline and after-the-fact, and not in real time. However, the
technology has probably advanced a bit in the 30 years I've been
out of the sigint world. ;-)

If we are trying to destroy the command post we do not need to receive
the entire message we can simply wait until that frequency is reused by
that transmitter. If the equipment is hopping over 100 frequencies it
should be back within the next 200 transmissions.

With spread-spectrum transmitters, the time spent at one particular
frequency may be only a millisecond or two. If you can provide a link
to a system that can accurately track a moving spread-spectrum
transmitter, I'd be interested in reviewing its specifications.

The problem with intercepting spread-spectrum signals is that the
receiver KNOWS where the next signal will arrive. It can tune it's
receiver software for that frequency. The intercept receive has to be
able to recieve ALL frequencies---and thus cannot use the same signal
processing techniques as a receiver that knows the sequence.

The computers will need programming to treat transmissions from two
widely separated locations as two targets. Home in on them one at a time.

How do you work with one continuously moving target transmitting on
256 different frequencies? I suppose it could be done with large
enough antennas and enough processing power on a number of different
ships. It's not going to be easy, cheap, or widely available, though.

Mark Borgerson