What the Hell is a Yagi and Where do I Point it? Tactical Signals Exploitation AAR, by Crusoe

Training must be the cornerstone of your survival preparations and the ability to operate within the permissive to non-permissive continuum is a key element.  In the soon to be year 2023 the technological aperture is growing wider by the moment, and it is critical to be able to maneuver within and leverage the digital and RF domain.  I just returned from Madman Actual’s first Tactical Signals Exploitation course in North Carolina.  The curriculum is a natural extension of the RTO/RTO Advance/SIGINT courses that Scout teaches, and I would recommend attending those courses first before taking this next step.  The expectation going in is that you have a better than rudimentary understanding on how to use a radio and are familiar with the basics of SIGINT operations.

Our adversary collectively understands these concepts better than we do and we have some serious catching up to do.  We have all seen black clad “street captains” using their radios through a well-defined command structure to move against city police forces and federal agents.  In fact, they have completely gutted and retrofitted vans with radio and SIGINT equipment to manage their battle space.  Most of us understand the operational concept of the “Intelligence Preparation of the Battlefield (IPB),” but not everyone understands that signals intelligence is a key factor in the planning process and operational phase.  During the course we learned how to use different pieces of equipment to catalog frequencies of interest (FOI) that can later be identified or even exploited.

Madman demonstrated that you do not need the most expensive gear out there to be effective and a lot can be done with a Yagi antenna, frequency counter, Tiny Spectrum Analyzer, Baofeng UV-5R/AR-152 and a Radioddity GS-5B.  As always, one of the best parts of attending in person courses is the interaction with your fellow students.  Several students came with robust SIGINT suites consisting of communication receivers, computers with SDRs, and a myriad of extremely capable radios.  In fact, one of the practical exercises was the identification of the upload/downlink frequencies of a drone.

As I state in all my posts, you must define your desired end state and let those requirements drive your gear selection.   Our adversaries are ahead of us for now, but with training such as this I feel confident, we will soon catch up to them.  Pull your gear out of their boxes and get out to train.  I promise you; you will not regret it.

Crusoe is retired from the Air Force after 30-years of service as a flight crew member.  He spends most of his time thinking about the apocalypse and how to mitigate its effects.  When not immersed in academic pursuits, he is often on a trail hiking in the mountains of North Georgia or reading with a glass of Irish whiskey and a German Shepherd by his side.   Global travel enthusiast, history nerd, Appalachian Trail thru hiker, and recovering ultra-endurance athlete.  He can be reached at [email protected]