Backyard SIGINT Analysis

Data Analysis for SIGINT

Data(Noun)

:factual information (such as measurements or statistics) used as a basis for reasoning, discussion, or calculation.

Analysis(Noun)

:The separation of an intellectual or material whole into its constituent parts for individual study.

Without data, an analyst is nothing. Without the analyst, the data is nothing. What makes intelligence, intelligence is it’s usefulness, or “actionability”. Analysts do not aimlessly scroll through endless lines of data with no goal in mind. They are looking for the data that pertains to their specific need at the time. Completing this with pen and paper is slow and requires dozens of square feet of Chalk board. Manual labor not being out of the question and a very good skill to have, however, it is 2023 and we do have the technology to automate some of the more tedious work. Data Analysis being the largest time consumer.

Before Data Analysis, you must have Data Entry. This is simply organizing the information that you have in fashion that can be separated, grouped, and charted as needed. Microsoft Excel was designed for this purpose and it excels in the task. If you’ve read any old articles or listened to some of the podcasts, surely you know to WTSD, Write That Shit Down. You’re not going to remember every detail of every transmission you happen to intercept. Notepads are the most field expedient method. Surely someone has some half functioning automated SDR that logs everything above the signal floor. Those many of those programs(including the SDRs themselves) don’t always function as advertised. Many will crash, freeze, overheat and run too slowly, take your pick, they’re not very reliable for a guerilla. A Rite-In-The-Rain pad and pen though, those are pretty much full proof, except the dummy with the pad and pen, of course.

The figure below is solid foundational view of what your fancy computing table should look like. Though it doesn’t have to be exactly like this, it’s a good start. Your notepad should about mirror your long term analysis sheets.

The column order can change, though I prefer the TX and RX to be first, if no name is available, they can be left blank. Followed by frequency and Time Up, not to be confused with Time Down. Some other info sprinkled in there for future Direction Finding. When creating data sheets like this, it’s very important to create your columns with very specific names. This will help when/if you create a Pivot Table & Pivot Chart. This is more advanced but a few clicks and you’re there. Charts make it much easier to visualize which frequencies are being used the most, as well as who’s using them. Example below:

Using our tiny sample, it’s easy to read through the 10 lines of data in the regular excel, but imagine months of collecting Chicom radio transmissions. Once this table is filled, counting each line manually is simply a waste of time. With the chary, we can easily see that ET3DU and WR2SY are good pals but WR2SY seems to initiate contact more often and on from the table data, on a different frequency with a different LOB. Interesting. This charts can get tricky when you throw too much into them. I prefer to use Tables and Charts in unison so my brain only defrosts slightly instead of leaking out of my ear.

An easy way but not exactly a fast way to get data to enter is to simply practice on your local VHF HAM repeater and local EMS channels or whatever else you can pick up with what ever you’re operating. Pro-tip: just get the hang of writing the frequency and time to start, the date can just be written at the top of your notepad and everything below that, is for that day. You will need to get that groove down before you can record frequency, time, listen, paraphrase, and get a LOB all within a few moments. SIGINT is in every way, parallel to marksmanship. Getting LOBs is great but if you don’t know which frequency it was for, it’s no longer intelligence. Recording all the info is great but if you get a LOB with it, it’s much better service. If you’ve mastered speed reloads but cannot hit a target at any distance, you’re useless. Conversely, if you can hit every target with every shot but can’t reload, you’re not entirely useless but not very useful either.

I hope this helps. If it doesn’t, read it again.