Four Rules of Guns, Comms, and Traffic Analysis, by GuerrillaLogistician

by Guerrilla Logistician
Reference – 6F

Common comments from people online that will get you killed.

-I don’t understand radios at all. The only ones I understand are push-to-talk walkie-talkies.

-Only licensed ham operators know how to use radios properly.

-I can’t read this book. It’s way too hard.

-Ohhh, look, some YouTube videos showed me ATAK and Mesh. I want that.

Many of these comments lead to people getting clapped by Russian Caliber missiles just inside the Ukraine border, especially people with ATAK and Mesh network systems.

Let’s talk about radios, and I will dumb it down to the simplest format I can.  Radios aren’t hard; what can be hard is the setup, and what can get harder is understanding and being good at it. If a thug in an inner city can shoot a handgun out of a window with little knowledge, you can learn to use a radio.  If you have shot any guns safely, you can also learn to run radios effectively and safely.  This crap isn’t that hard. It just looks hard, and people make a big deal out of it.  This article won’t be about how to use radios, though it will be about how to operate them safely and help prevent SIGINT from getting you while also showing you how to nail others because they won’t follow the rules.

 Keeping your booger hook off the bang stick

https://youtu.be/N3hVrIM5m0s

Don’t press the trigger until you are ready to shoot.  Simple words, but when it comes to radios, people don’t understand this at all; not only that, so much tech nowadays is constantly communicating.  Mesh networks and ATAK are this way; they are the gangbanger with a switch on a Glock just shooting out of a moving car.  It looks cool, makes a lot of cool noise, and your boys are all impressed, but it also shows everyone where you are and who you are.  To explore this, let’s talk about my favorite topic: submarines.  While many of you know about the Enigma machine and how we cracked their code, there were still issues.  Long story short, at times, it couldn’t be decoded. For example, when they modified the machines, it took time to decode, which may mean the info wasn’t relevant anymore. So when they couldn’t decode the info, they had to do some high-frequency direction finding or HUF DUF.  So, how do we combat direction finding because technology is so advanced?  Long story short, cut your transmission as short as possible.  People think the US gov has all this equipment to DF anyone in the blink of an eye.  Which to be fair, the gov has amazing capabilities, but they have to know where to look for you, when, and make sure it is you. If you transmit all the time, a TX pattern starts to appear, and this goes into traffic analysis, which allows someone to know you are there.  This is also why a PACE plan is so important pg 35.  Just like the gangbanger pulling the trigger, if you transmit a lot, people can direction find you and possibly figure out much more

Finger off the trigger / Minimal TX time / Who is talking a lot?

Assume every gun is loaded.

Assume everyone can read your previous messages.  People tout AES256 encryption because it is what the military uses.  Well, guess what? The Japanese were reading our comms, and we were reading there in WWII. In an effort to find out if the Japanese were planning an attack on Midway or the Aleutian Islands, the US sent a false radio message saying that Midway’s water system had failed. The Japanese intercepted the message and decoded a Japanese message that “AF” was having water problems, confirming that Midway was the target. The codebreakers used a code they knew the Japanese had already broken to send the false message and then were able to figure out the meaning of AF.  This is why Scout uses trigram encryption to shorten the message and then an OTP to encrypt it.  If the Japanese had been changing their codes regularly, previous transmission codes would have been voided.

Realistically, you should be transmitting information via a digital mode, encrypting with a trigram that you change regularly, and then using an OTP, which is good for only one time.  Even if the enemy can’t read the code, they still might know what kind of digital pattern you are using over time, so if possible, switch that up as necessary and change your check-in times so you don’t create a pattern.  So what it looks like includes the pattern and when.  Even if I can’t read it, I can figure out who is transmitting via patterns you leave; if you are blasting away like a thug, I can find out where you are, and it gets worse.  This is also why you need to change your SARNEG daily as well as your SOI.  If you can figure out the enemy SOI, you can start gathering information from their actions, which may lead to cracking their code.

Also, many mesh networks push out data from the node that isn’t encrypted, which can be noted even if you can’t read the message.  Think of this data as the envelope to a letter you can’t open.  You can see who sent the message even if you can’t read it.  Not to mention, the network is constantly chatting, which rolls into rule one as well.  A note on AES 256 even if Bubba can’t crack it, many govs and some hackers can.  The more you talk the more they can sniff and the faster they can get in.  The US military changes its codes at least every 30 days for a reason.

Treat every gun as if it were loaded / Change your codes often / Even if I can’t read it, what does it look like

Always point the gun in a safe direction

Contrary to popular belief, you can direct your transmission in a few ways.  First are obstacles, which can be anything from buildings and trees to terrain features p73.  In addition, you can use direction antennas such as the Sloping Vee for HF and Yagi for VHF UHF. (p82-87).  If we know our target, we can take a compass point from our antenna and prevent a large area from intercepting your signal.  However, let’s say you are operating HF.  HUF DUF is real, and people can be tracked when you TX on HF by aircraft, ground stations, etc.  The trick is to make it very hard on them. If you are the base of operations and have to talk to multiple groups at once, not only to coordinate but also to stay in line with the first rule of don’t blast away.  Near Vertical Incidence Skywave or NVIS is the best way to do this, and it can turn your radio into an absolute pain in the ass to track down, even for a government agency.

You can talk from 50-600 miles and provided you don’t TX often, the vertical bounce of the radio waves makes it hard to get a direction.  Submarines couldn’t do this in WWII, so it really limited their ability to hide from Britain.  Britain couldn’t say for certain exactly where the submarine was, but they had a general area and could route convoys away and send hunters with ASDIC(https://uboat.net/allies/technical/asdic.htm).  Meanwhile, convoys couldn’t hide either, so they either had to stay quiet or risk being direction found by German subs that used a loop antenna. Mesh networks again fail at this, though, as they rely on omni-direction TX to keep a network connected.

Always point the gun in a safe direction / Direct your comms so people can’t hear you easily / Direction find things you hear.

Be sure of your target and what is behind it.

One of the major issues with comms is people don’t make good PACE plans, and they absolutely don’t pay attention to their radios.  They will stick their radios on their backs and forget to lock the keys, and the next thing they know, they can’t talk to who they want.  It is basically like setting up for a shot, looking away to talk to a friend, and then pulling the trigger.  Even ships in WWII had issues not understanding technology.  One admiral for the US knew the Japanese were coming because of Radar, yet held fire until they were in visual range.  The Japanese, also using the MKI eyeball, actually spotted them first in the storm and fired, causing all sorts of issues and sinking several ships.  On the other hand, another admiral was really interested in the new technology at the time and absolutely hammered the Japanese.

Likewise, as you communicate, change your SOI and your frequencies.  Using the above techniques means the enemy has to realize you are transmitting, make sure it is you, try to read your transmission, find out where you are, and then actually keep track of you.  Be elusive, change frequencies and bands, hide in or near other transmissions if possible, but never stay in one place, which makes it hard for someone to track you down.  This goes for both location and frequency.  Changing Frequency and location makes it very hard for people to track.  While everyone is looking for you on a 2D map, you are 3D stepping out of the map and moving.  Lastly, if you knew a bullet was going to blast through a bad guy and strike ten people, would you shoot it?  The same thing goes with radios. Reduce your power down to the minimum needed. You don’t need to tell the world, only those who need to know.  You basically are trying to hit your target without nailing everyone else.

Be sure of your target and what is behind it / Be sure you can communicate and be elusive on the bands / Make sure you are still listening to the same target, and look for previous patterns to fix your target.

Final Thoughts

4 simple rules keep people safe with guns, 4 simple rules keep you from getting caught, and 4 simple rules people break that you can exploit.

All of this falls under what is called traffic analysis, which basically consists of who is TXing, what kind of TX or encryption is used, where they are, and when they TX.  So now you know something about traffic analysis and how to address someone using it against you.  This is why it is so important not to operate systems that constantly have to talk to one another; they basically break all of these rules.  It may be fun to blast away randomly, and if done correctly, full auto is fun as well, but it needs to be done safely.  Mesh networks are great for hurricanes, disasters, etc., because it is a safe area with no random things to hit that shouldn’t be hit.  That all changes when we go from disaster/relief work to political/civil strife.

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