[sci.military] CNN and jamming

budden@trout.nosc.mil (Rex A. Buddenberg) (01/21/91)

From: budden@trout.nosc.mil (Rex A. Buddenberg)
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If CNN had a hardwire (landline) to Amman, then the jamming
would be extremely unlikely to affect it.

In this case, even a satellite throw would probably be largely
unaffected.  To understand this statement, we need to make a
couple points about electronic warfare:

When jamming an enemy receiver, technology is not the issue.
Power, and intelligence are.  The intent of a jammer is to insert
enough noise into the control loop (via a receiver) so that
control ceases to work, or work reliably/predictably.  Since
receivers are tuned to receive specific frequencies, it does
no good to jam them with RF energy outside those freqs.

In the case of Baghdad, I strongly suspect that we know what
freqs to jam to a considerable level of confidence and precision.
The weaponry is largely Soviet and recall the note about the
Soviets trucking the Dutch Patriot battery to Turkey...  So
we probably know every technical detail about the AA radars,
including any war reserve frequencies.  This means that the offensive
jammers can be tuned to concentrate their jamming energy in very
specific frequency bands and not waste it elsewhere ... like
in CNNs frequency.

Rex Buddenberg
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dps@otter.hpl.hp.com (Duncan Smith) (01/22/91)

From: dps@otter.hpl.hp.com (Duncan Smith)

/ otter:sci.military / budden@trout.nosc.mil (Rex A. Buddenberg) /  4:01 am  Jan 21, 1991 /
>In this case, even a satellite throw would probably be largely
>unaffected.  To understand this statement, we need to make a
>couple points about electronic warfare:

The BBC reported last (Sunday 20th) night that US jamming
immediately prior to a B-52 strike always caused their
satellite link to go down.

Duncan

major@uunet.UU.NET (Mike Schmitt) (01/23/91)

From: bcstec!shuksan!major@uunet.UU.NET (Mike Schmitt)

> From: dps@otter.hpl.hp.com (Duncan Smith)
 
> The BBC reported last (Sunday 20th) night that US jamming
> immediately prior to a B-52 strike always caused their
> satellite link to go down.
 
  Talk about 'harmonics' - a frequency phenomena.  At Hohenfels Training
  area in Germany - there was one set of frequencies that always seemed
  to be "jammed" by a 'voice jamming' system.  Until you listened carefully
  and had a linguist nearby - it was a Czecheslovakian Taxi Cab company....
  
  ------------------------------

  We also had some "unattended ground sensors" (UGS).  The crystal 
  frequency was set at the plant in Texas.  Unfortunately, we weren't
  allowed to use them in Germany - the frequency was set on German
  TV!!!???

  -----------------------------

  Go figure..


  mts