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Wow. Seems like Libya jammed Aljazeera satelite

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DLnyc Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-22-11 11:19 PM
Original message
Wow. Seems like Libya jammed Aljazeera satelite
Anyone know about this?

http://english.aljazeera.net/news/africa/2011/02/201122115405296823.html

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Al Jazeera is suffering interference on the Arabsat satellite frequency.

The network, on the basis of investigations by specialists, has blamed Libya's intelligence services for jamming its TV signals and blocking its websites. It has traced the source of the jamming to a Libyan intelligence technical administration building south of Tripoli, the capital.
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mzteris Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-22-11 11:23 PM
Response to Original message
1. taking a play from Scot Walker, eh?
blocking access at the Capitol to "certain" websites...
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TheWraith Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-22-11 11:23 PM
Response to Original message
2. I'm not sure how they assert that's being done.
You could interfere with a satellite by using focused EM as a kind of directed energy weapon, but locally jamming satellite TV is harder than it sounds. Since the receiving antennas (the dishes) are highly directional, they block out a lot of potential sources of interference from terrestrially-based transmitters. It's how you can transmit so much more data over a dish link than you can over the air.

A terrestrial jamming array would be hard to pull off in terms of effectively blocking the signals.
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DLnyc Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-22-11 11:34 PM
Response to Reply #2
3. Okay, thanks.
I'm not sure what they are saying either. I "focused EM" possible, or are you saying that is not possible?
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TheWraith Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-23-11 04:31 AM
Response to Reply #3
10. It's possible.
Edited on Wed Feb-23-11 04:32 AM by TheWraith
Not easy, but possible. Think of it as trying to stop a radio station from transmitting by building your own powerful transmitter and aiming it at their antenna, hoping to scramble their equipment.

Or put in other terms, they're trying to send back enough radio waves to fry the satellite from the ground.

Of course it goes almost without saying that doing this is illegal in pretty much any country which has enough communications laws to have an operational telephone network, not to mention being banned by a shitload of international treaties.
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joshcryer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-23-11 05:09 AM
Response to Reply #10
15. When Iran was doing it the EU could only complain. Cuba even helped on one ocassion.
Interesting how these "leftist" states really have a problem with allowing information to flow.
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Canuckistanian Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-22-11 11:45 PM
Response to Reply #2
5. They're jamming the actual satellite
Not the the ground receivers. That would be damned near impossible.
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TheWraith Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-23-11 04:25 AM
Response to Reply #5
8. Wow. That's... ambitious.
Also AMAZINGLY illegal. By... well pretty much the laws of every single country which HAS laws governing communications.
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joshcryer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-23-11 04:28 AM
Response to Reply #5
9. Yeah, you saturate the sender with the frequency, and pow, bye bye.
Can also damage it.
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Sen. Walter Sobchak Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-23-11 04:38 AM
Response to Reply #2
13. It isn't too difficult
Telecom satellites are more or less operated on the honor system where each operator has their block of spectrum and doesn't interfere with other operators. Another satellite at the same orbital location broadcasting on a block allocated to another operator could fuck things up royally.

In North America there are four satellites at 119 degrees west, two Dish Network, one DirecTV and one Canadian satellite used by Dish Network. They each have their block of spectrum and operate in harmony without interfering with one another.
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TheWraith Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-23-11 04:50 AM
Response to Reply #13
14. It's difficult when you consider the technical requirements.
Primarily because of the fact that a transmitter on the ground is not equal to one in space. Specifically, to pull this off you need a fairly large dish or parabolic antenna, and a transmitter rated to put out enough juice that you can focus the beam on a satellite 22,500 miles away with enough power behind it to cause problems within the satellite's own transmitter. That takes some technical capability, far more than simply walking over somebody's spectrum.
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joshcryer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-23-11 05:14 AM
Response to Reply #14
16. It's just a block upconverter, on the ground you have way more energy available.
You only have to get the satellite to go into a safe mode or to trip fail safes now and again, you don't have to continually rape the dish, just confuse it. It's scarily easy to do.
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TheWraith Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-23-11 01:28 PM
Response to Reply #16
17. You sound like you have more experience than I do violating international communications treaties.
So I'll defer to your judgment. :D My experience with radio interference is mostly on surface-to-surface links.
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Historic NY Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-22-11 11:42 PM
Response to Original message
4. Can't they beam via Eqypt. on ground stations?
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DLnyc Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-22-11 11:55 PM
Response to Reply #4
6. From the link in the OP, there are other satelites available
I just think it's noteworthy that, if I understand correctly, Libya is jamming a satellite. Not reception, but the actual satellite. Is that what you guys are saying?
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TheWraith Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-23-11 04:33 AM
Response to Reply #6
11. That appears to be what they're saying, yes.
That takes some effort.
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joshcryer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Wed Feb-23-11 04:34 AM
Response to Reply #6
12. Yep. Iran has done this on several ocassions, too, I wonder if they're the source for the tech.
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nadinbrzezinski Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Feb-22-11 11:58 PM
Response to Original message
7. Sadly it is not hard to do
but they are doing this for obvious reasons... part of the dynamic, script, whatever people want to call it.
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