USBee PC Data Transmission

An Israeli researcher with a history of technology research and findings, has located a technique of using a computer's USB port as a mini RF transmitter.

Mordechai Guri, used air-gapped PC’s to find that by modulating the data fed at high speed to plugged-in devices, a string of “0” bits could be transmitted from the USB port detectable between 240MHz - 480MHz.

Guri wrote a sequences of '0' and '1', creating a carrier wave from the rapid voltage changes on the interface's data pins, then binary frequency shift keying (B-FSK) to encode useful information into the wave.

Guri estimates that transmissions of 80 bytes per second can be achieved over the air using this technique.

Full Story - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/08/31/usbee_shows_once_again_that_airgapping_doesnt_protect_squat/

NIST’s Rolling Wireless Net Helps Improve First-Responder Communications

National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) have been working on a solution to integrate different technology brands into a single wireless communication system.

The system, about the size of a large filing cabinet, provides a platform to Emergency First Responders to set-up communications faster than a traditional “cell on wheels”.

Dubbed the “Nerdcart”, the system enables over 200 local users of broadband smartphones, Wi-Fi, data terminals and older walkie-talkie radios to all communicate with each other using voice, text, instant messages, video and data. 

The system can cover a rural area of 4 kilometres (2.5 miles) and can also be integrated with LTE (4G) mobile phones and Land Mobile Radio (LMR) systems.

NIST - https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2016/08/nist%E2%80%99s-rolling-wireless-net-helps-improve-first-responder-communications

Radio Amateurs Facing Unnecessary Restrictions

The International Amateur Radio Union Region 3, which covers the Asia Pacific, is concerned by the unnecessary restrictions facing radio amateurs.

The IARU Region 3 conference in Bali last year, through reports and discussion, noted the ongoing difficulties still existing in certain countries.

Those barriers include restrictions on the possession and operation of transmitters and receivers. The IARU lists a number of issues that should be a “baseline” for working with the administrations, such as achieving improvements to licensing, examination and other operating conditions.

Gone should be the old era of ‘Post and Telegraph’ with most now taking on a much broader the role of a national radio regulator. The modern radio amateur in many of the more developed countries now enjoy full operating privileges resulting from subsequent decisions made at the World Radiocommunication Conferences.

In a posting on the Amateur Radio Victoria (VK3) site they say "In support of the Korean Amateur Radio League, Philippine Amateur Radio Association, Amateur Radio Society India and others, the IARU urges the removal of those and similar restrictions."