An extraordinary experience begin here!

From Wireless waffle,

How to listen UFOs

An interesting title which provocate us to read. A blog posting with unique topic
make our eyes catch to read 'em. Here are the post:

Since the late 1990's rumours have abounded that it was possible to hack into American military satellites and use them for wide area communication. The satellites, originally the 'FleetSatCom' newtork (often abbreviated to FLTSATCOM) use basic FM modulation and have uplinks in the area of 300 MHz and downlinks in the area of 260 MHz. Stories went that tuning in to the downlinks it was possible to hear illegal pirates, from Brazil in particular, who were usurping these US military satellites to use for wide-area communications. It was also said that 'Smile 93.9 FM' (rumoured to be from Manila) was using one of the channels as a studio to transmitter link and could often be heard on the downlink frequency of 269.950 MHz.

This seemed a little far fetched and unbelievable: How could one of the world's most super-sophisticated armed forces allow their multi-million dollar military hardware be taken control of by such an unsophisticated enemy armed with nothing more than a simple UHF FM transmitter? Using a simple VHF/UHF receiver and a bog standard roof mounted VHF/UHF antenna, I set out to try and debunk the myth.

Within seconds I was listening to a conversation between two likely sounding chaps on a frequency of 255.550 MHz. Next I stumbled across more voice traffic (definitely in Portuguese, the language spoken in Brazil) on 258.650 MHz. And before long I found more voice traffic on 253.850 MHz. Intrigued that this long reported phenomena was still in evidence I did a bit of digging on the internet to find out more.

The original FleetSatCom satellites which were launched in the late 1970's and early 1980's are no longer operational. They were initially replaced by satellites known as Leased Satellites (Leasat) which have also since been replaced by the UHF Follow-On series of satellites, ironically acronymised as UFO. The UFO satellites continue to provide the same communications capabilities as the earlier ones but with somewhat higher transmitter powers, making reception of them fairly straightforward.

A bit more digging uncovered military standard MIL-STD-188-181A which describes the interface specification for the satellites (i.e. the technical requirements for equipment used to access them) and in it we find a list of the uplink and downlink frequencies used. All the frequencies I could hear are in group 'Charlie', now known as group 'Quebec' (Q) on the UFO satellites. Group Q comprises the following 25 kHz wide downlink frequencies (uplink frequencies are 41 MHz higher):

images ufo fltsatcom jpgQ1 250.650 MHz (Fleet Broadcast)
Q2 252.150 MHz (Navy Channels)
Q3 253.850 MHz
Q4 255.550 MHz
Q5 257.150 MHz
Q6 258.650 MHz
Q7 265.550 MHz
Q8 267.050 MHz
Q9 269.450 MHz
Q10 269.950 MHz
Q11 260.625 MHz (DoD Channels)
Q12 260.725 MHz
Q13 262.125 MHz
Q14 262.225 MHz
Q15 262.325 MHz
Q16 262.425 MHz
Q17 263.825 MHz
Q18 263.925 MHz

So far, I have heard sporadic voice traffic on channels Q2, Q3, Q4, Q5 and Q6 and something, albeit rather weak on Q7. It seems as if the satellite I am hearing is UFO-7 which is situated over the Atlantic. But is this traffic really pirates using the satellites on purpose, or is it something else? Surely there is no longer the need, in Brazil or other countries, to use US military satellites for communications, especially now that mobile phones and mobile coverage are virtually ubiquitous?

A quick look at the Brazilian frequency allocation table, the Plano de Destinação de Faixas de Freqüência, shows us that the frequency range 270 - 326.8 MHz is assigned to the fixed and mobile service, and in particular to public correspondence. So the frequencies are quite legally in use for various communication services; that they are being relayed by the satellite is incidental and a result of the fact that the uplink frequencies are used differently in different parts of the world. So no Brazilian pirate radio mafia trying to jam US military satellites after all then? What a shame, it seemed like such a good story.

Originally posted by admin of Wireless Waffle on Friday 31 August, 2007, 10:48 - Pirate/Clandestine

Read more!

Blogging on Socialspark about latest tech

Another interesting site to blog our hobby on technology review! and that is Socialspark. A social community site for blog marketing, advertising and social media marketing founded by Izea. We can review many new techies on internet or blogger who write the same hobby with us about newest and latest tehnology.
Socialspark give us an opportunity to write and blog more to post the latest trend on whatever we like including some review about gadget, electronics, hardware or news about anything. We can also blog anything about ourself as the technology user or anything.

When we have something to blog any topics we interested on just go to Socialspark, or we can review others before we posting a blog or you can just surfing around without being an active blogger (But i won't suggest that as a blogger). One important thing is we can get more traffic by join Socialpark, that's what i experience from my own blog and earn money by support their sponsors. I got trafficflood from any visitor all over the world. That what makes me could share more and more about my own blog. And what i love to review is many sponsored post connected to my interests and hobbies such as gadget review or some products offer.
It said that Socialspark is right around the corner for everybody or blogger who wants to socialize themself or their blog about technology. They accept everyone from anywhere on the world as long as they connected to internet. What a big big connection out there. So blog happily and comfortly by clicking this link on Socialspark .

Read more!

Watch H.264 over GNU Radio and USRP video

GNU radio has a good prospect on Software Radio development to realize a 4G content application, one of the most powerful software that can be embedded on a single FPGA with USRP technology. You can watch the demo of Cross-layer wireless video testbed and full description here :




Zhifeng Chen and Jun Xu with Advisor: Prof. Dapeng Oliver Wu from University of Florida are deploying some research works on QoS of wireless video by cross-layer design and results will come very soon. All of their research works will be verified in the real world wireless environment but not just by simply making some assumptions. That will be the major difference to distinguish our research works from others.

In this project, they transmit H.264 video over wireless connection by USRP (and decode H.264 and display in real time). In Windows PC, run H264_display.exe (set your UDP server port number, default value is 50007).

Read more!

3G, 4G, WiMAX, 802.20, ABI - do we need them all ?

Last week, AT&T Wireless debuted UMTS services in Detroit, Phoenix, San Francisco and Seattle. Based on technologies shared with Japan's NTT DoCoMo, these are, says the company, the first commercially available 3G UMTS services available in the United States.

That's good news, but is it the whole story? The wireless industry is basing its market strategy on the assumption of an evolution to 4G services, possibly based on orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM). NTT DoCoMo expects to roll out its first 4G services in Japan within three years.

Smooth high-speed video and other forms of high-speed data are among the central benefits 4G proponents are touting, and are important reasons for its development. Yet, there are 3G networks delivering them already. WiMAX promises to do the same. So is the need for 4G inevitable?

According to ABI Research's vice president of research, Edward Rerisi, it's all about subscriber numbers and demand. Compared to present-day 3G, fourth generation technologies, he says, will be able to provide many more customers with these rich-media experiences at the same time.

It's all a question of the level of demand for data-based services, and there will be a wide variety to choose from. Some users may want video; some may transfer multi-megapixel images and still others might find location-based services, enterprise applications, or any of the other sophisticated data-based offerings more compelling.

"In any case," adds Rerisi, "when when consumer demand accelerates, the true value of '4G' will be revealed."

ABI Research's report, "Broadband Wireless - Last Mile Solutions" examines the technical features of these technologies and the complex dynamics of this market.

Founded in 1990 and headquartered in New York, ABI Research maintains global operations that support annual research programs, quarterly intelligence services and market reports in wireless, automotive, semiconductors, broadband, and energy.

Originally posted on 2nd August ,2004

Read more!

Managing Java Application Performance with Microprocessors

Java is typically a driving force behind innovation within a
business. Yet, the majority of organizations often find themselves
consumed in mundane tasks associated with managing Java and achieving
improved response times. Explore the role microprocessors play in
achieving improved performance from existing Java platforms.

====================================================================
TITLE: The Role of the Microprocessor in the Evolution of Java
Technology Part 1
WHEN: AVAILABLE NOW ON DEMAND
SPEAKER: Dr. Leendert vanDoorn, Senior Fellow, AMD
SPONSOR: AMD


ATTEND THIS VENDOR VIDEOCAST TODAY!

====================================================================
====================================================================
ABOUT THIS VENDOR VIDEOCAST
====================================================================
This Videocast, part one of a three part series, explores the role of
microprocessors in Java technology. Learn how Java has become one of
the strongest and most flexible platforms for computing. Explore how
Java has become the dominant platform for both businesses and
consumers. Discover how microprocessors allow Java developers to
spend more time innovating features for software initiatives as well
as the future of Java technology.

VIEW VIDEOCAST:
1.part-1
2.part-2
3.part-3

====================================================================
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
====================================================================
Dr. Leendert vanDoorn, Senior Fellow, AMD

Dr. Leendert vanDoorn manages the Software Technology Office and
Systems Manageability teams within AMD's software organization. Focus
areas include: managed code, accelerated computing, manageability,
virtualization, security and driving advanced silicon features into
AMD's future processors and platforms. Van Doorn has a Ph.D. from
Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam and prior to AMD was a senior manager
at IBM's T.J. Watson Research Center.

Originally posted on theserverside.com/

Read more!

To all visitors and friends

MyNiceSpace.com

Read more!

GNU Radio Opens an Unseen World

Matt Ettus has the sly smile of someone who sees the invisible. His hands fly over the boards of his Universal Software Radio Peripheral, or USRP, snapping them together with an antenna like Lego bricks. Then he plugs in the naked boards to a USB 2 cable snaking to his Linux laptop.

After few minutes of normal Linux messing around ("Takes forever to boot.... Haven't got the sound driver working yet....") he turns the laptop around to reveal a set of vibrating lines in humps and dips across the screen, like a wildly shaking wireframe mountain range. "Here," he explains, "I'm grabbing FM."

"All of it?" I ask.

"All of it," he says. I'm suddenly glad the soundcard isn't working.

Radio is that bit of the electromagnetic spectrum that sits between brain waves and daylight. It's made of the same stuff that composes light, color, electrical hums, gamma radiation from atom bombs, the microwaves that reheat your pizza.

From our perspective, radio devices behave very differently -- a global positioning system gadget doesn't look like a TV doesn't look like a CB set, even if they are all radios. They are single-purpose machines that use small bits of radio spectrum to do very specific tasks -- about as far from the general-purpose personal computer as you can get. But there's no reason they have to be.

Most of the required components of a radio are the same and can be generalized. And with Moore's law making processors fast enough, much of a radio's function can be done with software.

Building a general radio that can receive and transmit, and attaching it to a software system that can fill in the gaps of what we normally think of as radio, is kind of like the Enterprise's deflector dish: Give engineering 20 minutes and it can do anything the captain needs to move the plot along. One of Ettus' USRPs, with the right daughterboards and radio software, can capture FM, read GPS, decode HDTV, transmit over emergency bands and open garage doors.

The GNU radio project was the brainchild of Eric Blossom, who wanted to create a software HDTV receiver in advance of broadcast flag legislation limiting what hardware was allowed to receive the high-def signal. "We'd just go build one of those things (in software) and moot (broadcasters') control over the hardware," says Blossom.

He teamed up with Ettus, but they lacked a radio platform that was cheap enough to get into many people's hands. They could do a lot with the computer, but there were limits. "How do I get from the antenna into the computer?" explains Blossom. "The computer wants digital samples to work on."

Ettus secured National Science Foundation funding through the University of Utah to design what would become the USRP. "Basically we proposed the 85 percent solution for 10 percent of the price. Given that part of the NSF's charter is about education ... you can get 10 more things in your students' hands for your dollars," says Blossom.

Ettus was drawn more to the technical challenge than the political project.

He wanted to build the HDTV receiver "because it was the Mount Everest ... it was the biggest receive-only mountain." Decoding HDTV was a political act of radio, but, mostly, Ettus wanted to see if he could do it.

Four years later, Ettus hasn't just decoded HDTV, but has gone on to write software that does far more. He's quit his day job to build and sell the USRP hardware full time -- you can buy it from his website starting at $550 for the motherboard.

Ettus and Blossom's software-defined radio on the cheap is popping up in unexpected places, describing a very different radio world from the centralized model that has dominated radio history.

"Decentralized controls enable innovation at the edge -- it's closer to the computer model," says Blossom. "I think what we'll find is that people will come up with things we never really thought about."

Ettus is more concrete about the project's possibilities. Citing Wi-Fi as an example, he envisions "a world in which bandwidth is not an issue. People will create applications that will use that bandwidth, like complete telepresence."

Ettus paints a picture of radio bringing about a many-to-many revolution, like blogging, but for a wider segment of the world. "It enables everybody to be a broadcaster," he says.

Toby Oliver's business is a great example of the street finding its own use for stray radio waves. His company, PathIntelligence, uses the USRP and GNU Radio to track foot traffic in U.K. shopping centers.

Listening for the control-channel signals of mobile phones allows the PathIntelligence setup to pinpoint the location of a phone using triangulation by measuring the difference in time it takes for the signal from a phone to get to multiple antennas.

This works like a very local version of GPS, allowing shopping-center owners to see what shop windows are most popular, and where people tend to congregate or avoid, without actually intercepting any personal data. It's something that processing speed made possible, and the GNU Radio/USRP project made cost-effective.

"Only recently, in the last 12 months, has computing power enabled me to do what I need to in general-purpose software without the expensive development of dedicated DSPs (digital signal processors)," says Oliver. "It means that a whole world of opportunities for tinkerers like me is being opened up."

A person without a phone is invisible to his system, but with the market penetration of mobile phones in Britain, the occasional outlier doesn't damage the data set much. Shopping centers are showing a lot of interest in the information.

But despite his new job, Oliver's background isn't in radio. "In some ways, (software-defined radio) enables the arcane world of RF (radio frequency) to be available to software developers. So you will start to be able to do more and more 'mashups' to RF," he says.

The USRP is being put through its paces in research labs and amateurs' basements all over the world. Ettus sells to companies and governments. Some radio sets out there do more, but Ettus claims that generally the USRP costs a tenth of other software-defined radio-ready equipment. He continues to work on the USRP, developing better signal intelligence and more diverse daughterboards to tune to different bits of radio spectrum.

Blossom is working on a passive radar system that will require a more sensitive hardware setup than the current USRP. His passive radar reads in the ambient radio waves from existing sources, like FM stations and cell towers, and uses them to build a map of the area. At the end of his research, he plans to have "this little gadget that you can plug into a laptop and see what's flying around. We're hoping to see stuff on the order of 50 to 70 kilometers away."

Neither Blossom nor Ettus can predict how their next projects will be used. But that's the point.

Originally posted by Quinn Norton on 06.05.06 at www.wired.com

Read more!