A Hidden Explosive Radio Jammer Found On An Island

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[EportChris]

I've said it before and I'll say it again mate, the time and effort you put in always does the story and subject justice. Another fab video 👍🏻 Cheers 😁

[chox]

For many years during the hay day of CB radio we would get a persistent music player or Mike Meyer on favourite channels.
I have an old Amstrad 901 that had been modified to block the receiver ability close to the offender.
However I never knew there was such sinister equipment used in anger, your thorough coverage of this has impressed me.

[gonzo_the_great]

Around 1994 I used GB3VA repeater to chat with a friend who was posted at a nearby military camp. There was a 'squeaky' on there preventing the locals from using it. So I just called through for my friend, using a squeaky voice too (with callsign etc.) My friend came back likewise. After a bit of a joke with the squeaky who was jamming it, we dropped back to a normal QSO.
The locals were upset at what we did. But we got to use the repeater unmolested from then on.
I think that it was the pomposity of the locals that was driving the squeaky on. We just showed that we weren't crusty old men, so got left alone.

[XiamaraTheLuckyMu]

A few weeks ago we lost a mast, the one near Sutton on Sea is no more. It was a beacon and it had microwave beam dishes aimed at sea, I was told for the gas platforms at the Viking fields. I miss the three red lights, rust in peace.

[fruitytv-uk]

That newsreader is Wesley Smith - local legend in the Central TV region where I grew up. Their studios were in Abingdon, Oxfordshire. Really nice guy - sadly long gone from our screens.

[Bartok_J]

Some of the PCBs shown in this look very familiar. I think they were from kits by Wood and Douglas, a well known source of VHF and UHF kits aimed at amateurs in the late 70s / early 80s: the firm continued, aimed mostly at the professional market, until 2016.

[cenccenc]

The creepy thing is that someone would stalk members of a HAM radio club. Like that was the most controversial organization they could come up with. 😆

[Keystone_Investigations]

Great story RM! 👍 I never could understand the mindset of people that jam a radio used in a hobby!

[bushtikkaman]

How strange. This level of planning is sociopathic. Great video 👍

[bobandrew]

Curiouser and curiouser you may say. Clubs of esoteric interests do seem produce a degree of drama among the participants for some reason. Often self generated as those being 'victimised' being the ones behind it all. Excellent report on an obscure event thanks for that Lewis.

[bborkzilla]

I used to read Wayne Green's editorials in 73 magazine. There was a lot of enmity between the "right" kind of hams and those who were members of the ARRL, and Wayne loved to feed that schism probably because it sold magazines. Some of them took pleasure in jamming repeaters, so many clubs had an active "fox hunting" group who mucked about with direction finding antennas and regularly practiced chasing one of the members who would go hide somewhere and transmit irregularly.

[AlexSwanson-rwcv]

I don't think they could be sure is was "just" a flare until destroying/disassembling it. Someone could use the flare igniter and housing but replace the rest with something more lethal.

[wazzaracer]

In Adelaide Australia during the 1990's there was a really bad serial pest that would get on UHF Channel 40 and abuse the truckies. That was until they found him with a tracker, and taught him some manners old skool.

[TheGrinningViking]

A grizzled old Scotland Yard detective, long since retired, is watching this right now and saying "we never revealed it was only a marine flare" before calling up his old contacts at the yard to questionin the Manchester Ringway.

Fortunately old people are bad at tech. 👍

[michaelpalmer]

I remember vaguely reading about this on Teletext.

[JR]

I would guess that Scotland Yard and the military intel folks investigated during the 11 days to see if the device was linked to the IRA in some way. The IRA was running missions and attacks against mainland Britain at around this time and had caused 1.8 billion pounds worth of damage in 1992-1994. Only a year before this device was planted and discovered the IRA had managed to shut down Heathrow Airport after they fired actual military spec mortars into the controlled/restricted area trying to crater the main runways.

[thewelshguitarduo]

This sort of thing was happening in Australia back in the 1970s. They were targeting CB frequencies, typically the tx would be up a tall tree and several times explosive booby traps were involved, although I don't believe there were any injuries.

[GordonHudson]

The people who sabotaged repeaters and jammed them were the: transverters, AM, halo mobile antenna brigade. We had it in Edinburgh till about ten years ago. People were setting alarm clocks to come on and have QSOs on 145.800 AM, but only when the ISS or the previous satellite on that frequency was passing over. They felt that had always been their AM frequency and they had paid for those crystals in 1973. A lot of people who got licences in the early 70s did not approve of FM repeaters.

[antmassey]

How very mysterious. We always get the 'keyer-uppers' but this is quite a level of sophistication. Wonder what the motive is. Brilliant piece of investigative journalism. :)

[boilerroombob]

Great story lewis always good to have fresh look....well done