RF Audio Assets (bugs)
Posted: Sat May 22, 2021 3:14 am
I can't believe there isn't any posts on listening devices here!
A quick search on e-bay will reveal dozens of consumer grade "bugs" that enable short-to-medium-term persistence and a transmission distance limited only by the number of repeaters you use. My favorites are the 400MHZ UHF variety made in Israel. They are commercial grade and completely untraceable when basic opsec is followed.
Cheap, COTS UHF radios (UHF penetrates better than VHF, VHF gives somewhat longer TX distances when clear LOS is achieved) such as those made by Baofeng can be used with a standard audio patch cable to record the listening device's loot to XYZ medium. In this setup, I typically can achieve a ~3000ft transmission distance from the device to the UHF receiver/recording device. Using a UHF->VHF->UHF repeater scheme, I have achieved over 3 miles in real world conditions on actual operations.
Finally, if you are into small unmanned aircraft systems, these can be outfitted with a UHF receiver to orbit overhead and collect (and relay) the data this way. My favorite method is to use a Raspberry Pi on the audio interface, SSH into the raspberry pi (very secure comm link) and pull the data down in real time.
*Always try to use Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) for plausible deniability.
A quick search on e-bay will reveal dozens of consumer grade "bugs" that enable short-to-medium-term persistence and a transmission distance limited only by the number of repeaters you use. My favorites are the 400MHZ UHF variety made in Israel. They are commercial grade and completely untraceable when basic opsec is followed.
Cheap, COTS UHF radios (UHF penetrates better than VHF, VHF gives somewhat longer TX distances when clear LOS is achieved) such as those made by Baofeng can be used with a standard audio patch cable to record the listening device's loot to XYZ medium. In this setup, I typically can achieve a ~3000ft transmission distance from the device to the UHF receiver/recording device. Using a UHF->VHF->UHF repeater scheme, I have achieved over 3 miles in real world conditions on actual operations.
Finally, if you are into small unmanned aircraft systems, these can be outfitted with a UHF receiver to orbit overhead and collect (and relay) the data this way. My favorite method is to use a Raspberry Pi on the audio interface, SSH into the raspberry pi (very secure comm link) and pull the data down in real time.
*Always try to use Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) for plausible deniability.