auto211076@hushmail.com wrote:

...

Third Day: Jim Bell trial

The defense requested information about the tracking device that was

attached

...

to Jim Bell's car: the type, make, and where installed in the car. London cited "law enforcement privilege" and argued that giving out that information would enable future surveillance subjects to find and dismantle such devices. (Earlier in the trial, it was mentioned that this was the first use of a GPS tracking device in the area.)

From what little I know of GPS, the receiver must be able to "see sky." So there can't be any metal objects between it and the sky. That means it's unlikely for it to be on the underside of the car. Possible installation places would be under the "skin" above the dashboard, any place that has line of sight to the windshield or back window. If the car is a vinyl top, under the roof would be good hiding place.

Other speculation was that it might have been inside a vinyl bumper.

Of course the main body of the "bug" can be hidden anywhere inside the car, but the antena needs to see sky.

These things are usually cellphone enabled, so that way they don't constantly transmit, and won't be easily caught by sweeps.

Gordon's testimony was that it was a continuously-transmitting bug. Which of course brought up the question of the power supply. The bug transmitted on an RF frequency. Bell had mentioned to friends that he believed that he had been bugged, but lacking an RF frequency analyzer, he had been unable to find the bug. He apparently was concerned that both his house and car were bugged. Although why he didn't hire the services of a "bug-sweeper" is beyond me.

Defenses would include GPS and cell phone jammers, but these would have to be on 24/7, thus draining the car's battery. GPS jammer would be more desireable, since the cell phone side is just used to download the logs of where the car has been, and the logs can be recovered by physically recovering the bug.

The power supply was a considerable source of speculation. If the bug had been attached to the battery, then it would have been much more detectable. Stories had it that Bell had checked under the hood; it would not take more than a VOM to detect a discharge.

One thing I don't know about in relation to GPS: are the military bits sent on different frequencies than the civilian bits? Or are they just encrypted? If they're different frequencies, then, you'd have to know these to build an effective jammer.

There was no discussion of military bits vs. civilian bits, rather military grade vs. civilian grade.

I of course have no information on what was actually installed in Jim Bell's car, where, how, or by whom, except as emails have described here, and I take this with a grain of salt.

And some degree of skepticism has to be attached to the court testimony. It was painfully clear that the prosecutor had little handle on technical issues, and that even the agent who bugged Bell's car had limited knowledge of how the device worked. Some of the descriptions given in court about how GPS works were clearly wrong.

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