140 lines
7.6 KiB
Plaintext
140 lines
7.6 KiB
Plaintext
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Bugs on a Budget
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Inexpensive surveillance
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Data Line 8-85.
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Post this phile as you will, but leave my name on it.
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Gordon Liddy dreamt up an elaborate scheme for bugging the Democratic National
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Headquarters. Included were such things as a type of UHF bug that required an
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O-scope for the listeners to find, and other bugs that got power thru paint-on
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electrical connectors.He was also financed out of a slush fund controlled by
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the most powerful men in the nation.
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I'm not that lucky. My money comes from a "Blue" collar job, so spending $5k
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on a bug is laughable.Still, not getting the information I need because I
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couldn't find any appropriate devices is just as silly. With a small bit of
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skill, you can build a reliable intelligence collecting system for about $250.
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1. FOR LIVE SETUPS.If it's important or your targets are just paranoid,
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forget about phone taps. They may set up a meeting place on the line and that
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is about it. Besides, you can do a huge amount of random eavesdropping with a
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live collection system. You'll need a good cardioid mike element, amplifier,
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and set of headphones.The most efficient way to go is to purchase a Hunter's
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or Bionic Ear (See the Sources section at the end for locations). They run from
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$50 to $90. Everything is included in a package that looks a lot like a metal
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police flashlight. But to narror the collection angle, a parabolic dish is
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essential. Don't get the one available with the Ear, it's small and you'll look
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dumb using it.Instead, but ETCO's 18" dish for about $35. Bend 3 heavy wires
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(e.g. welding rods) to grip the dish edge and syspend the Ear in the center. I
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used a hose clamp to secure it. Rubber bands link he support rods at te rear of
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the dish. Note: the focus is at a point intersected by the plane of the dish
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and a line extending out from the plastic "pip" in te center. Since the dish is
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transparent and the amp faces the target, the setup isn't too conspicuous from a
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distance. The regular commercial reflector is black and quite obvious when in
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use.
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How good is the system? My hearing is below par and I was able to understand
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whispers at 30m. The range you get may differ. In summer, crickets will drown
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out a lot. Traffic and overhead jets can also do nasty things. Oh yes, there's
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an automatic cutoff so if the target coughs, you won't have to pick up your
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eardrums from the ground.
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2. VISUAL SURVEILLANCE. Sometimes this is all you need, but mostly it
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complements the audio.Forget the 17x80 monster binoculars you saw in Soldier
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of Fortune. If a gnat on your arm farts, the scene will jump.Instead save a
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lot of money and get one or two more suitable pieces of equipment. One is a
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good pair of 7x50 binoculars. Buy from a wholesale place in Shotgun News and
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save big. These can be used well at night because of their large objective
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size. Some like a zoom feature, but I find it raises price and at these powers
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isn't needed.
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Personally, I like to get further away and stay stationary for as long as
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possible. Of course the parabolic setup is no good for audio at such a range
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(100 to 300m).Oddly, I've never felt handicapped by not being able to hear the
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action. You'd be surprised what lipreading and nonverbal cues you can pick up
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with a little practice. I use a 20-60x60mm. spotting scope. It comes mounted
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on a tripod for flat surface use, but I find a photographers C-clamp tripod is
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handier for using on car windows. In daylight nothing can come close to this
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system. It's less than 1/2m long and at 60x it's actually easy to reas
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newspaper headlines at 1Km or so. After all, these things were meant to spor
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bullet holes in targets at up to 500m and the cheapest low power spotter will do
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that with no problem. Just how much is 60x ? Well, most rifle scopes are 4x,
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binoculars are typically 7x, and the classic sniper scopes (Unertl and
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Leatherwood) are only 10x. Just look through one at a sporting goods store and
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you'll see what a deal these are. Astronomy-type telescopes usually are too
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big, show an upside-down image, and have too much magnification for their
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objective size, making the view too dark.
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In fact, at night the spotter is a bit dim even at only 20x.Nothing's
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perfect.
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3. WIRELESS. Here's the area most people immediately go for and sometimes
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get suckered real bad.Worst are "Law Enforcement Supply" places. Some sell to
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anyone with a letterhead. For the money they charge, it actually makes no
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difference who you are; besides it's YOU who will get nailed for impersonating a
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cop if THEY decide to turn you in. One of these joints advertises in Soldier of
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Fortune and chagres $10 for their catalog. Its full of neat shit, all at least
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5x over what anyone else could even think of charging.ETCO, on the other hand,
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sells lots of transmitters for "wireless mikes". They also sell cheap mike
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elements. Hmmm. For $25 you can build a workable unit. Nothing Harry Call
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would be caught using, but usable nonetheless.Those little wireless mikes you
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see in the backs of magazines shown next to a paper clip are really quite good,
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but make sure they use the Mercury batteries. Even Alkalines will crap out
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after a few hours of constant transmitting.
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Those and most inexpensive transmitters work in the Commercial FM Band. The
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good news is that you don't need a VHF receiver to pick them up, a regular FM
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set does fine.Unfortunately, the same goes for the target. The best way out
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is to find a station at either end of the band (88 or 108) that the target isn't
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likely to listen to. In St. Louis it's KMJM at 107.7, an all Black station
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(assuming the target is a WASPish businessman or a rocker) . Set your bug to
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transmit on top of the station, and get in REAL CLOSE with your receiver. Since
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it's at the end of tha dial, he/she isn't likely to tune past it and get a jolt
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of audio feedback.
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Finally, a bit of common sense. Wireless equipment should not take up a large
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portion of your budget. It's hard to place, risky to maintain, and will be
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destroyed if found. Also, the cops sort of look down on this sort of thing to
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the tune of Federal time. Watergate did a lot to influence that. Don't be a
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putz and try to break in a place to recover a $40 transmitter.Consider them
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disposable and you may stay free.
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4.GETTING IT DOWN. Buy a Voice-activated (VOX) microcassette. It'll free you
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up for more important stuff than listening to silence or irrelevant bullshit.
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Especially with transmitters, a lot of time is just wasted. Live monitoring is
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fun...for fifteen minutes. A good unit is the Panasonic RN 109A at about $50.
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It'll record 1 hour per side at low speed. With the VOX on, that's an hour of
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solid sound. Use one on the parabolic dish, too. Replay through your stereo
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and use the equalizer or tone controls to sharpen up the stuff you may have
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missed the first time.
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Stay tuned to this BBS for more philes from Data Line, the Old Man who taught
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Donald Segretti how to rig his first election in college.
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MCI Telex # 650-240-6356.
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X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X
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Another file downloaded from: NIRVANAnet(tm)
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& the Temple of the Screaming Electron Jeff Hunter 510-935-5845
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Burn This Flag Zardoz 408-363-9766
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realitycheck Poindexter Fortran 510-527-1662
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My Dog Bit Jesus Suzanne d'Fault 510-658-8078
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New Dork Sublime Demented Pimiento 415-864-DORK
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The Shrine Tom Joseph 408-747-0778
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"Raw Data for Raw Nerves"
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X-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-X
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