this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2026
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The first paragraph is great advice.
The second one is such utter hogwash on so many levels it's hard to know where to start.
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Police that are intending to disrupt a protest are planning and organizing in person, not over the radios. That's just stupid.
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Regular police radios are frequently encrypted now. You can be damn sure DHS has been encrypting their radio traffic for decades. I can say, from personal experience, that my small hometown police started encrypting some of their radio traffic at least 40+ years ago.
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Even if it wasn't encrypted, you have to know what frequencies they're using. Scanners only check one frequency at a time for traffic, so it can take several seconds to get through all of them if you have a lot of candidates. This means that you will frequently miss the first part of a transmission, and occasionally miss the entire thing if it's short. Once it detects something on one frequency, it stops there to monitor that frequency for as long as the conversation is going on. This means that you're missing everything happening on all of the other frequencies you have.
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Lastly, RADIO SCANNERS DO NOT TRANSMIT! PERIOD. They are receivers, like the radio in your car that you listen to ~~music~~ local advertisements on.
It's fairly obvious that the person that wrote that has never in their life used a radio scanner and has no idea how they actually work.
There's also truncing, but some scanners support that. I imagine the op was referring to baofengs from Amazon or something which opens another can of worms
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Also, transmitting is exactly what they want you to do. Triangulation of a signal source is trivial. It makes it sound like this was written by someone that wants you to get arrested.
Regular police radios are frequently encrypted now. You can be damn sure DHS has been encrypting their radio traffic for decades. I can say, from personal experience, that my small hometown police started encrypting some of their radio traffic at least 40+ years ago
yeah, my small hometown (i don't even have fiber internet small oh your gods i'm going to go on a psychotic break over this later this week aren't i) has their encrypted channel and their unencrypted channel because they know all us dorks are and have been listening for decades. when the town almost burned down a few years back, the unencrypted channel was how the last minute volunteer emergency services got a shitton of extra fire breaks mowed across the county fuck your property lines style and kept most of the town intact
Even regular private companies encrypt radio traffic, partially just to avoid getting someone else's shit crossover.
The whole text is smug and dumb (traffic cones? the kind with no holes in the top???) so I’m not surprised to hear it has all these inaccuracies.
Police that are intending to disrupt a protest are planning and organizing in person, not over the radios. That's just stupid.
They do need some kind of telecommunication. At a certain size, a protest sprawls many blocks and it will ebb and flow and shift around. You know you’re making an impact when they bring in a helicopter to spot. Obviously the copter is radioing the ground. But yeah also probably not in an easily-overheard way.
All true, but there're fairly inexpensive radios on AliExpress and the like that do transmit as well.
It's technically illegal, at least on my neck of the woods, to transmit on reserved frequencies, but one could.
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Police radio is largely encrypted these days.
blanking their frequencies with noise is still going to cause some trouble
This is a bad idea. Transmitting on a government frequency with enough power to interfere with other radio traffic will get you a police visit. You're basically turning on a big lightbulb that says "come find me" for anyone who would bother to triangulate the source of the interference.
what if you had something like that running in a bag or backpack at a protest, with hundreds or even thousands of people around you? How about if you had three or four people with them coordinating, switching them on and off at certain times as they move through the crowd?
It is at this point trivially easy to locate strong signals in crowds - iirc the Olympics was one of the pioneers of the technology to prevent illegal broadcasts, and the equipment is fairly cheap and very easily accessible for any interested party that wants it. Foxhunter fourms even have many, many plans to build your own versions of the hardware if you want.
And that's setting aside that the strength of a portable jammer is very limited, military radios like the US police use have pretty neat anti-jamming features (hardened FHSS is brutal, just look at Ukraine/russian signal warfare for how hard it is to mitigate) and you'd be absolutely screwing over any coordination attempts by other protesters using cell or radio by trying this.
You'll get caught, and you'll do a great deal more harm than good if you use these in a protest. Outside that context they could be useful, but by turning one on you gotta remember you're ensuring that you can't get any help, either.
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You're carrying a big felony around if you get caught. Just decide if and when it's worth it.
Plus, since jammers are illegal for civilians, you will have to build it yourself.
FWIW you can get decently powerful (but narrow frequency, most just affect cell bands or 802.11) jammers off Aliexpress for like $300. Thats where the cartels get theirs, at least. The FCC will find you the minute you turn one on though, and holy shit they don't fuck around, so I really don't recommend trying it.
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they probably kick down your door pre demonstration because buying the equipment with that power and bandwidth for this to work is already raising red flags
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Yes, extremely illegal. Wise people don't mess with radio waves or trees.
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reminds me of that one "someone is committing a federal crime right here" XKCD
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For two minutes until they just fallback to their cell phones probably.
Also, you might be interfering with EMS with that strategy.
Most police departments are using encrypted signals now so you can't listen to their radio.
Which wouldn't prevent a denial of service attack by flooding the frequency with whote noise as the post suggests
That being said, I don't think it's a good idea. Police aren't ICE, and in many cases police are the only ones that have been able to stop ICE from escalating further
Also. If you're broadcasting (white noise) they can track your broadcast location fairly easily
And, if all the actions listed in the OP, it's the only one that's illegal. It has always been illegal to broadcast in regulated frequencies since licensure became a thing.
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Also, scanners don't "send as well as receive."
Damn. My local PD and our state police and Fire/ ems all livestream their live scanners from the web, incase someone doesnt have a scanner.
Listening is legal, and in may areas they use digital modes(P25) without encryption. However, transmitting on any frequency you are not allowed to will get you in big trouble, and they will probably get help from local amateurs that routinely practice foxhunting.
Amateurs will help, not because they're cops, but because with a flick of of the pen , rules can be chaged to restrict their favorite hobby. Or worse
How to Survive Anti-Police Protests by Shane Burley is an appropriate primer for demo beginner.
The Black Flag Catalyst Revolt Guide by Black Flag Catalyst is a more detailed guide on protest tactics.
If you are interested in studying crowd control tactics in demo. Here are the resources: The Master's Tools and Warrior Crowd Control & Riot Manual
CrimethInc also have extensive resources on demonstration guides:
https://crimethinc.com/2020/09/01/a-demonstrators-guide-to-helmets-everything-you-need-to-know
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/crimethinc-affinity-groups
Indigenous Anarchist Federation also have some extensive guides on PPE and comm
https://iaf-fai.org/2020/08/31/skills-for-revolutionary-survival-1-trauma-medical-gear/
Riot Medicine
This is an outstanding list of resources. Thanks so much for posting. I wish more people would engage with stuff like this instead of clutching their liberal pearls. The Nepalese showed how to actually protest a corrupt government. All power to the people.
Riot Medicine is an incredible resource and even I could make sense of it as a full-time idiot. Crimethinc are the poets of a generation who few people seem to know about despite being around for many years, and of course the Anarchist Library is one of the great online resources. Shout out to Serafinski.
I have been thinking about water balloon based defenses. If you fill them with paint and throw them at someone wearing helmets with clear visors or gas masks they would have to remove them or not be able to see. If you miss there'd still be paint on a person wearing a uniform without any identifying information so it gets easier tracking and identifying who they are on video later.
Just make sure its not lead based. I heard that can make people... less intelligent.
Oh, so it won't harm ICE then
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Be aware that in a few states, including Minnesota, the use of a police scanner during a crime, or to evade law enforcement, can be a crime itself. If they arrest you for committing some crime, then having a scanner will get you another charge.
Also make sure you do not purchase high powered laser pointers from Alibaba. As those could accidently damage the optical scanners of police drones and robo dogs.
Can't say I feel this is the best advice when there actually are laws against using laser pointers, it's a drone as compared to something with an actual pilot, but it still feels like a way bigger risk than anything else in the post.
And the drawback to a laser is that they can be very easy to see where it's coming from.
Yea that too, fuck lol. Pointing right back at yourself for them.
Some other key details:
Definitely don't pour sugary drinks into a gas tank. Or leave drywall screws under the tires of vehicles.
Because a group of masked guys leaving a vehicle unattended does not mean you can just go up to it and do anything bad to it.
I've been wondering why no one is attacking the tires. Couldn't someone just snip off a valve?
Caltrops are ridiculously easy to make from a box of nails, a torch and a welder.
it was my understanding that a lot of police agencies moved over to digital/encrypted radio systems precisely because they wanted to avoid scanners.
American protestors? Or our protestors? Why do we care what's legal in America?
Because as everyone online knows, all discussions on the internet do and must relate to the US. Even if they briefly appear not to relate to the US and its shit govt, don’t worry, some insular American will pull the discussion right back where it belongs.
I swear to fucking hell, someone could post about oatmeal and within a dozen comments someone else would link it to Trump.
OP is probably in the USA.
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Following the jammer talk here and wondering if treating them as disposable changes the game. If its fire and forget and you count it as a loss? Or is it too expensive to abandon like that?
Since it would be a shame, I'll make sure not to do any of that, thanks!
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