Saveitforparts: Listening in on Russian Soldiers Hijacking US Military Satellites

Over on the saveitforparts YouTube channel, Gabe has uploaded a video showing how he uses WebSDR streams to show how Russians, including Russian soldiers, are using old US Military satellites for long-range communications around Ukraine.

In the '70s and '80s, the US government launched a fleet of satellites called "FLTSATCOM," which were simple radio repeaters up in geostationary orbit. This allowed the US military to easily communicate with each other worldwide. However, the technology of the time could not support encryption or secure access. So security relied entirely on only the US military's technological superiority of being the only one to have radio equipment that could reach the 243 - 270 MHz frequencies in use by these satellites. Of course, as time progressed, equipment that could reach higher frequencies became commonplace.

In the video, Gabe explains how many Russian soldiers involved in the Ukraine war are using these legacy satellites to communicate with each other. He notes that apart from voice comms, some channels are simply Russian propaganda and music, as well as some channels that appear to be jammed. Gabe also notes that the "UHF Follow-On Satellite" (UFO) satellites that were launched as recently as 2003 are also being hijacked, as they also have no encryption or secure access.

In the past, we also posted a previous video by Gabe about attempting to receive these satellites from his home in North America. However, on that side of the world, the satellites are being hijacked by Brazilian pirates instead.

Russia Is Hijacking US Military Satellites

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Micha
#263028
Hi Gabe!
You've put together some good facts, but I don't think the radio operators are soldiers at all. Rather, it's about Russians simply misusing these satellites. The same applies to the Pirtaen in South America. If you listen to it over and over again over several days, you get the impression that they are largely the same people. Radio communications have nothing to do with amateur or professional radio.

The Russenteckno and various music, tones and television tones can be heard in various versions, sometimes in a continuous loop, for many years.

Russian phone signals are extremely strange. You can hear interval signals that indicate a free line, dial tones and entire conversations. 
According to an ancient list, there are, or were, 4 frequencies. Two of them can be received here, a third was available via the spy server, and I only know the fourth from the list. By the way, what is strange is the fact that these 2 frequencies can be received almost worldwide, but they cannot be found in the country of origin/Russia.
It gets interesting when fonts and symbols are sent in the spectrum, but they are really rare.

You show various options for reception. To be honest, you have to search for a long time. Many online SDRs offer the entire frequency range, but there is often a problem with the antenna.
I didn't find any for Kiwi SDRs because they almost exclusively offer 0-30MHz,
With Web-SDR there was a Russian provider that offered the entire spectrum, spread over 2 websites, but this is switched off. Based on screenshots and comparisons with other receivers, some frequency gaps could even be closed. The result was an almost gapless, full MIL frequency band.

So far I have discovered 2 providers at openRX. However, I didn't receive anything exciting in the short test. In addition, the operation is very uncomfortable. The control panel always hangs in the spectrum and there are always only 2MHz sections.
Paul M0EYT has been active at the Spy Server for years and has a special Satcom antenna. A few years ago there was the Czech Radio Amateur Club, with a very good spectrum, an SDR in the Alps and every now and then you can find one or two signals via various SDRs. Unfortunately, all that helps is search, search, search...

Micha

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galileo
#262977

Hijacked: Using an open system like anyone else uses it. Author obviously does not speak Russian but somehow knows what is being said, including the propaganda claims. Interesting that Russians are apparently broadcasting their propaganda on a satellite but who the intended audience is? Mixed with all that is typical debunked nonsense on the level of infamous “chips from washing machines” nonsense. This is worthy of a CNN “report”.

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Shinsuke Nakamura
#262978

The author said he had russian speaking friends go through some of the audio clips, and the ones you saw in the video may not be the same exact ones his friends translated for him, but rather, a bunch of snippets / stock video to demo that FLTCOMSAT is being used by non-americans.

russians also broadcast propaganda on HF all the time in their own language, but who is the intended audience?

did you even watch the video? anyways, nothing good (tech or otherwise) has come out of russia since at least 1991.

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user
#262986

Russia regained its position as a global space leader (construction of the ISS, successful satellite launches).
Development of the Sputnik V vaccine—one of the first COVID-19 vaccines.
Advancements in nuclear technology (Rosatom is a global leader in building nuclear power plants).

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