How to intercept transmissions?

[dcarson]

The things lots of PCs get up to can be helped without being able to decrypt signals. Just noticing that there are a lot more transmissions in the area that match the frequencies and "feel" of police or company security lets you know that you might want to leave now.

[acrosome]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

That would be the difference between Accessory (Radio) and Telecommunication (Radio).

I disagree. While I'm not sure what "Accessory (Radio)" means, since I can't find it anywhere, I see nothing in the description of the Telecommunication (Radio) advantage that indicates that it is anything more than a built-in multi band radio similar to a high-quality walkie-talkie. The description mentions that you can "shift frequencies" but I'm not sure if a true frequency-hopping capably is implied. They might just mean that the radio isn't limited to one frequency and you can thus arrange with your interlocutor to switch frequencies regularly or something. Or one codeword means "go up 20 MHz", and another means "go down 15 MHz", etc. Which, I will assure you, is not a very good countermeasure to a trained SIGINT technician with dedicated equipment.

Contrast the capabilities of a modern military radio like the SINCGARS with even a dated dedicated SIGINT platform like the TRQ-32A. The TRQ-32 is designed for SIGINT interception. If nothing else it has oscilloscopes that show you a huge bandwidth and displays spikes when a given frequency is active, and remembers where the spikes were so that you can sit on them and wait for someone to trasmit- that alone is a huge help, and something a random regular radio lacks. (Though any HAM enthusiast could easily cobble together something similar, albeit without some of the bells and whistles.)

So it may not be RAW but I maintain that a decent radio should be considered improvised equipment at best for SIGINT interception. It isn't designed for it. What it is designed for is to communicate with your buddy, with whom you have presumably pre-arranged a frequency, commo protocols, encryption, etc. All that this means in practice is overcoming that penalty with extra time spent, which makes sense- you spend a lot of time twiddling dials to search frequencies looking for a transmission. (And recall that if you come across even the correct frequency when no one happens to be transmitting you'd still miss is. But a SIGINT platform sees the whole band, and remembers which frequencies were transmitting...)

As for the argument about how long such a basic task would take, eh, as a SWAG call it about 30 seconds? We could handily see a spike, listen in for a few seconds, and DF it all within 10 seconds back in the day, presumably at a small penalty but with bonuses for decent equipment.

I guess that a decent second-best to preserve RAW would be to allow a decent radio to be considered basic equipment for SIGINT interception, but make the base time for the task much longer- a couple of minutes or something. Then the bonuses for improved equipment when using dedicated SIGINT platforms can be used to cut time spent. At the -90% max reduction you could get an attempt as fast as 12 seconds at -9 penalty. Conversely, at 30x time for a +5 to bonus to counteract the entire -5 penalty for using improvised equipment that's an hour of dial-twiddling. Which sounds about right.

Mind you, I'm assuming an electronic warfare environment in which you suspect that Bad Guys are out there broadcasting, but you don't know on which frequencies or even which band, etc., and you have to go find them. If you know that Joe Bad Guy is broadcasting in the clear on CB 6 then, well, that's not much of a challenge...

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by acrosome

I disagree. While I'm not sure what "Accessory (Radio)" means, since I can't find it anywhere, I see nothing in the description of the Telecommunication (Radio) advantage that indicates that it is anything more than a built-in multi band radio.

Telecommunication does not list any special enhancements, nor lists any special requirements, for intercepting and decrypting radio signals, even with the Secure enhancement - only the appropriate skills:

Originally Posted by B91

because you can shift frequencies,
eavesdroppers must still roll vs.
Electronics Operation (Communi-
cations) to listen in

Originally Posted by Powers p.81

Secure: Your signal employs securi-
ty measures that make it difficult to
interpret if intercepted. Eaves-
droppers must win a Quick Contest of
IQ (if using Telecommunication) or
Electronics Operation (if using tech-
nology) against your IQ to understand
the content of the transmission. If they
lose, they get garbage. +20%.

Conversely, an Accessory can be, among other things, a 'Kit of basic equipment for a single skill of your personal TL' (PU2-Perks:10).

Originally Posted by acrosome

[ . . . ]
So it may not be RAW but I maintain that a decent radio should be considered improvised equipment at best for SIGINT interception. It isn't designed for it. What it is designed for is to communicate with your buddy, with whom you have presumably pre-arranged a frequency, comma protocols, encryption, etc. All that this means in practice is overcoming that penalty with extra time spent, which makes sense- you spend a lot of time twiddling dials to search frequencies looking for a transmission. As for the argument about how long such a basic task would take, eh, as a SWAG call it about 10 seconds? We could handily see a spike, listen in for a few seconds, and DF it in that time back in the day. And that was by hand; more modern equipment likely gets quality bonuses.

Well, a Telecommunication is more than a 'decent radio' - it's worth something like 10× the point cost of a mere decent radio.

[Refplace]

Originally Posted by acrosome

I disagree. While I'm not sure what "Accessory (Radio)" means, since I can't find it anywhere, I see nothing in the description of the Telecommunication (Radio) advantage that indicates that it is anything more than a built-in multi band radio.

Acessory Perk :eqipment, in ths case a radio
It actually good be anything from a walkie talkie, Am/FM, Ipod, to SIGNET gear if the GM deemed it appropriate for the campaign and not worth a lot of points.

And yes the basic Telecommunictions advantage is pretty much just what you describe, but the enhancements listed (and of course more can be added) change that.
Video, Burst, Secure, and Sensie expand the speed, or amount of data that can be transmitted. Add Reflexive and Reduced Time to automatically change frequencies as needed is a reasonable option.
Codes and Encryption are the only real troublemakers in my opinion.

[acrosome]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

Well, a Telecommunication is more than a 'decent radio' - it's worth something like 10× the point cost of a mere decent radio.

Then perhaps at most we can assume a frequency-hopping functionality. But you even need a special enhancement to get encryption, for chrissakes, so I find highly suspect any proposition that it is optimized for signals interception. The intent of the advantage clearly seem to be "you got a radio in yer head" rather than "you are a one-man NSA station."

Originally Posted by Powers p81

Secure: Your signal employs securi-
ty measures that make it difficult to
interpret if intercepted. Eaves-
droppers must win a Quick Contest of
IQ (if using Telecommunication) or
Electronics Operation (if using tech-
nology) against your IQ to understand
the content of the transmission. If they
lose, they get garbage. +20%.

Yes, I have Powers, too. Frankly I think this should be errata. Interception of communications is clearly the domain of Electronics Operations (Electronic Warfare), per B189. Thus Electronics Operations (Communications) should default to it, not be used as the base skill for such attempts.

For that matter, Electronics Operation (COMINT), Electronics Operation (ELINT), Electronics Operation (ECM/ECCM), etc., should all be separate specializations rather than just under one large penumbra of Electronics Operation (Electronic Warfare). But this clearly isn't an area where GURPS values granularity.

Originally Posted by Refplace

And yes the basic Telecommunictions advantage is pretty much just what you describe, but the enhancements listed (and of course more can be added) change that.
Video, Burst, Secure, and Sensie expand the speed, or amount of data that can be transmitted. Add Reflexive and Reduced Time to automatically change frequencies as needed is a reasonable option.
Codes and Encryption are the only real troublemakers in my opinion.

And none of that sounds like SIGINT gear.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by acrosome

Then perhaps at most we can assume a frequency-hopping functionality. But you even need a special enhancement to get encryption, for chrissakes, so I find highly suspect any proposition that it is optimized for signals interception. The intent of the advantage clearly seem to be "you got a radio in yer head" rather than "you are a one-man NSA station."

And yet the default assumption is that it is already sufficient to intercept and understand secure communications by winning an unpenalized Quick Contest of the appropriate skill.

[acrosome]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

And yet the default assumption is that it is already sufficient to intercept and understand secure communications by winning an unpenalized Quick Contest of the appropriate skill.

And Basic Set and Powers conflict in one other way, too- Basic Set assumes Telecommunication (Radio) [10] comes standard with Secure, whereas it is another separate enhancement worth +20% in Powers. Hmm.

Really, it just seems that for all practical purposes you get Electronics Operation (Communications) at IQ "for free" if you buy the Telecommunication advantage.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by acrosome

And Basic Set and Powers conflict in one other way, too- Basic Set assumes Telecommunication (Radio) [10] comes standard with Secure, whereas it is another separate enhancement worth +20% in Powers. Hmm.

Really, it just seems that for all practical purposes you get Electronics Operation (Communications) at IQ "for free" if you buy the Telecommunication advantage.

These are two different processes: catching the right frequency and understanding what it means. I don't see a conflict.

[acrosome]

Originally Posted by vicky_molokh

These are two different processes: catching the right frequency and understanding what it means. I don't see a conflict.

I'm not following. Я не понимаю.

[vicky_molokh]

Originally Posted by acrosome

I'm not following. Я не понимаю.

Basic set describes the roll to intercept the correct frequency, to 'catch' the transmission, while Powers, with its Secure enhancement, adds and describes the second layer of security, which must be breached to understand what the transmission means ('Your signal employs security measures that make it difficult to interpret if intercepted').