Sunday, September 12, 2010

Firedrake - The Great Firewall Of China

HF Underground has an excellent thread running touching on the subject of what is known to be the greatest and most powerful use of censorship in the world, the Firedrake. Finding the Firedrake Jammer has become a worldwide fascination for those who hate censorship, especially when it masks something truthful.

China has long been known to be one of the last remaining communist places on earth, and they guard the airwaves with every bit of resources they have. Firedrake is said to be operational aboard Chinasat 6B.
To know what Firedrake is, where it is, and how it works you should first follow the next two links to what appear to be the best written articles on the subject:  Satdirectory ends it's report with very specific information about where Chinasat 6B is. Wikipedia's report on Chinasat goes on to tell everyone in the second section describing Chinasat, that the satellite was to be used for "improved radio and television reception"; something we all have come to know as an outright lie and makes ya wonder just who wrote that entry!

The Chinese Jammer - Keith Perron & Mark Fahey Interview takes place over on Youtube. Two interesting things from this interview are that Fahey was able to distinguish which channels each portion of audio come from, and he was able to make a CD quality copy of the music that makes Firedrake what it is. 


Some essential questions that need to be asked about Firedrake & Chinasat:


Why 38 transponders? You don't need 38 transponders to jam, so what are the other transponders being used for? 


Why the games with renaming or re-numerating all the sats in the Chinasat program? Did China really think this was going to confuse anyone with brains?


Why can't China let go of their communist regime, and what is it in the critical material presented by various stations that China is so afraid of? What does China have to hide? One day, whether it be through radio, TV, or the passage of time and the changing of society; skeletons will rattle, pointing their bony fingers at the responsible parties. 


As technology evolves & advances, doesn't China know that sooner or later they will be subject to the same embarrassing attacks they once had to deal with before Sat6B? Someone, somewhere will get fed up enough to outsmart whatever security is in place and no amount of Government intelligence work will detect it. 


Lastly, didn't China ever figure out that someone with skills in Direction Finding was going to find their relay stations? Afterall, they are emitting RF! Pay particular attention to SW-J's post at HF Underground.

Firedrake Quicklinks: 

ARRL: Firedrake On The Loose Again


IARU Firedrake Article Including Chronology

Here is the CD Quality sample of Firedrake for all of you.

2 comments:

mfahey said...

Hi great article. Just some info re Chinasat 6 the satellite I discovered Firedrake on and why it has 36 transponders. This satellite is a key satellite used for the regular transmission of Chinese national and provincial TV and radio. The Firedrake signal only occupies a very tiny section of the satellite's total bandwidth. A list of all the services is listed on this URL:

http://www.lyngsat.com/china6b.html

The Firedrake feed is on the 4175 V transponder.

Cheers,
Mark Fahey
Sydney Australia

Shortwave_America said...

Good Morning, Mark!
Thanks so much for dropping in at SWA! It's a privilege to know you're one of the readers!

Thanks for posting the information about Chinasat6 here! The work you've done must have been exhausting to achieve what you have! Truth be told, it isn't a talent that everyone has, nor is it something everyone understands.