TWO UPDATES IN A WEEK?!

That’s right this is the second update this week.  Unfortunately you may not like this one.  I'm here to tell you that challenge #1 is over.  It was a complete failure.  Crunch and I tried to find an interesting way to get you guys involved and it failed.  No one set us a e-mail.  Honestly I'm not too surprised.  The camera was in a cool spot though; too bad you didn't find it.  Anyways, thank you for not participating.  If for any reason you're interested in another challenge, e-mail us.  We're open to ideas, but we don't want to put forth too much effort next time.

Oh and someone was nice enough to put a link to us up on Wikipedia. Thank you!

-Mr. Punch

ARCHIVES / OLD NEWS

So once again its taken us forever to update. Crunch and I have become so busy with our real work that WARspyLA has fallen into neglect. We've become that website. But this is well worth the wait. Here are the stills that Mitch sent us so long ago. Please enjoy.

"Hiya the receiver is a modified 2.4ghz baby monitor that was bought off ebay.There is a website that you can look at its www.videoscanner.co.uk The frequency for those heli downlinks was 2.378ghz. There is an audio and video out socket at the back which i connected to a video capture card.  The receiver scans from 2.0ghz to 2.7 ghz in little over 30 seconds. Im looking at trying to get a videoscanner that is more handheld that can be powered from batteries i know there are 2.4ghz models but can they me modded to receive heli pics on 2.375 or 2.378ghz !!!

-Mitch"

Thanks Again Mitch.

If anyone out there has any WARspy info they wish to contribute please contact us. We always love hearing what people are working on.

-Mr. Punch

Sorry For the lack of updates. I put WARspyLA on hold while trying to learn how to integrate Wordpress for a frontpage, and well I gave up. We really do need that though so if anyone out there is good with CSS and can help us redesign the site a bit we would be very greatful.

Anyways... If you check out the link section (Gear) you'll notice a new link to Brick House Security. These nice people e-mailed us asking for a link, so there it is.

We do have some interesting things to report, and more pictures to post. Some very interesting pictures. But we're waiting untill after the holiday to put all that up. For now here is one pic to peak your interest.

This comes to us from Mitch. Pretty cool stuff. More to come later this week.

This year Crunch and I made our first trip to DEFCON.  Overall I would say the experience was worth while.  We were really afraid that the content would fly right over our heads, but for the most part the information was presented in a way that we ended up understanding most of what was said.

What did we see that was cool?  That’s easy, Old Skewl Hacking InfraRed.  This session was unbelievable.  Major Malfunction was an excellent and entertaining speaker and the content was beyond cool.  [link]  There was also a panel on WARdriving legality that was good, although no one brought any new info to the table. 

What didn't we like?  Not much, there were a few things we thought could have been improved as far as way they structured the event.  The vendor room was disappointing at times. There were some really cool things there, but for every cool bit of tech or literature there were a hundred tee-shirts and bumper stickers.  I love Jinx, and I don't think DEFCON should cut clothing venders from the event.  But I think that there should have been more tech.  I was very happy to see Blacklist 411 there.  Also there were a few cool antennas for sale (even though they refused to sell me a pig tail without buying an antenna).

The lines for events were the only thing that really pissed us off.  We would wait in line for an hour, then as we are about to go in a Goon would come out and tell us that the event has been cancelled/rescheduled/combined with another event that is already in progress.  This is not cool.  I know that there are schedules posted through out the building and there is even a projected version of the current schedule in one room.  Unfortunately none of this is anywhere near where the lines were.  Although this is very frustrating, everything is quickly forgotten once a speech begins.

After DEFCON we took our box for a spin around Las Vegas.  If you saw a car with a 4 foot omni antenna on the roof and thought it was a War Driver, odds are good that it was us looking at video.  Its amazing how cameras have popped up in Vegas.  Almost a year ago Crunch and I went to Vegas and there were a hand full of camera in local shops.  This year, there was a camera at every intersection, some in Casinos, and roof cameras.  Ever wonder what the view is like from the roof of one of the largest casinos on the strip?  We saw it and it was amazing. 

Will we return to DEFCON next year? Maybe.  We will probably need to sober up from this year's event, which has been quite a challenge.  If the content looks good, we would go back.   We would like to see something on WARspying/WARviewing. Maybe an event like WARdriving has? Or a panel, or just someone else with a box.  But if there is anything that looks good we’ll go back.

Anyways, to round up this round up.  DEFCON was 100% worth while.  We loved it.  Check out Major Malfunction’s IR experiments, low tech hacking is awesome.  If the content is right next year we'll be there, otherwise we may pass.  We had a great time.

-Mr. Punch 8-1-05

Friday night Crunch and I leave for Defcon 13. It should be a good time. Neither of us have been before, and frankly we're noobs (incase you can't tell). So most of the info should go over our heads, but we are very interested in the subject matter. We are planning on bringing some of our gear with and would love to do a show and tell with anyone that is in town. So if you are planning on attending Defcon this weekend, send us an e-mail.

-Mr. Punch 7/29/05

IC-R3 the magic bullet of Warspying, or is it?

Recently my boss purchased an Icom IC-R3 - Handheld Audio/Video Receiver.  It’s a scanner that not only receives radio frequencies but can also receive video transmission.  Video reception includes the 2.4ghz band, that in which we’re all interested in looking at.  At first glance this seems like the all-inclusive out of the box Warspying device.

According to Icom the IR-R3 is the cat’s meow but I beg to differ. It has a 2’’ screen and a telescoping mettle antenna.  They also proclaim it can pick up wireless video frequencies which it does. BUT.             

IT SUCKS!

I was very unimpressed with the IC-R3.  It is horrendously hard to navigate and program.  The screen is only 2’’ and is only viewable from one uncomfortable angle.  The antenna reminded me of one my mom had on her cordless phone in 1986.  I felt like I should be sword fighting with it.  For a better reception I replaced it with one tuned for 2.4ghz but the improvement was piss poor. 

I bench tested this receiver covering a wide range of wireless video frequencies broadcasting from a kick ass 1 watt transmitter.  At best I could make out a clear picture about a quarter the time.  The other ¾’s I was busy tilting and twisting my body to find a sweet spot.  If only I had my tin foil hat. 

I really don’t think this is the way to go for the average Warspyier.  Actually my boss and I thought so highly of this scanner that we’re ditching it on e-bay this weekend.   Don’t waste your time or money.

-Crunch- 07/21/05

Crunch@WarspyLA.com

1. With the new attention people are finally starting to send us new info. The Packet Sniffers is one of the better pages I've seen, mainly because they post images of things they've found while WARspying. Props to you man. Here is the direct link to their WARspy article. Don't forget to check out the rest of their site. There is some pretty cool stuff.

2. Oh the basic html doesn't spread as far as it used to does it? This is my first webpage since I was like 14. I havn't really learned anything in all those years. So I wanted to ask all of you how to manage a site with posts like this. I want the ablity to archieve these stories from the mainpage, search posts, add comments, and as everyone has asked we need a forum (where else will people talk shit if we don't have a forum?). So what do you think we should do? Or better yet how should we do it? I've looked at Moveable Type, using a easy blog setup would finally allow Crunch to post, he's alittle afraid of the internet. The only problem is that Moveable Type isn't supported by our host. So what are our options?

-Mr. Punch 7/5/05

MAKE: Blog: WARspy Los Angeles

Blogging.LA WARspy Los Angeles

Thanks for the links guys. I read both your sites everyday.

-Mr. Punch 7/3/05

Anyways, I'm going to continue work on the site this week. We still need to build up a section for people's finds and all the legal stuff we promissed two weeks ago. It will be up soon. We've begun to get a bit more traffic as people slowly start linking to us, so we'll do the nice thing and do some link backs.

As we continue to grow please continue to take part in our challenge, and offer us any suggestions for how to improve the site. While I cannot go into any details right now, there are some interesting projects on the way all aimed at getting word out about WARspying.

-Mr. Punch 7/3/05