[Note | January 21, 2023: This page has had numerous readers as of late but this countermeasure is basic and does not address other ways to modulate mobile mobbing harassment that I later explored. To read about the very basic vulnerability posed by the antiquated Controller Area Network (CAN) and Electronic Control Units (ECU’s) like Blue&Me, search the web. You can read about what I learned about CAN and Blue&Me in general references on this website or by searching for the two-part series Blue, the mobbers & me (part 1), including how I had the Blue&Me entertainment module removed from my own car. For a powerful countermeasure I’ve found against being harassed in vehicles, look for how I have addressed seeming acoustic leakage of radio-based harassment while driving by searching this site for references to turning the driver’s side and other vehicle mirrors away from me, in other words, angling them as though to deflect transmitted sound or light from the panes. This is fairly effective and pairs well with cracking windows open, another measure to deflect acoustic leakage that works in vehicles as well as at home.]
[Note | May 1, 2019: Disabling antenna amplification made a difference for a while. But, as with some other techniques I’ve used, they compensated. I’m not sure how, whether simply by increasing the volume or aggressiveness, decreasing the distance or changing the technique. The mobile harassment has been one of the greatest indicators that following by drone is a possibility. But there are other possibilities as well. I’ve also learned more about the integrated navigation system in my car, which was not disabled by my recent removal of the Bluetooth-supporting radio. A Seattle area dealer, citing the modularity of auto parts, said he could not disable the steering wheel controls for phone service so, for present, I’m stuck with occasionally pressing the steering wheel controls that mute and terminate phone calls to see if there’s any impact. I also finally realized that if I wasn’t using the phone that I had paired with the vehicle audio system using the Blue&Me app, the mobbers might be using the number instead. So I redeemed the disabled phone, opened the Blue&Me app and told it to forget the device. But again, this is another example of how difficult it can be to defeat radio-based harassment when everything is a radio, how difficult it is to defeat cyber-harassment in a digital world. I hope things will change in time, and that devices will begin to be more selective about the signals they accept. Of course, depending on how closely they’re following you, they might know about your visits to the local audio installer. Not to mention the fact that anyone can read this blog, even the scum mobbing me, and they can redouble their efforts when I write about some small success in thwarting them. In the end, crimes like this one need to be shut down with detection and prosecution. No one should be tortured in their own home, or anywhere else. But all that said, if you’re in a situation like mine, try disabling amplification. Just don’t talk about it. Read on.]
In the recent Radiohead series on the ubiquity of the radio and the easy availability of tuners of all kinds to harassers and haters, I explained that I removed the satellite radio antenna from my tidy little commuter car (Radiohead: Cell phones are radios; mobbing is radio-based harassment (part 1)). I purchased the car a few years back, when I started working in the San Francisco Bay Area to survive the real estate mobbing in my Seattle neighborhood. Because of the mobbing on the radio in my car, one of the first things I sadly did after its purchase was to call Sirius and tell them to cancel the free year-long subscription. But it didn’t stop the mobbing.
When I was doing the research to write the Radiohead series, I read that the antennas of cell phones were very sensitive, like those used in satellite radio. Satellite radio, at least as implemented in the Sirius satellite radio that came in my little car, may have other vulnerabilities and capabilities for mobbers to exploit, but no matter which band harassers and hackers use, the strength of the antenna is likely to be your greatest weakness.
Of course, with techniques like FM backscatter (FM Backscatter: Enabling connected cities and smart fabrics) and the simplicity of constructing antennas, there is no easy fix for the malicious use of radio. Moreover, situations like mine, and perhaps yours, may include those with military backgrounds or pilot’s training, both of which come with radio skills. If you’re being mobbed by neighbors whose homes flank your own, defeating radio-based harassment may be impossible.
The solution will only come when law enforcement begins to recognize that mobbing is a growing problem and learns how to approach the situation. The police, probably with ample help by the FBI, must learn about the type of harassment that is possible from proximity, and using radio. They don’t need to understand the technology, but they should be able to recognize the effect. No one should have police smirk at them, as the Seattle North Precinct police did when I tried to tried to explain to them that the neighbors were maliciously transmitting verbal abuse onto the tuners in my home. Law enforcement must begin to learn from the victims of novel crimes like mobbing.
More importantly, to apprehend and prosecute those who mob, law enforcement must begin to look at the people who are involved. Novel crimes that use radio, hacking and surveillance techniques do not yield well to traditional concepts of probable cause. They are crimes that are deliberately designed to thwart traditional investigative techniques. These are sneaky crimes, done by sneaky people. And when they’re on either side of you, it’s like living in the middle of a hate group. It might be that mobbing should be investigated as a hate crime.
Nevertheless, you should be able to mitigate mobbing harassment, especially mobbing by radio as you travel. When I removed the antenna from the top of my little commuter car, the mobbing dimmed, but not for long. But I didn’t give up. My way of navigating this situation in which I have not had the aid of others’ expertise, has often been through experimentation.
I learned from disconnecting the antenna, but needed to know more. I ran across an article online that talked about the transmission strength not only of the antenna itself, but of its parts. This meant that the capabilities of the antenna might lay in the antenna base that was installed onto the roof of my car, and in the wires that connected it to the radio. So, before the last time I drove up to Seattle from San Francisco, I stopped by a stereo store in Berkeley. I asked the technician to disconnect the antenna.
It didn’t take long. I watched as he detached the upholstery from the roof of the car just below the antenna mount. He disconnected the lines for FM as well as for satellite. When he was done, he explained that in the city, with lots of strong signals, I’d still get the radio. But he said it should help.
The next day I left for Seattle. The only part of the journey that was quiet was when I went through the mountain range of the California-Oregon passes, where there weren’t likely to be a lot of FM transmitters.
In Seattle, I considered removing the satellite radio. It would be an expensive experiment. But when you’re forced to face what is in effect a tech-enabled hate crime on your own, you don’t have a lot of choice. I stopped by a stereo installer in Seattle, fortunately one who understood a bit more about the technology behind the radio parts he installed. When I told him what the Berkeley installer had done to the antenna, he quickly told me that it wasn’t sufficient. My car, he said, had an amplified antenna. It would have to be disconnected at the back of the radio itself.
According to Wikipedia, an amplified antenna “boosts the radio signal considerably” (“Antenna ampifier,” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antenna_amplifier). This is exactly what you don’t want if you’re being harassed by radio. A TechWalla article explains that an amplified antenna is powered and thereby able to “pull in a directional signal” from a greater distance (“Amplified Antenna vs. Non-Amplified,” TechWalla, https://www.techwalla.com/articles/amplified-antenna-vs-non-amplified).
It was early in the morning, on the weekend. He had no other clients and did it on the spot. This time, when we turned on the radio, the AM band had nothing more than an annoying tone. The FM band was static. With antenna amplification disabled, it has meant that the mobbing in the city, here in Seattle where the mobbers have the easiest access to me, has difficulty matching or exceeding the volume of the music I listen to on my iPod. And this is a great improvement in the quality of my life.
I’m looking forward to seeing how it travels.
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