Repeater jamming or site destruction has been around for a long time. There was one radio site on Box Springs Mtn in southern California that went off the air one night. When the owners went up to investigate the next morning the building was gone. It had been pushed over the side of the mountain with a bulldozer.
There has been so many instances here in SoCal of "rival" repeaters going after one another by rouge users. Cutting antennas in half, blowing up shacks and other small bldgs, as well as the typical box on a hill attack where a device listens on the input for RF, and randomly records/repeats snippets of the incoming transmissions to completely disrupt the repeater, and render it useless. I remember reading of one incident where a device was hidden in a tree, less than 400' from a major repeater, and it took the hams about a year to locate it because it would only TX for short intervals, after sun down, at low power, and also only after or during other legit transmissions at much higher power.
Back in the late 1970s, someone hid an automatic jammer in a heavily wooded area 3 miles down a steep canyon from a repeater here in Los Angeles. It jammed the repeater 6 or 7 times every hour and took 3 weeks of T-hunting to find. The culprits were never caught. 73, KE6WNH
some amateur radio operators have egos bigger than the height of their antennas. I've worked with amateur radio operators who sabotage other operators repeaters, destroyed their antenna feed lines, and jammed transmission because of their egos. I learned all their dirty tricks on detuning transmission capacitors and causing all types of radio problems. From it all, I decided not to become an amateur radio operator if this is what the amateur radio culture is like. I have also ran into Elmer's who think they know everything about their hobby and treat you like a mud duck.
That's why I don't participate in ham radio anymore. I have my license, but short of an emergency, I won't use it. I have my GMRS that I do use. As well as the old 27mhz Citizens Band, FRS, and MURS which are license free in the U.S. IF a former Echo Link repeater was still on the air, I'd use it for QSOs to the UK, Europe.... and talk to more friendly folks ! Right now I can't afford the fancy digital gateways and such. Here in the states, GMRS and the other license free bands are becoming more popular - faster in some areas than others, and more GMRS repeaters and nets are happening. I just just happen to be in a semi rural - slow area. There's quite a few of us waiting for legal FM gear we can use since FM has recently been approved. President is releasing one next month or two (Jan/Feb 22) but unless its a prototype, it's missing a few things, like CTCSS & DCS
@@baronedipiemonte3990 now you are the kind of radio person I don't mind meeting and hanging out with ! I have a license as well, but I only deal with amateurs operators when we have Emergency field exercises...but I don't need to CQ with anyone around the world, and most of the time I just enjoy listening to local police/ems bands and DX.
You wouldn’t think law abiding radio ham types would be targeted. I guess someone had a grudge against one or more of them for some bizarre reason. Fascinating but slightly disturbing investigation. Great job. Nice clip of the guy with a yaesu ft 290r btw. Found a mint condition one last year on ebay
Oh boy! I remember first hearing that one whilst visiting relatives back in the 80's - think it was on the Crystal Palace TV transmitter tower. I used to live just over the road from the IBA transmitter in South Norwood - great for reception but can only imagine how bad the noise floor would've been for Amateur Bands.
Hi Lewis, I remember 1979 to early 80s think it was GB3SL was being jammed by a bug that swept through the repeater input frequency, I was working in London and helped the locals DF it to a nearby nurses hostel, there was another one located in a tree.
In Portugal it happened too, but rarely. I've even identified a fellow ham (top technitian) that confessed he was doing it to some repeater. Of course that I strongly and in a harsh manner told him that was unceptable. He complied because he respected me (being a karate expert helped me too 😀😀😀) I think echtics (or the lack of it) plays a major role. People without spiritual knowledge think they can do anything as long as they don't get caught. In fact, karma's a bitch, and what goes arround comes arround, and altough jamming ham repeaters is not the worst someone can do, I wouldn't recommend it: through my 50+ years in ham radio I've noticed something really strange: Someone messing with radioamateurs would later have personal unexpected problems in their lives. I've noticed this for years. That is why I allways say: Don't mess with Hams. You will be sorry really fast...
@@jplacido9999 I remember hearing jamming on a Lisbon repeater in 1989. The station I spoke to said he thought the offender lived in Queluz. I never heard any problems in the North and had some good chats via the Valongo repeater from Santa Luzia in Viana do Castelo. Parabens e melhor 73 de G0IMB
Don't forget the 'CF rap' which was huge dig at repeater users. As a kid at school in the 1970s when i first I heard repeaters (CF, BM & HH) I heard amateurs biting the bait given by the squeekies - still hear it now and its still what they want to happen. Worth searching out the CF rap for a laugh.
I remember snatches of the laughing policeman theme being played on repeaters back in the 80s and 90s, I think the original inspired copycats all over the place.
Oh yes remember this Lewis as i was well in the coverage of VA. In later years Mike the Repeater keeper use to mute the audio through if anyone was being annoying on the Repeater mind you he did turn it off if he heard someone he disliked using the repeater even if no abuse was being done. I disagreed with this technique and got muted myself LOL I never paid any more yearly subs to AVRG again. Marc In Bletchley Towers G6XEG
We had an issue with the repeater on top of Enfield Civic Centre. Random carrier just off input causing desense Couldn't find anything, very low power, eventually traced to the pedestrian crossing outside the centre, the device hidden within the housing of the lights and connected if I remember to the Amber light. One of the ungodly had an ex post office Bedford van with the inevitable song (to the tune of Yellow Submarine): "we all jam from a yellow PO van". "Someone's nicked me magmount" another. Anyone for a Lindstrom Filter? Interesting times....
As a new ham with only a UV5R at present repeaters are my natural goto for communicating but I have already experienced people keying up over my transmissions with more power to block what I am saying. I have resisted the temptation to lambast but sadly whilst most hams are great people the M7 callsign seems to attract a disgruntled few. 73.
I remember this all too well. I just got my Class B (G7VBV) and was really excited to get on the VA repeater with my FT290RII (a bit like the portable radio in the video). Then the Laughing Policeman started :-( Such a bummer. VA was practically out of action for months. Very frustrating but everyone was amazed it made it to the news! 73 from N1ACW.
I had licence about that time. That and Didcot was the 2 options on the Alinco 2nd hand handheld. 2W on battery. 5W on plug in 12V power at home or the car. Got into Brill today when out for a walk from home this morning. Towards Sunningwell, village from my end of Abingdon. I knew where it was. did Brill windmill by drone (should not, realise now) and inside I did receintly. Made a follow up YT video from the drone one.
GB3VA is on a church? Wow. I lived in Milton Keynes when I first got into amateur radio in the early 90s and would listen to GB3VA as it was (then at least) the closest 2m repeater.
Didn’t know about this. Extreme lengths for somebody to go to. Must’ve have been extremely angry over something, which should’ve narrowed it down a bit at the time.
The previous transmitter boxes had been found and stolen by the local repeater group, this one was put on an island in a lake and fitted with a marine distress flare to deter the thieves.
Nice video. That was Wesley Smith, started young on the local news when new 1989 or so. Came from Abingdon. Long gone, Reading way now. I did 2 weeks there as part of college, Sat behind the glass, as in the clip. See me. 1997 so after. Could say where he lived as well. What flats, Dads friend knew, postman!. I had licence 1994 so around that time. That and Didcot was the 2 options on the Alinco 2nd hand handheld. 2W on battery. 5W on plug in 12V power at home or the car. Got into Brill today when out for a walk from home this morning. Towards Sunningwell, village from my end of Abingdon. I knew where it was. did Brill windmill by drone (should not, realise now) and inside I did receintly. Made a follow up YT video from the drone one.
Very interesting bit of history. Unfortunately in the States we have the same issues from time to time. Sans the bomb portion thank goodness. Our biggest culprits have been cable TV companies that have issues with corroded leaky 'F' connectors at customers homes.
2M all-mode portable radio (FM, SSB, CW). I have one, and the FT790R for 70cm as well. An FT690R for 6m exists as well, but in the days it was made 6m was not an amateur band here. Comparable radio today is the FT817/818 which of course covers more bands and it also is smaller.
but its worse when its hams doing it and the new to the hobby see this and think if they do this and get away it lead by example so they think i can do it and part the reason i have nothing to do with repeaters as some that use them think there better then god and put down every one below them.
This makes me think that this could be the problem we're having with the local repeater here in Santiago, Chile. There's something that has been jamming our comms but randomly. Sometimes it could interrupt a small conversation and sometimes it could be transmitting all night to the point it shutts down our repeater. We tried listening to the reverse freq but haven't been able to find the source. We think that it it another ham operator and we call him "bitter flesh". But considering the hours this interruptions ocurrs I may consider it is not actually a person.
So interesting! Just studying for my foundation exam now and catching up about everything radio. Just out of interest, what kind of antenna is that on your handheld at the beginning? I'm building a small collection for my scanner
Interesting - Ive been a radio ham since the early 1970s and I don't remember this incident (thanks for bringing it our attention). I do remember the London repeater jamming late 70s/early 80s - I seem to recall things getting so bad at at one point that someones radio shack was burnt down?
So is the board game called "Senet" ... but its being "odd" (inc. the fact that the original rules are likely lost to history and had to be re-invented) hasn't prevented it from being played 4000-5000 years after it was invented... Humans by their very nature are going to find a way to apply competition to everything... Voluntary Co-operation/ competitive endeavors and playing games by mutually agreed upon and followed "rules" (gamesmanship) are choices made by civilized people in spite of and in a desire to manage their animal nature. The road flare likely crosses the line... but pretending its was "a bomb" is hyperbolic nonsense.
Hi Lewis very good video and I found it really interesting but the way people go through stupid lengths to disturb the amateur radio is rediculous and the divice had a booby trap in it and it could of caused serious injury to whoever found it I know that it was only a flare or smoke bomb but it could of seriously hurt somebody who found it it's just sick whoever put it there on that island but some people amaze me what lengths they go to dristubt the amateur radio frequencys is just stupid and not on at all. Stephen M3SNV 73's.
What a story! We here in the Netherlands had some troubles with jammers on repeaters but this beats it all. However we should keep this quiet, we might bring some stupid idiots on malicious ideas!
Repeater jamming or site destruction has been around for a long time. There was one radio site on Box Springs Mtn in southern California that went off the air one night. When the owners went up to investigate the next morning the building was gone. It had been pushed over the side of the mountain with a bulldozer.
haha jesus..
Crikey!
There has been so many instances here in SoCal of "rival" repeaters going after one another by rouge users. Cutting antennas in half, blowing up shacks and other small bldgs, as well as the typical box on a hill attack where a device listens on the input for RF, and randomly records/repeats snippets of the incoming transmissions to completely disrupt the repeater, and render it useless. I remember reading of one incident where a device was hidden in a tree, less than 400' from a major repeater, and it took the hams about a year to locate it because it would only TX for short intervals, after sun down, at low power, and also only after or during other legit transmissions at much higher power.
@@paaao Thankfully we now seem to be free of any of kind of crap here in the UK.
73s - M7TUD
Those haters stop targeting the hams and went directly to the World Wide Web 😀😀😀
Back in the late 1970s, someone hid an automatic jammer in a heavily wooded area 3 miles down a steep canyon from a repeater here in Los Angeles. It jammed the repeater 6 or 7 times every hour and took 3 weeks of T-hunting to find. The culprits were never caught. 73, KE6WNH
Netflix please make this story into a film!
I'm imagining something like BBC's "The Detectorists" with two warring amateur hobby groups
They would if they could somehow tie amateur radio to 'global climate change.'
some amateur radio operators have egos bigger than the height of their antennas. I've worked with amateur radio operators who sabotage other operators repeaters, destroyed their antenna feed lines, and jammed transmission because of their egos. I learned all their dirty tricks on detuning transmission capacitors and causing all types of radio problems. From it all, I decided not to become an amateur radio operator if this is what the amateur radio culture is like. I have also ran into Elmer's who think they know everything about their hobby and treat you like a mud duck.
That's why I don't participate in ham radio anymore. I have my license, but short of an emergency, I won't use it. I have my GMRS that I do use. As well as the old 27mhz Citizens Band, FRS, and MURS which are license free in the U.S. IF a former Echo Link repeater was still on the air, I'd use it for QSOs to the UK, Europe.... and talk to more friendly folks ! Right now I can't afford the fancy digital gateways and such. Here in the states, GMRS and the other license free bands are becoming more popular - faster in some areas than others, and more GMRS repeaters and nets are happening. I just just happen to be in a semi rural - slow area. There's quite a few of us waiting for legal FM gear we can use since FM has recently been approved. President is releasing one next month or two (Jan/Feb 22) but unless its a prototype, it's missing a few things, like CTCSS & DCS
@@baronedipiemonte3990 now you are the kind of radio person I don't mind meeting and hanging out with ! I have a license as well, but I only deal with amateurs operators when we have Emergency field exercises...but I don't need to CQ with anyone around the world, and most of the time I just enjoy listening to local police/ems bands and DX.
You wouldn’t think law abiding radio ham types would be targeted. I guess someone had a grudge against one or more of them for some bizarre reason. Fascinating but slightly disturbing investigation. Great job. Nice clip of the guy with a yaesu ft 290r btw. Found a mint condition one last year on ebay
Theres one for sale not far from me but at £80 I'm dubious if its working
@@garys4756 opps I meant a 690r actuality exactly the same but for 6m. Very sensitive with it’s enormous whip antenna
I was wondering what radio that was.
73 M7TUD
Ahh reminds of the old days around GB3SL < squeak >
Oh boy! I remember first hearing that one whilst visiting relatives back in the 80's - think it was on the Crystal Palace TV transmitter tower. I used to live just over the road from the IBA transmitter in South Norwood - great for reception but can only imagine how bad the noise floor would've been for Amateur Bands.
ARG (Anti repeater group) was going strong in the 70s and 80s. Some good songs written about various incidents. All available on LPWS site.
Why were they anti repeater?
Hi Lewis, I remember 1979 to early 80s think it was GB3SL was being jammed by a bug that swept through the repeater input frequency, I was working in London and helped the locals DF it to a nearby nurses hostel, there was another one located in a tree.
Thanks Lewis Love these stories
Back in the G8 days people hated repeaters as they were seen as cheating. This was the root of a lot of the jamming.
In Portugal it happened too, but rarely.
I've even identified a fellow ham (top technitian) that confessed he was doing it to some repeater. Of course that I strongly and in a harsh manner told him that was unceptable. He complied because he respected me (being a karate expert helped me too 😀😀😀)
I think echtics (or the lack of it) plays a major role.
People without spiritual knowledge think they can do anything as long as they don't get caught.
In fact, karma's a bitch, and what goes arround comes arround, and altough jamming ham repeaters is not the worst someone can do, I wouldn't recommend it:
through my 50+ years in ham radio I've noticed something really strange:
Someone messing with radioamateurs would later have personal unexpected problems in their lives.
I've noticed this for years.
That is why I allways say:
Don't mess with Hams. You will be sorry really fast...
Cheating?, its an essential form of communication not a sport.
And repeaters are optional anyway
@@jplacido9999 I remember hearing jamming on a Lisbon repeater in 1989. The station I spoke to said he thought the offender lived in Queluz. I never heard any problems in the North and had some good chats via the Valongo repeater from Santa Luzia in Viana do Castelo. Parabens e melhor 73 de G0IMB
@@Isochest I Mr. Battersby.
Thanks for your great comment 🙏
LX is a dificult area.
Lots of Hams, tots of troubles...😂
Don't forget the 'CF rap' which was huge dig at repeater users. As a kid at school in the 1970s when i first I heard repeaters (CF, BM & HH) I heard amateurs biting the bait given by the squeekies - still hear it now and its still what they want to happen. Worth searching out the CF rap for a laugh.
Haha cheers mate I’ve got the cf rap in the archives somewhere
@@RingwayManchester Excellent, quite cutting even today.
4:39 "Devilment!" A new word that I'll now have to overuse!
I remember snatches of the laughing policeman theme being played on repeaters back in the 80s and 90s, I think the original inspired copycats all over the place.
The first ham to transmit from the ISS (W5LFL) was jammed here in the midlands by someone playing Nellie the Elephant.
@@MartynCole that could well have been me!
@@brianjonesg8aso403 cont
Good Report, Lewis, had a very similar incident back in the 70's....
Cheers!
Oh yes remember this Lewis as i was well in the coverage of VA.
In later years Mike the Repeater keeper use to mute the audio through if anyone was being annoying on the Repeater mind you he did turn it off if he heard someone he disliked using the repeater even if no abuse was being done.
I disagreed with this technique and got muted myself LOL I never paid any more yearly subs to AVRG again.
Marc In Bletchley Towers G6XEG
We had an issue with the repeater on top of Enfield Civic Centre. Random carrier just off input causing desense Couldn't find anything, very low power, eventually traced to the pedestrian crossing outside the centre, the device hidden within the housing of the lights and connected if I remember to the Amber light.
One of the ungodly had an ex post office Bedford van with the inevitable song (to the tune of Yellow Submarine): "we all jam from a yellow PO van". "Someone's nicked me magmount" another.
Anyone for a Lindstrom Filter? Interesting times....
This is so funny with hams that fall out and the fun starts
If it wasn't them, there's a high chance it was somebody inspired by them.
That's what we need, some high change!
@@brianjonesg8aso403 Whoops! Correcting...
Where was BigClive?
As a new ham with only a UV5R at present repeaters are my natural goto for communicating but I have already experienced people keying up over my transmissions with more power to block what I am saying. I have resisted the temptation to lambast but sadly whilst most hams are great people the M7 callsign seems to attract a disgruntled few. 73.
Wow, in Aylesbury, so quiet. Excellent article btw. Keep it up.
I remember this all too well. I just got my Class B (G7VBV) and was really excited to get on the VA repeater with my FT290RII (a bit like the portable radio in the video). Then the Laughing Policeman started :-( Such a bummer. VA was practically out of action for months. Very frustrating but everyone was amazed it made it to the news! 73 from N1ACW.
I had licence about that time. That and Didcot was the 2 options on the Alinco 2nd hand handheld. 2W on battery. 5W on plug in 12V power at home or the car. Got into Brill today when out for a walk from home this morning. Towards Sunningwell, village from my end of Abingdon. I knew where it was. did Brill windmill by drone (should not, realise now) and inside I did receintly. Made a follow up YT video from the drone one.
GB3VA is on a church? Wow. I lived in Milton Keynes when I first got into amateur radio in the early 90s and would listen to GB3VA as it was (then at least) the closest 2m repeater.
Nice little documentary. I dig it.
Reminds me of 1978 when I first heard gb3lo...
Lots of fun way into the early hours...
Did Squeky ever find his wallet???
Didn’t know about this. Extreme lengths for somebody to go to. Must’ve have been extremely angry over something, which should’ve narrowed it down a bit at the time.
The previous transmitter boxes had been found and stolen by the local repeater group, this one was put on an island in a lake and fitted with a marine distress flare to deter the thieves.
Nice video. That was Wesley Smith, started young on the local news when new 1989 or so. Came from Abingdon. Long gone, Reading way now. I did 2 weeks there as part of college, Sat behind the glass, as in the clip. See me. 1997 so after. Could say where he lived as well. What flats, Dads friend knew, postman!. I had licence 1994 so around that time. That and Didcot was the 2 options on the Alinco 2nd hand handheld. 2W on battery. 5W on plug in 12V power at home or the car. Got into Brill today when out for a walk from home this morning. Towards Sunningwell, village from my end of Abingdon. I knew where it was. did Brill windmill by drone (should not, realise now) and inside I did receintly. Made a follow up YT video from the drone one.
Very interesting bit of history.
Unfortunately in the States we have the same issues from time to time. Sans the bomb portion thank goodness. Our biggest culprits have been cable TV companies that have issues with corroded leaky 'F' connectors at customers homes.
Interesting and how strange!...
What radio is that at the 1:55 mark?
I can’t remember the model mate a couple have mentioned it further down the comments
That’s the one!
2M all-mode portable radio (FM, SSB, CW). I have one, and the FT790R for 70cm as well.
An FT690R for 6m exists as well, but in the days it was made 6m was not an amateur band here.
Comparable radio today is the FT817/818 which of course covers more bands and it also is smaller.
How do you find these stories? Great stuff. 73 DE ZS1CDG
Cool video!
Holly shit! What a mess!!!
Interesting video Lewis, thanks 🙏 for the info. Regards. Eamonn. G4TZV.
but its worse when its hams doing it and the new to the hobby see this and think if they do this and get away it lead by example so they think i can do it and part the reason i have nothing to do with repeaters as some that use them think there better then god and put down every one below them.
Very true I think will put lots off
I never knew about this interesting video.
Haha genius, what a joke lol. I can appreciate it
This makes me think that this could be the problem we're having with the local repeater here in Santiago, Chile. There's something that has been jamming our comms but randomly. Sometimes it could interrupt a small conversation and sometimes it could be transmitting all night to the point it shutts down our repeater. We tried listening to the reverse freq but haven't been able to find the source. We think that it it another ham operator and we call him "bitter flesh". But considering the hours this interruptions ocurrs I may consider it is not actually a person.
So interesting! Just studying for my foundation exam now and catching up about everything radio. Just out of interest, what kind of antenna is that on your handheld at the beginning? I'm building a small collection for my scanner
Hi. It just looks like a quarter wave with ground plane. Just like the the cb antenna from the 80s called a skylab.
Has any reason been given for this harassment?
It was done for fun apparently but was taken too far
@@RingwayManchester I guess I'm old school then. I see no fun in this type of behavior.
You and me both mate
Why the hatred of this repeater site?
Interesting - Ive been a radio ham since the early 1970s and I don't remember this incident (thanks for bringing it our attention). I do remember the London repeater jamming late 70s/early 80s - I seem to recall things getting so bad at at one point that someones radio shack was burnt down?
Wow 👏 😮
Its a game
and odd game.
So is the board game called "Senet" ... but its being "odd" (inc. the fact that the original rules are likely lost to history and had to be re-invented) hasn't prevented it from being played 4000-5000 years after it was invented... Humans by their very nature are going to find a way to apply competition to everything... Voluntary Co-operation/ competitive endeavors and playing games by mutually agreed upon and followed "rules" (gamesmanship) are choices made by civilized people in spite of and in a desire to manage their animal nature.
The road flare likely crosses the line... but pretending its was "a bomb" is hyperbolic nonsense.
KD7CKT here. Best wishes in the new year.
Very interesting. Nice video!
73, John Brier KG4AKV
Hi Lewis very good video and I found it really interesting but the way people go through stupid lengths to disturb the amateur radio is rediculous and the divice had a booby trap in it and it could of caused serious injury to whoever found it I know that it was only a flare or smoke bomb but it could of seriously hurt somebody who found it it's just sick whoever put it there on that island but some people amaze me what lengths they go to dristubt the amateur radio frequencys is just stupid and not on at all. Stephen M3SNV 73's.
👍👏👏
Why are some people so against repeaters?
They're just disturbed souls. R-Souls to be specific.
What a story! We here in the Netherlands had some troubles with jammers on repeaters but this beats it all. However we should keep this quiet, we might bring some stupid idiots on malicious ideas!