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Decoding Data from Iridium Satellites

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Re: Decoding Data from Iridium Satellites

#41

Post by minipci1321 »

Apofis wrote: post #29
xvilka wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They're already produced and will start soon launching Iridium NEXT [1] satellites, moreover developed a whole platform called Iridium Prime [2]. [1] https://www.iridium.com/network/iridiumnext [2] https://www.iridium.com/company/industryleadership/iridiumpr...

It would be pretty nice if they partnered up with someone like Verizon and offered service in places where there is no regular 2G/3G service, your phone would need to have a chip for it I suppose.

I seem to recall that, during the initial deployment in the 90-ies, I read about China requesting that some parts of its territory be excluded from coverage. But I cannot find any links to that, and the coverage map doesn't seem to have any holes now.

Re: Decoding Data from Iridium Satellites

#42

Post by dboreham »

mattkrause wrote: post #40
Apofis wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would be pretty nice if they partnered up with someone like Verizon and offered service in places where there is no regular 2G/3G service, your phone would need to have a chip for it I suppose.

The Iridium phones are pretty big--think landline cordless phone handset--and often have an extensible antenna. Given the mania for thinner and thinner phones, this probably isn't going to fly. The network access is also expensive--think $50+ per month, with a handful (literally, like...10) of text messages and voice minutes included, with ~$1 per extra minute/message. If you live and work in somewhere with a modicum…

Sat phones are quite common where I live in Montana (you only have to drive 10 miles out of town to lose cell reception). The geosynchronous Inmarsat service is typically better/cheaper than Iridium today. I pay around $35/mo for more call time and SMS than I need to use. The phones are reasonably small but very old-school (like a 2000-vintage GSM handset). Because it uses satellites over the equator you need a southern aspect to connect. Folks rock climbing up north-facing cliffs or sailing north of 70 degrees need Iridium :)

Re: Decoding Data from Iridium Satellites

#43

Post by digi_owl »

technofiend wrote: post #33
jandrese wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

INMARSAT is a different system entirely. Iridium uses a relatively massive constellation (77 birds, plus or minus) of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites. Inmarsat runs a handful of Geosynchronous (GEO) satellites. Iridium has some advantages. It has coverage at the poles, where GEO sats typically do not. The mobile units can be small(ish) and handheld. But it also has some significant limitations. Datarates are in the…

>Motorola's whole business model with the original Iridium was pretty insane. Agreed, their original use case made some assumptions that have proven false. It's too bad Motorola sold off Iridium (and for that matter Motorola Mobility) because now with Project Ara we're finally to the point of single device satellite and terrestrial convergence. I.E. You could presumably purchase or rent an Iridium expansion for your…

Didn't Google massively scale back Ara recently?

Re: Decoding Data from Iridium Satellites

#44

Post by digi_owl »

That XML they found in the SDB channel seems like has to do with EU and fisheries. I guess it could be catch reports from trawlers.

And the FTP upload seems to be for the Air Force Weather Agency.

Also, a Mandrake 9.2 install doing a PPP dialup via iridium voice?! The world is indeed stranger than fiction.

Re: Decoding Data from Iridium Satellites

#45

Post by ris »

netsharc wrote: post #37
rsync wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also ... correct me if I misremember ... but I think it is the case that with Iridium - encryption or no encryption - Eve can discern your physical location and get GPS coordinates for you. Am I remembering that correctly ? I believe that got some journalists killed in Syria a few years ago ...

I've also read about the Syrian bombs targeting Iridium users. Maybe they used triangulation to locate the source of the signal that was being broadcast from earth. Does/did the Syrian govt have that tech? Would they need satellites, or would helicopters be enough? And which government/supplier did they buy it from?

You can probably deduce quite a lot position-wise by observing the doppler shifts and doppler shift corrections.

Re: Decoding Data from Iridium Satellites

#46

Post by mattkrause »

dboreham wrote: post #42
mattkrause wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Iridium phones are pretty big--think landline cordless phone handset--and often have an extensible antenna. Given the mania for thinner and thinner phones, this probably isn't going to fly. The network access is also expensive--think $50+ per month, with a handful (literally, like...10) of text messages and voice minutes included, with ~$1 per extra minute/message. If you live and work in somewhere with a modicum…

Sat phones are quite common where I live in Montana (you only have to drive 10 miles out of town to lose cell reception). The geosynchronous Inmarsat service is typically better/cheaper than Iridium today. I pay around $35/mo for more call time and SMS than I need to use. The phones are reasonably small but very old-school (like a 2000-vintage GSM handset). Because it uses satellites over the equator you need a south…

Interesting! We looked at Inmarsat and Globalstar when we were in Alaska, but we were at the very edge of their coverage area and it didn't seem worth it to have a potentially-flakey phone for emergencies.

I gather it's gotten a lot better since then, though.

Re: Decoding Data from Iridium Satellites

#47

Post by exabrial »

noselasd wrote: post #4
MrBuddyCasino wrote: post #2

> Later in the presentation he shows some interesting examples such as an intercepted Iridium satellte phone call to a C-37 aircraft. So Iridium has been cracked, and no reactions so far? Am I missing something? This sounds like a Big Deal.

No. As with other satellite phones, security/encryption is an additional feature that you buy. For everyone else, there's no security/encryption - you just need to implement the system and protocols to tap into it - which is what has been done here. (And for the parts that have encryption, it's the data that's encrypted, while metadata (e.g. call setup) is still plain text)

Whats the timestamp in the youtube video for that

Re: Decoding Data from Iridium Satellites

#48

Post by rasz_pl »

kejaed wrote: post #6
MrBuddyCasino wrote: post #2

> Later in the presentation he shows some interesting examples such as an intercepted Iridium satellte phone call to a C-37 aircraft. So Iridium has been cracked, and no reactions so far? Am I missing something? This sounds like a Big Deal.

It sort of like how US drones used to broadcast video unencrypted. They didn't bother since they thought the barrier to entry for seeing the feed was too high, until it wasn't. https://www.wired.com/2012/10/hack-proof-drone/

same story with israeli drones https://theintercept.com/2016/01/28/israeli-drone-feeds-hack...

Re: Decoding Data from Iridium Satellites

#50

Post by mintplant »

nneonneo wrote: post #32

Direct link to the talk - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvKaC4pNvck CCC Munchen wiki pages on Iridium: https://wiki.muc.ccc.de/iridium:start GitHub for the Iridium decoder software: https://github.com/muccc/gr-iridium

Thanks for the direct link. rtl-sdr.com seems to be having some issues at the moment.
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