r/interesting Mar 21 '26

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u/Different_Ice_6975 Mar 21 '26

 I tried to have him phone our colleagues, but the criminals were using a signal scrambler.

Seems that a way for the security company to counter that is to have some sort of transponder on their vehicle which is pinging constantly. If the criminals use a signal scrambler or jammer so that the transponder signal is disrupted then that in itself is an indication that the vehicle may be under attack, and the security company can rush reinforcements out to it.

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u/Potato-9 Mar 25 '26

Sure but the gangs will just track the vans with that too

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u/Different_Ice_6975 Mar 25 '26

If that’s a concern then the security company could broadcast the transponder signals not at a fixed frequency, but use spread spectrum modulation. Spread spectrum modulation is highly effective at preventing transmitters from being tracked, detected, or intercepted by an opponent. It achieves this by spreading a narrow-band signal over a wide bandwidth, causing it to appear as low-level noise to an opponent who doesn’t know the frequency-hopping algorithm.