95
submitted 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) by dead@hexbear.net to c/news@hexbear.net

https://archive.is/XQmVO << US government justice gov statement

editted the title to clarify that this happened in the US.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] blobjim@hexbear.net 13 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Can't anyone anywhere basically buy one of those? I would assume it would have to be something that is export-controlled? It also says handheld, which makes it sound more like a standalone device, but who knows.

The HackRF One product page shows a Chinese seller, as well as ones from Singapore, Poland, Japan, etc. https://greatscottgadgets.com/hackrf/one/#purchasing

[-] john_brown@hexbear.net 11 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

They're definitely illegal in some nations because they can transmit (weakly) in frequency ranges that may be restricted. Flippers as well - hell a bunch of people were having their Flippers seized by US customs a year or two ago when they were being shipped into the US. Also for what it's worth you can put the HackRF One into a "portapack" with a little screen and controls for handheld portable radio stuff. SDR dongles plus a phone turn into portable radio devices as well, to be fair.

But also even if they weren't illegal, it's still illegal to send them to NK from the US because of sanctions and stuff.

[-] blobjim@hexbear.net 5 points 1 week ago

it's still illegal to send them to NK from the US because of sanctions and stuff.

What I mean is why send them to North Korea from the US when you could just have a Chinese person in China send them? I think there are probably built-to-task devices that the guy was sending. Which I guess were just freely purchasable in the US? Unless the dude had some special access to buy stuff?

[-] john_brown@hexbear.net 3 points 1 week ago

Been rolling it around in my brain and maybe what they found was some kind of radio logging device whose importance was not that it was being shipped but perhaps it was being used to monitor port activities, security, etc, as it traveled through in a container?

[-] john_brown@hexbear.net 3 points 1 week ago

Anything built for this task is going to be made in China ultimately

[-] blobjim@hexbear.net 1 points 1 week ago

There is US military stuff that is mostly built in the US. That's the one industry they've tried to keep in the US. And that probably includes infrastructure like Intel's chip fabs.

[-] john_brown@hexbear.net 1 points 5 days ago* (last edited 5 days ago)

I don't really think the US military is buying handheld RF analysis tools that are wholly made in the USA. Not for nothing, but the "US MADE" MIL gets a huge amount of shit from China, whether officially or under the table. Regular scandals about x supplier actually using Chinese parts.

this post was submitted on 10 Jun 2025
95 points (100.0% liked)

news

24111 readers
902 users here now

Welcome to c/news! Please read the Hexbear Code of Conduct and remember... we're all comrades here.

Rules:

-- PLEASE KEEP POST TITLES INFORMATIVE --

-- Overly editorialized titles, particularly if they link to opinion pieces, may get your post removed. --

-- All posts must include a link to their source. Screenshots are fine IF you include the link in the post body. --

-- If you are citing a twitter post as news please include not just the twitter.com in your links but also nitter.net (or another Nitter instance). There is also a Firefox extension that can redirect Twitter links to a Nitter instance: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/libredirect/ or archive them as you would any other reactionary source using e.g. https://archive.today . Twitter screenshots still need to be sourced or they will be removed --

-- Mass tagging comm moderators across multiple posts like a broken markov chain bot will result in a comm ban--

-- Repeated consecutive posting of reactionary sources, fake news, misleading / outdated news, false alarms over ghoul deaths, and/or shitposts will result in a comm ban.--

-- Neglecting to use content warnings or NSFW when dealing with disturbing content will be removed until in compliance. Users who are consecutively reported due to failing to use content warnings or NSFW tags when commenting on or posting disturbing content will result in the user being banned. --

-- Using April 1st as an excuse to post fake headlines, like the resurrection of Kissinger while he is still fortunately dead, will result in the poster being thrown in the gamer gulag and be sentenced to play and beat trashy mobile games like 'Raid: Shadow Legends' in order to be rehabilitated back into general society. --

founded 4 years ago
MODERATORS