FM Jammer

[GSXR]

Hi Guys,

Hopfully you can help, my employer is installing mixtelematics vehicle monitors in all our vehicles, it's not that I speed or hoon around I just dont like the big brother side of things. The whole island (where we work) is monitored and the unit which sends out the signal is a VDO FM wireless Kit.

Now I know everyone is going to say Jammers are illegal but in this situation the jammer would be positioned in my vehicle to stop the the signals given out by the transmitter also in the vehicle. I only need a range of say 5mtrs ( or 15feet for you guys on the wrong side of the world...lol).

My question is I was going to build a little FM bug (from say Jaycar or similar) to jam the signal put out by the unit (just locally) but I dont know what signal range it works on. How do I go about trying to find out and is this the easiest way of jamming the signal....if not can someone please advise.

My other question is in talking to the installer ( i'm actually responsible for also getting them installed in our vehicles) they mentioned WiFi (as in the name of the brochure) is that the same as FM and will my little bug work on WiFi.

I've attached the brochure for your info, if you cant help because you feel funny about the legallities then can you suggest some web sites I can view.

Thanks GSXR

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

You can't jam it locally anyway, you need to jam it at the receiver - so would need to exceed the power used by the unit in order to swamp it.

But it's not FM radio anyway, it's WiFi using an FM carrier.

It's illegal, you're going to cause masses of interference, don't try it.

 

[GSXR]

While I accept your opinion and dont dismiss it (and as a mod I realise you have the experience to back it up) I dont like to give in that easy......surely there would be some way of swamping the WiFi signal at the source. I'm not looking at upsetting the world just what goes on my vehicle.

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

While I accept your opinion and dont dismiss it (and as a mod I realise you have the experience to back it up) I dont like to give in that easy......surely there would be some way of swamping the WiFi signal at the source. I'm not looking at upsetting the world just what goes on my vehicle.

You can't swamp at source - you need to swamp at the receiver - the transmitter has nothing to do with it.

You're going to kill WiFi in all directions around your vehicle.

Why not just disconnect the unit?.

 

[GSXR]

Unfortunately we all get a key and need to swipe on before we travel, and as I'm lead to believe before the vehicle will start, so disconnecting doesn't seem an option. The only other option I considered is covering the areial ( spelling) but being WiFi its probably hidden away in the box. In saying that for ease of WiFi reception maybe the areial is external and could be covered....would that work?????

 

[Nigel Goodwin]

If you can cover it?, then it's certainly going to reduce range.

But if you're not doing anything wrong, what's your problem? - and you're certainly going to be caught if you're the only one not sending data back.

 

[GSXR]

No problem with the unti not sending data because it would be viewed as if the vehicle wasn't being used and they don't have battery backup to send data later....................as for not doing anything wrong......thats an reason raised everytime and I suppose in many ways its makes no difference to my question as it's my business. .........but in my case I don't like being told what I can and cant do and that someone is going to rule my life with ridiculous rules ( prob shows in my persistant questioning!!) which is why I would consider things have worked out well in life because I'm not prepared to accept everything at face value........

Anyway thanks for your assist and how do I go about thanking you on the forum

 

[LTX71CM]

I'd take the networking approach and instead of trying to overpower the unit, just confuse and taunt it. Use a laptop with a wifi card mixed with a little packet injection and you can wreak all sorts of havoc, dropped connections, bad packets, ARP spoofing.... any number of things.

 

[canadaelk]

Whenever I did not like a policy my employer implemented I quit the job. E

 

[bychon]

I can easily envision myself in the place of knowing my every move is watched, and it's uncomfortable. That argument about, "If you're not doing anything wrong" is just an excuse for an invasion of privacy, unless you are being paid for the time they watch you drive their vehicle. Oh, wait...you are. Well, it's still annoying, but it's legal. It's as if the owners of the vehicles have a legal right to observe their posessions at all times. Bad news: they do.

I wouldn't like it either. It's a good thing I retired before Big Brother developed the ability to watch me at all times.

 

[PatM]

It looks like it only stores data on your on-board computer and then is downloaded when you return to your company location.
If you are able to disable the device, you are probably going to cause yourself more problems.
Behave yourself or find another employer.

 

[solis365]

REGARDLESS of the result of the brewing political debate on big brother (which I would love to get involved in but this is not the appropriate forum)... you cant jam it. the way the system works (as I read from the datasheet) is it records data on your vehicle and saves it. Then when you bring it back to the garage, it connects to the local WiFi and downloads the data to the corporate server.

so you would have to activate the jammer for all of the time that the car is in the garage, NOT all of the time you're driving it. and if you did that, someone would start to wonder why no data was ever being downloaded for car #4, since anyone else who drove it would have to activate the jammer too.

not to mention that once your employer found out about you trying to tamper with their system, they would fire you.
just dont break the law on your employer's watch. big brother sucks, but... its legal for the employer to watch their stuff.


also its NOT an "FM" (as in frequency modulation) transmitter. the FM they talk about refers to a model number of the car computers its compatible with: the "FM200 plus" and "FM300" series computers. its just a wifi transmitter that interfaces with your car's computer system. its just a data collection unit that uses wifi to upload your car stats when you are near the "home base" network.

 

[HarveyH42]

It basically tells your employer, whether your out taking care of company business, or personal business. Just do your job. You get caught trying to hide, they will fire, just because you gave them reason to believe you have something to hide.

I work in a big warehouse, in the cigarette department. There are security cameras throughout the warehouse, but I'm special, I've got three pointed at my work station. It's not that I'm not trusted (hope), but it's just high traffic area, near the time clocks, our secure gate into the department, and a staging area. I've always worked like there was someone could be watching, or there were unseen security cameras, so wasn't a big deal when the installed them. Nothing to hide, nothing to fear. I appreciate having a job, and the security of know that they have no reason to question my performance. In this economy, and with more of similar Obama-type-changes, its a little insane to jeopardize what you've got, although 99 weeks of sitting around the house, waiting for the free health insurance to kick in, doesn't sound all that bad...

 

[Mikebits]

I suggest you just open a can of man up and deal with it, or quit.

 

[mneary]

I agree with PatM. The modem is not used in real time while you are on the road. The vehicle is just recording whatever they want to know, all the time.

The modem that you described is designed to download the vehicle's memory once the vehicles are at home base.

You can defeat it by never returning the company's vehicle, but I suspect that would cause other issues.

 

[HarveyH42]

Maybe there is some way to record your own version of the data to be transmitted, or copy/reload the data from a day that you were a 'good boy'. It's quite likely though, that any errors or discrepancies will be flagged and investigated. Even if you do your job flawlessly, tampering would the end of your career. They really don't need a reason to 'down-size', 'reduction', 'lay-off', or 'fire' an employee, since if you fight termination, the burden of proof lands on you. Could you afford better lawyers, and who would actually gain most? The lawyers of course...

 

[mbarazeen]

it can be a device to check its GPS cordinate and update it via WiFi to a remote provider so that the company can veiw the vehicle position at any time when the devise is powered up.

as you thought its possible to obstruct its reception from GPS settelite by putting a thick metalic cover covering the device. it happens when you park the car in any underground parking where there is weak reception for your mobile phone. try to find out where the device is located in your car, then make propper cover by Zn metal sheet, it may work.