Hey all, probably just paranoid, but my friend saw Charlie's van driving around his home the other day, and the van stopped briefly just behind his house (in plain sight of the dish). Anyone heard of Charlie driving around looking for dishes at non-subbed addresses? Seems like a stretch, but who knows?

Maybe just got lost trying to find their service call, but the van never stopped at any house on the street, just drove off.

thx.

[HotRodTodd]

No they don't do that. Even if they did, what could they do? No warrant no entry, no proof.
They can't tell anything from outside anymore than you can.

[mopar611]

I have a dish at one of my rental houses and they dont subscribe to dish.

They have no way of knowing. Dont worry about it bro. Are you feeling a little guilty????LMAO

Mopar

Originally Posted by mopar611

I have a dish at one of my rental houses and they dont subscribe to dish.

They have no way of knowing. Dont worry about it bro. Are you feeling a little guilty????LMAO

Mopar

C'mon guys, I said it was my FRIEND, not me!

Thanks for the reassurance, that's all I was after.

I know of only one instance when the issuse of having a dish up was presented as evidence, along with some other stuff ( store receipts for his mother (I think) for a sat system) and that was a case that draged on for some time. The crux of it was xxxxxx said he did not and had never owned equip belonging to DTV and therefore his alleged PD purchases were for legitamte reasons.

If he is in a simular situation maybe he should be a little worried if not f$%&K them.

[fawltyb]

Charlie dont surf....

Originally Posted by HotRodTodd

No they don't do that. Even if they did, what could they do? No warrant no entry, no proof.
They can't tell anything from outside anymore than you can.

Well, they actually could look to see if the lnb on the dish was active. Since there is a downconverter in the LNB, it uses an oscillator inside, and even though it's shielded, it will still leak RF a little.

A.

[vmod32]

That still would not mean much

Originally Posted by vmod32

That still would not mean much

Not conclusive, but likely.... An active LNB aimed at their sattelite at an address with no sub?

A.

[JT]

Originally Posted by Armis

Not conclusive, but likely.... An active LNB aimed at their sattelite at an address with no sub?

A.

What about the subscribers who live where the USPS or Canadapost do not deliver....like me? There are exceptions. They need to know a lot more than whether or not the lnb is being used to have any usefull information.

I have heard some bs rumor about using a infrared camera to detect the slight amout of heat the lnb generates from being powered, But if that actually is possible who knows.

Dish pretty much doesn't drive around unless they get numorous reports that the person has been hacking, I've seen DTV on the other hand cruising the streets.

Originally Posted by JT

What about the subscribers who live where the USPS or Canadapost do not deliver....like me? There are exceptions. They need to know a lot more than whether or not the lnb is being used to have any usefull information.

I would think that for the remote/rural areas, it would be a long way to travel just to determine a few possible un-subbed signal reception sites, so of course there are exceptions.

This type of thing would really only be worth it to them in largly populated areas, or in the case of investigations based on called in piracy tips.

Note that this is just speculation as to how this could be done - in reality, because of how charlie/dave have their local dealers set up, and the significant investment in equipment that would be required to do this, I don't think they really have an efficient way to do this like the cable companies do.

A.

"case of investigations based on called in piracy tips."
I agree with that one

That sucks I guess I will move my Dishes in the Back yard I have one for dish and one for Bev. But they can't say I don't have a FTA receiver. i guess the old saying goes out site out of mind

[Fro66er]

DirecTv does (or did) in fact "troll"around, but it's the installers that do their dirty work.

A guy was having Dtv installed, my friend noticed the installer looking around the neighboorhood for other DTV dishes. He jotted a few things down in a notebook and drove away. Now, this installer WAS NOT just driving around collecting addresses, but rather just stood by his installer van (at the address where he was installing a new system) and looked 360 degrees around and made a few notes. My friend had his dishes out of visual site, but his neighbor had her dish right in plain view. In about two week, this neighbor gets a call from Dtv, they said they noticed she had a dish on her house, but no subscription to their service. They then asked if she would like to subscribe. She said no, I have cable and am happy with it. Dtv politely said OK (no pressure to sub), and hung up. That was the last she heard from Dtv.

This happened approx 2 years ago.

[fubr]

they are surveying area'sto get an ideal of potential new customers in the area.
the dishes they do and can see just are numbers to plug in to thier database for a cencus type deal.
trying to find area's that will need more service and it is for sales, not to track hackers.
Like dude said , no warrent no entry.

I had a dish sub for a long time before I ever hacked one and it stayed hooked up for a year and I could get one preaching channel and the info channels so even that would emit the heat signal so they cant go by that I would not see how that would be practical.

ever seen a van sitting at a crossroad, he is counting cars. to see if they need a bigger road or red light. Same shit diferent pile.

no worries mate. That has been going around awhile and I have never heard of anyone getting a letter.
plus they got the leave your dish when you move and send you a new one to your new address. so there are alot of dishes there when people move in.

Also remember, When people move they tell them to leave the old dish behind , Just take the receiver(s) and they will put a new one up. Lots of those around.

Yeah it's amazing the heat those little lnbs generate.

[dw7]

Who are you in trouble with if they see a Dave dish pointed at a Charlie bird with an extra lnb strapped on?

[jim7219]

I just bought a wardrobe mirror and put it on my garage and then pointed the dish at the mirror. Boy was it ever tough to get the right azimuth.

[fubr]

I hope your kidding

[jim7219]

Yea, I just could not help myself.

[skeets88]

With the right equipment you can also pick up the signal from someone's TV or video screen. I remember my dad had a lined room where he worked that blocked such devices. The image is grainy, but you can read data on a screen or see a basic visual image.
I doubt they would go that far.
The cost to benefit is tighter in the private sector.
More than likely they keep it simple, and some of it may be more marketing than security.

[JT]

It is true. If a guy has the right equipment, you can observe anything that is printed/displayed on someones elses monitor just by detecting the EMI that comes off the monitor. This can be done from at least 100 feet away. Time to wallpaper your house with aluminum foil. To keep it in perspective though, this is not something I think ordinary citicens have to prepare for. It is something to keep in mind though. If a guy is under official surveilence, there are many alternatives to go with if they really want to go after you. Now days their bag of tricks includes a lot more than just a phone tap or a narc.

[Fro66er]

Originally Posted by JT

It is true. If a guy has the right equipment, you can observe anything that is printed/displayed on someones elses monitor just by detecting the EMI that comes off the monitor. This can be done from at least 100 feet away. Time to wallpaper your house with aluminum foil. To keep it in perspective though, this is not something I think ordinary citicens have to prepare for. It is something to keep in mind though. If a guy is under official surveilence, there are many alternatives to go with if they really want to go after you. Now days their bag of tricks includes a lot more than just a phone tap or a narc.

Yes, this is true. With the right equipment, one could see what is being displayed on your TV or COMPUTER! The "Technology" to do this is old, and has been used by our friendly govnt in the past.

What most people don't realize is that if you don't use the "RF" output, and leave it un-terminated or unused, then the RF leakage from that F-connector is low, but still able to be picked up over 100 feet with the right equipment (i.e spectrum analyzer, pre-selector, directional yagi, and TV). I can watch what is on my neighbors TV by tuning my test equipment to channel 3 or 4. Yes it's fuzzy and not in color (A S.A. can't decode the color burst signal), but the image is there!

If your paranoid about this RF leakage, then just go to radio shack and get a "terminator" for the RF output. This is basically a metal cap that fits over the RF connector and has a 75 Ohm resistor built in - cost is under 3 bucks for a 2 pack. Many people already use the ch 3/4 RF outputs, so those people already have "terminated" the output.

[JT]

I think there is a lot more to it than just throwing terminators on your open RF leads...although that's a good start. And yep, what you can monitor does not include color, but that's not the take home message I was trying to make. This type of 'sniffing' is unobtrusive and more common than we would all like to think....especially in the lower 48.

[fubr]

You guys ever heard of why those little strips in the $5 bill and higher or for?
I heard (which I doubt) that the gov can fly over your house or car and scan that strip and tell how much cash you have and where it came from..

never belived it though

[JT]

Originally Posted by fubr

You guys ever heard of why those little strips in the $5 bill and higher or for?
I heard (which I doubt) that the gov can fly over your house or car and scan that strip and tell how much cash you have and where it came from..

never belived it though

I think that's stretching things quite a bit myself. On the other hand, I wouldn't recomend trying to go through the airport scanner with more than about $10,000 cash. There is enough metal in those little strips to set off the detector if you have enough cake in your pocket.

[Pyotr]

Originally Posted by fubr

You guys ever heard of why those little strips in the $5 bill and higher or for?
I heard (which I doubt) that the gov can fly over your house or car and scan that strip and tell how much cash you have and where it came from..

never belived it though

Nah.The strips are anti-counterfeiting devices.That's all.

[fubr]

well that is not as fun beliving