A Chinese man pleaded guilty on Monday to exporting guns and ammunition to North Korea, the Justice Department said.Shenghua Wen, 42, who was living illegally in the United States after overstaying his student visa, was charged with violating long-standing US sanctions against North Korea.Wen, arres...
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.
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.
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?
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?
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.
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.
anybody have any guesses? HackRF One? Flipper Zero? Just a normal-ass SDR dongle?
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
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.
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?
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?
Anything built for this task is going to be made in China ultimately
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.
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.