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Comment by gertrunde | Hacker News Reader

There is this:

https://www.crowdsupply.com/krakenrf/krakensdr

(Although they had to take the radar elements out of the firmware/software, most likely due to ITAR - ref link: https://forum.krakenrf.com/t/where-has-the-passive-radar-cod... )

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A similar ITAR restriction on controlled reception pattern antennas means that GPS jamming is still much more of a problem than it needs to be. Three antenna elements are all you get, according to this: https://www.gpsworld.com/toughen-gps-to-resist-jamming-and-s...

Interesting article. I wonder if any progress on the ITAR issue has been made since 2022? If Brad Parkinson can't steer ITAR in the direction of common sense, nobody can. (For those who don't know, he was the principal architect of the original Navstar GPS system.)

I would prefer we not have homemade cruise missiles all over the place. The people who need them can make them after all.

To be fair, nobody actually neeeds cruise missles

I need some, for mail delivery. Those messages won't send themselves.

When it comes to getting the message across, never underestimate the bandwidth of a W84-equipped GLCM.

Apparently the hobby drone racers are doing that now: https://www.abc.net.au/news/science/2024-04-05/how-a-small-c...

And it's certainly not just a recent Ukraine related thing either: https://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/boffin-builds-backyard-missile...

Sure, it's getting increasingly easier to just buy China made for ITAR-protected products. Night vision cameras, thermals, drones. They're fine, way more user friendly, often cheaper too.

There are now even Gen3 night vision tubes being made in China.

They aren’t quite as good as US made ones yet, but it’s getting pretty close.

Congratulations, you are why we can't have nice things.

Nothing can steer ITAR into the direction of sense.

I’ve had to go to extremely ridiculous lengths to buy downlead cables for a headset recently because the cable was deemed ITAR.

Wow. I haven't looked at the ITAR list in decades. There are lots of electronics items on there now that have useful civilian applications and can be built at low cost. You can build such things, but can't ship them cross-border to or from an ITAR country.

I'm amazed at what people are building as hobbyist RF gear. I wonder what test equipment they have. The test equipment for GHz RF is very expensive. If you build it and it's not working, you may need test gear.

(I tried to build a LIDAR in 1990s. It didn't work, and I didn't have access to gear that would let me see what was happening up there.)

Thank you for the link!

I totally forgot about kraken. I cloned their repo in November 2022, probably in anticipation of the ITAR hiccup. Hopefully the radar code is there.

I’d be interested in knowing if you’ve got that. I was going to buy one but the pull of the code put that on ice. I may pull the trigger if I can get the code!

No sadly it looks like I got the wrong repo or I cloned it too early. It includes a little Python code but no firmware from what I can tell.

If you are a foreigner, you're asking the OP to commit a federal crime.

If you're an American national, you're likely asking the OP to commit s federal crime.

ITAR's a mother.

if they really wanted to, they could make this a first amendment case, no?

It would likely end up breaking the first amendment instead.

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