I am late to the Comms game. I learn fast, usually.
Here's what I know: OpFor owns the radio and digital battlespace. Period. Full f'n stop.
Sure, you may know how to sidestep a few landmines, you may even know a few loopholes and hidey-holes. But I'd venture to say anyone actively out of the game for 6-12 months has obsolete comprehension of the subject matter. And if obsolete is too strong of a word, then I'll just go with way behind the curve. This is one aspect where .gov has a lot of talent, a lot of resources, and holds the high ground.
People who know have warned us all: If the big boys are looking for you, do not even crack the mic.
That is because OpFor has the widgets and gizmos to identify you, DF you, and put a bomb on that location pretty darned quickly.
We've been warned that every single digital transmission ever sent, can be retrieved, if .gov wants to go find it.
And if you think you can pass messages in any digital format because you have found a way to outwit .mil - ok. You may even be correct, for about 5 minutes. But if you keep believing your own PR that there is a way to safely conduct secure Comms by passing thumbdrives to one another or encrypting in this or that format - you will lose. Maybe not today. But someone, somewhere in that chain of Comms is going to screw up and compromise everything. It takes just one idiot who has a secure communication on his tablet (you know, the one he only ever uses for secret-squirrel comms and never even hooks up to the net...) - at some point he'll trip into a wifi signal that starts pinging until some Human in some dark room filled with up-to-speed Comms guys decide to turn him inside out - and not in the fun way.
Old-school is the way to go, or will be the way to go, as the hand of .gov grows heavier on your shoulder. Learn morse code so you can tap-tap-tap a message to an ally who has one of your One Time Pads, so you can talk. Done properly, the OTP is unbreakable. Unless they catch you or your ally - you and he will break.
Anyway, enough preaching about a topic of which I know little.
I found an app for my Android so I can learn my morse code. If you care, here it is...
Good luck, Patriots.
Kerodin
III
