READER COMMENTS ON
"AP: Defense Dept. Warns American Contractors of Tiny Radio Transmitters Hidden in Canadian Coins"
(12 Responses so far...)
COMMENT #1 [Permalink]
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czaragorn
said on 1/12/2007 @ 11:00 am PT...
Well, ain't that a perfect ponder? And they call US conspiracy theorists!!!
COMMENT #2 [Permalink]
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GWN
said on 1/12/2007 @ 12:22 pm PT...
Don't ya know we transmitters in in ALL our Loonies and Toonies...
Speaking of loonie, ahhh never mind.
COMMENT #3 [Permalink]
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Emlev
said on 1/12/2007 @ 1:36 pm PT...
Brad, I'm guessing some of your readers may have some coins they'd like to dispose of just in case they're carrying transmitters. Would you be willing to dispose of those coins as a service to your readers?
Or should they send them on to Thomas Noe?
COMMENT #4 [Permalink]
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Dredd
said on 1/12/2007 @ 2:04 pm PT...
These transmitters can also be put in paper now. So junk mail can be used. But they do not transmit very far.
COMMENT #5 [Permalink]
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ben e
said on 1/12/2007 @ 2:42 pm PT...
COMMENT #6 [Permalink]
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Miss Persistent
said on 1/12/2007 @ 5:25 pm PT...
So maybe they're tracking general movement patterns...
COMMENT #7 [Permalink]
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GWN
said on 1/12/2007 @ 8:55 pm PT...
Ben E # 5. See this line "But the item about the Canadian coins item appeared to be the result of only partial intelligence." They are partially intelligent. Anyway if you had to carry a few of those coins around you'd quickly get rid of them as they weigh down your purse.
We do use the Loonie to win hockey games though. Maybe the Defense Department could look into that.
http://ca.events.yahoo.c...ying-loonies-venues.html
COMMENT #8 [Permalink]
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Larry Bergan
said on 1/12/2007 @ 10:59 pm PT...
Looks like Joe Friday's back on the job. Did they find any LSD in those coins?
COMMENT #9 [Permalink]
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big dan
said on 1/13/2007 @ 6:49 am PT...
That's how my wife and I track our kids. We give them Canadian coins and tell them they are excepted everywhere. They aren't, so they are always in their pockets...and we track 'em! On our Cap'n Crunch Canadian Coin Tracker...
COMMENT #10 [Permalink]
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Harold Thrasher
said on 1/13/2007 @ 11:32 am PT...
If you were going to fool around with any coins - you'd use what we call the 'toonie' - a 2 dollar coin that consists of a copper insert surrounded by a silver ring - much as if you pushed a penny into the center of a half dollar. That makes it easier to exchange the insert and avoid leaving evidence of tampering.
And - - you'd have to assume some kids were experimenting with 'rfd' tags because there is no way to control where the coins are going to travel as they are passed from person to person.
I would assume that even Homeland Security would realize that these were more 'notes in a bottle' than the tools of high level espionage.
COMMENT #11 [Permalink]
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John Washbun
said on 1/14/2007 @ 6:11 am PT...
I find the story suspicious only because it is difficult to transmit RF signals from the interior of a coin to the exterior. The metal of coin forms a small Faraday cage. So unless there is an external antenna from the interior of the "toonie" to the exterior, the RF signals from the inside do not penatrated the outer cladding of metal.
For example, you could have a piece of fine (but insulated) wire run from the interior and then wrap around some part of the outer edge of the coin. this may be inconspicuous enough and still serve as an antenna for the transmitter inside.
COMMENT #12 [Permalink]
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John Washbun
said on 1/14/2007 @ 6:19 am PT...
But, if the story is true, I find the irony delicious. The same RF ID tracking, Wal-mart, P&G, and the Department of Homeland Security tells us no danger at all at a personal leve, is considered a grave danger (national secruty threat no less) when applied to "important" people.
I love the irony that it is spy chips for all peons but no spy chips for us, the important. We're special.