Ham Radios Used in Deadly Attacks

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ICOM IC-V82 is a discontinued model, and most currently in use are counterfeit.

At least 20 people were killed and more than 450 were injured after these devices detonated Wednesday in Lebanon.  It is not known exactly how they were detonated.

https://edition.cnn.com/world/live-news ... index.html

If you have one of the radios, CAREFULLY remove the battery and check for tampering.  Do not attempt to defuse.  Set if far from buildings and people and alert your local law-enforcement authorities.

An icom rep said there were knock offs

"I can guarantee you they were not our products,” said Ray Novak, a senior sales manager for Icom America’s amateur radio division, in an interview Wednesday at a trade show in Providence, Rhode Island.

"Novak said Icom introduced the V82 two-way radio model more than two decades ago and it has long since been discontinued. It was favored by amateur radio operators and for use in social or emergency communications, including by people tracking tornadoes or hurricanes, he said.

"Novak said he spent all day fielding calls and trying to dispel misinformation about Icom’s discontinued device. He showed a reporter on his cellphone how easy it is to find counterfeit versions of the product sold online."

https://apnews.com/live/lebanon-syria-p ... ah-updates

Is this related to the second set of explosions?
https://www.news.com.au/world/middle-ea ... 814e8c4b87

What's a ham radio?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amateur_radio

Hezbollah use hand held versions like these ones from ICOM

Ah, those things are banned where I am.
There was a public petition about them being an eyesore.

Everything a terrorist needs
https://www.redfleetsafety.com.au/icom- ... ay-radios/

^ Seems you really do have no idea what amateur radio is about.

It's one thing knowing nothing about Icom's products, but what you're doing is like hinting that drivers of a specific car make are uniquely responsible for road deaths - and it's just as idiotic.

Do you moonlight as a tabloid newspaper's scary headline writer?

Well no, I am discovering the wonderful world of hand held communications devices. I am assuming they facilitate the communication between users on specific frequency bands. Only radios using the same frequency, with the same privacy code, the same encryption key, and within range of your signal, can hear your transmissions.

Otherwise the "nice" people in Hezbollah would be using mobile phones to talk to each other. I mean what would they have to hide right?

Oh, good grief!  Ignorance abounds among conspiracy theorists, doesn't it?

For your information . . .

We hams also perform emergency communications services for the public during times of disaster, such as earthquakes, tsunamis, and hurricanes/typhoons -- any time that commercial communications fail, like Internet, landlines, and mobile phones.

The V82

This radio was put on the market about 20 years ago, and taken off the market about 10 years later.  It featured a slot for one of two options: (1) a module that allowed two-way digital-mode communications, and (2) a module that allowed the radio to be used as a pager.  Afaik, no other ham radio has a paging feature, so non other ham radio is in danger of being hacked in this way.

The V82s with the pager option were purchased about 5 months ago, in bulk, through "shady" channels and distributed to Hezbollah leaders.  The subordinates used pagers.  The top leader of Hezbollah ordered this after ordering all Hezbollah members to get rid of their cell phones because they could be used to track members and target them with drones and 'smart' ordnance.  Pagers cannot be tracked.

(Note: The following paragraph includes speculation based on bits and pieces from numerous media articles, and my own experience and knowledge in communications.  While I do not expect WP's conspiracy theorists to accept any of this, I do hope this sheds some light on what happened.)

The pagers and pager/radios were never "packed with explosives", but were only modified to include a special trigger circuit that would cause the LiION batteries themselves to act as incendiary 'bombs'.  These circuits became active when the pagers and pager/radios received some sort of "All Call" alert signal.

No I accept this explanation Fnord. thanks, I was trying to establish why they used these devices, I initially thought it was to shield comms, but I can see now its also to prevent tracking.

Ah yes, the old lie beloved of tyrants "If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear".

Going by the various videos of cheap Chinese electric scooters' batteries exploding because of poorly designed chargers, and mobile phones self-destructing in pockets, lithium-ion batteries tend to go off as a rapid and violent flare-up more than an explosion.

The videos of the pagers and pager/radios exploding appear to be small explosions with little to no flaring. I've seen it suggested that they could be as simple as detonators, which would be dangerous enough if triggered close to the body. Others have mentioned a small pellet of a high explosive.

If these devices were tampered with at some point before delivery to insert something capable of detecting and being triggered by (say) a received numerical sequence, it seems likely that a more reliable and damaging explosive would have also been added.

This could also be true.  There is only so far that I am able to follow the facts, and the exact mechanism used may never be made public (I hope!).

LiION batteries seem to deliver much less explosive force than an equivalent amount of black powder.  However, enclosing the battery -- even in a cheap plastic housing -- will concentrate the effects into a smaller area than if they were detonated in the open.  Their proximity to the human body also make for an effective anti-personnel weapon.

(It sometimes scares me that I know so much from military training, earning an EE, and studying for comms licenses.)

You would think if the Israelis planted bombs in Samsung phones nobody would have batted an eyelid.

Ok I guess the Lebonese government will be banning the sale of these products (regardless of Hezbollah using outdated models)
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Does that mean average citizens can return their ICOM devices and receive a refund?

Wait all these good reliable people have disposed themselves to explain "ham radio" but the actual question posed was what "IS" a "Ham" ( pork)radio ..? quite obviously the "literal" translation might be .? So a creature of the Genus "Sus" listening to a radio .or prepared meal of Pork listening with a radio...(Written with tongue firmly planted in cheek) .
No offence intended to those whom actually are engaged in Amatuer or otherwise radidio pursuits ...All respects