February 15, 2025

This Week in Amateur Radio

North America's Premiere Amateur Radio News Magazine

AIS in China: Media misreporting can be threat to radio hams

CRAC reports on the security risk in China of collecting and distributing either shipping AIS data or aircraft ADS-B data and the threat to radio amateurs from media misreporting

A translation of the CRAC post reads:

Recently, in the network and television and other media have appeared a report that a very small number of individuals and enterprises in China through their own set up AIS and ADS-B receiving devices to obtain and send the relevant ship and flight data to overseas in real time, to national security has brought a certain risk, This matter is worthy of each of our amateur radio enthusiasts to enhance awareness and vigilance.

There are a number of aviation and sailing enthusiasts at home and abroad who are keen to track the movements of aircraft or ships, especially after the 2014 loss of Malaysia Airlines MH370 made the event even more popular. The above-mentioned reports refer to a small part of this group. This crowd is not an amateur radio enthusiast, radio reception equipment is just their tool. However, due to the lack of common sense or lack of clarity about certain concepts among some media practitioners in our country, label such people “amateur radio enthusiasts” which can have a lot of negative effects to radio amateurs.

Read more – via Southgate: