Installed in an unmarked van, Stingray mimics a cellphone tower, so it can pinpoint the precise location of any mobile device in range and intercept conversations and data, said Linda Lye,
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I’m curious how they do this from a single unit. You could use DF for azimuth but how do you get range?
Maybe GPS knowledge of the cell towers, the unit’s location and relative time marks from tower to the target might do the trick. Probably something like that.
Cell phones have always used technology that uses the minimum power necessary to maintain communications. The closer to the tower, the power level would be lower and vice versa. They also use steerable array antenna technology that not only controls the beam horizontally but vertically as well. All of this was to enable the tower to steer just enough signal to a specific user so that the system could squeeze as many users as possible in a given area.
They could get direction and approximate distance information easily from just one spoofed tower just by analyzing the signal strenght. I would also guess they are just asking the “suspects” cell phone for it’s gps data.