Fox News: Does line-of-sight detonation method suggest third marathon bomber? [video]

Twitchy ^

[Perdogg]

Fox News’ Catherine Herridge is reporting today that the FBI has not ruled out the possibility of a third party involved in the Boston Marathon terrorist bombing. Evidence that the two bombs were detonated not by a cell phone but by parts ripped from a toy car remote control suggest that whoever triggered the explosions had to have been in the line of sight of the bombs.

[JRandomFreeper]

You could be right. After all, I'm a culinary school trained cook.

/johnny

[X-spurt]

I’m with you johhny, except the shock collars definitely need to be shock and AWE collars for our jihadi friends.

[cynwoody]

That's hardly line of sight like 1.2Ghz.

My 5.8ghz cordless phone works fine around corners. If I wanted to blow something up with it, I could easily do so while taking cover behind a wall or around a corner.

Of course, an infrared controller might be another matter. But the toy car controllers use RF and have a range of a hundreds of feet. Perfect for the application.

BTW, the AQ Chef's article does not cover this type of detonator. Rather, it contains detailed instructions for building the old stand-by clock detonator:

1. Disassemble the clock.
2. If you want to set up the explosion to occur within an hour, cut off the arms of the clock except for the minutes arm. If you want more than an hour, you cut off all arms except for the hour arm.
3. ...

[JRandomFreeper]

They have chefs? How many ways are there to cook a camel?

/johnny

[InterceptPoint]

Your talking very complicated design. Could the two brothers have figured that complex design on their own? I bet not.
++++++++++
Not if JRanomFreeper is right and I’m thinking he is. The controller design was done by the the Toy manufacturer and the adaption to the pressure cooker bomb really isn’t that hard. You have to assume that the bomb design using the toy controller was figured out by some clever Jihadist and the Mad Bombers just put theirs together like a Heathkit.

[JRandomFreeper]

There are ham radio operators in the middle east. I worked JY1 once on a special link, back before he died.

/johnny

[steve86]

"Using such a remote control would be pretty “risky” in the sense of premature detonation due to the presence of other radio signals in the area."

I thought the receiver was identified as a 2.4 Ghz unit from a hobby-grade R/C helicopter (I own similar). If so, the DSM-X or DSM-2 receiver is bound to a particular transmitter and is almost invulnerable to common modes of interference or jamming.

Just How Good is DSMX? In multiple tests, 100 DSMX systems were operated simultaneously for extended periods of time. During these tests each of the 100 systems was monitored in flight and on the ground. In every test not a single case of RF link loss, latency increase or control degradation was experienced or recorded.

[JRandomFreeper]

I thought the receiver was identified as a 2.4 Ghz unit from a hobby-grade R/C helicopter

If that's true, and I hadn't heard that, then yes, it's very doable. Not quite as dangerous as the 47MHz receiver, and much more reliable.

For my Raptor Tiger helicopter, I'm using a Futaba 50MHz radio, but I had to send them a copy of my FCC license before they would send it to me.

I wanted a frequency that others on the field wouldn't have.

/johnny

[cynwoody]

I would guess, if they really did use toy car radios, that they either picked two with different frequencies, or tweaked the frequencies, or used the PCM (Pulse Coded Modulation) of the signal to detonate the two at different times. Think right/left, go/stop functions on a toy car. That's 3 active functions at a minimum.

That sounds plausible. Different frequencies and / or one bomb blows up on turn-left and the other on turn-right. Each brother places and triggers his own bomb. That way, they can be sure to be far enough away. And they coordinate via cell phone (one of them was videoed on the phone right before a bomb went off).

[cynwoody]

They have chefs? How many ways are there to cook a camel?

This particular chef was cooked by a Hellfire missile sometime later.

[cynwoody]

One of the pressure cooker lids was found on the roof of a six-story hotel.

[octex]

I haven’t read the comments here, yet, but I recall seeing video on FNC of a man on the roof of a building across the street. At the time, no one knew who he was... and they apparently still don’t know. ......That “perch” would have provided him line-of-sight to both IEDs.

[plain talk]

they had to pause long enough to trigger the detonations.

why? while walking away they push the remote control. not that hard and no need for a 3rd person. The 2nd bomb went off 10 seconds after suspect #1 walked away

[1_Rain_Drop]

"...On a crowded street with human obstacles shielding the signal?"

Maybe that's why the bombs were set towards the end of the marathon, there were less people, and they move. It was just a matter of timing when that one person would move to allow a direct line.

[Freedom of Speech Wins]

That looks like the Chinese lady killed, next to the “Saudi” with the black jacket and shades.

[bitterohiogunclinger]

I would be more worried by accidental RF from unknown sources i.e. other radio services that might be present.
However, I’ll take your word on the new stuff as I haven’t done RC in over 15 years.
The other though that occured to me in some of the discussions on this thread is that there wouldn’t be any need to worry about the metal pressure cooker blocking the signal if you taped the RC device outside and just routed a couple of wires into the detonator inside.
I haven’t definitively heard what explosive was used?

[trebb]

Aren't the toy cars in the 47-49MHz range? That's hardly line of sight like 1.2Ghz.

They might be mixing up "line of sight" with "needed to be fairly close".

[LyinLibs]

“I’m thinking puffy coat man is wearing a disguise.. And pushing a stroller? Yikes.”

I have zoomed-in closeups of what’s inside that stroller, and it’s not a baby.

I posted them last week but the Mods put me on “double secret probation” and described my images as “infowars” style.

If PUFFY COAT and his partner BENDING MAN (whose face we never see b/c always bent over digging thru stroller) aren’t suspicious, then I don’t think the word “suspicious” has any meaning.

[LyinLibs]

“Were there actually any Saudis running in the race?
How come there were so many Saudi “spectators” there?”

The Saudis were supposedly there to “watch the Kenyan runners.”

Only 1 problem with that: The Kenyan runners were boycotting/protesting the race and thus didn’t run.

If anybody can explain to me what Alharbi (Saudi “student” on terrorist watch list) was doing 50 feet from an explosion at one of the biggest terrorist attacks in 10 years, I’m all ears.

I’m sure it was just coincidence, folks. That’s what Eric Holder told me over falafel.

[JRandomFreeper]

About 120 meters. That's as far as I got before the neighbor had to go tend to her hang-over. She was listening on the recieve end.

/johnny