[Stranger]

Ummm, no way an FM (analog) signal penetrates a digital encrypted spectrum that complies with FCC reguations.... sorry NFL, but your story is BS.

Gubser & Schnakenberg
A better way to communicate
http://www.inc.com/magazine/201302/nancy-averett/the-small-businesses-behind-the-big-game.html

This season, quarterbacks can hear their head coaches more clearly, thanks to a new headset-to-helmet communication system designed by Gubser & Schnakenberg, or GSC, of Lincoln, Nebraska. Mark Gubser and Jamie Schnakenberg, former co-workers at Bosch Communication Technologies and consultants to the NFL, founded the company in 2010 after the league asked them to develop a communication system that would comply with FCC regulations requiring radio frequencies to use smaller bandwidths. The resulting headsets, which employ digital rather than analog technology, not only comply with those regulations but also sound much clearer. "The old system had a lot of buzzing, hissing, and crackling," Gubser says. "This sound is crystal clear." GSC employs three full-time workers and about 100 part-time audio technicians who maintain equipment on-site. The company plans to expand to college football and other markets.

"The NFL has said military-grade encryption codes protect the frequencies."
http://www.pro32.ap.org/thewellingtonenterprise/article/nfl-headset-technology-better-not-perfect

[The Ripper]

Yes, it can and it happens all the time.

Said Eagles coach Chip Kelly: “I’ve heard a lot of things on the headsets, I think there’s a lot of frequency issues some places. I’ve heard air traffic control and a lot of different things.”





http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/20 ... w-england/

Coaches say headset problems happen often outside New England

Posted by Michael David Smith on September 12, 2015, 5:31 AM EDT
Jim Caldwell
AP
When the Steelers’ coaches headsets malfunctioned on Thursday night in New England, it was treated by some as evidence of cheating by the Patriots. But several NFL head coaches said on Friday that in reality, headset problems are commonplace around the league, and not just in New England.

“It’s a league problem. It’s wherever,” said Panthers coach Ron Rivera. “It will go out right in the middle and not just here or in New England or in San Francisco, but it could go out in a critical time.”

Said Texans coach Bill O’Brien: “It happened in Dallas, it happens here, it happens wherever I’ve been.”

Said Eagles coach Chip Kelly: “I’ve heard a lot of things on the headsets, I think there’s a lot of frequency issues some places. I’ve heard air traffic control and a lot of different things.”

Said Cowboys coach Jason Garrett: “That’s certainly been a part of having to deal with game day situations, throughout my career as a player and a coach.”

Said Jets coach Todd Bowles: “It’s happened a bunch of other places. There have been times when the headsets have gone out, it wasn’t New England, I can’t remember the places we’ve had it, but we’ve had some of those headset problems.”

Said Lions coach Jim Caldwell: “It happens sometimes, sometimes there are quirks and technology is not always perfect. Things pop up. The problem is if you’re not prepared for it. If you’re not prepared for it, you’re going to have some issues.”

On Friday morning, it appeared that the NFL was about to have another scandal on its hands in the form of “Headsetgate.” But as Friday wore on, it began to look more like the NFL just has a problem common in a lot of workplaces: The communications technology doesn’t always work properly.

[Hacksaw]

All the piling on against NE is nice. Not sure it's warranted in this case but nice. The Pat's have clearly got the (CAN"T TRUST ME) sign stamped on their forehead.

[moklerman]

The latest stuff sounds like spin. The NFL knows that the cauldron of faith in the sanctity of the league is already simmering. This story got it bubbling IMO. I, like many, don't know how the communications are set up so there's no real way for me to know if it's a likely story or not. From either side.

But what has me skeptical about it just being a random occurrence was that the Patriots didn't have their communications shut off while the Steelers were having problems with theirs. Not only did they not get theirs shut off, I read that whenever the officials would start heading toward to the Patriots sideline to inform they'd have to shut off their communications, the Steelers' headsets would magically clear up. As soon as the officials went away from the Patriots side, the Steelers' headsets would start having problems.

I'm sure it's all just coincidence.

[Rams the Legends live on]

If I recall from my days early on when I started as a spook and first worked in SIGINT, ELINT, and COMMINT before I moved on to operations. If I recall ya can jam or interfere with a digital signal several different ways and one way is power. Analog signals use and take more power than digital signals. Such as AM or amplitude modulation easiest way to describe AM is if ya are in one room and a friend in another ya simply raise your voice so they can hear ya by modulating the amplitude of the signal or in this case your voice. Frequency Modulation or FM is just that ya modulate the frequency of your carrier wave to get your intelligence wave to the intended recipient. Example of how this works is if ya leave a city and say your radio is on 9400 MHZ after ya lose the signal ya can still tune down to say 8900 MHZ and have a signal because lower freq ranges travel farther than higher freq ranges.

So anyway I digress, one way ya can jam or interfere with a digital transmission is if ya are tuned to the same freq and a higher power source by another signal is being used. Weather also can effect a digital signal and another weakness of digital is physical landscape and buildings. Why when folks use a cell phone they lose signal when going into a dense area or even when ya enter a room sometimes ya have to find the one corner ya can get reception in.

Electrical output can also effect the signal why in early days of the internet ya had to get a filter on your computer or ya had to do the experiment of unplugging different electrical appliances to figure out from which one the interference was coming from that effected a computer or phone or etc.

So it is very possible that with the storm and power a broadcast would use compared to the low power a point to point communications device would use that the signal would be interfered with. For anyone who ever had a neighbor back in the day and he had a CB radio and when ya were talking on the phone if he was on the CB and keyed the mic ya would hear him over the phone instead of who ya was talking to.

So as much as I hate the Pats I find it credible the signal could have been interfered with by a combo of the weather and a greater power source. It also could have been combined with location of the visiting bench compared to the home team. Such as in the case of finding the right corner to communicate. So when ya look at all these factors it would be more than possible to weaken a digital signal so another signal using more power would interfere and over ride such as when your neighbor using a greater power source of a CB radio would talk and all ya could hear was him when he keyed the mic.

[Stranger]

If I recall from my days early on when I started as a spook and first worked in SIGINT, ELINT, and COMMINT before I moved on to operations. If I recall ya can jam or interfere with a digital signal several different ways and one way is power. Analog signals use and take more power than digital signals. Such as AM or amplitude modulation easiest way to describe AM is if ya are in one room and a friend in another ya simply raise your voice so they can hear ya by modulating the amplitude of the signal or in this case your voice. Frequency Modulation or FM is just that ya modulate the frequency of your carrier wave to get your intelligence wave to the intended recipient. Example of how this works is if ya leave a city and say your radio is on 9400 MHZ after ya lose the signal ya can still tune down to say 8900 MHZ and have a signal because lower freq ranges travel farther than higher freq ranges.

So anyway I digress, one way ya can jam or interfere with a digital transmission is if ya are tuned to the same freq and a higher power source by another signal is being used. Weather also can effect a digital signal and another weakness of digital is physical landscape and buildings. Why when folks use a cell phone they lose signal when going into a dense area or even when ya enter a room sometimes ya have to find the one corner ya can get reception in.

Electrical output can also effect the signal why in early days of the internet ya had to get a filter on your computer or ya had to do the experiment of unplugging different electrical appliances to figure out from which one the interference was coming from that effected a computer or phone or etc.

So it is very possible that with the storm and power a broadcast would use compared to the low power a point to point communications device would use that the signal would be interfered with. For anyone who ever had a neighbor back in the day and he had a CB radio and when ya were talking on the phone if he was on the CB and keyed the mic ya would hear him over the phone instead of who ya was talking to.

So as much as I hate the Pats I find it credible the signal could have been interfered with by a combo of the weather and a greater power source. It also could have been combined with location of the visiting bench compared to the home team. Such as in the case of finding the right corner to communicate. So when ya look at all these factors it would be more than possible to weaken a digital signal so another signal using more power would interfere and over ride such as when your neighbor using a greater power source of a CB radio would talk and all ya could hear was him when he keyed the mic.

But the Steelers claimed that they heard FM signal in their headsets. It's one thing to experience signal drops, but quite another to get this kind of interference on an encrypted digital signal. I'm not clear how an FM signal could be broadcast over encrypted digitial if the FM signal was not input directly in the digital system. Any thoughts on this?

[Elvis]

I'm pretty sure the encryption prevents me from stealing Pittsburgh's plays (even if i could listen to their broadcast, it would be encrypted and i wouldn't be able to understand it). It doesn't prevent interference from disrupting their transmission. That's something else.

[Stranger]

I'm pretty sure the encryption prevents me from stealing Pittsburgh's plays (even if i could listen to their broadcast, it would be encrypted and i wouldn't be able to understand it). It doesn't prevent interference from disrupting their transmission. That's something else.

Okay, but it's one thing to disrupt a signal, it's quite another to replace it with the FM broadcast of the announcers announcing the game.

[The Ripper]

There are coaches all over the league this kind of stuff happens in many different cities and frequently. Chip Kelly said in one stadium he got the air traffic control tower. Plus during this game the Patriots had also complained about their headsets.

[Rams the Legends live on]

But the Steelers claimed that they heard FM signal in their headsets. It's one thing to experience signal drops, but quite another to get this kind of interference on an encrypted digital signal. I'm not clear how an FM signal could be broadcast over encrypted digitial if the FM signal was not input directly in the digital system. Any thoughts on this?

Digital encryption is used for interception. So if the signal is intercepted a unintended party can't eavesdrop on the convo. Digital just means how it is modulated in analog ya used to use crystals or oscillators now ya use computer generated or digitized. So it is the same sort of thing if ya have ever lived by 2 cities and they each have a radio station that shares a same freq we will say 9375 MHZ. When ya are closer to one of the cities than the other ya will pick up that radio broadcast. Reason why is ya are closer so the signal from that transmitter is gonna be stronger so your receiver is gonna pick the stronger one up. So I have no idea of how the stadium is set up but if the have the transformer and electrical room and such set up on the visitor side that is gonna effect and weaken a electromagnetic signal where it is most vulnerable, in the air. Then because a storm is going on we can have charged particles in the air so if their signal is being degraded while it is in the air from electromagnetic interference and ya have a signal sharing the same freq and it is a stronger signal it can over ride the intended signal. Such as a simple case of ya have been in the room with your kids and your wife and your talking and the kids begin to make noise and scream soon ya can't hear your wife, your intended conversation because the kids who are sharing the same room as ya are making more noise and drowning out anything she is saying so all ya can hear is them.

So anyway to answer your question the receiver is made to accept a certain radio frequency so how it received the FM signal. The receiver is made so it can receive a particular frequency or set of frequencies. So why it would receive a FM signal as it does not matter how the signal is or was modulated the receiver is made to receive a signal that is on or corresponds to a designated radio frequency.