F1 Radio Frequencies

[geoffmills]

I am going to China and would love to take my scanner can anyone give me the teams radio frequencies please???

[Tom]

Sorry, they'll be locked solid, only the FIA and the team will be allowed access to the, otherwise you've no hope and could get in alot of trouble.

I tried to get into the MSA frequency with a scanner at a local rally. They found out pretty damn quick. The FIA are far bigger than the MSA and the teams will make sure no one can listen whos not supposed to.

[pRo]

I believe they use scrambled comms. You'll just get some noise from a scanner.

Unless the organizer sends something to public on purpose. They do that on most WRC-rallies.

[Ray]

Yet another way that F1 teams adore thier fans

[Ciro Pabón]

These frequencies were valid in 2005:

Code: Select all

Melbourne, Australia   Race Control   165.2150   165.2650   165.3500
            166.5000   166.6500   165.8150
            166.3500   166.6250   166.6900
Silverstone, Great Britain   Race Control   169.0625   164.1625   169.1875
        Testing Control   414.3750   453.9750   
Indianapolis, USA   Race Control   466.1375   468.2375   451.2250
       Public Address System   455.1375   455.0000   450.8375
        NOAA Weather Radio   162.5500       
Montréal, Canada   Race Control   467.6000       
        Radio Canada   465.5625       
        Environment Canada Weatheradio   162.4500   162.5500   
    Television Production   Scan between 450.0000 and 470.0000   455.2875   455.3125   
        and between 775.5000 and 795.2500   784.5000   787.2500   790.7500

Also in 2005 these were the frequencies for drivers:

Code: Select all

Michael Schumacher   164.8   159.065   170.4
Rubens Barrichello   159   153.725   170.425
Jenson Button   457.275   457.0625   467.6375
Takuma Sato   457.8875   456.3875   468.5
Fernando Alonso   457.75   457.5   468.9
Giancarlo Fisichella   457.15   457.675   458.25
Mark Webber   164.33   169.49   164.465
Antonio Pizzonia   163.85   163.69   164.875
Kimi Räikkönen   148.535   455.5   147.645
Juan Pablo Montoya   149.375   450.225   450.4375
Jacques Villeneuve   455.7625   460.375   461.1125
Felipe Massa   460.375   455.2625   461.1125
David Coulthard   454.8625   461.8625   455.025
Christian Klien   454.6875   453.4625   453.4875
Jarno Trulli   464.65   454.5   464.5375
Ralf Schumacher   461.275   454.45   164.875
Tiago Monteiro   131.315   440.4625   151.275
Narain Karthikeyan   146.19   442.5625   146.24
Christijan Albers   164.875   164.915   159.225
Robert Doornbos   164.535   162.8   159.375
Pedro de la Rosa   148.45   156.85   
Scott Speed   453.7   463.875   
Ricardo Zonta   462.95      
Nicolas Kiesa   150.2   440.825   147.3125
Chanock Nissany   164.04   158.265   
Patrick Friesacher   164.535   162.8   159.375
Nick Heidfeld   163.85   163.69   164.875
Vitantonio Liuzzi   454.6875   453.4625   453.4875
Alexander Wurz   149.375   450.225   450.4375


[Ray]

May be a dumb question, but how did you get those Ciro? I would also suppose those are heavily encrypted freaks so all you'd hear was static right?

[Rob W]

Why does this make me think of Mika Salo's clear admission recently that Ferrari used to eaves-drop on McLaren's radio. (of course he retracted his statement after Ferrari put a hit out on him.. ooops, I mean after he remembered properly)

Apparently it was random radio interference

Rob W

[Ciro Pabón]

May be a dumb question, but how did you get those Ciro? I would also suppose those are heavily encrypted freaks so all you'd hear was static right?

They were interred somewhere in my hard disk. I got them in the "Internets"... two years ago. I think that, back then, encryption wasn't used, except by Ferrari, McLaren and some other team (after all, what's useful in hearing Briatore cursing, Ralph complaining or Kimi talking about greek poetry eloquently? ).

Now, if I use my awesome abilities to scan the Internets and search for "Formula One Radio Scanner Frequencies" on that little known site called Google, I got basically the same sites. There is a site at Yahoo groups (registration required) at http://sports.groups.yahoo.com/group/f1scanner/

Just in case, at squidoo you have the frequencies for the series where freedom of information reigns:

NASCAR: http://www.squidoo.com/free-nextel-cup-frequencies/
Champ Car: http://www.squidoo.com/free-cart-frequencies/

... etcetera.

For Formula One you can download files (for specific scanners) with the frequencies here:

http://www.racebyrace.com/drivers/download.htm

I enjoy posting this comment at squidoo:

"Well, unfortunately, due to apparent overwhelming dissatisfaction with the way I was posting this information online, I have decided to remove this free resource from the web. In posting and updating a free Formula 1 team frequency list, I was attempting to provide a friendly and free service to my fellow race fans around the world. But the majority of the feedback I received were not messages of thanks, or even constructive criticism about how the list or the site could be improved. Instead, an overwhelming majority of the feedback I have received have been messages criticizing everything from the way I format my dates (in America we typically write the month first, then the day and then the year.....example: July 6, 2007 is 7/6/07 NOT 6/7/07...sorry for the cultural difference but its no reason to send me hatemail and call me names) to the fact that I did not specify which frequencies were digitally scrambled (how am I supposed to know that? I'm not travelling the world attending every race and personally verifying every frequency....common sense should tell you that if you program a freq into your scanner and all you get is static, then that channel must be scrambled....don't blame me....blame the race team). So I have come to the conclusion that F1 fans for the most part are an ungrateful and unfriendly bunch. Perhaps I'm only speaking about a very small minority of F1 fans, but the ones I am speaking about are very vocal, unforgiving, and rude. So I have determined that it just isn't worth my time to continue posting this free frequency list just to be repeatedly bombarded with unnecessary, unfriendly, and non-constructive e-mails and messages. If you are one of the kinder F1 fans who came here looking for your free radio frequency list, I'm sorry that a few bad apples had to ruin it for the rest of you. Good luck finding your frequencies elsewhwere. I'm sure the vendors at the tracks will be glad to take your money and sell you one."

Of course every team tries to hear what the others are saying. What's wrong with that? Surely, you'll get static when the channel is scrambled, unless you try to de-scramble the signal, something that's not easy but it's not impossible either:

Posted on Saturday, September 23 @ 09:13:29 CDT
AITA SHAAB, Lebanon -- Hezbollah guerrillas were able to hack into Israeli radio communications during last month's battles in south Lebanon, an intelligence breakthrough that helped them thwart Israeli tank assaults, according to Hezbollah and Lebanese officials.

So, maybe if you go from Brisbane to Lebanon before going to China...

[checkered]

Posted on Saturday, September 23 @ 09:13:29 CDT AITA SHAAB, Lebanon -- Hezbollah guerrillas were able to hack into Israeli radio communications during last month's battles in south Lebanon, an intelligence breakthrough that helped them thwart Israeli tank assaults, according to Hezbollah and Lebanese officials.

Slightly OT, but I'll bring

it back to F1 eventually. I have to point out that this was a partly successful Hezbollah propaganda effort. They tried to instill doubt on the IDF that their signals weren't as secure as they'd have liked them to be. In fact, they had intercepted civilian cellphones (those were apparently used on occasion, which might point to poor or hasty planning) that the soldiers were carrying and triangulated some military radio locations. This information, in the right (or rather wrong) hands can prove lethal enough, of course, but is hardly in the high end of sigint capabilities and in the end nothing to brag about. The radios IDF uses are more than likely frequency hopping and/or spread spectrum devices, and for all I know equipped with highly directional antennae when possible.

That in itself would make it very hard indeed to eavesdrop in, but what's more, these days no information hits the waves without encryption (perhaps a couple of times over). There's no way Hezbollah got hold of any content unless they were within earshot of someone operating a radio (possible in some cases). After identification it's easy enough to infer that, for example, a fire control unit mostly transmits fire control data. There's really nothing to it, nor to trying to play every little thing to one's advantage. If Hezbollah had really hacked into IDF comms, it would never, ever, be in their interest to reveal or even claim to have succeeded in that of course.

Some of the firms that supply the latest military signals equipment are also F1 technology partners. Though from the frequencies it's evident that the teams' devices aren't perhaps of the very highest military standard I guess it's fair to assume that they're secure enough. I personally wouldn't waste much time trying to listen in as there's too much interesting stuff to be observed anyway. I looked superficially into F1 radio online and there's some info on standards and regulations specific to the events on some race organizing nations' authorities' websites, as of course the teams and race control can't do whatever they please with their equipment.

[checkered]

I am going to China and would love to take my scanner can anyone give me the teams radio frequencies please???

Are you sure it's such a good idea to take the scanner with you to China in the first place? Look into that first before making further plans on making use of the device.

[modbaraban]

[tarzoon]

I believe they use scrambled comms. You'll just get some noise from a scanner.

Unless the organizer sends something to public on purpose. They do that on most WRC-rallies.

Every communication should be encrypted, apart from driver's. Otherwise anyone could receive other car's telemetry and use it for any purpose.