Baofeng radio exploding ?

[Dutch33]

Do I have that story correct ?

Israel somehow booby trap hand held radios used by HAMAS ?

Or can all lithium battery hand held radios be detonated on command ?

only curios …

[Socalgmrs]

Yes there is a thread in this already.  It was not however boofwangs.  The radios are older icom variants or possibly fake icom radios that had been programming already in them when delivered.  this was a plan that has been in the works for some time and took a while to implement. 
 

At this time I would say no, all radios can not detonate on demand.  However remember lithium battery’s in all variants are extremely dangerous and should never be abused, left in extreme temperatures both hot and cold, or punctured in any way.  They store very large amounts of energy as shown witnessed by this event. 

[Dutch33]

Thanks

 

[SteveShannon]

The radios that exploded in Hezbollah’s hands had been doctored with a high explosive compound called petn.  This wasn’t a case of lithium batteries failing. 

[OffRoaderX]

Also a big difference between petn exploding and a lithium battery 'erupting'.. You dont want either in your pocket when it happens but the petn has more punch whereas the lithium has less punch but more heat/flame.

[Raybestos]

I confess to pondering weird stuff, probably quite a bit.  I used to think about how cheap (Red) Chinese radios have all but replaced higher-end, traditionally Japanese, radios like Kenwood, Icom, and Yeasu, in the ham and other markets.  I used to wonder if the Chinese may have produced, or at least pondered such, radios with a "kill switch" code which could disable hundreds of thousands of these devices if our country were to be at war with them.  I pondered the likelihood of carcinogenic chemicals in the radios.  I never pondered what the Israelis are said to have done, adding explosive charges to the radios.  Now that cat is out of the bag, it is a viable concern to ponder, especially when receiving radios from a known adversary.  With ham or GMRS, not on a known network, delivery of a signal to start harmful processes might be difficult, but "where there's a will...".

Oh, and think about where all of our I-Phones and many Androids come from.  With a huge connected network, delivery of harmful processes might not be so difficult.

[MarkInTampa]

I may be proven wrong (it wouldn't be the first time) but I don't think the radios (or pagers the day before) were doctored at all, the batteries were. If your intelligence department finds orders for pagers, batteries or radios being shipped to a known enemies address that acts as a liaison for those in the field, can pose as the vendor or intercept the order and you sent them a battery that had a simple timer and a small explosive charge to go off at a predetermined time. You wouldn't even need the radio or pager turned on, wouldn't have to hack the radio or anything and a heck of a lot simpler to pull off.

[Raybestos]

4 minutes ago, MarkInTampa said:

I may be proven wrong (it wouldn't be the first time) but I don't think the radios (or pagers the day before) were doctored at all, the batteries were. If your intelligence department finds orders for pagers, batteries or radios being shipped to a known enemies address that acts as a liaison for those in the field, can pose as the vendor or intercept the order and you sent them a battery that had a simple timer and a small explosive charge to go off at a predetermined time. You wouldn't even need the radio or pager turned on, wouldn't have to hack the radio or anything and a heck of a lot simpler to pull off.

Interesting point, Mark!  Another possibility I had not considered!

[SteveShannon]

8 minutes ago, MarkInTampa said:

I may be proven wrong (it wouldn't be the first time) but I don't think the radios (or pagers the day before) were doctored at all, the batteries were. If your intelligence department finds orders for pagers, batteries or radios being shipped to a known enemies address that acts as a liaison for those in the field, can pose as the vendor or intercept the order and you sent them a battery that had a simple timer and a small explosive charge to go off at a predetermined time. You wouldn't even need the radio or pager turned on, wouldn't have to hack the radio or anything and a heck of a lot simpler to pull off.

I believe that it was the battery as well; I just consider that part of the radio as a whole. 
The radios shown in the news photos were Icom ic-v82 which was discontinued by icom nearly a decade ago but they were delivered about five months ago according to the news. There are manufacturers of aftermarket batteries so the opportunity for embedded explosives exists. Also, this particular radio has a feature whereby sending a code can alert the user. 
Finally, the ic-v82 has the ability to be updated to DStar, which makes it addressable either individually or in groups. I have no idea whether the digital upgrade was installed or what is necessary to perform the upgrade. 

[Lscott]

58 minutes ago, SteveShannon said:

The radios that exploded in Hezbollah’s hands had been doctored with a high explosive compound called petn.  This wasn’t a case of lithium batteries failing. 

PETN - Its Discovery and Properties

The high explosive pentaerythritol tetranitrate was first synthesized in 1894 at the Rheinish-Westfälische
Sprengstoff Company in Germany by a chemist researching the nitration process of pentaerythritol in a
high concentrationof nitric acid. The resulting explosive was collected, tested, and found to have a very
fast rate of detonation, high density, and good chemical stability, making it an ideal substance for military
use. Unfortunately, at that time there was no means available to mass-produce the raw ingredient
pentaerythritol. PETN thus remained a laboratory interest until World War II, when it was used in
ammunition, bombs, and other fragmention devices. During this time, Germany produced as much as
1,440 tons of PETN per month, with the USA and the USSR following suit.
Still manufactured on a large scale, PETN remains one of the most powerful conventional explosives
ever developed, rivaled only by HMX and RDX. The military, as might be expected, is the largest user of
PETN, with annual purchasing well over 2,000 tons. Nonmilitary use is primarily limited to demolition
work and as a booster material for secondary explosives such as ANFO, dynamite, etc.

[OffRoaderX]

I read in the big Facebook H.A.M. radio group that they were remotely activated via use of the roger-beep.

[MarkInTampa]

25 minutes ago, SteveShannon said:

I believe that it was the battery as well; I just consider that part of the radio as a whole. 
The radios shown in the news photos were Icom ic-v82 which was discontinued by icom nearly a decade ago but they were delivered about five months ago according to the news. There are manufacturers of aftermarket batteries so the opportunity for embedded explosives exists. Also, this particular radio has a feature whereby sending a code can alert the user. 
Finally, the ic-v82 has the ability to be updated to DStar, which makes it addressable either individually or in groups. I have no idea whether the digital upgrade was installed or what is necessary to perform the upgrade. 

The reason I think it was a simple timer (at least in the case of the radios) is that it makes the most sense. If you are going to detonate all at one time, how else are you going to do it? DTMF maybe, but at what frequency (or frequencies)? Individual or in group addressable, again what frequency and why if you are going to blow 'em all up at the same time would it matter? A simple timer in a battery pack would be undetectable to the radio, it's programming, it's operation, ID or frequency. Once the secret of exploding radios came out (with a boom - sorry, had to say it) I think it was a one and done thing, the enemy knows what to look for now.

[SteveShannon]

10 minutes ago, MarkInTampa said:

The reason I think it was a simple timer (at least in the case of the radios) is that it makes the most sense. If you are going to detonate all at one time, how else are you going to do it? DTMF maybe, but at what frequency (or frequencies)? Individual or in group addressable, again what frequency and why if you are going to blow 'em all up at the same time would it matter? A simple timer in a battery pack would be undetectable to the radio, it's programming, it's operation, ID or frequency. Once the secret of exploding radios came out (with a boom - sorry, had to say it) I think it was a one and done thing, the enemy knows what to look for now.

Well, we know for a fact that the pagers were triggered remotely and simultaneously in a group.  Many of the Hezbollah affected were looking at the display when the explosives were detonated.

I would assume that then the order went out to get rid of any unexploded pagers and use the walkie-talkies they bought five months ago.  Then, while the people were at the funerals of the people killed by pagers the previous day, the walkie-talkies were detonated.  It's a radio. It has an alert circuit and the capability of being upgraded to an addressable digital radio, so it's not a difficult leap, whereas a simple timer has one too many downsides: it cannot be stopped once it has been started.

[WRXB215]

Petn is used to set off C4. The expansion rate and heat are very high but the volume produced is much lower than the C4.