5 ms·

Totally agree, I put some text and tried to make it clear. My first intention was to find some live ship tracking API and see how many ships cross the strait, b

Totally agree, I put some text and tried to make it clear. My first intention was to find some live ship tracking API and see how many ships cross the strait, but they were all hundreds of dollars a month, and behind enterprise contact forms.

Jeremy1026 5mo ago
I've done some small scale ship tracking in the past, and yeah, anything beyond finding a specific ship while it is near the shore is stupid expensive.
deleted 5mo ago
[deleted]
baq 5mo ago
You need to send an analyst there with binoculars, a box of cigars and $15k in cash to get realtime trustworthy data
- golem14 5mo ago
  Do these ships not use transponders? E.g., in the US you can use a SDR dongle and a RPI to read local updates. The straight isn't very wide. Seems cheaper than the cigars and cash.
  - dewey 5mo ago
    Transponders get turned off all the time, especially if you don't want to be targeted.
    - golem14 5mo ago
      Are they though, in the straight ? I'm not sure it's such a great move, TBH: Given that the baddies clearly can locate ships and see that there's no transponder, and come to the conclusion they need. "Hmm, it turned off transponders and is now moving toward the straight. It's a tanker, and not one of ours, or Russia's or China's. Let's bomb it!" Also, pragmatically, you could look at the transponders suddenly not showing up anymore as a sign of attempt of passage, especially if they show up later on the other side. But yes, that would no longer be very realtime.
      - zorked 5mo ago
        The fleet serving Iran and Russia does not use transponders. It's a large fleet. Ships without transponders are just a fact of life in shipping.
        golem14 5mo ago
        Sure, but for the purpose of this discussion, those ships don't matter. What matters is what the ships NOT belonging to Iran's friends do.
        baq 5mo ago
        Technically all ships crossing the strait matter as their cargos end up being bought, sanctioned or not, Iran-friendly or not; they wouldn't have crossed otherwise. If we're talking about avoiding a global recession and worst case famine in some parts of the world, the oil and gas must start moving regardless of who is the shipowner.
      - dewey 5mo ago
        Transponders are a voluntary system, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_fleet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_fleet
- jojobas 5mo ago
  The strait is wider than horizon distance from reasonable heights. Also that's how you don't hear back from the analyst in many different ways.
- numpad0 5mo ago
  or just a cubesat on a polar orbit with a Nikon Z9 inside

Jeremy1026 5mo ago

I've done some small scale ship tracking in the past, and yeah, anything beyond finding a specific ship while it is near the shore is stupid expensive.

deleted 5mo ago

[deleted]

baq 5mo ago

You need to send an analyst there with binoculars, a box of cigars and $15k in cash to get realtime trustworthy data

golem14 5mo ago
Do these ships not use transponders? E.g., in the US you can use a SDR dongle and a RPI to read local updates. The straight isn't very wide. Seems cheaper than the cigars and cash.
- dewey 5mo ago
  Transponders get turned off all the time, especially if you don't want to be targeted.
  - golem14 5mo ago
    Are they though, in the straight ? I'm not sure it's such a great move, TBH: Given that the baddies clearly can locate ships and see that there's no transponder, and come to the conclusion they need. "Hmm, it turned off transponders and is now moving toward the straight. It's a tanker, and not one of ours, or Russia's or China's. Let's bomb it!" Also, pragmatically, you could look at the transponders suddenly not showing up anymore as a sign of attempt of passage, especially if they show up later on the other side. But yes, that would no longer be very realtime.
    - zorked 5mo ago
      The fleet serving Iran and Russia does not use transponders. It's a large fleet. Ships without transponders are just a fact of life in shipping.
      - golem14 5mo ago
        Sure, but for the purpose of this discussion, those ships don't matter. What matters is what the ships NOT belonging to Iran's friends do.
        baq 5mo ago
        Technically all ships crossing the strait matter as their cargos end up being bought, sanctioned or not, Iran-friendly or not; they wouldn't have crossed otherwise. If we're talking about avoiding a global recession and worst case famine in some parts of the world, the oil and gas must start moving regardless of who is the shipowner.
    - dewey 5mo ago
      Transponders are a voluntary system, see: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_fleet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shadow_fleet
jojobas 5mo ago
The strait is wider than horizon distance from reasonable heights. Also that's how you don't hear back from the analyst in many different ways.
numpad0 5mo ago
or just a cubesat on a polar orbit with a Nikon Z9 inside