AINSLIE, ACT. — John Telek, VK1JT, has been caught by fellow amateur ‘ham’ radio operators sending false data via ADS-B to commercial and civilian aircraft on 1090MHz.
No longer is Telek content with causing harmful interference on the amateur radio service; he is now allegedly causing potentially life-threatening interference to aviation, allegedly transmitting data on 1090MHz to civilian and commercial aircraft.
An amateur radio operator, Josh Mesilane, VK2MES, who is also a civilian pilot, is extremely concerned for aviation safety.
“To me, as a pilot, it’s frightening. I could get the wrong information [and] people could die,” Mr Mesilane said.
“I’ve successfully tested the ADSB transmit function,” Telek said in a Facebook post. Thereby, Telek has confirmed and admitted publicly that he is transmitting ADS-B data on aviation frequencies. This is a serious federal offence that, if found guilty, can include a prison sentence of up to two years’ imprisonment.
According to Telek, he is part of an ‘experimental group’, stating that he would “like to remind everyone that all of this is open source and out there in the open for anyone to get along with all other interesting sorts of stuff to play with,” Telek said in a Facebook post.
However, amateur radio operators are only legally allowed by Australian and international law, which is governed by the United Nations’ International Telecommunications Union (ITU) to conduct radio experiments on the internationally-assigned amateur radio frequencies.
Telek, VK1JT, claims that he is “getting paid to research this and other RF [radio frequency] based technologies.” According to the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) and Air Services Australia (ASA), Telek holds no such authorisation to conduct these ‘experiments’ on commercial aviation radio frequencies.
Amateur radio operators do not operate, nor experiment on radio frequencies assigned to other services, unless specifically requested to by a government official or if – and only if – answering a MAYDAY, PAN PAN PAN or SOS call. Anything else is against both Australian federal and international law.
Yes, amateur radio operators may, for example, begin operating on Fire Service frequencies, but only at the request of the Fire Service, which does happen during disasters, such as Black Saturday or Cyclone Tracey. But only with express permission when called upon to do so by that authority.
Telek claims to be ‘self-diagnosed’ with AuDHD and to have “overturned a psychiatric treatment order,” yet ACT Courts have no record of any such appeal or subsequent ‘overturning’ of the matter.
It is understood that Telek ‘self-medicates’ with ice, MDMA and other illicit hard drugs, given Telek’s own past comments of taking such substances to deal with his ‘self-diagnosed’ ADHD.
Telek holds no authority whatsoever to transmit on the airband, also known as the civilian aviation band between 118.000 to 136.000MHz, or the assigned ADS-B frequency of 1090MHz.
Telek’s actions are putting commercial aviation flights at risk. If two passenger-carrying aircraft get the wrong data, the wrong coordinates from Telek, who is effectively operating as a ‘radio pirate’, this could cause two commercial flights to collide mid-air, leaving hundreds of people dead.
The actions of Telek also risk bringing the amateur ‘ham’ radio service and amateur ‘ham’ radio operators into disrepute.
“It opens the floodgates for amateurs to all be tarred with the same brush,” Mr Mesilane said.
Telek has been caught in the past, causing intentional harmful interference via his AllStar Node 66252 throughout Australia. He has previously been banned from the NSW VK-DMR system and the VK3 Linked Repeater System for continually and intentionally causing harmful interference.
Commercial and civilian aircraft use Automatic Dependent Surveillance–Broadcast (ADS-B) as an aviation surveillance technology and a form of electronic conspicuity in which an aircraft determines its position via satellite navigation or other sensors and periodically broadcasts its position and other related data, enabling aircraft location data to be tracked in real-time.
It is a key part of the International Civil Aviation Organisation‘s (ICAO) approved aviation surveillance technologies being progressively incorporated into national airspaces worldwide.
The Australian Federal Police (AFP), Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA), John Telek, and the Minister for Communications, Anika Wells MP, did not respond to several requests for comment.
The Civil Aviation and Safety Authority (CASA) confirmed they are ‘investigating the matter’.
Josh Mesilane, VK2MES, contributed to this report.
Mr Mesilane, VK2MES, maintains a VKDMR network repeater from Bathurst, NSW and maintains repeaters for the St George Amateur Radio Society (VK2RDX), as well as having his own repeater license (VK2RKG) in Bathurst, NSW.
He is also a qualified “non-current” RAAus Recreational pilot.
This report was corrected at 9pm AEST (12/11/25) as it is not the main airband (118-136MHz) where Telek is transmitting, but rather an assigned aviation data frequency on 1090MHz. However, this frequency still provides data to civil aviation, including commercial flights.
