6 Jan
2012
6 Jan
'12
1:13 p.m.
I grabbed a copy of a free (!) publication from the Cryptologic Museum
entitled "The start of the Digital Revolution: SIGSALY - Secure Digital
Voice Communications in World War II". It mentions that you can visit the
library and look at "The Green Hornet... America's Unbreakable Code for
Secret Telephony" -- privately published in 1999 by D. E. Mitchell. It
says it is very complete.
And yes, the museum only has a mock up. But when you consider the noise
disks, it's an amazing feat.
7 Jan
7 Jan
12:25 a.m.
On 2012 Jan 6, at 10:13 AM, Mark Kahrs wrote:
I grabbed a copy of a free (!) publication from the
Cryptologic Museum
entitled "The start of the Digital Revolution: SIGSALY - Secure
Digital
Voice Communications in World War II". It mentions that you can
visit the
library and look at "The Green Hornet... America's Unbreakable Code
for
Secret Telephony" -- privately published in 1999 by D. E.
Mitchell. It
says it is very complete.
And yes, the museum only has a mock up. But when you consider the
noise
disks, it's an amazing feat.
Right.. found some higher-res photos online and see it is just
printed panels stuck in some cabinets.
A few refs to the Green Hornet book on the web (authored by Donald E.
Mehl) but no more content. I guess I should go look up the patents
mentioned (awarded in 1976, over 30 years after being filed).
For those who might be following this peripherally, the cryptography
key was the random thermal noise from mercury-vapor tubes, digitised
and recorded using FSK onto phonograph records. These key records
were used as a one-time pad and had to be synchronised to a few mS at
the two ends of the communication link. The whole system was a
fascinating amalgam of theory and then-state-of-the-art techniques.
11:18 p.m.
On 01/07/2012 12:25 AM, Brent Hilpert wrote:
For those who might be following this peripherally,
the cryptography key
was the random thermal noise from mercury-vapor tubes, digitised and
recorded using FSK onto phonograph records. These key records were used
as a one-time pad and had to be synchronised to a few mS at the two ends
of the communication link. The whole system was a fascinating amalgam of
theory and then-state-of-the-art techniques.
[gape]
Ok, that is AWESOME. I've done some work with entropy sources
(primarily P-N junction noise) to feed random number generators, but
this is a technique I've never heard of. My mind is blown.
-Dave
--
Dave McGuire
New Kensington, PA
8 Jan
8 Jan
11:32 a.m.
On Fri, Jan 6, 2012 at 1:13 PM, Mark Kahrs <mark.kahrs at gmail.com> wrote:
I grabbed a copy of a free (!) publication from the
Cryptologic Museum
entitled "The start of the Digital Revolution: SIGSALY - Secure Digital
Voice Communications in World War II". It mentions that you can visit the
library and look at "The Green Hornet... America's Unbreakable Code for
Secret Telephony" -- privately published in 1999 by D. E. Mitchell. It
says it is very complete.
There's a bit on SIGSALY on this author's amusingly titled history of the
vocoder:
http://howtowreckanicebeach.com/
(Link to authors blog with an entry on the topic)
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participants (4)
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hilpert＠cs.ubc.ca -
jbmcb1＠gmail.com -
mark.kahrs＠gmail.com -
mcguire＠neurotica.com