Cryptographic (code and cipher) equipment and related stuff.
The WordPress plugins which my M-209 Cipher Machine Group pages relied upon have been abandoned for a while, and I’ve found that the pages no longer work properly. Since active participation in the group has stagnated, I’m retiring the group pages. To everybody who has participated over the years that the group was active, thank you very much!
Back in 2009, I posted about a demilitarized KY-38 NESTOR voice encryption device. Since then, I’ve procured another one. Like the first one, it has been demilitarized (that is, rendered inoperable and unclassified) by removal of key internal components, removal of the original dataplate, and (for some reason I don’t understand) removal of the battery box. But unlike the first one, this one came with a 28″ cable to plug it into the AN/PRC-77 radio, and a matching transit case! There was even an old trouble ticket lost under the padding, though it was for a different unit based on the serial number.
Last weekend, the 18th annual meeting of the Military Radio Collectors Group was held in San Luis Obispo, California, at Camp San Luis Obispo’s NCO club. The event included equipment displays, presentations, field operations and a swap meet. I had a great time, and nearly every other comment I heard about this year’s meet was positive. I’m already looking forward to next year’s annual meeting, as well as the occasional field events we’ll probably have throughout the year.
I’ve just released version 2013-04-28a of my command-line M-209 simulator. The major addition to this release is a new Python script which generates key lists with daily scheduled key changes. The generated key list collections include 365-366 plain-text key files which may be read, printed or loaded into my simulator, and plain text key lists for each month which may be viewed or printed. Also, if TeX typesetting software and some other related utilities are available, various PDF key lists will be generated for on-screen viewing or printing into either small or large booklets. Please note that I’ve changed the version numbering from the old major.minor format to a date-based format.
The annual Military Radio Collectors Group meeting at Camp San Luis Obispo is almost here! This year, I’m pleased to announce that we’ll be conducting a joint crypto-related operation with the Maritime Radio Historical Society’s Coast Station KSM. Here’s their announcement of the operation.
I’m working on a Python script which automatically generates a year’s worth of M-209 keying materials, with daily key changes. I hope that this script and its output will be useful for future M-209 activities, and add a more realistic flair to them.
Now, the big problem is that I’ve never seen actual M-209 key lists. I’ve come up with a plain text format for individual key tables, which I think I picked up from one of the M-209 technical manuals. I know that individual keys were identified by two-letter sequences called “key list indicators”. I know that keys were intended to be changed periodically, possibly daily (or possibly more or less often depending on activity level, but I’m sticking with daily for my purposes). I’ve seen a training film in which an M-209 key list is consulted, but the video transfer of the film is too blurry to make out useful details.
From these details, I’ve inferred what I think a key list might have looked like. I’m hoping to get some input from other crypto enthusiasts about the formatting, wording, etc.
This post is part of a series of posts describing practical use of the M-209 cipher machine. The series will cover operation of the machine, setting the cipher key, formatting of messages, ciphering and deciphering messages, dealing with transmission errors, practices to make cryptanalysis (code breaking) of messages more difficult, and generating new key tables.
This chapter covers recognition and deciphering of messages.
This post is part of a series of posts describing practical use of the M-209 cipher machine. The series will cover operation of the machine, setting the cipher key, formatting of messages, ciphering and deciphering messages, dealing with transmission errors, practices to make cryptanalysis (code breaking) of messages more difficult, and generating new key tables.
This chapter covers composition, encipherment and formatting of messages.
This post is part of a series of posts describing practical use of the M-209 cipher machine. The series will cover operation of the machine, setting the cipher key, formatting of messages, ciphering and deciphering messages, dealing with transmission errors, practices to make cryptanalysis (code breaking) of messages more difficult, and generating new key tables.
This chapter covers internal key settings of the M-209.
This post is part of a series of posts describing practical use of the M-209 cipher machine. The series will cover operation of the machine, setting the cipher key, formatting of messages, ciphering and deciphering messages, dealing with transmission errors, practices to make cryptanalysis (code breaking) of messages more difficult, and generating new key tables.
This chapter covers basic operation of the M-209.
Inspired by the Enigma World Code Group page, I have created a collection of key tables for the M-209 cipher machine for use by collectors and cryptography enthusiasts. This publicly-available collection of key tables, much like the code sheets on the Enigma World Code Group site, provides a set of ready-to-use M-209 keying material for M-209 aficionados to use. Obviously, openly published key tables don’t provide any real security, but they can be used by hobbyists to exchange M-209 cryptograms without needing to generate and distribute keying materials first. These key tables can be used for educational and entertainment purposes.
This post is part of a series of posts describing practical use of the M-209 cipher machine. The series will cover operation of the machine, setting the cipher key, formatting of messages, ciphering and deciphering messages, dealing with transmission errors, practices to make cryptanalysis (code breaking) of messages more difficult, and generating new key tables.
This chapter covers cryptographic basics to help you understand the machine.
I’ve made a new release of my M-209 cipher simulation software:
https://gitlab.com/NF6X_Crypto/hagelin/-/archive/hagelin-1.5/hagelin-hagelin-1.5.tar.gz
Yes, another release. They’re clogging up my front page. Anyway, this minor release adds a user-requested feature and makes another minor change.
I’ve made a new release of my M-209 cipher simulation software:
https://gitlab.com/NF6X_Crypto/hagelin/-/archive/hagelin-1.4/hagelin-hagelin-1.4.tar.gz
This release eliminates the specially-encoded trailer that older versions needed in the key files. It now deciphers the human-readable key table instead, and tries to tolerate minor formatting variations.
I’ve just released a new version of my M-209 cipher machine simulation software:
https://gitlab.com/NF6X_Crypto/hagelin/-/archive/hagelin-1.3/hagelin-hagelin-1.3.tar.gz
My M-209 Simulation Software is now hosted on GitHub GitLab (note: I moved all of my public repositories from GitHub to GitLab in June, 2018). This means that all past, present and future versions of it will be available in one spot, and users can easily track changes from version to version.
A collector who just bought a Fialka cipher machine asked me how to load the paper tape, which is tricky until you’ve done it a few times. Here’s how I load the wide paper tape (for printing and/or punching) into my Czechoslovakian M-125-3 machine. His machine is a Polish M-125, but hopefully the paper path is about the same (I’ve never handled the earlier model of Fialka, so I’m not sure about that). The paper tape path is a bit different when using the narrower print-only paper tape, but I don’t have any to demonstrate with.
The “Fialka” is a cipher machine which was made and used by the USSR during the Cold War. I found this one on eBay, and it only required minor repairs to become fully operational. I’ll write more detailed information about it later; in the mean time, here are some pictures of my Fialka. You can also find more details about this kind of machine on Wikipedia.
The Hagelin CD-57 Pocket Cryptographer is a pocket-sized (for largish pockets) cipher machine which works on the same principal as the M-209 Converter. I’ll write a more detailed description later; for now, here are some pictures of my CD-57 that I found on eBay.
The Hagelin CX-52 cipher machine which works on the same principal as the M-209 Converter. I’ll write a more detailed description later; for now, here are some pictures of my CX-52 that I found on eBay, along with some details about how I cleaned up and repaired it.
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