Tag Archives: Enigma

Decode the Enigma: Crypto Transmission from KPH on Saturday, July 23, 2022

The Maritime Radio Historical Society is hosting a brilliant on-the-air event via KPH. I’ve pasted full details below, copies directly from the Maritime Radio Historical Society announcement:

ATTENTION ALL AGENTS!

Crypto Transmission from KPH!

Background

The MHRS in cooperation with our good friends at the Cipher History Museum

will send a coded message in 5-letter groups via the facilities of coast stations KPH on Saturday July 23, 2022. The message will be encrypted using the famous Enigma code machine.

All KPH listeners are invited to try their hand at receiving and decrypting the message. Certificates will be awarded for proof of successful decode, first to decode and use of original hardware.

Mislaid your Enigma code machine? In the military you’d have some explaining to do, soldier. But for the KPH Crypto Event, no problem. See the ‘Enigma Simulator’ section below for a link to an easy-to-use Enigma simulator.

Enigma

The Enigma was the Germans’ most sophisticated coding machine for securely transmitting command and control messages via radio communications in WWII. It was considered so secure that it was used to encipher the most top-secret of messages.

The arrangement of Enigma’s rotors and plugboard connections provided a unique series of letter substitutions which changed with each keystroke. The daily rotor order and the ring and plugboard settings to be used were specified in a codebook distributed monthly to all users of a network.

For additional information on the Enigma please see Ralph Simpsons’ Cipher Museum History site

Crypto broadcast date, time and formats.

The crypto broadcast will commence at 2000Z (1300 Pacific) on 23 July on all KPH CW frequencies. The broadcast will consist of a ‘callup’ (in plain text) announcing the broadcast, followed by the cipher message. The callup and cipher messages will be sent at 15 WPM. The cipher message will be sent in 5 letter groups and the message will be sent twice to ensure proper reception.

The usual KPH channel marker or ‘wheel’ running at 20 WPM will precede the announcement for the crypto broadcast to give listeners a chance to tune to the strongest signal in their area.

The KPH CW frequencies are (in kc):

- 426 (after an announcement on 500)
- 4247.0
- 6477.5
- 8642.0
- 12808.5
- 17016.8
- 22477.5

Upon completion of the CW transmissions, the broadcast will be repeated on all KPH RTTY frequencies. The RTTY transmission will be 170cps shift Baudot, 45 baud.

The KPH RTTY frequencies are (in kc):

- 6324.5
- 8427.0
- 12585.5

Code Machine Key Settings – IMPORTANT!

Decoding an Enigma message requires the use of two keys: a Daily Key (valid for particular day), and a Message Key (unique to each individual message sent that day).

The Daily Key

Prior to decoding a message, the daily key must be set into your Enigma code machine. The daily key settings were specified in codebooks and distributed monthly. Please consult the following codebook to obtain the daily key setting for the GMT date of the broadcast.

Click HERE for the Enigma codebook. Use the “Armee-Stabs-Maschinenschlussel No 28” (Army Staff Machine Key Number 28). Notice each daily setting is across one line, starting with the first day of the month on the bottom of the sheet.

The Message Key

Starting in 1940, for additional security, the machine operator would randomly choose two groups of three letters to encode each message (in addition to the daily key settings above). These were known as the ‘message key’. The first group of three letters is used to encode the second group of three. Then the first group (in plaintext) and the second group (now encoded) are sent in the message header, along with the date and letter count, as explained in the above link. The recipient then uses the message key to decode the message. For more information see the following video on Enigma decoding procedures.

Click HERE to watch a video on Enigma coding procedures.

Enigma Simulators

So you had to toss your Enigma machine overboard when your U-boat was captured? Again, no worries. MHRS has you covered! Software simulations exist for the Enigma code machine.

Click HERE for an Enigma simulator. It is web-based, no download necessary.

Certificates

Upon proof of successful decode, the following certificates will be awarded:

– First to decode the Enigma message

– Successful decode using *original* hardware (i.e., an actual Enigma machine)

– All successful decodes of the message

To apply for a certificate, send the decoded message to [email protected] with the subject line ‘decoded Enigma message’. The First to Decode award will be based on the timestamp of the first email demonstrating a successful decode. For the Enigma Original Hardware certificate, send the decoded message *plus* a photo of your Enigma machine showing the daily key setting. Printed certificates will be mailed for ‘First-to-Decode and ‘Original Hardware’ awards. Certificates for ‘Successful Decode’ will be emailed in digital form suitable for printing at home.

More Information

For more information or questions about the KPH cipher broadcast send email to [email protected] with the subject line:

Crypto Broadcast

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Alexander shares a few photos and notes from Hamradio 2022 in Friedrichshafen

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Alexander (DL4NO), who shares the following photos and notes from Friedrichshafen:

First Hamradio After Two Years

Alexander (DL4NO)

Finally the biggest amateur radio event in Europe happened again: Last weekend hams from Germany, Austria, Switzerland, France, Italy, Poland, Belgium, Netherlands, GB and more gathered in Friedrichshafen. The location is quite attractive, in Germany but near Austria and Switzerland. I could not get any numbers yet. But the event was quite a bit smaller than in 2017 when I was there the last time.

As every year amateur radio societies from Europe and the ARRL had booths. The most remarkable was from the Austrian OeVSV with their own stage. They had their own, quite interesting lectures. For example Austrian Hams have used the geostationary satellite QO-100 for LoRa experiments. They are quite active with LoRa as this technology allows to transmit data quite slowly, but quite far and with a minimum of power. Their project is called MeshCom. Continue reading →

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An Enigma machine just fetched over $106K at auction

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(Source: Bloomberg.com)

A rare “Enigma” machine, used by Nazi Germany to create military communications code thought to be unbreakable, sold at auction for more than $106,000.

The 28.5-pound cipher machine went to an internet buyer on Saturday, according to Heritage Auctions. It comes with operating instructions, a case with an engraved Third Reich emblem — and a rich lore including how British scientist Alan Turing helped crack the code.

One of the unit’s 26 light bulbs is broken, according to the description.

It’s not the first time a Nazi code creator has traded hands for such a sum. In May, an Irish private collector swiped up a different encryption machine, known as the “Hitler mill” because of its hand crank, for 98,000 euros ($109,000) from a Munich auctioneer, according to the Telegraph.[…]

Click here to continue reading the full article at Bloomberg.com.

Click here to view the auction page.

SWLing Post contributor and friend, Dan Robinson, and I once visited the National Cryptological Museum at Fort Meade and got to try our hand at using an Enigma machine. It’s an absolutely brilliant bit of mechanical engineering, of course. I highly recommend this museum to anyone interested in radio, computers or cryptography.

If you’d like to learn about another fascinating bit of over-the-air WWII technology–the SIGSALY network–I strongly encourage you to check out this post from our archives.

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Paul attends “The Secret War” special exhibit at the Science Museum

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Many thanks to SWLing Post contributor, Paul Evans, who writes:

From the SWLing roving foreign correspondent.

A couple of weeks before going to London on our recent trip, I was idly looking through the Science Museum web site when I spotted a special exhibit ‘The Secret War’ put on by ‘members of GCHQ’. It had to be booked in advance (but was FREE), so I duly registered and printed out our tickets.

Come the first full day of our visit, a short walk in Kensington took us to the museum and an 11am time slot. The exhibit was a little hard to find, way at the back of Floor 0 and down some stairs, however it wasn’t just shoved in a ‘lesser area’. Entry was through a computer check-in and helper. However, there was enough slack that anybody showing up could enter more or less ‘on demand’. The exhibit is limited to 100 visitors per hour (that’s the trick).

Well, it was very well done and went all the way through the earliest coding in Greece and Egypt, through WWII and Bletchley to GCHQ and modern exhibits such as Edward Snowden’s laptop.

We had the pleasure to hear G7VAK calling CQ on a straight key, so I went over and answered him and gave him a suitable signal report and we swapped cards. Paul is manning the show, it seems, through most of its run into next year [23 February, 2020]. We exchanged suitable quips about having to kill each other if we said what we couldn’t say. He had a letter about some questions asked at the exhibit printed recently in RSGB RadCom in the ‘The Last Word’.

Overall the Science Museum has improved very much, having moved from a place stuffed full of (fairly) boring exhibits, to a more open and curated layout. They have also added snack bars (very good quality but pricey) on each floor.

Well worth a visit to what is now one of the world’s best museums of any topic. One of the finest exhibits on the staircase entry to Mathematics is the recently finished Babbage machine. And it works!

P.S. Personal bias. My Uncle Fred was at Bletchley Park, Hut 6 for a couple of years before being placed overseas, including a couple of trips to the USA (shhhhhhh!)

Mum’s the word, Paul! Thank you for the quick review of this special exhibit.

If you’d like to book a free ticket for this exhibit, go to the Science Museum website and click on the “Book Now” link!

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Alan Turing: “New face of the Bank of England’s £50 note”

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(Source: Bank of England)

Many thanks to a number of SWLing Post readers who sent a link to this piece from the BBC News:

Computer pioneer and codebreaker Alan Turing will feature on the new design of the Bank of England’s £50 note.

He is celebrated for his code-cracking work that proved vital to the Allies in World War Two.

The £50 note will be the last of the Bank of England collection to switch from paper to polymer when it enters circulation by the end of 2021.

[…]”Alan Turing was an outstanding mathematician whose work has had an enormous impact on how we live today,” said Bank of England governor Mark Carney.

“As the father of computer science and artificial intelligence, as well as a war hero, Alan Turing’s contributions were far-ranging and path breaking. Turing is a giant on whose shoulders so many now stand.”[…]

Click here for the full article at BBC News.

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Bletchley Park replica Turing Bombe decodes 40M Enigma message

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Remember the weekend 40 meter Enigma message transmitted by DL0HNF? At least one recipient decoded this message:

(Source: Southgate ARC)

40m Enigma Message decrypted at Bletchley Park

On Friday, April 7 the amateur radio station DLØHNF transmitted an Enigma encrypted message on 7036 kHz to Bletchley Park

DLØHNF is the club station at the Heinz Nixdorf Museum in Paderborn, Germany. The encrypted telegraphy message they transmitted was received at the home of the World War Two UK Codebreakers in Bletchley Park. There the message was fed into a replica of the Turing Bombe which enabled the encryption to be cracked.

The message read: “Paderborn greets the Codebreakers at Bletchley Park”

Read the report and pictures of the event down the page at
http://www.hnf.de/en/veranstaltungen/events/cipher-event-wer-knackt-den-enigma-code.html

Bletchley Park
https://www.bletchleypark.org.uk/

I would have loved to watch the Touring Bombe in action!

Out of curiosity, did anyone record the Enigma transmission? I’ve had a number of readers inquire about this. Please comment!

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April 7: Decipher an Enigma encrypted message on 40 meters

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(Source: Southgate ARC)

Enigma encrypted message to be sent in 40m

In cooperation with Bletchley Park, the Heinz Nixdorf Museum DLØHNF in Paderborn, Germany is hosting a cipher event on April 7

A Google translation of the DARC post reads:

As with the first event of this kind ten years ago, an encrypted message is sent over radio, to which radio amateurs are invited, to follow them and to play with them. This time, however, the message is not generated with a Lorenz machine, but with an enigma and then transmitted in encrypted telegraphy to 40 m from the club station of the Heinz Nixdorf Mueseum, DLØHNF.

DLØHNF will open radio stations with other stations, which also use historical technology and thus recreate a historical radio network, between the transmissions of various encrypted messages – which are specially approved for this event. DLØDM and DLØAFM are also involved. The activities in Bletchley Park go back to the mathematician Alan Turing, who during the Second World War succeeded in decoding the Enigma coded radio spoofs of the Germans with his Turing machine.

In the Heinz Nixdorf Museum you can watch the happenings from 9 o’clock on the spot. Visitors experience encryption with the Enigma, the Morse as well as a live transmission.

A precise frequency for the transmission of the CW transmission from 9:30 is not known. The museum information is at
http://www.hnf.de/start/date/2017/04/07/cal/event/tx_cal_phpicalendar/
cipher_event_wer_knackt_den_enigma_code.html

Source https://www.darc.de/