MOrse code sound

[Puster Bill]

OK, I just sent e-mails to both the Press Office at GCHQ and to the history department at the NSA. If anyone has records about what a typical BdU message would look like, they would.

Cross your fingers, but not too tightly. I suspect that any records they would have retained are translated decrypts stripped of things like preambles and any indicators.

[Hitman]

Cool

We could anyway do with a probable initial call, if necessary...would be better than anything. :hmm:

[Puster Bill]

Originally Posted by Hitman

Cool

We could anyway do with a probable initial call, if necessary...would be better than anything. :hmm:

I used to be 'in the business' as they say*. Unfortunately, just about everyone I know has retired (it's been 18 years since I left the Army). If this turns out to be a dead end, I have a couple of other routes I can try.

*US Army 05H Electronic Warfare Signals Intelligence Morse Interceptor from 1985 to 1989.

[ReM]

Originally Posted by bigboywooly

I have ALAAAAAARM as a message ringtone
:rotfl:
Causes a stir depending where you are when you get a message

Sounds very cool; could you tell me where to find it in data/sounds?

Thanks


Edit:

Nevermind: I already found it...

[Mush Martin]

Come to think of it, it wouldnt be a bad ringtone

[Puster Bill]

OK, I *MIGHT* have a possible answer. At this website:
http://www.codesandciphers.org.uk/en...lm/efilm05.htm
There are some 'short signal' u-boat enigma messages created by Tony Sale, a Bletchley Park veteran, for the movie 'Enigma' (a very good movie, by the way).

They are reconstructed as they would have been transmitted from the intercept station at Scarborough and then teleprinted to Bletchley.

Here is an example:

SC28/04/43 1335 7534 A406
JKT 1310/28/04/43 BZKN YRIY AUBD KFRJ EMBR DC.......RHO

The first line is the information from Scarborough.

SC stands for Scarborough, obviously, with a date after it (April 28th, 1943), and the time (13:35 GMT), the frequency (7534 KHz), and possibly the shift and operator ('A' shift or 'trick', intercept operator #406).

Then we have the actual preamble, which would be JKT (perhaps the addressee), the time the message was originated (13:10), and the date.

We then get to the 'meat' of the message, which consists of five and a half groups.

There is then a series of periods (I'd call them 'dits', but not to be confused with actual Morse 'dits') probably added by the intercept operator or the analysts at Scarborough to separate the last three letters, which I assume is the callsign of the originating station (just as the JKT was the callsign of the intended receipient).

Remember, this is a short signal of the type transmitted by u-boats back to BdU, so we can't automatically assume a message from BdU to the boats would look the same, but the preamble is probably pretty close. I'd like to get a confirmation from someone who actually knows before I go ahead and do it.


On edit:
I was wrong, the 'JKT' at the beginning of the message is an enciphered indicator telling the receiving operator where to set the wheels of the Enigma to decipher the message. The operator would pick a three letter message key, say "WFQ", then encipher the message. He would then look up the settings for the day in his signal books, and encipher WFQ using the standard settings. In this example, it comes out as "JKT" which is added to the beginning of the message. When the receiving operator gets the message, he sets his machine up with the standard setting for the day, then types in JKT. That gives him WFQ. He then sets the wheels to WFQ, and decodes the rest of the message.

[joegrundman]

at the bottom of this wikipedia page, there's a bunch of enigma simulators. it would be pretty cool if you could incorporate one into the radioroom

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enigma_machine

[Snakeeyes]

Originally Posted by ReM

Sounds very cool; could you tell me where to find it in data/sounds?

Thanks


Edit:

Nevermind: I already found it...

I got mine directly through Das Boot.

If U guys manage to reproduce original signal I might even like it, right now I've just removed all the beeping. Can't stand it when messages come like craze every 30 minutes to inform about some BS... Also can't change TC when messages come and need to increase it all the time.

What I try to say is that probably messages require rewriting. To much, to often infos about troops progress at the other end of the world, very few infos from other Boote, during some patrols I receive nearly no messages, now I was trying to help sink Hood (Mai 1941)... message every 30 minutes (it's boiling inside of me) and not a single ship in sight. From those messages It looked like all forces are in one pool.

That would be great to hear (professional) beeping, rush to Funksraum and read that U-107 coming to base in one peace, U-46 has a diesel failure, just some dispatches to other boats and screw those guys in Tobruk or Luftwaffe shooting a plane or sinking 2000 tons... who cares? This is Kriegesmarine!

PS just surfaced to receive 10 messages every 2 minutes

[Puster Bill]

You know, if you play at 1x you don't have to worry about messages dropping you out of TC

As an update, I haven't heard back from either the NSA or GCHQ yet. I'm going to give them a full week (which would put us to Friday or Monday), then I will try a few other possible resources.

[Hitman]

Also can't change TC when messages come and need to increase it all the time.

Go to "My Documents/SH3/Data/Cfg" and open Main.cfg with notepad. Look for this section:

[TIME COMPRESSION]
TimeStop=0
RealTime=1
LandProximity=128
CriticalDamage=1
CrewEfficiency=256AirEnemyDetected=1
SoundEffects=2
CharacterAnim=4
EnemyDetected=8
RadioReport=1
Particles=8
PrayState=128
HunterState=128
3DRender=32
Maximum=256

Changing radio report to your max TC setting (The last line, 256 in this case for my personal customized file because I play careers only in the North Sea, the Mediterranean and the Black Sea) should have the game stay at the TC you set when a message comes in and anything above the Soundeffects TC rate will not allow you to hear the signal.

Originally Posted by Hitman

Changing radio report to your max TC setting (The last line, 256 in this case for my personal customized file because I play careers only in the North Sea, the Mediterranean and the Black Sea) should have the game stay at the TC you set when a message comes in and anything above the Soundeffects TC rate will not allow you to hear the signal.

Thx but this is the problem... I've customized TC with SH3Cmd but this setting doesn't work, always TC drops to x1 and "Neue Funk...". I'll just replace msg with stock file for now, I'm to tired of pressing ++++ when transfering to Arctica for example.

[Puster Bill]

OK, I got an answer from the NSA historian. Here are the important bits:

The Center for Cryptologic History does not have any raw intercepts of U-Boat messages in its possession. Nor does it have any guide to U-Boat message formats. There is a good possibility that such material resides at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland. There are two records groups where such material might be found: RG 457, The Records of the National Security Agency/Central Security Service, Entry 9032, "Historical Cryptographic Collection." In this collection there are about 12-15 boxes of material dealing with the U-Boat problem. Anothee place may be in RG 38, Records of the Chief of Naval Operations, Commander Naval Security Group. There are several collections within this record group, notably the mistitled "Translations", Entry 1040, which has severl aboxes of material on the U-Boats, some of which are translations, but many boxes hold other material related to the U-Boat problem.

If anyone lives in the area and is familiar with digging around in the National Archives, it would be a greatly appreciated if they could take a look at what is in there.

I haven't heard back from GCHQ yet. I have a couple other avenues I am considering. I'll keep you updated.

[Puster Bill]

OK, I know this thread is essentially dead, but I did manage to put a couple of simulated u-boat signals up on my youtube page:

U-boat Short Signal:
http://www.youtube.com/user/PusterBi.../1/BxISYBvCbkc

U-boat Enigma signal:
http://www.youtube.com/user/PusterBi.../2/GEXR-OEuBdk

If someone wants to use either for SHIII or SH-whatever, go ahead.

[Herr-Berbunch]

Originally Posted by Puster Bill

I've often wondered what would have happened if the KM, or even just BdU, dropped the Enigma in favor of a more secure system.

Because they believed in it's security, even when they thought it had been compromised.

Along the same lines as most of the XX agents used, the German handlers didn't want their project to fail, so passed on the given information fully willing it to be totally true.