The creator is interesting:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Léon_Theremin
And his most famous creation:
The Thing
11–20 of 110 posts
Re: The Thing
#12I'm currently reading "Spycatcher" by Peter Wright, I would recommend if you're interested in topics like this.
It is fascinating. People often disregard the book because its main thesis, the identity of a mole within MI5, appears to be misguided in light of post-Cold War knowledge. But there's more to the book than Wright's speculations -- it's his direct experiences with things like analyzing The Thing that make the book worth reading.
Re: The Thing
#13I'm currently reading "Spycatcher" by Peter Wright, I would recommend if you're interested in topics like this.
Seconded. It really emphasises how far things have come in a relatively short time, with the technology not so long ago being very basic compared to what we read about from, for example, Snowden.
Re: The Thing
#14[deleted]
Re: The Thing
#15Maybe someday the Soviet side of things will be declassified, and we can read the technical account from that end. Would be interesting. There seem to be some technical unknowns in the article. I don’t think you can get FM back from the passive cavity, just AM, unless you can pump the cavity with feedback. Same goes for re-radiating at a harmonic. Maybe if the Q of the cavity were super high. Again, would be interest…
I think it stills classified because it stills being in use.
Re: The Thing
#16I'm currently reading "Spycatcher" by Peter Wright, I would recommend if you're interested in topics like this.
It is fascinating. People often disregard the book because its main thesis, the identity of a mole within MI5, appears to be misguided in light of post-Cold War knowledge. But there's more to the book than Wright's speculations -- it's his direct experiences with things like analyzing The Thing that make the book worth reading.
Also, in the same vein, I highly recommend R.V. Jones' 'Most Secret War' on his experience as Chief Boffin in the UK during WWII.
Chapter after chapter devoted to figuring out what the Germans were up to on the technology front, then one-upping them. Lots of engineering porn.
Re: The Thing
#17Maybe someday the Soviet side of things will be declassified, and we can read the technical account from that end. Would be interesting. There seem to be some technical unknowns in the article. I don’t think you can get FM back from the passive cavity, just AM, unless you can pump the cavity with feedback. Same goes for re-radiating at a harmonic. Maybe if the Q of the cavity were super high. Again, would be interest…
I think it stills classified because it stills being in use.
da comrade, waiting for the great soviet empire to rise up again
Re: The Thing
#18If you are a high ranking government official and receive a gift that you want to keep in your office, then make a replica, and put that on your wall instead.
And lose the opportunity to do a counter-intelligence move on your part? No way. Better analyze the shit of those "gifts", hope they are bugged and then use them to feed false information while you keep your real intelligence room free of anything.
Re: The Thing
#19If you are a high ranking government official and receive a gift that you want to keep in your office, then make a replica, and put that on your wall instead.
You can always re-gift.
Re: The Thing
#20Maybe someday the Soviet side of things will be declassified, and we can read the technical account from that end. Would be interesting. There seem to be some technical unknowns in the article. I don’t think you can get FM back from the passive cavity, just AM, unless you can pump the cavity with feedback. Same goes for re-radiating at a harmonic. Maybe if the Q of the cavity were super high. Again, would be interest…
There is nothing unknown in the article. You can do this at home as well. Is very well explained how it works. For start I would suggest you get technical of how Yagi antennas work, it's the same principle coupled with cavity resonator + membrane movement used in a microphone. In the end you get your high frequency beamed back modulated by the sound. And is not AM modulation, is FM modulation. But what article indeed lacks is the power required to get the device working properly. In my experience I would guess at least 1KW would've been beamed directly at the embassy walls when Soviets were doing their surveillance using this device.