I wonder how they know Leon Theremin designed it. Did he later admit to it? Interesting note about Theremin: he was a US resident and the KGB kidnapped him and forced him to go back to the USSR for many years. After the Cold War ended he returned to the US and reunited with his student, Clara Rockmore, considered the greatest Theremin player, before he died. There is a cool documentary about him out there.
Cool video, as all your videos are. Two and three months ago, the channel Machining and Microwaves covered this bug in some technical detail including a recreation. The videos are titled 'No Wires, No Batteries - Spying Changed FOREVER because of this invention!' and 'SOLVING the Mystery Behind a Soviet Spy Bug : A True Masterpiece of Technical Elegance!'
@@chriswiltshire8720 Nobody other than yourself suggested any notion of Lewis not covering it, so what are you on about? All of his videos are brilliant and for viewers here who wish to know even more about the makeup and dive down the rabbit hole, I gave the additional resource. This bug has been covered in every amateur publication I know of. I recall an article about it from the 1980s in Radio Electronics magazine as well. It's still mysterious and elegant in ways we can appreciate today.
It's worth reading (assuming you haven't) SPY CATCHER by Peter Wright , MI5's first principal scientist who discovered the operating methods of this device and also describes other methods of locating clandestine radios such as overloading local oscillators, traffic analysis and mobile radio transparent vans. Mark-M0ADH
That sounds right up my alley, having just finished a re-read of Cuckoo’s Egg by Cliff Stoll. That’s about intercepting early-80s spies hacking into government databases rather than listening-in to embassies, but I’ve nevertheless been itching for more technical spycraft-of-yore.
@@kaitlyn__L This book was banned on release in the UK and was published in Australia and had to be “secretly” imported into the UK. The authors father worked with Marconi and as a brilliant scientist himself he fell into the world of spy craft eventually becoming an investigator himself.
@@steelheadplayer I’m not surprised! They didn’t even want to acknowledge Colossus until fairly recently. I notice technical people who are reluctantly drawn into these endeavours seem to keep a better balance on who and what exactly they’re doing it for, than do people who are actively drawn to the job.
@@kaitlyn__L When you read about the value of 30 or 40 year old intercepts when assisting current efforts to identify spies who were recruited as young men/women and may now have risen to senior posts within the intel community you will appreciate why the capabilities were kept secret for so long.
Great video. I really like the technical details you presented. It makes me want to experiment with some of the approaches for fun. Your video is a nice complement to "How Russian children and the KGB trolled America for years" done by "The Why Files," which was more history-oriented. Thank you much ... Cheers!
great video, and a really remarkable piece of technology from so long ago. It' makes me wonder what kind of tech the spooks are using today. Stay tuned for another 70 years to find out.
I seen a doco on this years ago before i got into ham radio but forgot all about it. Such a clever device for the day and even today. Great job on the video, very interesting and entertaining my friend. :)
I'm glad you referenced CryptoMuseum. I've been trying to duplicate some of the schematics found there including some of the simple subcarrier noise masking tricks and the pulse position techniques.
The US kept their knowledge of it a secret and then brought it up after the Gary Powers U2 shootdown to embarrass the Soviets, who were getting all self-righteous about how the US was spying on them. "Yeah, okay, you caught us spying on you. But here's solid proof you do it too, so STFU Khruschev and have some more vodka."
Hi Lewis, clearly a lot of research went into the making of this superb video! Such primitive, but effective listening technology deployed by the Russian! 73
Interestingly, some of those devices appear to have the same old Soviet germanium components that are coveted in today's effect pedals for guitars and such...
Whoa, I actually understood all of that on a deep conceptual level this time! When I’d read about it years ago I knew electronics but was still baffled by it. No wonder Leon Theremin was behind this, a lot of those techniques and mindset come from music rather than traditional industrial electrical signalling. In a way this has a lot of similarities to a tubular bell or guitar string in operation (esp the harmonics), just that it vibrates in RF instead of sound. It’s essentially getting sympathetic vibration from the room after the energiser aerial “plucks/strikes” it. (You can shout into an acoustic guitar while a note plays and audibly modulate it via those sympathetic vibrations!) How cool.
have you looked through the ant catalog that snoden leaked? They had a bug that used a similar principle that tapped into one of the colour signals on a vga screen cable - it was hidden underneath the (presumably fake) ferrite core found on every vga cable of the to time
I like how I go on RU-vid and go on his channel to see if he posed something new and he didn’t so I close the tab and go on the game then I open my phone as soon as the game is open and see he posted something 😂🤦🏽
I know I'm a bit off topic but I re-watched your scanner video and I remembered I've got an old Uniden bearcat ubc3000xlt. I bought it off eBay a few years ago and have never been able to use it because the battery was done for. It worked for about 3 hours and that was it. I've been trying to get a replacement battery ever since. No luck. So do you have any idea where I might find one. I've literally looked everywhere but no joy. Its a good piece of kit, old but useable. It's been shelved for ages. I got my licence during lockdown so I have a couple of radios, nothing special but it just seems a shame to write it off. Any advice is good. Cheers!
I have heard of The thing before. Very clever. The other stuff inc using a laser beam is beyond me….. I guarantee most people will think all this is made up conspiracy. Even after seeing the video, many would refuse to believe it was actually real or possible.
I don't know how good you are with history but just check what it says Laocoön priest of Thembraic Apollo to Teukri of Trojans, "Equo ne credite, Teucri, Quidquid id est, timeo Danaos et dona ferentes" In english [beware of Danaans (Greeks) when bring gifts] In Greece (Cyprus) we say this very very often (Φοβοῦ τοὺς Δαναοὺς καὶ δῶρα φέροντας)...
that very interesting. can you trust anything hurd from a bug ? can just give false information buy speaking and right down the real one. burn the paper. this is easy if you know the bug is their and they don't know you found it. still bugs are found to this day. 73's
