radio, electronics, security, silly hacks
This is a demo of a working replica of the Great Seal Bug.
As far as i know this is the only attempt to make a working replica, not only a nicely looking prop.
I am a licensed radio amateur (callsign SQ5BPF), therefore the device dimensions were scaled to make it operate on the amateur radio 23cm band (1240-1300 MHz). Please see my other articles about this device.
This is the third part of articles about the Great Seal Bug (also called “The Thing”). These articles will cover: history, theory of operation and a practical reconstruction of this device. This part is about building a working copy of the Great Seal Bug
To my knowledge this is the only publication about making a wirking replica of the Sreat Seal Bug. https://www.vintagespycraft.com/ shows a beautifully looking model, however the emphasis was on making it a nice looking exhibit, and not on making it work (but look at this site anyway, the model is a work of art).
In 1945 this was super-secret, ultra-novel military technology. Building and operating it required special materials and access to ultra-secret hardware. So is it possible to do this in 2022 on an amateur budget? Surely not.
But radio amateurs have a long history of doing “impossible” things, part because of their ingenuity, and part because of their ignorance (they simply don’t know something can’t be done). So lets try anyway 🙂
Continue reading “The Great Seal Bug. Part 3: Building a working copy of The Thing”
Astec AA21660 power supplies can be modified to give 13.8V / 24A.
They are specified to 24A @12V and 27A @5V, with 400W max continuous power. It is used in various Engenio (former LSI Logic) storage products, which are OEM-ed by many companies: IBM (TotalStorage DS4xxx and DS5xxx line), NetApp etc. The IBM FRU is 19K128.
The following mods change the overvoltage protection to 14.4V, and set the voltage to 13.8V.
Continue reading “Astec AA21660 power supply modification for 13.8V output”
One of my new year’s resolutions for 2021 was to make some contacts via the QO-100 satellite.
This would normally require equipment like an ADALM-PLUTO or other transmit-capable SDR, transverter, power amplifiers etc. This is necssesary for SSB and other modes, but for CW it should be much easier and cheaper.
Another etherify article, this time transmitting via a covert channel from an air-gapped network by controlling switch ethernet interfaces via SNMP.
See:
Etherify 5 – switching the switches
I’ve added two etherify articles to the Soft TEMPEST series, one showing an exceptionally strong signal radiated from a raspberry pi 4b, and another showing that regular ethernet hardware can also be used.
Please see:
Etherify – bringing the ether back to ethernet
I’ve published Sonify. This is a script to transmit data via ultrasound Morse code. Please see: Sonify – transmitting data via ultrasound morse code
This is another article in the Soft TEMPEST series. Please see also:
I’ve always wanted to make a Moxon antenna, but didn’t have an excuse to do so. Recently i needed a very lightweight directional antenna for Etherify with not so much gain, but considerable F/B, so i finally had the excuse i needed.
