
Cold War spy technology we all use - clouddrover
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-48859331
======
lmilcin
There is wealth of devices that are powered by radio waves.

Every receiving antenna could be said to be powered by radio waves since it
converts radio waves to signal (albeit typically quite faint) and antennas
were known way before The Thing.

The difference between The Thing and other devices is that it modulated and
reflected the signal at different frequency all without use of any
electronics. Every RFID chip is a bit of electronics but The Thing actually is
an analog device without anything that could be recognized as electronic
circuit at first sight.

As far as I understand it used some kind of resonant cavity an some kind of
change in capacitance dependant on the geometry of the device. The sound waves
would cause the physical setup to vibrate and the vibration would change
geometry of the device causing modulation of the reflected signal.

~~~
Zenst
Crystal radios are probably the earliest case of devices powered by radio
waves.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_radio](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_radio)

~~~
52-6F-62
Ah that brings back fond memories. I built one of those as a kid (from a kit).
You had to wind your own coil and everything. It was thrilling to get it
working.

~~~
tyingq
A "foxhole razor blade" crystal radio kit is an interesting offshoot.

~~~
felipemnoa
Thanks for this. I had no idea this was possible. Nice little project to try.

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drawkbox
Even back to the days of Archimedes and before, invention and innovation can
be fueled by war and military research across many fields. Technology is
almost directly tied to defense/intel research even this here internet. That
is one of the dualities of the human condition. At least good can come from
it.

Probably lots of reasons that research like this is attainable is due to
massive budgets/funding and the ability to research an try many things in
these types of r&d departments and the urgency of some research/development
goals. Intelligence or military project conditions rarely apply to private
market project budgets and timelines, only comparison is maybe academic
research where some of the same goals/freedoms apply and both have reduced
labor or essentially free labor.

~~~
HNcantBtrustd
I imagine those innovations are due to tremendous spending, funded by taxes.

I wonder what these engineers would be doing with their time otherwise. What
those tax dollars could have accomplished.

Sure we get a few pieces of technology, but it's at enormous cost.

Especially when we hear about small companies or founders able to create
useful technology.

Not exactly perfect, but, a broken clock is right twice a day.

~~~
Aperocky
I actually think that it's not a broken clock.

Innovation during war is expedited because while the government and public
agencies are massively inefficient during peace time. In war the brightest
resource are drawn/forced to align with the government, increasing its
capability. Whatever redtape that used to exist are now ditched for more
efficiency, while if you keep being a massively inefficient government, you
risk losing the war and everything. All of these factors proceed to make
innovation pace much faster on matters that are somewhat related to military.

~~~
michaelt
Would this apply to, say, the Iraq War?

~~~
sailfast
The challenges of the Iraq War that needed this kind of singular, focused
effort were not really super publicized. I would say that counter-IED tech
(IED Defeat), armored vehicle development, and possibly intelligence gathering
platforms / fusion and special operator techniques, tactics, and procedures
likely saw the biggest "focus" in terms of the military.

I would not argue that this was efficient, well organized, or toward a single
goal, but rather got a bunch of money dumped on it due to national priorities
and something shook out.

~~~
KineticLensman
The IED threat led to significant improvements in personal protection and
medical care for casualties.

There were also steps backward in preparedness due to the focus on
counterinsurgency ops, e.g. loss of experience in areas such as air defence
and armoured warfare which weren't relevant for most of the operation (also in
Afghanistan).

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bradfa
The Thing is an early version of the RAGEMASTER device used by the NSA. Neat!
:)

[https://www.spiegel.de/static/happ/netzwelt/2014/na/v1/pub/i...](https://www.spiegel.de/static/happ/netzwelt/2014/na/v1/pub/img/Bildschirm/S3224_RAGEMASTER.jpg)

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ttul
A similar listening device is on exhibit at the DDR spy museum in Berlin. It’s
worth a visit.

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salgernon
Tangentially related, for anyone with an interest in surveillance craft, the
US Embassy in Moscow was bugged from the ground up:

[https://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/15/world/the-bugged-
embassy-...](https://www.nytimes.com/1988/11/15/world/the-bugged-embassy-case-
what-went-wrong.html)

------
hindsightbias
A cold war military spy writes about bugging a tank training field: “Unter
Vier Augen"

[https://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2011/09/...](https://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2011/09/unter-
vier-augen-by-basilisk.html)

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baybal2
The most remarkable thing about it is that it is completely undetectable by
even most sensitive nonlinear junction detectors - something that is hard to
pull out even today.

If the thing can be made into a poorer resonator, it can be made undetectable
to modern day bug detection

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hoytech
Here's a good presentation by Michael Ossmann on DIY retroreflectors with a
HackRF:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAai6dRAtFo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mAai6dRAtFo)

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theawesomekhan
I think I have seen other articles about "The Thing" on HN before.

~~~
zwirbl
Sure, see below. I still think it is very interesting and not everyone has
seen an article about it I'm sure

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20157116](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=20157116)

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10900441](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10900441)

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ropiwqefjnpoa
Is that woman scanning an RFID with an iPaq?

