[Cryptography] Modes of communication

Bob Wilson rwilson at wisc.edu
Wed Feb 24 17:10:34 EST 2016


In Vol 34, Issue 22, following on "RIP Claude Shannon":

> until Shannon, it would have been difficult for anyone to conceive of digital voice transmission.
> The idea of "information" as a generic thing that could be transmitted in many forms wasn't there yet.
> There were completely independent technologies to deal with voice and with Morse code.
> (I'm not sure what other modes of electronic communication existed at the time.

There was already  a digital mode, still in use: Teletype (TTY), or as 
we say in ham radio where it is still used quite a bit, Radio Teletype 
(RTTY).
Not voice, but neither is/was Morse.

(It is to me a little surprising that, given on the one hand the growing 
interest in cryptography at the time, and on the other the extensive use 
of both Morse and TTY, that so far as I know there was not much 
interaction: A lot of Morse or TTY that was transmitted was indeed 
encrypted, but that was done "separately" just as if the resulting 
encrypted text was to be sent by courier or handwritten mail or ... 
There were not cheap, miniature, computing elements, but lots of stuff 
could have been done between a J-38 key and the transmitter, with what 
was available, to increase security.)

I don't disagree with what was really being said, just wanted to comment 
on a bit (no pun intended!) of history.
Bob Wilson



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