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- WHICH WHITE HOUSE CIRCUITS HAVE BEEN SECURED?
-
- As a follow on to the discussion of the White House use of DVP or
- some related digital security technique on secret service voice channels,
- does anybody happen to know whether they have also secured the telephone
- ("phone patch") circuits to Air Force 1 that have been traditionally left
- in the clear ? A list of those circuits in use recently follows. (Note
- that all of this information has been published in some form.)
-
- 1. "Nationwide" or "Echo-Foxtrot" half-duplex single channel nbfm voice
- via about 100 sites located on AT&T microwave relay towers throughout
- US tied by leased voice channels to manual switchboard at White House
- ("Crown Control"). Uses 415.700 mhz from AF-1, 407.85 mhz. to AF-1,
- at rather low EIRP's (less than a few watts).
-
- 2. "Combat Ciders" or "Autovon" or "Wideband" full-duplex FDM multi
- channel wbfm via nuclear hardened antenna's at many of the Autovon
- switching centers, also via relay aircraft and the various emergency
- command post aircraft (eg "Lookinglass"). Has provisions for secure
- voice and teletype (also fax) as well as fully automatic autovon
- voice trunks with standard autovon signalling and control. Trunks
- are located on 12, 16, 20 and 24 khz ssb channels, 0-4 khz is used
- for an order wire to ground station. Uses various frequencies in
- the 225-400 mhz military UHF band, 390.55 and 392.55 have been used
- as transmit from AF-1 in past. EIRP is (or was) very high, one
- published description of system said it was 1 Kw to counter absorption
- effects near nuclear fireballs.
-
- 3. "Yankee Zulu" full-duplex single channel nbfm voice via portable
- equipment set up by secret service at site of Presidential visit.
- This system has also been used for non-secure circuits to Presidential
- automobiles, and is probably what Reagan used to talk to the gunman in
- the golf coarse incident. Frequencies are around 163 and 172 Mhz
- at EIRP's of perhaps 25-100 watts.
-
- 4. "Mystic Star" hf ssb via about 10-15 AF bases throughout the world
- with remote transceivers controlled via telephone voice channels from
- Andrews AFB. This system is used for telephone traffic mostly
- when AF-1 is out of range of the UHF links, but at least two ssb voice
- frequencies (and a full duplex 75 baud secure teletype channel called
- "India Oscar" which use a special anti-multipath modem) are maintained
- continuously and used for coordination of other communications links.
- Frequencies are chosen from a list of about 150 scattered throughout
- the available chunks of hf spectrum and are designated by "fox"
- code numbers which change from time to time.
-
- 5. FLTSATCOM. A full-duplex nbfm voice channel to AF-1 is maintained
- via whichever of the Navy FLTSATCOM spacecraft are in an optimal
- position. This circuit (which isn't very private since 1/3 of the
- globe can pick it up) is mostly used for secure voice and fax
- transmission via conventional vf modems, but is occasionally used for
- clear voice traffic. ( AF-1 also uses other secure forms of satellite
- transmission as well). Frequencies for downlink are around 261 mhz
- and 291 mhz for the uplink. Uplink EIRP is several hundred watts.
-
- Are these circuits still in use ?
-
- Does anyone know of any other non-secure AF-1 telephone circuits that
- they feel at liberty to discuss. ?
-
- Finally has anyone thought that perhaps the White House decision
- to encrypt Presidential protection communications with DES (?) implies that
- we consider DES breakable by world class cryptologic establishments ? One
- suspects that we haven't left those communications in the clear by accident
- as the status and health of the President of great concern to both our
- allies and our principle adversary. Perhaps we are assuming that the various
- world equivalents of the NSA can monitor Presidential protection if they
- want to but terrorists and nosey journalists cannot ? Can anyone comment ?
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