Kids actually did de-ciphering in 1941 !
I saw this code diary posted to the Radio Premiums group by Larry Zdeb on Faseboo:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/907249652996436
Can you imagine being a kid in 1941, listening to a show where there's a never ending battle with evil, listening to secret codes, with the USA less than a year away from entering an ongoing war but also being organized enough to keep a diary of Captain Midnight Secret Squadron messages ? I know I never would have been that smart.
I mentioned the 1942 Captain Midnight secrets in a previous blog posting:
https://wb9kzy.blogspot.com/2022/05/lives-there-heart-so-un-kid-like-that.html
Interesting thing here is the master code record. Over 7 sessions they only used 4 of the 26 master codes ! Pierre Andre should have been ashamed of himself, this was providing aid and comfort to the forces of Ivan Shark. Using the same master code over and over makes it easier for those evil doers to crack the cipher and thus be enabled in the evil ! :)
I looked on ebay and there were several 1941 decoder pins for sale.
Using the old read and shift method it was easy to ID the positions of the 4 master codes used:
code number:
00000000011111111112222222
12345678901234567890123456 master code
-------------------------- -----------
jvupyaxnqegmkfwzhiobltdsrc
vupyaxnqegmkfwzhiobltdsrcj
upyaxnqegmkfwzhiobltdsrcjv 8
pyaxnqegmkfwzhiobltdsrcjvu
yaxnqegmkfwzhiobltdsrcjvup
axnqegmkfwzhiobltdsrcjvupy
xnqegmkfwzhiobltdsrcjvupya
nqegmkfwzhiobltdsrcjvupyax
qegmkfwzhiobltdsrcjvupyaxn
egmkfwzhiobltdsrcjvupyaxnq
gmkfwzhiobltdsrcjvupyaxnqe
mkfwzhiobltdsrcjvupyaxnqeg
kfwzhiobltdsrcjvupyaxnqegm
fwzhiobltdsrcjvupyaxnqegmk 3
wzhiobltdsrcjvupyaxnqegmkf
zhiobltdsrcjvupyaxnqegmkfw
hiobltdsrcjvupyaxnqegmkfwz
iobltdsrcjvupyaxnqegmkfwzh
obltdsrcjvupyaxnqegmkfwzhi
bltdsrcjvupyaxnqegmkfwzhio 5
ltdsrcjvupyaxnqegmkfwzhiob
tdsrcjvupyaxnqegmkfwzhiobl
dsrcjvupyaxnqegmkfwzhioblt 6
srcjvupyaxnqegmkfwzhiobltd
rcjvupyaxnqegmkfwzhiobltds
cjvupyaxnqegmkfwzhiobltdsr
Looks like Ovaltine was sloppy there as well (or Ovaltine's ad agency). The master codes aren't random but seem to follow a regular pattern of skipping 2 places in the table. Shame again ! The Nazi's got sloppy with their Enigma settings, too ! Good thing Ivan Shark wasn't as astute as the people at Bletchley Park !
Best Regards,
Chuck, WB9KZY
http://wb9kzy.com/ham.htm