[Harp-L] Polytone High Pitch KGB Harmonica

[David Payne <dave@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I just came across via Google, something weird and nerdy I did with a harp about five years ago, I thought I'd pass it on.

I used to be quite into shortwave, back before Deutsche Welle discontinued broadcasts to the U.S. and fired me as one of their volunteer technical monitors. When you'd listen BETWEEN the shortwave bands, you'd hear all this cool stuff, basically coded messages from say the KGB to operatives someplace else. Usually, it was a voice giving five-number groups. This was big during the cold war, but there's still a few of these broadcasting still, particularly from Cuba. 
Anyway, one of the methods of transmission that started probably in the 1960s was polytone high pitch the KGB used to communicate to agents abroad- you can still hear it sometimes - real eerie tones sent over shortwave and decoded on computer someplace, wasn't very common the years I was listening, I checked the logs, I only heard and logged it twice in about a five-year span. 

Anyway, I made a KGB-style Polytone High Pitch (XPH) recording with a chromatic harmonica back in 2004. It wound up in the "Numbers and Oddities" newsletter... I'm passing along the newsletter article and a link to my Polytone harmonica and a link to a recording of a real polytone transmission, case anyone should find it amusing.
Seventy-fifth edition of the N&O column / Spooks newsletter
(Date: Mon, 02 Aug 2004 21:56:19 +0000)
 
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Did you ever wonder how the Russians invented their Polytone systems (XP etc)? Well, it took some time but with the help of a reliable source we finally found out.
Picture this: 
A former head of the KGB once had to entertain his kids and their friends. But what does a KGB father do to make his kids happy? Play fun Cold War games? Play battleships? No, too rough for the little ones. So, what else can you do? Hire clowns? Play Russian Roulette? Wrong again. Our friend is quite musical and he produced his entire collection of nose whistles, kazoos, mouth harps and harmonicas and gave them to the kids to play with. He sat down, picked up an harmonica and learned the kids how to play various notes on that instrument. After a while the KGB agents who were guarding the mansion noticed how much fun the kids had and they too let their hair down. They tried to talk to each other with the harmonica in their mouth. Now, that was great fun! 
Back at work the agents told their friends and boss about the party and how much fun they had playing with the music thingy. >From that moment on things moved rapidly and in no time the KGB had developed a secret language that used musical notes instead of figures. All agents were equipped with an harmonica so that they could communicate with each other in the new exciting secret language. The formula appeared to be highly successful and the KGB decided to expand the system and use it to communicate with their agents abroad. That, my friends, was the start of the Polytone transmissions. The first transmissions were played live on the harmonica but after a while the good old harmonica was replaced by the computer system that we know now.
So, now you know as much about the subject as I do.
You don't believe me? Then listen to a pre-computer age XP transmission. It's on the N&O sound samples page.
Huh? No, it isn't me playing the harmonica. It is WUN member Dave Payne Sr. from Vienna, West Virginia who recently sent me his XP-on-harmonica recording. When I heard the recording of Dave's harmonica, I suddenly realised that Dave must be the Godfather of the Polytone system :-)
Thanks a million for the recording, Dave!!!



Dave's polytone harmonica
http://home.planet.nl/~boend177/xpharmonica.mp3

A real polytone shortwave transmission
http://home.planet.nl/~boend177/xph.zip


Dave
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Dave Payne Sr. 
Elk River Harmonicas
www.elkriverharmonicas.com XP revealed