HOW RUSSIAN SPY RADIOS WORK

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP92B01039R002204340003-0
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 27, 2016
• Document Release Date: April 25, 2013
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: May 26, 1960
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/04/25 :CIA-RDP92B01039R002204340003-0
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' . ~= ;~ EI for the first time reveals the exact design
' f ~~ of famed bug that Reds planted in our embassy:
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f ~ By S. David Pursglove
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~ %' ~}? ~ '; ~ URING our long cold war with the Communists we've
r ~~` . ;r` ~~ heard a lot about sECret listening devices planted (and
;,;F'~ '~_+,~ ~ - discovered) by our side or theirs to eavesdrop on conversa-
t.; ' ' tion between high government officials. But we seldom are
~;.,-~; . r"~~?_~ ,h. _; shown any of these little electronic spies, and even less often
~,,.,..' '' 4 . do we find out how they operate. On May 26,1960, U. S: Am-
. ~ ~ ~ bassador Henry Cabot Lodge astounded the United Nations
,~' t ~,
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by displaying a tiny bug which had been discovered in our
embassy in Moscow. It was secreted in the Great Seal hang-
ing over the Ambassador's desk. And the Seal was a gift
from the Russians! As 'the story came out, the bug actually
had been unearthed in 1952 but the fact was not revealed
foxy eight years. After the UN incident, the gadget dropped
from sight and its operation was never explained. Now, for
the first time,.EI reveals the device's design and workings. .
' :,.''tip'= ` Map 26, 1960:; Ia Uaited Nations, U.S. Ambassador Hearp Cabot Lodge
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ows secret listenmq device the liuss:ans planted la Great Seal they gave
our Moscoew embaasp. II aow discloses' how the clever bug operated.
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/04/25 :CIA-RDP92B01039R002204340003-0
 Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/04/25 :CIA-RDP92B01039R002204340003-0
~::u..~-
~:i ~,~_,.., Rhose Russians
~~cperts are becomll~s ??'ment o?~
_ _ ?..e ~PVeIoP
and other inteu3gC~~~? ~--
I president Kennedy v+~ wt~~
before his depart?re mat the
,~ only safe,.p1Q~mc Nita the `vas
Rus-
sians have aC.~?~r~Und wavesi
that even picks ~Pp_ ,rhus they
'could inLercct+~ -his advisers
the President and
;n the Vntted States Embassy
r,.~., __ because vi
becoming tricky distance di-~
.
~ierfe^^9o microphones. '"
during president Kennedy's '61 trip to Euyrope
Actually, the Great Seal bug is only
one of an army 'of Red eavesdroppers
we've unfrocked
In the l
t t
.
as
en years
`, 128 others have turned up in embassies,
missions and consulates. We still don.'t
know design details of most of the
others, but we hazard the guess that the
Great Seal's little pal is the most fiend-
ishly clever of the lot.
The bug shown by Lodge consists of
a"cylinder about as big around as a quzr-
ter and measuring ; ~_~ch from front to
back. Anine-inch rod protrudes from
one side and on the front of the cylinder
is a perforated cover holding a dia-
P~'a~gm-^ (see diagram) . In operation, ,
tween the front and back section of the
-~ Great Seal (made of maple) .Just below
the eagle's beak several tiny holes
.:opened on the bug's diaphragm. Sound
waves passed through the holes and
' struck the diaphragm.
' The idea of this bug-and all others`
-is to convert acoustical .energy to .
electrical energy so the information ~.
(speech) it contains can be sent by wire
or radio waves to a listening post. The
Great Seal apparatus used radio waves
in a way so diabolically simple as to
astound even people sophisticated in~
electronics. It had no circuit as such and
was devoid of any local power supply.
Let's look at our captured spay in de-
tail. Its cylinder, made of copper and
silver plated, is hollowed out inside to
such close tolerances as to create a
high-Q (sharply tuned) cavity. Our
State Department experts estimate the
Q factor to be as high as 1,000.
Mounted on the back of the cavity is
a tuning post (or electrode) holding a
quarter-inch-wide flat plate parallel to
the three-mil diaphragm. The tuning
post's plate and the diaphragm are ca-
pacitively coupled.
Next, we find that the nine-inch an-
tenna (a silver-plated copper rod)
passes through one wall of the cylinder
and terminates in a small plate which it
holds near the tuning post. The post and
antenna plate, then, also are capaci-
tively coupled. The back cover of the
cavity is threaded for precise adjust-
ment of cavity size.
In operation, the Russians placed a
Lfsteninq gadget that Reda put fa Great Seal lies on plastic stand; 4uarter'is for size comparison.
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/04/25 :CIA-RDP92B01039R002204340003-0 .~
 Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/04/25 :CIA-RDP92B01039R002204340003-0
HIGH-FREQUEkCY
RAD30 DEAtA
R;ODUTATED
> ECHO
Diagram of bug shows how capacitive changes in Visible is closeup of cavitp are tuning post
eavitp alters charge. on antenna, which fa turn is center sad the antenna plate. The threaded
modulates radio beam (see copg for details). ,coves holds diaphragm. Quarter lies on table.
must have looked something like a small entire bug weighs only 1.1 ounces and
.radar dish and the signal also was radar- its cavity has an inductance of 1/100 '
tional antenna at some near-by spot. the eavesdropper. They liken.the device
Out of the antenna came a signal at ?to echo boxes that once were placed in
around 1600 megacycles. The antenna ' . front of radar units to tune them. The
high-frequency transmitter with, direc- spot since its power was controlled by
back. As long as the antenna kept the ~ to many tests. They say it works well in
same electrical length the. echo' re- free space but is extremely sensitive to
mained at a set frequency. Now the ' . environment. It must have given .its
fiendish bit. developed. creators fits now and then because its .
Anyone who spoke near the Great ~" operation is so critical as to go haywire
Seal generated sound waves which . 'when any small piece of metal (a watch, .
The RF beam struck the bug's tiny In the years since .,1952 our experts
antenna and a minuscule signal echoed have put the Great Seal's little friend
like, except not pulsed'. ~ ~ microhenry.
struck the bug's diaphragm, causing it
to vibrate. This altered the cavity's size .
ever so slightly and varied the ca-
pacitive values described above. The
changes in capacitances altered the
charge on the antenna rod (radiated to
it from the transmitter) and caused its
say this .bug was particularly hard to to the Great Seal bug. -p~-
Jaauarq, 1962 ~ --
produce the original speech. ~ Meanwhile, one wonders what -the
State Department security officers .. Commies have produced as a successor
up by a receiver and demodulated to re-. -place else.
echoed. signal to vary accordingly. In : ~, they dislike us, can salt the whole
'effect, the bug modulated a little piece ? premises with bugs that may take years
of the beamed signal.?before sending it ~. to find. A bug in the wall, it is said, is
~ back as an echo: The echo was picked ~ , worth two iri the bush, or almost any-
the nails in shoes, etc.) is brought near.
Electronic eadesdropping has become
a major headache to our government be-
cause the bugs are getting smaller, more
efficient and easier to hide. Our foreign .
are put up by local workmen who, if .
Declassified in Part -Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2013/04/25 :CIA-RDP92B01039R002204340003-0