Murphy, how do you like espionage?
Is that the language that they made up to...
No, that's Esperanto. - Oh!
But that's close [ vocals fade away ]
[ modulated voice ] The modern rogue sends secret encrypted messages.
[ tape ejection noise ]
All right, now slow-scan television is something
that was developed in the 1950s as a way for people to transmit static images using sound.
And it sounds a lot like a modem or a fax machine.
Most of us hear those sounds and we think of like, late 1990s trying to get on AOL.com
and downloading extremely slow pornography, but this is the same technology from the 1950s.
It's the technology that the Soviets used to transmit images of their dogs in space,
the US used it as well, and we can use it today on our freaking iPhones!
There's nothing more ridiculous and awesome to me
than the idea of using the height of 21st century technology in order to replicate 1950s tech.
Exactly! It actually makes me think of how
you obfuscate something by going backwards, much like in World War II, one of the most
impenetrable methods of communication that the Allied Forces used was
The Navajo language! Code talking, yeah.
Traditionally people had cumbersome modems, and phosphorus tubes, and ham radios. They
had this elaborate setup to transmit the audio to whoever else had the same setup. One of
the things that you have to have is decoder / encoder. Encoding technology's developed
by a handful of companies and there're all sorts of types, now they all vary on how fast
they go, how many colors they can use, if they use colors at all.
Because this is audio based, it doesn't matter if it's a ham radio, short wave radio, over
the telephone! In this case, we're using these cheap $20 UHF transmitters.
And so the app we're using is just called SSTV, and I just started the app and this
is what our speech right now looks like. Because I'm going to be holding the iPhone up to the
walkie talkie, if there's any kind of like birds tweeting or noise, that's going to interfere
with the actual transmission. That's all going to show up, yeah.
Let's do this, you head up to the studio, we'll maintain contact over UHF walkie talkies
and I want you to transmit me some super-secret important image.
Oh you're going to regret this! - I know, I regret everything I do.
[ tape ejection noise ]
[ distorted ] All right, this is Echo 7 to Echo Base, we are commencing our journey out into the wilderness.
[ distorted ] Godspeed to me.
Copy that Echo 7, don't go out past the first marker.
[ distorted ] Echo 7 to Echo Base, as I walk along it occurs to me that this is my actual neighborhood,
[ distorted ] and a lot of people are watching a grown-ass man pretend to be a space man.
Echo Base to Echo 7, when has that ever stopped you?
We just set off a smoke bomb in your garage and it didn't get any attention whatsoever. Over.
[ distorted ] Echo 7 to Echo Base, I am halfway and it really makes a difference
[ distorted ] that we're walking so far away from each other because I can imagine
[ distorted ] being hundreds of thousands of miles with a direct line of sight. There's part of me
[ distorted ] that's like really jacked up about the actually transmitting images this way.
[ distorted ] Echo 7 to Echo Base, I am now officially in the wilderness. I cannot see any man-made
[ distorted ] structures, I am going to imagine that I'm on the surface of the moon and I need some
[ distorted ] vital information that only you can send to me by slow-scan television.
Copy that Echo 7, Echo Base is transmitting the image in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
[ digital chirping ]
Echo 7 to Echo Base, I have received the image.
I am attempting to alter the phase and skew, so I can figure oh you mother [censored].
Goddammit! Hahaha! Echo 7 to Echo Base, it appears you've sent
me a picture of me with french fries stuck up my nose from approximately one decade ago.
Can you confirm?
That is correct, Echo 7. French fries in the
nose, that picture is freely available on the internet, over.
Echo 7 to Echo Base, you're an [censored], over.
Roger that, over.
Echo 7 to Echo Base, in the interest of complete
connection I'm going to try to take a beautiful picture of this alien landscape, I believe
it's called "outside," that I will send to you. Are you prepared to receive?
I am prepared, yet afraid, Echo 7. We are ready to receive, over.
I am transmitting image of nature's splendor, in 5, 4, 3, 2.
[ digital chirping ]
Echo 7 to Echo Base, did you receive?
Echo Base to Echo 7, picture is received and this outside looks terrifying. It looks like
somewhere the Blair Witch would hang out, over.
Roger that, Echo 7. Copy that, beers at 0500. Echo Base out.
Dude I gotta tell you, I am in love with the kind of stuff we get to cover in The Modern
Rogue and I feel like it's only going to get more interesting from here.
Yes, and I have an entire vault of information, a library that we can go through and pull
to make these episodes, and they're all made possible by our friends at Squarespace.com.
It's the fast, easy way to make any beautiful blog, portfolio, or any other kind of website.
I do coding all the time, but when I go home and I need to make something for personal
reasons, I don't want to code! Yeah, you just want to make it look good,
you want it to be easy, and you want it to be hosted with a reliable service! Right?
Exactly. And they have all of these gorgeous templates, where you really just click and
drag and then you've got something that looks immaculately professional.
My friend, Jeff Cannata, made his personal website on Squarespace just using a template
and modifying a bit. It later won an award for designs to be inspired by on some website,
they didn't know it was a Squarespace template. But what if I don't believe you, Brian?
Oh, well then my friend, you go to squarespace.com/rogue, sign up for your free trial and when you do
sign up for squarespace, which you will because they're awesome, then use promo code ROGUE.
You'll be keeping us in business and more importantly you'll get ten percent off your
first purchase. Now back-- oh, I was going to toast you but
You're a terrible host and haven't offered me a beverage.
Aaah, that's not true! I always off you a, I'm out of here.
Get me a beer. Make up for your sins, repent!
[ branding furnace hissing ]
[ digital chirping ]