Signals Operations

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The following post summarizes information learned from Paintball and Airsoft Battle Tactics by Christopher Larsen about simple wireless or radio encryption.

The simplest encryption is to use existing words in ways they were not originally intended.

Larsen suggests carrying a reference card that covers your team codes. The card includes the following information: - authentication codes - questions and responses - orders - requests - situation reports - locations

The authentication code would be a 10-letter word you could use to check to see who you are getting orders from (for example). You would choose a letter or number and the person in question would respond with the correct corresponding letter or number. Teams could choose how far down the word and the direction the day's authentication would be: two digits left, for example.

The passwords could include the running password and the base password.

The rest of the codes can be chosen after a theme: fish, pets, foods, plants, etc.

Another method of encoding your communications is to assign alternative "naming" to your map grid.

Instead of using the coordinates (since everyone uses the same map), you could assign letters and numbers or numbers and letters to the grid squares. If you are stuck for which part of the alphabet to use for your letters, you can even pick a word or phrase to use.

If you picked BEDAZZLE and inverted your numbers so they read down the map, your coordinates for each location would be unrecognizable to your opponent.