[Spooks] Jonestown Code

Wed, 6 Feb 2002 11:15:32 -0600

When I resided in SF, I lived only blocks from the People's Temple.  They
had a huge array on a tower.  I would listen to shortwave on a Heath
Mohawk receiver.  Occasionally, I would get what appeared to be
"bleed-over" from a nearby station.  When I checked, it was them, on
their rigs, chatting with Jonestown.  They must of had some real power in
there.

On Wed, 06 Feb 2002 15:16:11 +0000 [email protected] writes:
> I think I'll respond off-list as I do not want to start a 
>  flame war about OT or not.  And off-list I can be a bit 
> more prolific, perhaps, without someone complaining about 
> bandwidth.  
> 
> My guess is that at the time of the Jonestown incident, 
> few hams were much interested in codes, and if they tuned 
> across such a contact, they probably just tuned on.  I 
> would have.  
> 
> As for any government interest, there was no criminal 
> activity, with the possible exception of the use of 
> "codes and ciphers" on ham radio, which is a violation of 
> FCC rules.  It would be interesting to learn if the 
> government agencies ever patrolled the ham bands during 
> that era, but my guess is they did not.  The bottom line 
> of guesses by me is that no one was interested enough.  
> At least not until it was too late.  Even then, ham radio 
> did not come into play publicly, at least.  
> 
> These are just opinions, of course.  I think today if 
> there was an obvious code being used on the air, 
> especially in voice operations, hams would note it, but 
> that is due to the 9-11 Event.  Also, today, the 
> proliferation of small, digital transceivers that can 
> operate anywhere in the HF spectrum, with less 
> interference than would be on the ham bands, makes it 
> likely any such operation would be removed from near 
> amateur frequencies.  
> 
> It may be possible to research FBI archives and find 
> references to the Jonestown-SF communications.  As you 
> say,it was probably a very simple code.  
> 
> Jones, and those who have followed him, like the 
> HeavensGate folks of a few years ago, was certainly 
> insane, but even the insane frequently have narrow areas 
> of very sane focus.  By using such a simple code, rather 
> than switching to something far more complex, they 
> actually avoided scrutiny.  Probably!  
> 
> Have fun
> 
> Walt
> 
> > Hi everyone--
> > 
> > I am reading an interesting book by a defector
>  from the Jonestown commune in Guyana. It's called
> > Seductive Poison by Debbie Layton.
> > 
> > She describes how Jim Jones and a few trusted
> > associates, herself among them, would keep in
> > contact with the remaing members of the People's
> > Temple in San Francisco via ham radio. They would
> > talk in code. For example, tea party meant
> > blackmail and Rex meant USA, etc.
> > 
> > I am not a cryptographer by any means but two
> > things occured to me. 1) The code should have
> > been easy to break since it didn't seem very
> > mathematical and 2) Jones was insane enough to
> > probably not put much logic into a code anyway.
> > At least this is my thinking.
> > 
> > So, did anyone every break this code? Did any
> > hams or DXers ever get a whiff of what was going
> > on? 
> > 
> > This may be slightly OT, but it does involve a
> > code. My apologies if OT.
> > 
> > 73/Liz
> > 
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