Documents / FOIA release
This unclassified article by H. Campaigne, published in the NSA Technical Journal, Vol. XIV, No. 1, gives a key to a series of 31 hypothetical radio messages from outer space that Campaigne had presented earlier. Step by step it decodes symbols for numbers, arithmetic, logic, set theory, octal notation, the rational and real numbers, limits, and finally the periodic table of the elements. The article concludes that any civilization able to send messages across space would share basic concepts of number, sets and physical constants.
Read from the scan by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word.
AV · 45 and 66 · AV · · · BL41 belongs to JR4;
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J R _ {a}
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AV · 127 and 142 · AV · · · BLAV belongs to JR3;
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B L _ {4}, B L _ {5}, B L _ {6}, B L _ {7}, B L _ {8}, B L _ {9}, B L _ {1 0}
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J O _ {1};
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B L _ {1}, B L _ {3}, B L _ {1 1}, B L _ {2 1}, B L _ {4 6}, B L _ {5 0}, B L _ {6 0}
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B L _ {1}, B L _ {2}, B L _ {3}, B L _ {4}, B L _ {5} \text {b e l o n g s t}
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\mathrm {B L} _ {4 0} \text {a n d B L} _ {4 0} \text {a n d B L} _ {4 0} \text {a n d B L} _ {4 0}
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B L _ {2 2}
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J O _ {1}
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\mathrm {B L} _ {1}, \mathrm {B L} _ {4}, \mathrm {B L} _ {1 1}, \mathrm {B L} _ {1 1 1}, \mathrm {B L} _ {1 1 1 1} \mathrm {b e l o n g s}
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J O _ {2}
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\mathrm {B L} _ {4 0 0}, \mathrm {B L} _ {4 2 0}, \mathrm {B L} _ {4 1 2}, \mathrm {B L} _ {4 0 1}, \mathrm {B L} _ {4 1 1}
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\mathrm {J O} _ {6}
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The set $BL_{10}, BL_{11}, BL_{12}, BL_{13}$ belongs to JO;
The set $BL_{11}, BL_{22}, BL_{44}, BL_{66}, BL_{88}$ belongs to JO16;
The set $BL_{10}, BL_{11}, BL_{12}, BL_{13}, BL_{14}, BL_{15}, BL_{16}, BL_{17}, BL_{18}, BL_{19}, BL_{20}, BL_{21}, BL_{22}, BL_{23}, BL_{24}, BL_{25}, BL_{26}, BL_{27}, BL_{28}, BL_{29}, BL_{30}, BL_{31}, BL_{32}, BL_{33}, BL_{34}, BL_{35}, BL_{36}, BL_{37}, BL_{38}, BL_{39}, BL_{40}, BL_{41}, BL_{42}, BL_{43}, BL_{44}, BL_{45}, BL_{46}, BL_{47}, BL_{48}, BL_{49}, BL_{50}, BL_{51}, BL_{52}, BL_{53}, BL_{54}, BL_{55}, BL_{56}, BL_{57}, BL_{58}, BL_{59}, BL_{60}, BL_{61}, BL_{62}, BL_{63}, BL_{64}, BL_{65}, BL_{66}, BL_{67}, BL_{68}, BL_{69}, BL_{70}, BL_{71}, BL_{72}, BL_{73}, BL
$ \mathrm{B L}_{1 1 1}, \mathrm{B L}_{1 1 2}, \mathrm{B L}_{1 1 3}, \mathrm{B L}_{1 1 4}, \mathrm{B L}_{1 1 5}, \mathrm{B L}_{1 1 6}, \mathrm{B L}_{1 1 7} $ belongs to $ \mathrm{J O}_{1 1} $;
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B L _ {m}
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\mathrm {J O} _ {1 2};
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The set $BL_{L1}, BL_{L2}, BL_{L3}$ belongs to $JO_{L1}$;
The set $BL_{w}, BL_{z}, BL_{w}$ belongs to $JO_{11}$;
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\mathrm {B L} _ {1 1}, \mathrm {B L} _ {1 2}, \mathrm {B L} _ {1 3} \text {b e l o n g s t o J O} _ {1 5};
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The set $BL_{12}, BL_{14}, BL_{14}$ belongs to $JO_{16}$;
The set $BL_{11}, BL_{22}, BL_{33}$ belongs to $JO_{11}$;
The set $BL_{11}, BL_{12}, BL_{13}$ belongs to $JO_{21}$;
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\mathrm {B L} _ {6}, \mathrm {B L} _ {5}, \mathrm {B L} _ {4}
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J O _ {2 1};
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The set $ \mathrm{B L}_{2 0}, \mathrm{B L}_{2 0}, \mathrm{B L}_{2 0} $ belongs to $ \mathrm{JO}_{2 2} $
CHAV belongs to KSPV.
The transcription leaves a lot to be resolved. There are several words the meanings of which are yet to be determined. The word CHAV (or $ \mathrm{C H A V} $ ) or $ \mathrm{C H_{1}} $ seems to be central. There are seven words JR, and eighteen words JO, and each of these belongs to CHAV. There are 98 words BL, each of which seems to belong to a unique JO,. Does each also belong to a unique JR,? With this hint we can straighten out the garbled message above; it reads "0<AV and AV<22 = JO $ _{11} $ belongs to CHAV"; there was a V omitted. I was also able to reparse six other messages. I will not bore you with the details, since the list above has been corrected.
Since each BL belongs to one JR, and JO, these can be displayed in a matrix
$$
J R _ {1} J R _ {2} J R _ {1} J R _ {1} J R _ {5} J R _ {6} J R _ {7}
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$ \mathrm{J O}_{1} $ $ \mathrm{B L}_{1} $ $ \mathrm{B L}_{4} $ $ \mathrm{B L}_{1 4} $ $ \mathrm{B L}_{2 1} $ $ \mathrm{B L}_{1 5} $ $ \mathrm{B L}_{6 7} $ $ \mathrm{B L}_{1 2 5} $
$ \mathrm{J O}_{2} $ $ \mathrm{B L}_{2} $ $ \mathrm{B L}_{4} $ $ \mathrm{B L}_{1 1} $ $ \mathrm{B L}_{2 4} $ $ \mathrm{B L}_{4 6} $ $ \mathrm{B L}_{5 0} $ $ \mathrm{B L}_{1 0 0} $
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B L.
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B L _ {4 7}
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B I _ {4 1}
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B L _ {1 2}
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$ \mathrm{J O}_{1} $ $ \mathrm{B L}_{6} $ $ \mathrm{B L}_{4 6} $ $ \mathrm{B L}_{4 0} $ $ \mathrm{B L}_{4 2} $ $ \mathrm{B L}_{4 2 2} $
$ \mathrm{J O}_{3} $ $ \mathrm{B L}_{4} $ $ \mathrm{B L}_{4 7} $ $ \mathrm{B L}_{4 1} $ $ \mathrm{B L}_{6 3} $ $ \mathrm{B L}_{1 2 1} $
$ \mathrm{J O}_{n} $ $ \mathrm{B L}_{1 0} $ $ \mathrm{B L}_{2 0} $ $ \mathrm{B L}_{4 2} $ $ \mathrm{B L}_{6 4} $ $ \mathrm{B L}_{1 2 4} $ Not linked to a story yet.
FOIA release, from the nsa collection. The PDF is mirrored here; the original link is above. The text was read from the page images by GLM-OCR; expect the odd misread word. 11 pages are in the text index: search them above, or from the library's search.