- Joined
- Jul 19, 2004
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- 29,622
- Location
- Out of Bounds
really? the timing is too weird to be a coincidence, and if it was a inside job, how did nobody find the man already?
Here's what I think about the 'inside job' possibility ...
The hacked video was taped. The intrusion wasn't a live performance. It represented two insertions of a single tape's content into two different stations' outgoing signal stream - one of which was cut off after 20-some seconds, and the other of which ran its circa 90-second course.
The key issue everyone's focused on for over 30 years is how one might hack into the line-of-sight microwave signal streams from the 2 studio offices (both in northwest Chicago) to their remote links atop two skyscrapers that were prominent landmarks visible from most anywhere in the central city area.
The most pesky issue is how anyone could 'flood' either of the skyscrapers' receiver antennas with a microwave signal powerful enough to override the studios' own signal. **
The more elegant solution is that the hack was transmitted using at least one of the studios' own signal links.
The few decipherable comments on the tape include references to people or programming on WGN (the first station broadcasting the hack for 20-some seconds).
Maybe the first (WGN) intrusion was an accidental - or even deliberate - insertion of a gag by the station's own techies. It got a reaction from the sports announcer whose segment was interrupted, and maybe this was the original objective.
The second intrusion occurred circa 2 hours later (around 2315 local time). That was plenty of time for the first station's techies to say "Cool! - What can we do with this?", decide to flood the 2nd station's link for a late-night prank, and do whatever was necessary (e.g., re-aim one of their dishes or perhaps simply shift a frequency setting) to target the 2nd station's receiver atop the tallest building around.
In this scenario the perpetrators would have had reasonable cover as apparent victims, and all they had to do to avoid criminal prosecution (and / or getting fired) was to keep their mouths shut.
** Personally, I'm not sure such a microwave flooding could be done without either a huge power source or a very concentrated beam (e.g., a maser). A maser might imply the hack came from one of the university engineering facilities or labs in the area (e.g., U. of Illinois @ Chicago; IITRI) - a possibility the authorities never seem to mention investigating.