[drawbars]

Wow, very cool. Thanks for keeping us updated. Wonder what happens next...

[morningcoffee]

Wow! A very kind and very speedy reddit user has acquired our drop for us in what must be record time for an OTP22 drop collection!

Album of pics:
https://imgur.com/a/jBqIL


So we looked at the bootloader code, converted the hex to decimal and I entered it into Controller. This gave me "RESET SUCCESS" and victory tones.
After that I dialed AS36. You get a message saying:

Quote:

This system is not currently synchronized. Please wait for full content synchronization.

However, you are then given the standard AS36 "welcome message" (please enter your agent number now, listed on OTP, followed by the hash key) and we can enter agent codes as normal once again!!


There was a black OTP message from back in December that we had not previously heard:
18230

Quote:

Z 13052400Z DEC 13 SECRET// PRJMLPL// 75X5 MSGID/MX-TICKET// SUBJ/MX-TICKET// /FORMAT/OBJ/00001/ASCII// /OBJ/00001/ WE ARE BACK ONLINE. RCA: UNKNOWN. LIKELY AUTOMATED QUERY SYSTEM CAUSED A HEAVY BURST OF TRAFFIC. TAPE LOG BUFFER OVERFLOW. MEMORY CORRUPTION. INVESTIGATING. -#12 //

This is probably a reference to when we broke AS36 with our crazy dialling of every possible number back then

At the moment it looks like there are no new messages on AS36, as obviously WORM have also been unable to use it, but we are hoping we will get some nice new messages once they start to use it again

Thank you so much to our wonderful redditor, Sixthtry, for collecting the drop super-fast for us

[morningcoffee]

!!!!! NEW DROP !!!!!


Drop info obtained from PSK in a new "Abism song" on AS36.

Audio: http://dialer.otp22.com/2014-05.dir/2014-05-11%2008-49%20UTC%20-%20303-309-0004%20-%20.wav

Quote:

/DROP1/BOOTLOADER FOR AS36/LOC/64.870054 -147.828006/NOTES/TWO PARALLEL LOGS UNDER FURTHEST FROM TRAIL/

Coordinates: https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/64%C2%B052'12.2%22N+147%C2%B049'40.8%22W/@64.8700797,-147.8274613,276m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x0:0x0


The drop is located around Fairbanks, Alaska.

If anyone is in, or knows anyone in Fairbanks, Alaska, please contact me ASAP or join us in IRC! Freenode server, channel is #ARG

We are going to try and get this one collected swiftly if we can!

[Xkeeper]

There's ABISM in the first conference call, too, but it's even worse noise-wise and it looks like everything in it is a lot clearer in the second one. Anyway:

Code:

-- 20m30s -------------------------- == ABISM =====?LOGIN> BACKADOORM ENTER CODE > -- 22m00s -------------------------- PA/AIE?BAQEKCGCCEWRANTED. WELCOME. SEFN 1. ZEUS 2N AS0 S. AS1 4. AS36 5. AS60 6. AS64 7. AS99 8. CARGOCOM 9. WORMCOM P. MOREOPTIONS Q. QUIT > -- 23m00s -------------------------- CONNECTING AS36. F.CONNECT MODE SPECP -- 33m00s -------------------------- 3][MODE SELECT>

Lots of decoding errors are likely here. My decoder isn't terribly great, and these sequences were really bad noise-wise.

[L0j1k]

Just a heads up:

Code:

21:57 <L0j1k> @xdec 68 82 79 80 32 65 71 69 78 84 32 52 56 32 79 78 32 68 82                79 80 32 82 79 85 84 69 32 49 48 48 48 52 32 67 79 76 76 69 67                84 32 72 84 69 77 46 32 82 69 68 82 79 80 32 65 78 68 32 80 82                79 86 73 68 69 32 67 79 76 76 69 67 84 79 82 32 49 32 87 73 84                72 32 80 79 83 73 84 73 79 78 46 EOM 21:57 <OTPBot22> DROP AGENT 48 ON DROP ROUTE 10004 COLLECT HTEM. REDROP AND                PROVIDE COLLECTOR 1 WITH POSITION.

[Xkeeper]

I rewrote my decoder to better handle the noisy and less clean recording and ... well

Code:

====== ABISM ====== LOOIN> BACKDOOR[enter] ENTER CODE > PANTIES[enter] ACCESS GRANTED. WELCOME. SELECT 1. ZEUS 2. AS0 3. AS1 4. AS36 5. AS60 6. AS64 7. AS99 8. CARGOCOM 9. WORMCOM 0. MORE OPTIONS Q. QUIT >4[enter] KCONNECTING AS36...CONNECT MODE SELECT> C#AAA2[enter] MODE SELECT>

Interesting issues:
Newlines (\n) decoded as "J" for some reason, I temporarily set J to "\n" for this log.

"[enter]" decoded as "M", too, so I manually changed the instances of Ms that looked appropriate. Maybe a decoding error or PM mistake.

...



That sure is an interesting code, though

[Xkeeper]

morningcoffee wrote:

- There's a long stream of clear ABISM tones at the end of the call from Robert. We're going to decode these.

My decoder doesn't like it nearly as much as the better tones we get from AS37, but it did manage to get some interesting things:

Quote:

O==?ABI J===?O>CCO M?Q JJACG7escE????!???? O? ? ?>=JCONECTO AS3>.CO O?LECT>OMODE SELECD.

Might play with it and see if I can get anything better.

[morningcoffee]

Messages from AS27 so far:


May 7th -

Quote:

DROP ROUTE 02015 CONTACT DROP AGENT 7. DROP AGENT 7 CONTACT COLLECTOR WITH POSITION.

May 9th -

Quote:

DROP ROUTE 10001 CONTACT DROP AGENT 2. DROP AGENT 2 CONTACT COLLECTOR 1 WITH POSITION. DROP AGENT 43, 7, 52 PROVIDE COLLECTOR 1 WITH FINAL INFO.

May 10th -

Quote:

DROP AGENT 2 CONTACT COLLECTOR 1 WITH FINAL INFO.

[morningcoffee]

We eavesdropped on the second phone conference today.

Audio: http://tinyurl.com/WORMference2

Full text summary here: http://pastebin.com/upbfTZxL


Important points:

- while Robert & Nick wait for Emtanon to join the call, there's interesting sounds in the background - tones, beeps, clicks and a computerised voice. We can definitely hear the voice say "at the tone, five hours and fifty one minutes" (and a minute later "five hours and fifty-two minutes") and then something else before a loud beep, so it's probable that it's just a speaking clock of some kind (as this part of the call was recorded at 0551 UTC).
- Emtanon's Steven was not present on the call because he had a "special assignment". Robert is annoyed by this. Steven is the only person working on the code currently because there is a "specialised driver" that his department deals with.
- As a result, Emtanon still aren't done with the bootloader code. They say they'll definitely be finished by Weds 14th. Robert is annoyed by this too because he wants it by the end of Sunday
- Robert schedules a follow-up call for Monday (Tuesday morning UTC) in case Emtanon don't have the code ready by the end of the weekend.
- There's a long stream of clear ABISM tones at the end of the call from Robert. We're going to decode these.

[drawbars]

Thanks for updating us coffee!! Sorry that I haven't been around lately.

[morningcoffee]

Big news!

We eavesdropped on a conference call taking place on AS36 early this morning.

Audio: http://tinyurl.com/WORMference

A full text summary of the entire conference call can be found here: http://pastebin.com/49XnXSWU


Important points:

- Robert Bramble AKA Robby is now back and apparently working for WORM again! He says that they realised he wasn't the person who'd been leaking information and he was able to return to work. He said he's "back in Denver".
- WORM are still waiting on the new bootloader from Emtanon, and J is unhappy with the delay. They are unable to reset Controller to restart AS36 manually as it has to be done in person due to security, and it's a remote unmanned site that is not easily accessible.
- They are currently using AS27 which is crappy, can only do "announcements" and isn't interactive. They are also worried that it's going to break soon due to some major technical problems. The field agents are complaining about having to use it.
- We got the phone number for AS27 for the first time and have been able to dial it. There is currently a "black OTP" style message on it, asking "drop agent 7" to contact "collector". We will monitor AS27 for changes or new messages.
- Emtanon are going to provide "the source code and a hex dump" in a drop ASAP in Region 10 (which comprises Oregon, Washington, Idaho and Alaska). They are also going to drop a book of the MXP20 manual and documentation separately.

[morningcoffee]

No major progress. Drop info is still not available on the agent system, QX not answered, unable to find anything new/relevant on any other of the phone numbers.

Current project is trying to find someone to visit the coords from ExcitingBooks' deleted cover as this is the only thing we have.
Unfortunately this is proving tricky as it's pretty remote and far away from any major city. We tried posting on reddit without luck. I'm currently attempting to contact local geocachers, but am not getting many replies

[arthurdent11389]

morningcoffee wrote:

ExcitingBooks deleted the picture that had the "coords" on it after it was posted about here. Also, several QXs have been answered overnight. Please see the list here: http://otp22.referata.com/wiki/(234)_222-0004#Submitted_QX

Here's the book cover that ExcitingBooks deleted:

[Xkeeper]

I haven't managed to find anything suggesting that the 1khz-wide noise is a meaningful signal. I asked #priyom about it and the general consensus is that it sounds a lot like OTHR, not very useful.

It looks a little more interesting if you take that clip and slow it down about 80% in Audacity (you can see the individual sweeps), but still nothing really exciting.




Given that similar sweeps appear earlier in the music, it might just be noise. Doesn't look very interesting.

[morningcoffee]

Over a week later and DROP1 and DROP2 are still "TBD" on the agent system message.

Quote:

/DROP1/BOOTLOADER FOR AS36/LOC/TBD/NOTES/TBD/ /DROP2/2014 SEASON MISSION OBJECTIVES/LOC/TBD/NOTES/TBD/ /SPECIAL/PLEASE PROGRAM BOOTLOADER TO REACTIVATE AGENT SYSTEM/

A QX asking for an update on the drops has gone unanswered.


At about 3mins 13s in the "industrial song" on AS, there is a weird "bubbles" noise that looks interesting on spectro.

http://dialer.otp22.com/2014-04.dir/2014-04-23%2007-48%20UTC%20-%20303-309-0004%20-%20.wav

Spectro pic: https://i.imgur.com/zc5RLIB.png

We looked into this very briefly but didn't continue investigating. I feel that there may be something hidden within the "bubbles" noise, similar to the "bloop" noise that we were hearing at the end of January that led us to the Norfolk, VA drop.