The Headlines puzzle was created by an NSA employee for
recreational purposes for cryptographers who just want to kick back
and solve something "easy" while honing their skills during lunch
breaks and off hours. Headlines puzzles require solving five
related cryptograms, each a simple substitution cipher with spaces
and punctuation shown. Each of the five is encrypted using the same
mixed alphabet shifted for each headline. See the full description
on the
American Cryptogram Association website. Headlines are
enciphered using a setting, a key, and a hat, which combine to form
the mixed K3 alphabet and its shifts. Be sure you understand this
description before you attempt to solve this puzzle.
There are three caches in this series using the same five
headlines. For the first and easiest puzzle you must find the
setting. To do this, solve the five cryptograms below, then write
the five cipher alphabets so that the letters representing the same
plaintext letter are aligned vertically as in the ACA example. Read
down the columns until you find a five-letter word. That word is
the setting. Again, see the full ACA explanation if that is
confusing.
Once you have found the setting, assign numbers to the five
letters according to their places in the alphabet, i.e. A=1,
B=2..., Z=26. Multiply the first four numbers of the setting
together to get a five-digit number. Subtract from that
12571 to get another 5-digit number, and call that nnnnn. The North
coordinate is N37 nn.nnn. Multiply the last three numbers
together to get a four-digit number. Add to that 1789 to get
another four-digit number, and call it wwww. The west coordinate is
W122 0w.www.
Here are the five headlines:
1. XLI HS QGGL HBDZQ SE DOCIGBI NK *ANZJ.
2. *M.Z. VJDOKE NJARM UX FAD OXDUKMU XD UY
3. *BCNW'Y INUGBM YANUB OZFEO ... OZFEO ...
4. *ESLGEJ YJMLWFJ OH *HGDZEVM EYWOSLHW
5. YNDTHZDJRHCF NHSCFT TBCND TRCPD, KNHDAFM, CR AQNEU
All three in the series are micros. Bring a pen.
Headlines are particularly difficult for several reasons. They
include proper nouns and acronyms, each is very short, and although
they use the same K3 alphabet, each is shifted with respect to the
others, so each must be solved separately. Headlines often omit
short words and ignore grammar rules. To make it easier, certain
rules are followed in this series of caches which will aid you in
solving.
- Each is a real headline taken verbatim from a local
newspaper.
- Original punctuation (but NOT capitalization) is kept (e.g. can
be USA or U.S.A.)
- An asterisk (*) is placed before each proper noun.
- The original headlines appeared within 30 days of each
other.
- The key, setting, and hat are all related by a common
theme.
This cache is a micro. Bring a pen.
The other two caches are:
Headlines: The Key and
Headlines: The Hat.
You can check your answers for this puzzle on
Geochecker.com.