Mid-october 2008 I had the incredible fortune and honor that Hans, PAØCX / DJØSA, was so very generous as to entrust me with his original 1938 Siemens Hell-Feldfernschreiber. Coincidentally, it was his 1977 landmark article in Electron that got me "hooked" on Hellschreiber (the English version of this article appeared in Ham Radio a year and a half later). Hellschreibers are rare to begin with, but this unit is even more rare: it is complete with an original power connector and case-cover. As such, it is a "living" museum piece that I am very honored to be allowed to operate and take care of! It is in its original state and still has that typical "surplus" lubricant smell.

Hans, PAØCX, explaining the history and other particulars of this Hellschreiber

As the name suggests, these Feldfernschreibers were used for field operations by the Wehrmacht (German armed forces). The case has attachment points for a harness to carry it as a backpack ("Tornister"), and even has tracks for inserting a cushion to protect the lower back of the soldier who had to carry the machine on his back.

The Hell Feldfernschreiber T typ 58

         
The identification plates on the electronics box and the keyboard unit of this Hellschreiber

The Motor-Generator identification plate of this Hellschreiber
(Fabr. Nr. (Fabrikations Nummer) = serial number, Bez. (Bezeichnung) = designator, Zchg. Nr. (Zeichnungs Nummer) = drawing number, Spanng. (Spannung) = voltage, Baujahr = year of manufacturing, Tz (Teilzeichnung) = detail drawing)

The type label ("Typenschild") above shows that this machine is a "Typenbildschreiber". The labels on other Feld-Hell machines have a designator such as "Typen-Bildschreiber", "Feldschreiber", "Feldfernschreiber", or "Telescrittore" (for the Italian "market"). The lid of the carrying case has a similar designator, and I have also seen a lid with "Typenbildschreiber für Drahtbetrieb TBs/24a-32".

Here are my notes from Hans' account on the background of this particular Feldfernschreiber:

Some time after the war (WWII), Hans had heard rumors that the Dutch Red Cross had acquired a large amount of surplus communications equipment. After a number of years, the equipment had become obsolete and the Red Cross needed to dispose of them. Most of it went to radio amateurs and surplus dealers. Hans had missed out on this opportunity, but via the Red Cross office in The Hague, he managed to get the address of a barn where the "old junk items that nobody wanted" where kept. This must have been around 1960. It turned out that indeed, most of it was junk. One item did catch Hans' attention, though he did not know exactly what it was... Looked like some interesting kind of  printer. So Hans took it home with him, where he powered it up with the required 12 volt. It made noise and the motor turned. A replacement ink-roller was improvised, and Hans got the printer to work: as you type, the typed text appears on the paper tape. The thing worked fine, and it was stored away. Some time later, Hans got a phone call from Arthur, PAØCX, whom he did not know yet. Arthur had somehow found out that Hans had become the owner of a Hellschreiber. They agreed to give it a try, and scheduled a QSO on 80 meters - it was a success.

Amateur radio stations must identify themselves by transmitting their assigned call sign at the end of each communication and at least once every 10 minutes during communication. Depending on the country, this may be done with one or more of the following means: CW/Morse, phone, RTTY, image emission, digi-mode. The keyboard of the Feldfernschreiber does have a key for Morse-code telegraphy. However, Hans used a clever and simple home-brew gadget to transmit his (French) ident in CW. It consists of a piece copper-clad circuit board with the text "F2ZI HELL" etched in Morse code. It is connected in parallel to the keyed output of the Hellschreiber. Simply slide the probe pen across the two tracks to send the ident.

The call-sign ident pad of Hans, PAØCX/F2TI

This technology dates back at least to World War 1. Rather than one or more fixed messages, the pad below has a separate track for all letters and figures. The letter-marker (the white bar above and across the tracks) could even be slid sideways, so as to achieve simple offset encryption. It was introduced so that German airborne artillery observers did not have to learn Morse-code.

1915 Telefunken "Morsezeichengeber"

(source: p. 17 in ref. 5)

Not only did Hans give me his Hell Feldschreiber, he also gave me his Siemens Hell "GL" (72c) from the 1950s. It uses the same principles and font as the Feldfernschreiber, but a start-pulse is transmitted at the beginning of each character.

The Siemens-Halske-Schreiber "GL" (Hell 72c )

Here are my notes from Hans' account on the background of this particular Hell "GL" machine:

A number of years after WWII, the German government provided development aid to Africa. Some of it was in the form of communication equipment, including a couple of hundred "GL" Hellschreibers. Some twenty odd years later, a barn was discovered somewhere in northern Africa, with all these Hellschreibers in it. Turned out they had never been used, as the US had already shipped teletype equipment to them. The entire collection was returned to Germany and sold off to radio amateurs [ca. 1974]. They went for 200-400 Marks a piece.

REFERENCES

	Ref. 1: "Directive to Commander-in-Chief of United States Forces of Occupation Regarding the Military Government of Germany" JCS 1067, April 1945
	Ref. 2: "Post, telephones, telegraphs and radio", Law No. 76 of the Military Government - Germany, 22 April 1945
	Ref. 3: "Science, Technology and Reparations: Exploitation and Plunder in Postwar Germany", John Gimbel, Stanford Univ. Press, 1990, 280 pp., ISBN: 0804717613
	Ref. 4: "Secrets by the thousands", C.L. Walker, Harper's Magazine, October 1946, pp. 329-336
	Ref. 5: "Bordfunkgeräte - Vom Funkensender zum Bordradar", Fritz Trenkle, 1986, Bernhard & Graefe Verlag, 263 pp., ISBN 3-7637-5289-7

©2004-2010 F. Dörenberg N4SPP

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