Most recent updates on this page:

1-July-2010: started discussion about production volume and surviving Feld-Hell machines.

    

Mid-october 2008 I had the incredible fortune and honor that Hans, PAØCX, 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 "board" of Hans, PAØCX/F2TI

Where have all the Feld-Hells gone?

No, this is not the title of a nostalgic song that I just composed! It is a Frequently Asked Question: how many were built and how many still exist today? The total production volume is usually estimated at 14 to 15 thousand units. I do not know exactly where this number originated, or how valid it is. This is one of the reasons that I have started collecting detailed information on surviving Feld-Hell machines.

So far, I have gathered partial information on over a dozen machines. Only the electronics box and the motor-generators appear to have the year of manufacture on their label. Among these, the electronics box with the lowest serial number (0053) was built sometime in 1935, and the highest serial number (11346) was built in 1943. In my own machine, both the electronics box and the motor-generator have serial number 3386, though the prior is from 1938 and the latter from 1936. However, the keyboard/character-drum unit has serial number 16931 and is likely a replacement unit. Obviously, for spares provisioning and manufacturing stock, more sub-units where built than complete machines.  Note: one should be careful when making statements about production volume, strictly based on serial numbers! Serial numbers of military equipment where not always assigned on a consecutive (running) numbering basis ("Durchnummerierung"). They were sometimes assigned in blocks that were not completely used, or consecutively manufactured units where assigned serial numbers from different blocks. This was primarily done to confuse the enemy. 

	If you own, or have access to, a Feld-Hell machine, please provide me with all info on the labels ("Typenschild") of the various sub-units, as well as stamps and other markings, etc. I have listed the information that I am looking for in  Excel spreadsheet format here, and in pdf format  here. You can contact me here.
	The information that I have collected so far is in this spreadsheet.

Production volume, based on serial numbers of Feld-Hell electronics boxes known to me

(electronics box, motor-generator, keyboard/drum, and base unit typ. do not have the same serial nr.)

Not surprisingly, the production volume seems to have surged during the early part of the war. It is reasonable to assume that production was scaled back rather significantly in the course of 1944.

At the conclusion of the war, a directive was issued to the occupying forces (at least the western allies), calling for the capture and destruction of all military equipment and materiel. Also, the public was ordered by the military government to surrender all telecommunications equipment (including carrier pigeons!).  Ref. 1, 2. Of course, a search-and-grab was organized to systematically capture and carry off all items and intellectual property of value due to their advanced "high tech" nature (e.g., "Operation Paperclip"). Ref. 3, 4. It is impossible to determine how many Feld-Hell machines still exist around the world today, in private collections, museums (on display or in storage), private attics, basements, and garages. Their condition ranges from "mint and operational" to "barely suitable to be cannibalized for spare parts". I estimate the number of surviving Feld-Hells to run into the dozens, rather than hundreds.

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

©2004-2010 F. Dörenberg N4SPP

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