Unusual and Rare Russian Cold War Pocket Spy Cipher Encoder
This is an exceptionally unusual Russian Cold War Era Pocket Cipher Encoder
that was carried by spies to quickly encode secret messages for high speed
radio transmission.
It is particularly interesting because it records the ciphered
messages on a magnetic tape without the use of any electronic or electrical
circuitry.
This is a very small and interesting encoder set which can easily be
concealed in a pocket.
It is used to write coded signals from a telephone-type dial input onto a
special metal tape in a cassette. Two digits on the dial are used to signify
each letter in the Cyrillic alphabet.
The tape cassette can be removed from the Encoder and mounted on a
transmitting unit where the tape is run at a very high speed producing a burst
of encoded data that keys a radio transmitter and broadcasts a very short
transmission containing the entire coded message.
These extremely short and fast messages are difficult for an enemy to receive
since they are only on the air for a very small fraction of a second.
The short duration of the message burst also makes it difficult for the enemy
to use direction finding radios to pinpoint the location of the
transmitter. This unit was used with Russian Radio Station R-353 operated
by the 'Special Forces'.
It is in very good working and physical condition and it is one of the very
few such units to escape destruction at the end of the Cold War. These units
were kept secret and no instruction manuals or even model numbers have ever
been discovered.
The coding unit (with the dial) writes the magnetic pulses onto the tape by
direct magnetic induction without the use of any electronic or electrical
circuitry.
Each dialed-in character rotates a series of permanent magnets past the tape.
This writes the pulses onto the tape and at the end of the dial's rotation, it
advances the tape.
This makes the pocket encoder independent of any power sources, completely
portable, and therefore ideal for clandestine operations.
$1,450 US
A view of the pocket encoder magnetic tape cartridge and programming unit
with their protective canvas carrying cases.
A closer view of the pocket encoder magnetic tape cartridge
which has been opened to show the internal tape transport mechanism.
A view of the pocket encoder magnetic tape cartridge
being inserted into the top of the programming unit.
A view of the pocket encoder programming unit being operated with the stylus.
The magnetic tape cartridge is seen on top of the programming unit.
A view of the internal mechanism of the pocket encoder programming unit being operated with the stylus.
The permanent magnets that pass by the magnetic tape and record the pulses
on the tape can be seen embedded in the brown plastic wheel.
$1,450 US
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