Shortwave receiver FE-8 / BN-58

Wandel & Goltermann 1958 for the Federal Intelligence Service.
Loaned by Dr. Heinrich Peyers

The shortwave receiver FE-8 / BN-58 was part of the spy radio system SP-15 of the BND.
It was developed in 1958 by Wandel & Goltermann in Reutlingen and is completely transistorized. This made the small design possible by the standards of the time. This made it easier to hide the receiver.
The frequencies from 2.5 to 24 MHz are covered, divided into the green range 2.5 to 9.1 MHz for tuning with the crank on the right and the red range 9.1 MHz to 24 MHz for tuning with the crank on the left.
Power is supplied by a built-in rechargeable battery 6V/225 mAH. In operation, the power consumption is no more than 8 mA. This allows an operating time of about 100 minutes.
Normal shortwave receivers at that time had at least five times the size and were equipped with tubes.

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RT-3 Fast Transmitter / Burst Encoder

Wandel & Goltermann around 1958 for the Federal Intelligence Service.
Loaned by Dr. Heinrich Peyers

Radio transmitters can be located by direction finding. All intelligence agencies had special departments for radio reconnaissance. The direction finding process requires a certain amount of time. In order to extremely shorten the time of the transmissions and thus make the bearing more difficult or even impossible, fast transmitting devices were developed. They required only a fraction of the time to transmit messages compared to sending with the hand-operated Morse key. They were simply connected to the transmitter instead of the Morse key.
In the case of the device shown here, codes are set using a slide switch underneath the flap. To transmit, the crank at the front is turned. This also had the advantage that the operator did not have to know the Morse code by heart.
The reception of these messages was done by devices that could automatically decode the messages at the transmission speed. Or more simply, the messages were recorded on tape and then the tape was played back considerably slower.

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Stamps

Offprint from the Soviet Union from 1990

Series of stamps of the Soviet post with portraits of known KGB spies. From left; S.A. Baupshasov; R.I. Abel; I.D. Kudra; Kim Philby; K.T. Molodin.

© COLD WAR MUSEUM

Tynar miniature camera

Miniature camera for 16mm cine film offered by Tynar Cooperation Los Angelos Calif. from 1949.
Loaned by Dr. Heinrich Peyers

This small camera uses the 16mm cine film. The recording format is 10x14mm, so 14 shots could be taken.
It was not specially designed for intelligence agencies. It could be purchased normally in photo stores. However, due to its small dimensions, it was popular with intelligence agencies in both East and West.

© COLD WAR MUSEUM