RUSSIA, CIRCA 1975

Spies, clandestine operators, as well as soldiers in the field used burst encoders to record and send brief messages at a very high rate of transmission to avoid enemy detection. The R-014D, also called the “Datchik” can be connected directly to a radio transmitter's morse code input. With its own internal battery pack or using an external power source, it transmits data at either 75 or 150 signal changes state per second. Messages would have been up to 62 characters that would be stored in the internal memory, with each character standing for a coded message.

At the front is the keyboard that consists of 16 rubber keys. The dark rectangle at the center is the lamp panel that is used for visual feedback when entering data. Behind this panel is the battery compartment.

These machines were used, for example, by Russian Special Forces (Spetsnaz) during the Soviet war in Afghanistan (1979-1989).

During the Cold War, most countries of the Warsaw Pact used a variety of Russian communication vehicles and radio stations to allow communication in the vicinity of the vehicle (short range) as well as over greater distances (long range). Such radio stations were often equipped with UHF, VHF and sometimes HF transceivers. They were commonly built inside trucks like the GAZ-66.

Also included are two exceptionally rare original Russian language R-014D books containing the original electronic schematic diagrams.