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OWVL
DDR
Stasi
  
← 32620
  
32620
Operating instructions - this page is a stub

This page holds some guidelines for operating the 32620 speech/morse generator that was used during the Cold War behind the Iron Curtain for the Numbers Stations of the Eastern Bloc and its allies. For a more complete (but partially incorrect) description of the operation, please refer to the original German manual of 1985 [A]. The device was initially developed for the East-German Stasi, but has an English user interface to accomodate non-German users like Cuba and Poland.

Keyboard
Key Description Alternative
0 Zero NO
1 One YES
2 Two Dot (morse) 1
3 Three Dash (morse) 1
4-9 Number  
: Attention (German: Achtung)  
/ Separator (German: Trennung)  
+ End of speech transmission  
= Address separator in morse code telegram  
? End of morse transmission 200 ms relay
SPC Space  
RES Reset (puts device in startup situation)  
STA/STP Start/stop playback of telegram  
→ Forward Skip setting
← Backward Skip setting
MODE Set mode of operation  
INP Input of telegram  
OUT Output from a given point 2  
CLR Clear (message)  
EX Execute (in combination with CLR, OUT or RES  
  1. Only when in Morse Dot/Dash mode.
  2. Only when the message is entered via tape and is correctly formatted.

Errors
The following error messages can be reported on the display:

  1. This is not a function key
  2. Keyboard error, press key again
  3. Messager buffer in use and not sent, cannot overwrite
  4. Function key not allowed, use (0-9), (:), (/), (+), (?) SPC or (=)
  5. Only YES or NO allowed (when setting MODE, also → and ← allowed)
  6. Morse telegram must start with (:), or invalid key for dot-dash input
  7. Deleting a used not-sent message
  8. Illegal address, use ← or → only
  9. Transmission speed can only be set with (0-9)
  10. Incorrectly formatted message (+ or ? missing), or empty buffer
  11. Error when reading tape (illegal character)
  12. No tape
  13. Clear buffer (CLR) must be confirmed with EX (or use ← to cancel)
  14. Memory full
  15. Speech module not present
  16. Manually entered messages cannot be started with OUT, only with STA/STP
  17. Can only repeat messages from the same originator
Documentation
  1. Gerat 32620 Sprach - Morsegenerator (German) 1
    Operating Instructions. Extracted from [C].
    MfS, 18 February 1985. 27 pages.
  1. Document from BStU archives [2], kindly supplied by Detlev Vreisleben [1].

References
  1. Detlev Vreisleben, Personal correspondence
    July 2017.

  2. Bundesbeauftragte für die Stasi-Unterlagen (BStU) 1
    Federal Commissioner for the Stasi-Records.
  1. Full name: Bundesbeauftragte für die Unterlagen des Staatssicherheitsdienstes der ehemaligen Deutschen Demokratischen Republik (DDR) — Federal Commissioner for the Records of the State Security Service of the former German Democratic Republic (GDR) — officially abbreviated to BStU.
  2. Document from BStU archives [2], kindly supplied by Detlev Vreisleben [1].

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© Crypto Museum. Created: Thursday 30 December 2021. Last changed: Wednesday, 24 August 2022 - 20:07 CET.
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