[GreenKeys] A weird 14TD FWIW - TSEC/HL-1

[Nick England]

You might know that Teletype Corp built lots of cryptographic equipment for
the US military and NSA during and after WW2. Unfortunately, this stuff
doesn't turn up on eBay or CraigsList.

But I was recently given the tape reader section of a TSEC/HL-1 - it is
basically a M14 TD which then feeds a set of translator relays (which I
don't have), which turn 5 bits to 26 letters plus some control characters.

The HL-1 translator section energizes one wire per letter which goes to a
KL-7 or KL-47 rotor-based crypto machine (similar to the famous Enigma but
with 8 rotors). The HL-1 essentially completes keyboard closures for each
character on the tape.

The TD section that I have is shown here as well as complete HL-1 units
(unfortunately not showing the translator relays)
https://www.navy-radio.com/crypto.htm#hl1

My TD unit is evidently the TSEC/HLT-1 with connectors to a separate
translator section TSEC/HLI-1 in the AN/SGA-5 system picture here -
https://www.navy-radio.com/crypto/sga5-01.gif

If you have any more parts of machines like this, I'd be really interested
in seeing photos.
Cheers,
Nick England K4NYW
www.navy-radio.com
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