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German Air Force signal intelligence 1956: A museum of comint and sigint
Cryptologia, Jul 1999 by van der Meulen, Michael
HF direction finding utilized Adcock antennas in conjunction with AEG visual radio direction finders (Figure 7). Similar set-ups were used by the radio control testing service of the former Bundespost. The bearings of several direction finders were plotted on a map. Where the lines crossed an error triangle was formed. The transmitter is likely located within the triangle. The sky wave is measured by the visual radio direction finder but the propagation channel introduces a bearing error. After some years of experience, the operator is able to correct this misbearing and the stylized hand represents this intuition of the operator.25 The HF radio direction finding operator has his own forms - Direction Finding Report. Again great care has been taken to make the display authentic down to the last detail.
Information exchange between the SIGINT Towers and central evaluation needed its own communication channels. For a long time the lack of these channels was a constant matter of irritation since the three service branches and the Armed Forces as a whole used at least four different wire nets. For many years, information was exchanged by common teletypewriters encrypted with the Lorenz-I-Mischer 544b2 26 using one-time tapes. The Association is patiently waiting for an I-Mixer for integration into the exhibited communication system. First the Lorenz Lo 15 was the teletypewriter employed, later the Siemens T 52 and T 100 (Figure 8).
The heart of signal intelligence was the evaluation and situation center where the results of interception with preevaluation from the operators were integrated, analyzed and transformed into the enemy order of battle. Here the SIGINT intelligence reports were generated which were forwarded to the Amt fair Nachrichtenwesen der Bundeswehr ANBw 27 to be matched with the information collected from other sources to give a complete picture of the enemy situation. The installations of the former evaluation center have been crowded into two rooms of the museum. On entering the center, the visitor sees the desk of the duty watch officer; to the left are three large plotting charts for the daily situation. To the right in the middle of the wall is a passage into the second office. On the wall to the right of the desk of the watch officer, flight plots of an Russian aircraft on an intelligence-gathering mission along the inner German border are shown in detail.
Turning to the right and entering the second room, the visitor encounters two desks of the evaluation sections. One desk is slightly to the left in front of the visitor while the second desk is to the right. Both workplaces have just been left by the operators for lunch and everything is ready to carry on the analysis. Forms and stamps, handbooks, dictionaries and files are on their place (Figure 9). The feeling is that at any moment the soldiers will come back on duty to handle a crisis.
V. PROCEDURES
The museum is located in Building 112 of the General von Seidel Kaserne, which is home to Fernmeldebereich 70. It is within the restricted military area. Visitors must call for reservations. No difficulty will be encountered except when more visitors call than the museum can handle at one time.
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