We've got a Soviet MODEM! 

Re: red phones - in the US, the red phone was supposedly a direct line of communication from the president's desk to the premier of the USSR, to ensure the possibility of dialog no matter how tense relations got. Don't know if that was reality, but that was the pop culture understanding.

If V.24 then: 104 = RD/Receiving data 106 = SD/Sending data 107 = DSR/Data set ready 109 = CD/Carrier detect Each represent a pin in the connector.

I worked for Burroughs Corp in the very early '80s, in data comm, and we had a 9600 modem, which was the fastest thing around at the time, so that 19.2 device is pretty impressive for the era!

Hi! Tose switches you call P2K were also used in Polish radios, TVs and science equipment. We call them 'isostat'. They are real pain in the ass. Apart from tendency to break, even small amount of dust or grime can cause the loss of electrical connection. However, the tendency to fail can be useful. You can buy solid equipment for the price of a damaged one. Of course, if you have the patience to repair these switches :). Anyways, thanks for interesting video and stay safe out there!

I love electronic markets like that, you always find some interesting gems there.

Just 30 seconds in, and I'm compelled to comment - "this tiny modem"... holds up modem very roughly the size of an IBM 5150 PC. Literally busted out laughing. You're awesome. And hilarious. Now, back to watching.

Looking forward to a Soviet Lan party between your devices

This is niche subject, but indeed very interesting one, thanks for sharing And I am truly glad to see that life goes on. Wish you the very best and hope to see more of your projects.

The Kiev market looks amazing! Have you got any more footage of your visit?

Love your videos! The workmanship of this modem looks absolutely first class! In the 1980s I worked for Tymnet, a packet-switched data network, one of the first in the US. The network primarily provided low-speed (300bps to 1200bps) asynchronous dialup access via 32-bit nodal computers (clone of an Interdata 832) front ended by racks of low speed modems, located in closets (for real) around the U.S. These nodes were inter-connected with high speed (whoo hoo!) trunks via 9.6 kbps synchronous modems, across which user packets were multiplexed via a proprietary protocol. Host computers were typically directly connected either via a synchronous line (9.6kb again) or a custom channel adapter developed for IBM mainframes. Keep up the great work!

8:21 I thought for a moment you would show a western modem from the era mounted inside the box.

In 1985, I worked for Hayes Smartmodem charged to develop PCB layout. At that time it was 300 to 1200bits/s (V21 & V22), so this Russian modem with his 19200 was clearly advanced military equipment. Anyway, this PC was designed very well without VLSI IC inside but only standard logic gate.

If loop mode is like loopback mode on western modems, that will send the same data back to the computer that it receives from the computer. It's used to test your serial port settings to make sure you're sending and receiving the correct data. It's interesting that you got an alternating signal in loop mode, that suggests it could have a different function. Or perhaps it sends an alternating signal when it's not receiving a valid signal from the computer? Usually on western modems an RS-232 signal will be around -13V when idle, and any signal from -3V to 3V is considered invalid, so if this worked like a western modem and it's receiving a signal around 0V (gnd), it could be transmitting the alternating signal to indicate the error. I'm not sure what kind of signalling soviet computers used for serial communication, but presumably that alternating signal will go away once you wire it up correctly and it's receiving a valid signal from the computer.

WOW. a modem actually built for surviving a nuclear war.

I've just found your channel, and I'm loving the videos on Soviet computing equipment. I've read a little about the computers of the Soviet block, but unsurprisingly, there isn't much information available in English. I would like to share some English terminology with you, not to be negative or mean, but to be helpful: The "crate" that the card slides into is called a "card cage", and rather than "varnish", I think the card was dipped in "epoxy resin" (most people call it just "epoxy" for short).

Awesome video, as always. Looking at that "tiny" modem, I cannot help but think just how far we've come when it comes to computer technology. Stay safe, and keep those awesome videos coming! PS: I'm working on the Patreon thing.

Interesting to see the red phone. I am in the UK and my father was a senior civil servant here. I visited his office when I was 11 or 12, which would have been about 1982 or thereabouts. He had two telephones on his desk, both of standard GPO design as would be found in people's homes. There was a normal grey one and also a red one, and he told me to never touch the red one. I later learned. not from him but from sources on the web, that this was the nuclear warning phone, which was not to be used except for receiving calls about incoming attacks, or perhaps reporting a nearby explosion. The site has long since been sold by the government and is now a housing estate.

I see those switches in old radio and amps here in europe , you know, am/fm/ukw etc. press one , and the current selected pops out.

People are still zipping around in soviet era Ladas because they're simple and easy to repair. They didn't get everything wrong. Simple, easy to repair modem, fuse plug on the outside. Look at those massive heatsinks, and it has no fan. It's like an old Western or Japanese stereo receiver from the 70's, almost empty inside because the case needed to have room for convective cooling. lol

12:28 hmmm, somewhere I have seen such connectors already))

The red wine phone, without entry dial, is for point to point communication i guess.

The 100 series numbers on the front panel are CCIT V24 standards defining ground, RX date TX data etc. Amusing that the USSR directly copied them.

I would guess the "HC" button on the front would have something to do with the "Hayes Comand" set. If this were a western design then it would be communicating with the computer via a standard serial port maybe that's a direction to look.

Look how big it is!

12:08 Super cool to see your version of Akihabara. :)

Commissioner Gordon? What?! The Jokers Loose Again!

nice artifacts . im learning a lot from u computer sience and technology . i rly wanted to explore the zone it was planned but as a foregiener i have to keep this idea in the resorts. Oh and the red phone in my company (still state owned) they never removed the phones :D

A lot of the computer (and electronics) magazines from the 70s and 80 are now online , scanned and OCRed, at World Radio History, plus the popular archive sites. The number of companies that were busy making computers is amazing.

It is built like a TANK !!!!. the wiring, the coating on the board. Nice.

Nice video again, I'm looking forward to see it working. And my suggestion: If You know someone with 3D printer You can make the new switch buttons.

I would love to watch a video on that electronic market. That pic you showed had strong cyberpunk vibes :D

Red phone, obviously a direct link to the KGB for reporting dissidents.

This thing has the feel of "we're making these things for the military anyway, so why re invent the wheel" kind of product. The only part it seems like they skimped on was the control buttons, and that could just as easily be 30 plus year old plastics decaying. Was that DB-9 connector (C1) used to connect to the phone line a standard thing in the USSR for civilian telephone systems or would the modem have needed an adaptor cable to hook up to the network?

Hello! Interesting video! When I saw a big box - I hope that there is a "channel level" like in dial-up home modems.I mean establishing connection with an another modem, correction errors. But I didn`t see any CPU or MCU inside - so, it means that there isn`t any channel level.

Ребят ,спасибо за видео! Интересно.

The red phone is to call the red district and order a comrade lady worker of the night?

uhhh what a giant Size....Same size as the 2400 kb/s modems in the ICBM Launch Control Centers from the 60's

Hi Aleks! Thank you for your great insight into Sovjet technology! I love it! In most of the "Computers of Chornobyl" series you say something like "This is a clone of Western ...". It feels like almost everything was cloned. Specifically in the 80s there were other CPUs available. e.g. Motorolas 68k family which was far more powerful than Intels 8088. Did they clone this as well? And why didn't they just build there own CPUs? Or did they? Wouldn't that have been much more cost efficient than reversing all that Western stuff? Oh yes, and the red phone: Isn't it said that it directly connected the presidents of the USSR and the USA?

Nice Modem. Thanks.

Nice PCB. discrete devices, of an era when a team designed PCBs. and designs lasted a few years. 1973 $250 for the 8080 6800 etc, 1975 the $25 6502 1MHz CPU, 1980 the $5 4MHz CPU , today the 10c 38MHz RISC-V MCU. plust all the bigger faster MCU CPUs.

The general style of construction is not surprising. It was one of 4 available housings that can be used for almost anything. Standardisation made it very cheap and available in large quantities. Even though the parts themselves are high quality.

уважаемый автор, а слышал ли ты про советский вокодер АТ3001 упаковывающий голос в цифровой поток 1200 бит/с ? вот это я считаю вещь обогнавшая время! видел ее вживую в составе станции засекреченной связи в 1989 разработана кажется в 1985

The card and the backplane connectors are a giveaway that the card was used in other larger equipment and then repurposed for this box.

The connectors on the front were a typical end of a Soviet era phone line or it has to be adapted? Back in the day in the US the phone lines were connected without a detachable plug.

Uploading a RU-vid video through one of these is gonna take some time... Conformal coated, so the bits don't fall out if you put it upside-down? The power supply is also way overkill. 19.2k is pretty fast, most the old huge 80s modems only go up to 1.2k.

Заземление - protective earth

At least things were made to last

I'm a big fan of you guys... Greetings from Sri Lanka.

I actually have the documentation on all the versions of the modem we use them in my early career in intelligence and yes I was in the Soviet block that was my section back then and these things we even used them now mind you they weren't the fastest but they were mission critical robust

And I thought 23-pin d-type sockets were uncommon. Thats the first time I have seen a 23-pin hd socket!

The modem card itself reminds me a bit of and old Octocom card. But they might differ.

When i saw that mil spec was my first thought. When it has to work thats what it takes.

In Soviet Union, modem dials you!

I can't guess what the red phone is for (unless it's for sending out for pizza in time of emergency) but it looks terrifically cool! Thanks for this Alex, most enjoyable and I'm hoping Mrs. Alex is very well.

I’m guessing the red phone was to call the sysops of the data centre? I remember that used to be a much more hands on job in the past Also with the empty case, Maybe the modems could have multiple boards/connections, for use with multiple machines? Just a guess

Shine varnish =conformal coating at a guess

Do like the poster, on my bedroom wall I have a small ship Soviet ensign likely stolen when the collapse happened and it now adorns my wall. I have some other funky posters from Soviet times around the flat and have the largest Soviet watch collection here in the UK, just added a kinda Soviet one to the collection today a CCCP Time which has the awesome Slava 2427 automatic movement inside, "Golden Soviet Submarine 1970" in a slate grey dial, that is going on one of my Slava tank T bar displays.

That phone is gorgeous

They made a nice clone, but most of the time they did cut corners where they could.

the slowest thing I ever used was a 14.4 baud and ICQ didn't work well on that slow thing.

great job at making the modem bigger than the computer itself :P oh wait. :P

those units exist within 'the west' too. ericsson t65 units (also the wall mount version thereof) with no dial and just a green and red light or a field telephone dynamo on them. for use where the dialing is done somewhere else, there is an operator (yep them old manual telephone exchanges with the plugs still got installed brand new up until the 1990s ;) or just for closed circuits or to connect them to actual field telephones. obviously. also it's not like that stuff is only available in gray (or for ze germans in boring ral green ;) and then there are networks that use different signalling alltogether. such as the railroad telephone networks with all kinds of weird blips and blops that are clearly neither dtmf nor pulse nor voltage dialing. whereas the military stuff still uses a normal siemens city exchange :P nowadays that's mostly ss7... but if you nuke that it no longer works so the other stuff is always still there too. brand new. as if it's 1850. :P (lets just say that if you keep it all operational there is never a shortage of telephone connections ;)... intercom (combined with atc radio for some reason for the helipads), pstn in both mechaanical drum central exchange variety as hand switched, isdn/ss7 :P and voip. lol.

I dont get the complaining. The russian / USSR stuff is quite sophisticated to see and to watch. I think it is a beauty of electronics but in a different way then what we are used to. Serves the same purpose > connecting you with up to 19.2k bits a second to the former internet we know as of today.

Wasn't the phone dedicated to call the secret police?

Isn't it interesting how 'Chernobyl' became a word for a certain kind of time capsule?

Joke: Chernobyl Computers "lights up and works" even when it is turned off..

Remind's me of my first modem, it was made by GE, (DM200?) for use on a phone line. It was originally designed for 200 bps, but later modified for 300 baud. It had a rack case, an early version of a 19 inch, but with the mounting ears half way down the side, rather than on the front like a normal 19" rack. It had several vertical boards, transmit, receive, filters, control, power supply etc. This rack was then mounted inside a desktop enclosure kind of the size of an IBM PC AT (the original IBM vers) but not so deep. In use these usually ended up on the floor next to, or behind one's desk, as there was a much much smaller control box that sited on your desk with the telephone. In use, you'd dial a number on the phone (originally a time share mainframe etc) then when you heard the appropriate tones come back, you'd flick a switch on the control box, and the modem would take control of the line (rendering the phone dead) You then turned to your terminal and started typing etc.

Regular modem can do 56.000 bps or more I imagined that applying radioactive isotopes to chips and transistors can make them run 100 times faster.

modular design for dedicated modem is strange. it it possible to insert it in a computer with q-bus?

Parallel to serial Serial to Parallel

in 'the west' ofcourse you simply either kick a normal modem into 'leased line/bare copper' mode with AT &L1 and then save that configuration to nvram so they just work back to back, no pabx battery power needed or order a few westermo line extenders (which are technically not even modems. just glorified opamps cranking the power of the signal up so it can pass a few dozens of kilometers of copper) closed circuit or not... 19k2 wasn't bad for the days when this thing clearly was first made :P not even in the 'west' :P

You are cool Nice content!!!

What would be cool is to hook it up to an rs-232 USB and hook it up between two Linux machines. Linux was born the year the USSR died.

USSR had the best computers during that era!

I'm guessing there's no telephone dial, operator assisted?

TINY modem ....

check if it makes actual modem noises on the line (and isn't an 'increased power' based line extender ;) and just hook it back to back with a us-robotics courier with v-everything and see if they nicely play along. (probably. if it actually is a modem ;).... if they stuck to ccitt baud rates and ccitt line descriptor numbers they probably also stuck to everything else the ccitt mandated :P or just dialup some isp. portmaster 4's and later also handle quite the range of weird old shit. lol. (that is after all what you pay them for. to make equipent that doesn't nag if your customer bought his modem from bell in the 1970s or from stalin or from best buy in the early 2000s :P if it does make actual modem noises the 'closed circuit only' stuff is just some 'approval' thing from 'back then'. think it'll be fine. it has all the line fork transformers and analog amplifier stuff right there at the end of it. looks like an actual modem. this thing is probably not gonna take out half the telephones in moscow if you do just run it over a public line :P

Будешь ремонтировать то все электролитические конденсаторы сразу под замену!

How Does it perform when compared with western equipement from same era

Aaand that is part of the reason the USSR lost the cold war - too good quality stuff in some sectors. Great Video.

mmmm. 80's Soviet modem. Stay safe out there guys. Your home has had a really bad year, but. Contrary to the wishes of some parties. You are still there. Thank you for continuing on. Gonna buy a pipyat poster when funds free up, because city planning and layouts interest me. As for the red phone. Typically I associate those with 'things have gone very bad.' Considering the location I suspect the red phone had gotten used on that day.

I love the piss yellow board speaks to the bleakness of the Soviet union.

In Soviet Russia, the modem dials uou

i have a line and a modem. Let me know if you want to test, and i will put a BBS up for you to dial in to.

“Socialistic version of the COM port” 😂

3D print the button

So .... Were the technicians who worked on the ye-s computer system called .... YES MEN? HA!

You coult test it under voip

Tiny? Lol

Ну а что понятно. Не парились взяли готовый корпус и пихнули туда логику.

oh look mum. normal 'western' ccitt v.24 signal line numbers. '104' (rxd) '106' (cts) 107 (dsr) 109 (dcd) etc. how very un-soviet of the soviets :P now we know what it does too. very convenient for western spies :P (where did they even source those leds from. didn't know they had a led factory there ;) tbh they could also have picked some other baudrates not derived of 'western tv standard crystals' 1.8432mhz to make it a bit harder to spy out and hack it :P (only reason baudrates are what they are is because the xtals were cheap and available in masses due to the tv industry ;) obviously something that is a power of 2 or 10 makes more sense. like euro-isdn nicely running at exactly 64000 bps per b-channel and 16000 bps per d-channel. none of those weird speeds there.

В дитинстві бачив такі плати на смітнику АТС станції. СРСР не рахував гроші....

uau

секуенс ))) сіквенс !

Are you still in Ukraine?

Чому немає україномовного каналу?

Staat USA US ARMY Today we kill 20 000 tousend Gypssis in Trizla City Prilep Staat Mazedonien OKEY