The F-Hell machines were synchronous, like the more famous Feldschreiber, and operated at 5 characters/sec (245 baud). This machine was intended for land-line press service, and was widely used before, during, and after WWII. Most of the German news services during World War II transmitted their news (propaganda?) as wire services and on LF and HF using these machines. A service was still in operation between South Africa and Holland in the 1960s, and Russian services in Cyrillic text were still in use in the 1970s. In Chinese the service still exists, although transmissions on HF are few.

The machine illustrated above may have been an F-Hell machine, and it was obviously receive only. The F-Hell equipment was introduced in 1932. It incorporated the famous double line printing technique and the same font as the Feldschreiber. (Picture courtesy of Arie PE1AQB)