TSEC/TSEC/KY-65 Narrowband Secure Voice Unit

© Brooke Clarke 2007



Home        Search    About        Contact        Products      Brooke's Military Information      Personal Home Page     Patent
KY-65 3/4 view
KY-65 Front Panel
KY-65 Hold Up Battery Compartment
under the stencled 81 is a small
red "X" which is the
shoot me here mark
Front Panel
positions for two BA-1372/U
one is a spare

Background
Description
AM-6747
Cables

Background

If you have any information on the KY-65 please let me know.

This is a voice encryption unit that's made to work on H.F. radio circuits.  The KYV-2, KY-8, KY-28, KY-38 and KY-57, KY-58 are designed to work in a 25 kHz wide channel on VHF or UHF frequencies where the propagation conditions are much different than what's found in the H.F. band.  The PRC-104 is one of the H.F. radios that was used with this box.

The packaging is derived from the PRC-25 radio (which is also the PRC-77).  It uses the CY-2562/PRC-25 battery box and so can use any of the batteries that fit this box including my 257477BA battery Adapter.

Also used with the AN/PSC-3  UHF satcom terminal.
There were KY-65A and KY-65(E-1) versions per AF Instruction 21-109 1 Oct. 2000.

A note in relation to the AN/GRA-39 RFI modification.
Laboratory tests verify the reported susceptibility of the AN/GRA-39 to powerful hf fields. Instability results from detection of the envelope of an AM signal by the remote unit microphone amplifier input circuit. The modification reduces the rf vulnerability of the remote unit by 40-60 dB over the 2-30 MHz band. The modified AN/GRA-39 is shown to be operationally compatible with the TSEC/KY-65 narrowband secure voice unit.

Description

What's left of the internal wiring on the back of the front panel is all white wires.  There's an interlock switch that will be opened if the front panel is removed from the box.

On top of the box there is a stencil "M28111" and just under the first "1" is a small red "X" which is the shoot me here mark for destroying the heart of the unit. under the M28111 is "RED BANK".  Note that Fort Monmouth and Red Bank are both in New Jersy.

FM 24-19 Section IV has info about using the KY-65, 2 ea. BA-1372 HUBs, CX-13168 cable between the RT-1209 upper AUDIO connector and the KY-57 RADIO connector. Z-AKE is an AC/DC power supply for the KY-65. CX-13211 cable between the KY-65 AUDIO connector and the AUDIO connector on the AM-6879 Amplifier-Converter.  Handset to AUDIO connector on KY-65.

In a vehicle installation the cable from the J-4885/GRC Junction Box goes to the speaker connector on the Amp-PS. The H-250 handset connects to the J-4885 HANDSET connector.  An LS-454 Speaker connects to the Speaker connector on the J-4885

Less than 10.2 volts causes a battery fail condition.  This is consistent with a 10 to 15 Volt range for a "12 Volt" supply and the CY-2562 battery box.  I wonder if the numenclature means "25" for the PRC-25 and "62" for the year?

The KY-65 uses the Parkhill algorithim.  If someone talks too fast then the message gets garbled.  This is because the output needs to have a narrow (3 kHz) bandwidth to work with HF radios.  A fast talking person will exceed 3 kHz bandwidth.

It think this system divides the 300 to 3,000 Hz voice band into 9 sub bands each 300 Hz wide.  The signal in any of the 9 bands can be changed to any of the other bands either as is or inverted.  So there are 18 things that can be taken 9 at a time or 18!/(18-9)! = 17.6 billion.  Note that the key is a fixed permutation of the sub bands and does not change with time like the more modern voice encryption systems, so no date - time input is needed.  It may be related to U.S. patents 2183248 & 3012098 assigned to Bell Labs?

KY-65 controls: & Indicators
INT BAT / AUDIO / EXT BAT works with the analog panel meter, upper scale 0 to 1.50 Vrms, lower scale 0 - 3.0 Vrms and near the center of the scale a green band for the battery check.
OFF / ZEROIZE / STANDBY / ON - standby uses the external DC power for keep alive, saving the HUB batteries.  You need to pull up the knob to bet into or out of ZEROIZE.
PLAIN / CIPHER
VOLUME
FILL SELECTOR allows selection of one of three keys
DELAY OUT / DELAY IN / SIG CLEAR - not sure?
HF / NON HF - H.F. has propagation problems that are not present on phone circuits.
Amber Light - "SIG/CIPHR RCV" - filament lamp "JKL 345" - would indicate an encrypted incoming message, but why?
Uses two each BA-4386 batteries, one active and one spare (also active and spare fuses).
HANDSET & FILL - standard U-229 type with 6 pins.
RADIO - 1" O.D. 26 male pin circular connector (the KY-38 also has a 26 male pin RADIO connector)  It's likley that the pinouts are the same.  There may even be cables that work with either the KY-38 or KY-65 and a radio or phone box.

The KY-99 Miniterm replaces the KY-65 for voice security.

AM-6747 Speaker NSN5895-01-056-4553

This speaker was made specifically for the KY-65.  It came out 24 Sep 1976, went inactive 2 Oct 1989 and was canceled 29 Mar 1996.  It might be fair to assume that the KY-65 came out about the same time and that the KY-65 was replaced about 1986 by the KY-99.

The speaker runs from either "24 Volt" Vehicle power using an internal voltage regulator or from a clean 12.0 +/- 0.7 VDC depending on how the power connector is wired.  Schematic on Jerry Proc's web page.

It's composed of an LS-454 with an added amplifier and a relay that prevents clear text from being heard on the speaker.  You would not want to be using a PA system to be giving out the clear text.  That's probably why the speaker was made.

It's similar to the AM-4979 Speaker that's for use on non encrypted radios.

Cables

CX-13138/U - "Y" type with 1 socket circular connector that mates to the Z-AKE power supply, a 4 male pin connector that mates with the AM-4749 amplified speaker and a 4 socket connector that may mate with a crypto junction box to pick up clear text audio.

CX-13168
CX-13211
KY-99 Cable might have commonality with KY-65?
NESA N00140-92-C-AB15, RT-1209 to KY-99, 29357-46923-202014-24
The RT-1209 end goes to an AUDIO connector on the RT and has a 5 contact U-229 type connector, except it looks to be TEMPEST rated.  KY-99 end that attaches to the RADIO connector is a MS27467T11B35S.  This is a 13 Socket connector.  This cable has a 1992 contract date, so the KY-99 was supported at least this early.
KY-99 RT-1209
1
A
2
B
3
C
4
A
5
D
6
A
7
n.c.
8
n.c.
9
n.c.
10
n.c.
11
n.c.
12
n.c.
13
n.c.

Links

Back to Brooke's Products for SaleCrypto, Crypto Machines, Crypto PatentsMilitary AudioSquad RadioMilitary Information, Home page

Home        Search    About        Contact        Products      Brooke's Military Information      Personal Home Page     Patent

This is the 01376 hits since May 15 2007 time this page has been accessed since since 15 May 2007.