Bwana Bob wrote:
> No HF, even as backup? Ancient history now, but I was in Tel Aviv on
> business in 1993 and all the embassies I saw had HF antennas on the
> rooftops.
Quite a number of U.S. embassies had HF backup until the mid-1990's.
Most of them in the third world have SSB "Emergency & Evacuation" gear,
but none for the record traffic circuit. There's so much demand for
bandwidth these days. There's a need for ISDN voice circuits, e-mail
and even video/imaging.
> Interestingly, most were dipoles fed with 600 ohm open wire
> line. One embassy had an HF log periodic.
Most U.S. embassies used open wire fed dipoles with KW-rated,
nitrogen-filled autotuners. Many foreign embassies use/used cage
dipoles with open wire line. It was seldom that you'd see any type beam
antenna.
> Wasn't the Ten Tec Paragon sold under GSA contract to government
> agencies?
It may have been, but it wasn't used by the U.S. Department of State.
Our SSB gear changed in the 1980's from Collins to Transworld. In
J5-land, I had a Paragon at home and I tried to wear it out making 75k
or so QSOs as J52US. It made another 65,000 at 9L1US before being set
aside for an Omni VI at A22MN.
> I wonder if any are tucked away in a corner of an embassy comm
> room somewhere... Just in case.
Nope. The Swedes in Guinea-Bissau used a large LP with a Drake TR-7 and
L-4B. Then again, all of their traffic was sent in the clear too.
Dave K8MN
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