On Sat, 2009-08-29 at 22:46 -0500, Walter Hopper wrote:
> As a veteran of the Korean War, I can attest to the capability of the
> BC-610. I was a cw intercept op with the Army Security Agency and was
> stationed in Germany during the Berlin blockade. Little transmitting
> we did... however, if needed we had a complete mobile/portable RTTY
> station which consisted of a BC-610, a Hammarlund Super Pro
> receiver... along with model 15 RTTY printer, typing perforater,
> bomar head (not sure of spelling) and tape distributor.
> If we were sending traffic.. we had the capability, using wire
> antennas, to communicate with far off places at 60 wpm running a
> pre-perforated tape. I can't remember our output power, but I think
> it was 500 watts continuous. The BC-610 was a real work horse. All
> of this equipment was mounted in a van on the rear of a 2 1/2 ton
> truck. The truck towed a 10 kw generator and we had plenty of fuel in
> another trailer. We also had a whip antenna mounted on the rear of
> the van for quick operation. Incidentally, the Super Pro was the
> predecessor to the R390 receiver.
In the services, yes, but with the bandswitched LO as the first
oscillator and its inherent instability, the R390 was a new design
without the bandswitch in the LO and with all the high frequency
oscillators crystal controlled that gave several orders of magnitude
improved frequency stability and precision. The SuperPro was made by
Hammarlund, while the R390 was a Collins design.
>
> You guys have brought back memories which go back 55 years. At that
> time, I would have found it inconceivable that capability could be
> placed on a card table. Times certainly change. A Jupiter, laptop and
> a solid state amp could do the same thing.
Or smaller an FT-857D... It could hang on the lid of the lap top.
>
> Walt K5VV
>
>
73, Jerry, K0CQ
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