[BULK] - Re: [TowerTalk] Vacuum tube 100 years old today

[Gene Smar]

Folks:

     I believe we (The West and its Allies) even ridiculed the backwardness
of the then-Soviet design.  Imagine - vacuum tubes, of all things!

     However, when our Intel folks (the Govt agency, not the chip maker) got
through reverse-engineering the avionics, they found some solid state
devices in the bowels of the aircraft.  They concluded that the Soviets,
ever mindful of EMP and its effects on electronics, purposefully designed
the outward avionics with vacuum tubes - much less susceptible to EMP damage
than transistors!  The interiors of the craft were less vulnerable to EMP so
radio stuff located there could be made of ICs, etc.

73 de
Gene Smar  AD3F

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "James C. Hall, M.D." <nwtcc at earthlink.net>
To: "'Steve Katz'" <stevek at jmr.com>; "'Jim Miller'"
<JimMiller at STL-Online.Net>; <towertalk at contesting.com>
Sent: Tuesday, November 16, 2004 5:50 PM
Subject: RE: [BULK] - Re: [TowerTalk] Vacuum tube 100 years old today


> Hello:
>
> This has been a great thread ! I was born in '56, but still had to learn
> tube stuff in electronics class in H.S. I am reminded on the pilot that
> defected from the USSR and flew his MiG to Japan. Everybody was amazed
that
> the radios on-board were all in tubes.
>
> 73, Jamie
> WB4YDL
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: towertalk-bounces at contesting.com
> [mailto:towertalk-bounces at contesting.com] On Behalf Of Steve Katz
> Sent: Tuesday, November 16, 2004 3:31 PM
> To: 'Jim Miller'; towertalk at contesting.com
> Subject: RE: [BULK] - Re: [TowerTalk] Vacuum tube 100 years old today
>
>
> > I was in missile class in the Air Force in 1963 and the lab and course
was
> > entirely in tubes even though the missile was entirely in transistors.
> > The
> > adaptation was very short (minutes, maybe and hour) and said that
> > transistors worked like tubes except at lower voltages and power levels.
> > That was all there was to transistors !!!  Not bad really for a class
that
> > hadn't been rewritten yet (and that may have been all the instructor
knew
> > at
> > that time).
> >
> > 73, de Jim KG0KP
> [Steve Katz]  I'll bet the missle wasn't "all transistors" in 1963.
> The guidance and targeting systems used high voltage microwave tubes
> throughout the 1970s, including SAMs and AAMs.  Of course, a lot of those
> late 1950s designs didn't actually reach production levels until the
> seventies (no kidding).  We were building (Army) Hawks designed in '63 at
> Raytheon/Martin (forebody/aftbody) in 1978; the Patriot didn't go into
full
> production until after that, and its acquisition system still used
> tubes...ditto the Sidewinder, Sparrow, etc.  -WB2WIK/6
>
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
>
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any
> questions and ask for Sherman, W2FLA.
>
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>
> _______________________________________________
>
> See: http://www.mscomputer.com  for "Self Supporting Towers", "Wireless
Weather Stations", and lot's more.  Call Toll Free, 1-800-333-9041 with any
questions and ask for Sherman, W2FLA.
>
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