[time-nuts] More pictures of the mystery Collins Ru

Max Robinson max at maxsmusicplace.com
Sun Jul 28 18:24:23 EDT 2013


If they needed an airborne rubidium standard it must have been for digitally 
scrambled communications.  That has been around since the 60s.

Regards.

Max.  K 4 O DS.

Email: max at maxsmusicplace.com

Transistor site http://www.funwithtransistors.net
Vacuum tube site: http://www.funwithtubes.net
Woodworking site 
http://www.angelfire.com/electronic/funwithtubes/Woodworking/wwindex.html
Music site: http://www.maxsmusicplace.com

To subscribe to the fun with transistors group send an email to.
funwithtransistors-subscribe at yahoogroups.com

To subscribe to the fun with tubes group send an email to,
funwithtubes-subscribe at yahoogroups.com

To subscribe to the fun with wood group send a blank email to
funwithwood-subscribe at yahoogroups.com

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Tim Shoppa" <tshoppa at gmail.com>
To: "Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement" 
<time-nuts at febo.com>
Sent: Sunday, July 28, 2013 9:25 AM
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] More pictures of the mystery Collins Ru


> Googling a little bit, I find several references to a Collins rubidium
> package AFS-81 for airborne survivable VLF communications in the 60's
> (predating this unit by maybe two decades). Still trying to wrap my head
> around why that would need rubidium unless it was an airborne WWVB
> replacement or something.
>
> Googling also turned up the modern Rockwell-Collins 617A-1 VLF amp which
> seems to be a dinky solid state unit that is rated at a third of a
> megawatt. Still having a hard time wrapping my mind around that! Maybe I'm
> off by 2 or 3 orders of magnitude or the picture is just the control head,
> the real amplifier is the size of a building. A third of a megawatt must 
> be
> the size of the fixed transmitters used for VLF submarine communications.
>
> Tim N3QE
>
>
> On Sun, Jul 28, 2013 at 9:40 AM, Pete Lancashire 
> <pete at petelancashire.com>wrote:
>
>> maybe I should read things more often .. yikes I need a vacation
>>
>>
>> On Sun, Jul 28, 2013 at 7:01 AM, George Dubovsky <n4ua.va at gmail.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>> > Well, the outside label does claim it was made by GENRAD... ;-)
>> >
>> > 73,
>> >
>> > geo - n4ua
>> >
>> >
>> > On Sat, Jul 27, 2013 at 9:24 PM, Pete Lancashire <
>> pete at petelancashire.com
>> > >wrote:
>> >
>> > >
>> > >
>> >
>> https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/111617808980322733757/albums/5890266601277045697
>> > >
>> > > The board with the edge connector was inside the same bag the
>> > > connector was in, the bag was taped to the unit.
>> > >
>> > > I pulled the ends off first, but was immediately stopped with foam, 
>> > > it
>> is
>> > > glued in place.
>> > > Then when I finally got the lid with all the screws off, all there 
>> > > is,
>> is
>> > > one board covered in potting compound.
>> > >
>> > > The compound breaks away pretty easily. One can see where a couple
>> parts
>> > > were
>> > > replaced and there soft RTV was used. There are two precision 
>> > > resistors
>> > in
>> > > that area.
>> > >
>> > > The biggest surprise is the General Radio logo on the board !
>> > >
>> > > goo.gl/1XGG2F
>> > > _______________________________________________
>> > > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts at febo.com
>> > > To unsubscribe, go to
>> > > https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
>> > > and follow the instructions there.
>> > >
>> > _______________________________________________
>> > time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts at febo.com
>> > To unsubscribe, go to
>> > https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
>> > and follow the instructions there.
>> >
>> _______________________________________________
>> time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts at febo.com
>> To unsubscribe, go to
>> https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
>> and follow the instructions there.
>>
> _______________________________________________
> time-nuts mailing list -- time-nuts at febo.com
> To unsubscribe, go to 
> https://www.febo.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/time-nuts
> and follow the instructions there. 



More information about the time-nuts mailing list