Cyberpunk Film Festival
One of my fellow makers/artists from my home region, Sophi Kravitz, put out a call last week for participants to do a quick short video for her team’s entry into HOPE 2020’s Cyberpunk Film Festival. Never did a film before, so I cleaned up the workbench to make it a presentable background, put on a “costume”, and said a few words they gave me in front of my phone’s camera.
We didn’t win, but it was still pretty fun.
The Hallicrafters SX-25 In World War II Service
I finally found a piece of evidence that shows the Hallicrafters SX-25 in military service.
This U.S. Army Signal Corps photo is from the December, 1943 issue of Radio Magazine.
QRV?
http://www.arrl.org/straight-key-night
I haven’t been on HF CW in a while. New Year’s Eve might be a good time to start again.
AVHM blog now live.
Hammarlund R-1511/GR Receiver
Found this interesting receiver at the most recent Meriden, CT Hamfest last October, and since the price was right hauled it home with me. Why did it catch my eye? For starters, the construction is a dead giveaway that it is a commercial/mil-spec receiver of 1960s or so vintage. Second, the radio had no identifying markings, and no apparent evidence at first glance of being debadged. That is sometimes an identifier of equipment that saw clandestine service in its past life. Third, there was some circuit modules marked as “video converter” which had piqued my curiosity. Finally, if I was a little more awake that morning, I might have recognized the front panel as that of some variant of the Hammarlund SP600 which did see extensive government service. Regardless, it was a mil-spec HF receiver, probably a Black Radio, the price was right, and it was something you normally don’t see at a local hamfest. Once I got home, a Google image search found identical units, and identified it as being an NSA-issue R-1511/GR. Further Google searching discovered that a fellow hobbyist had scanned and uploaded the manual.
From what I discovered online, the R-1511/GR was developed for the National Security Agency in 1968, and was based on the Hammarlund SP600. It saw service until at least the mid 1980s, and based on my research appeared to be part of the AN/GSR-4 Store and Forward Environmental Collection System. With this system, wideband RF spectrum was recorded to magnetic tape for later analysis. While this is an easy task these days for any hobbyist with a PC, free software, and an SDR such as the Lime or HackRF One, the NSA was doing this in the 1960s.
Like a lot of gear at hamfests these days, this receiver was from a silent key’s estate, and its specific history, and that of the silent key, is uncertain. He was possibly in the ASA, NAVSECGRU, or maybe even USAFSS as they would have been the service members familiar with this system. Did this piece of gear listen to the Soviets, the Chinese, or someplace in Central or South America before retiring to civilian life in some former veteran’s ham shack? We’ll never know, but we can safely guess that it was interesting in a “behind the curtain” manner.
The frequency coverage of this radio goes up to the 6 Meter ham band (50-54 MHz.), and the SP600 is still a good performing receiver by today’s standards. This unit, when not being used for displays, is going to be parked on the center of the 6m beacon subband to monitor and record VHF propagation conditions.
Manual:
http://www.nj7p.org/Manuals/PDFs/Military/TEM-0541-01-0A%201-Jun-68%20NJ7P.pdf
Military History Display – 2019 Veterans Chow Down – Mahopac, NY
Last Month, a few fellow historians and I from the American Veteran’s Historical Museum did a display for the Veterans’ Chow Down held by the PFC Joseph P. Dwyer Vet 2 Vet Program of Putnam County.
Fellow historian Joe S. with his display of uniforms, headgear, and ephemera from the Vietnam War to the present.
Fellow historian Paul M.’s World War II home front and USO display.
My display of Cold War era radio gear.
AN/PRC-25
AN/URC-92
R-1511/GR
October, 2019 Terryville, CT Library Display: The Heraldry of Citizen Soldiers
A small insignia display of New England Military Reserve and National Guard units assembled for my local library. The exhibit ran for the month of October, 2019.
For each and every veteran – Thank You!! Armistice Day Becomes Veterans Day World War I officially ended on June 28, 1919, with the signing of the Treaty of Versailles. The actual fighting between the Allies and Germany, however, had ended seven months earlier with the armistice, which went into effect on the eleventh hour […]
Veterans Day 2019 — Pacific Paratrooper
Militaria, & Knife Collector’s Show, Patterson, NY – 10/19/2019
https://www.thedufflebaginc.com/tdb1/militaria3.html
My friends at the Duffle Bag are holding their bi-annual show this Saturday.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC00BT1qDznaudTv7YrFq_2w for a video.