Hallicrafter radios in World War Two

Status
Not open for further replies.

Token

Member
Joined
Jun 18, 2010
Messages
2,379
Location
Mojave Desert, California, USA
I wish I could remember if it was a TDY or a TDY-1, but that escapes me. I will say that these sets now reside back in their crates- back in the "Indiana Jones" warehouse- and if it were within my powers I would say-





"You'll drive out there ?.... they're all yours !"

Shoot, and I would be there inside 12 hours to boot. But alas, it will not be.

I worked at a Navy facility 35'ish years ago that had all of these things we are discussing, I mean every version of every early (about pre-1950) RCM / ESM / ELINT receiver and jammer that I am now aware of, setting on a shelf in storage. Complete systems, both in boxes and just setting out. Including a few of the very limited production systems and hand built one-of-a-kind prototypes from NRL that never went into serial production, systems that literally have no survivors left today. Four, 40 foot long, shipping containers lined with shelves and full of gear.

But, this was before I developed my interest in these early systems. Sure, I collected radios at the time, had since the 1960's, but not this early military gear.

But I was exposed to it all. That may have planted the seed.

Those 4 containers did eventually go to DRMO and were sold for salvage, but I did not find out about it until much later so by the time I started following up to try and buy them they had all been sold for scrap metal. I saw the same basic thing happen to the only complete AN/WLR-1 that I know of that made it into civilian hands.

And that is the problem, that is why I have started my collection. Some of these systems, even some made in large numbers, have no known survivors. Lots of museums have onesies and twosies of the pieces / parts, but, depending on which suites we are talking about, very few (pretty much none) really have complete, representative, example of how the gear would have looked in action.

This is a little known but very important technological step and segment of history, that is completely disappearing as time goes on. Just one of many disappearing histories, I know, but one I really have an interest in and so maybe can do something, a little something, about. One of the problems is that while the basics of this development are known, many of the details were highly classified at the time. And as the generation of people involved die out it is getting harder and harder to gather information on some of the lesser well known aspects.

T!
 

ladn

Explorer of the Frequency Spectrum
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Oct 25, 2008
Messages
1,284
Location
Southern California and sometimes Owens Valley
The RDO receiver is the Navy version of the AN/APR-4 I mentioned in my previous post. In fact it uses the same tuning modules as the AN/APR-1 and AN/APR-4. The RDO was made by E. H. Scott (APR-1 and -4 were not made by Scott, but rather various other vendors). The RDO is a bit more fancy than the APR-4, a bit more versatile, and a bit larger.

I have an APR-4 with tuning units out in the garage. I haven't fired it up in years, but I remember it is being fairly sensitive using home brew antennas. I also have the PAN adapter, but since it 400Hz, I don't have any way to test it.
 

Token

Member
Joined
Jun 18, 2010
Messages
2,379
Location
Mojave Desert, California, USA
I have an APR-4 with tuning units out in the garage. I haven't fired it up in years, but I remember it is being fairly sensitive using home brew antennas. I also have the PAN adapter, but since it 400Hz, I don't have any way to test it.

I assume that is the APA-10 panadapter? There were several models used with the APR-4, the APA-10 is the most common I can think of that is 400 Hz.

T!
 

VK3RX

Thaumaturge
Premium Subscriber
Joined
Feb 24, 2013
Messages
449
Location
Australia
The other day I visited an airways museum, sponsored by the government organisation I used to work for.

To quote their "About Us":

The Airways Museum is an aviation museum, but with one difference - there are no aircraft! Instead, the Museum houses a collection of national importance that traces the development of Australia's civil aviation airways system through innovation and technical development from it's beginnings in the 1920s to today. The story is told through artefacts and photographs, and illustrates how Australia has often played a leading role internationally in aviation development.

I noticed an SX-28 there amongst other receivers, obviously having seen quite some service in our hot and dusty outback Aeradio service somewhere.

The Coming of Aeradio Part 1

SX-28.jpg
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top