[ARC5] [armyradios] BC-221 Testing Results

[J. Forster]

Modern mechanical engineers should take a look at what WWII Battleship
Dead Reckoning ande Fire Control computers were like.

They are better art (and engineering) than what hangs in many museums. The
even had mechaqnical integrators and, wait for it, differentiators. I was
stunned by the sheer cleverness.

-John

=====================



> On 24 Nov 2012 at 10:48, Jay Coward wrote:
>
>> Another
>>  surprise to me was the TS-1 oscillator used with the AN/ARR-1 Homing
>>  adapter. This is a cavity tuned unit set to 245 MHz. It was off by 30
>>  Hz as measured with an Agilent spectrum analyzer. Jay
>
> But, but, but...... those old timers were stupid compared with we
> smarty-pants engineers with our powerful 'pooters today! How could they
> possibly have done that?!?!? Slide-rules? What are those? Gee...your
> Agilent measuring equipment MUST be off, or not recently calibrated, or
> you
> read it wrong, or didn't have your glasses on, or your glasses
> prescription is
> out of date, or you're too damned old, or.....
>
> Crap! What a bunch of arrogant idiots!
>
> A "technician" friend of mine at a midwestern university bought an R-389
> from me some time back.
>
> His shop assistant was a young woman who was working towards a degree
> in mechanical engineering.
>
> When my friend unpacked the R-389, she sniffed and turned up her nose. It
> was too big, had too many of those ancient vacuum tubes in it, too heavy,
> and drew too much power, and was simply "not with it"....until he plugged
> it
> in, turned it on, and activated the motor-driven permeability tuning.
>
> Then her eyes bugged out, and her mouth dropped open, and she spent the
> rest of the day operating the motor drive and watching the slug-racks go
> up
> and down at different rates, and different directions, and different
> distances,
> and she didn't say another word.
>
> Too bad all of these modern engineers can't be taught a little humility...
>
> Ken W7EKB
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