[Boatanchors] GE radio

[Nick England]

G133F was an airborne surveillance version of the Collins 51S-1. There are some great web pages on the airborne surveillance ops in Vietnam. Yes it had the goofy knobs for operation in the dark but not nuke-proof. 

The vacuum tube RF stages in the R-1051 are there because Navy shipboard ops means that 1kw transmitting antennas are quite close to the receiving antennas, particularly on smaller ships. You can generate a LOT of RF at the front end that way. Nothing to do with surviving static electricity or isolating the local oscillator from DF. It also has to do with the fact that the same RF assembly is used in the xmtr and xcvr models of the R-1051 family. Most rcvrs don't also use the RF stages to drive a linear amp in transmit.  

Nick
(phone email acct)


On Oct 19, 2014, at 6:44 PM, Ron Bussiere via Boatanchors <boatanchors at mailman.qth.net> wrote:

> Hi Jim, thank you for that informed info. I read the Collins book and knew about Art and the General.
> I have a Bendix/General Dynamics R-1051B in the collection that has about the best sounding SSB  I have ever heard. But, with the wide filtering for ISB and the decade knobs, it's not too pleasant to use as a ham receiver. Great on a ship. 2 vacuum tubes in the RF stage to prevent an enemy for detecting the receiver.....
> 
> Fine on the surplus. I can remember back in the Navy, we had a huge warehouse filled with equipment to be disposed of because it was declared 'surplus' when the war in Viet Nam was winding down.
> 
> How about an LTV Temco Model G133F. It was a 'nuke proof', Collins 51S-1 for airborne use? Osterman said these have been seen at Fair Radio!
> Oh, the memories!!!
>