[GreenKeys] Military TU's

[Jerry Lockett]

Having owned (and still do) several Frederick units I got the distinct
impression the old ST6 was heavily cloned using Frederick circuits and
terminology.  If you lay a ST6 manual along side a Frederick manual
the similarities are sort of obvious.  Same with the old TTL2.  I've
always believed Irv lifted a lot of ideas from Frederick and used them
and similar circuits in the TTL2 and ST6.  This is not meant to demean
Irv in any manner, but just an observation I came to many years ago.

I don't know where the Dovetron ideas came from, I do know it changed
rather dramatically over the years as the first ones were no where
near as good as the later versions.  I got hold of one of the first
units sold, and was able to compare the circuits in later versions,
and there was a lot of difference.

Is Keith Petersen still alive and active?  What about Harry Pyle, who
worked for Vic Poor at Datapoint?

Jer
ttyman at gmail.com

Of course the military has access to the best engineering talent there
is, but it has been the hams I think who have worked the hardest on
TU designs for signals that are weak and fading and QRMed and where
diversity reception is not available.  So we see things coming off
government surplus like the Dovetron and the Frederick that are basically
ham designs.  (Dovetron started out as a ham product.  Frederick was
not in the ham business but when Vic Poor was designing their stuff he
was an active participant in the discussions going on among Irv Hoff and
Keith Petersen and others back in the mid 1960s.)