[GreenKeys] AN/UGC-6K 28 ASR adopted; manuals desired; radio suggestions welcomed

[Mark J. Blair]

I'm all excited that I have adopted my first 28 ASR, an AN/UGC-6K equipped with the auxiliary reperf and apparently two loop supplies. It has a few minor scrapes a bumps, the old foam rubber is nasty, and the tape equipment feels pretty gummed up with dried lubricant, but its overall condition is quite nice. The keyboard and page printer work with a little bit of stickiness. I think this rig will clean up nicely without a lot of effort. I'm very happy with it! The seller is lucky to live two doors away from another Greenkeys guy, so I got to talk to two of y'all in person yesterday. The seller and I BS'ed for a couple of hours after loading up the 28 and an AN/UGC-74B that was part of the deal, and it was a fine time. Then I used my tractor's forks to help me unload the rig in the dark at home, and managed to get it shoehorned into my house. For those of y'all who aren't allergic to Twitter, I posted a few pictures in this thread: https://twitter.com/nf6x/status/1205965787028062208

I was delighted at the coincidence that my order number was 28 when I stopped for lunch on my way to pick up that 28 ASR!

I've been downloading every 28-related scan I can find from the FANTASTIC http://www.navy-radio.com site, so I think I should have access to all of the technical information I'll need to work on this rig. But if anybody has a spare set of the printed Navy manuals for this specific AN/UGC-6K configuration, I'd be interested in buying or trading for them.

A while back, I picked up a nice desktop model 28 KSR in a light brown painted case. I think that's the "skintight" model? While it doesn't appear to be one of the military surplus rigs that I prefer, it was my first 28 series machine, and I was quite happy to acquire it. Well, it's been gathering dust for years at this point, and yesterday I finally got around to plugging it into my Gil Smith TTY232 loop supply and powering it up. It works just great! Nice and smooth. All that I had done to it was cleaning the type pallet a few years ago right after I got it, and then vacuuming off all of the dust it had accumulated since I adopted it. It purrs along smoothly with the RYRY test that I had included in the PIC processor in my TTY232.

I'm hoping that the 28 ASR is already geared for 60 WPM. That's how I plan to operate it, for RTTY use. If it's not already set up for 60, then I presume that I can swap gears with my 28 KSR while I look for the right gears for it.

I don't understand yet how the auxiliary reperforator was generally used in this model's Navy applications, or why it's apparently equipped with two loop supplies. Is the second loop supply for independent operation of the auxiliary reperforator, perhaps? I'll be studying manual scans and tracing wiring as I get to know my new toy.

My tentative plan for the 28 ASR is to pair it up with my Tempest Dovetron converter and some not-yet-identified military SSB transceiver for RTTY use. I do already have a project to set up an RTTY system around my T-368 transmitter and a pair of R-390A receivers, and I have a pile of parts to someday restore into a working AN/GRC-46 system (T-195 transmitter, R-392 receiver), and I have an AN/GRC-122B in its shelter. All of that gear naturally goes with Kleinschmidt equipment, so I think I should acquire a different radio to use with the 28 ASR and my Dovetron. I'm open to suggestions for a nice Navy SSB transceiver to pair with it. Ideally, something putting out at least 100W PEP, powered by 120VAC 60 Hz, and with blowers that aren't too deafening!



-- 
Mark J. Blair, NF6X <nf6x at nf6x.net>
http://www.nf6x.net/