[Hallicrafters] Byron has a Manson, Bob has a different Manson

[Joel R. Hallas]

I encountered Manson receivers twice. Once when working for Manson Labs in
Wilton, CT in 1965, before they were absorbed into Hallicrafters in Chicago (I
went elsewhere being a die-hard CT type!). Few knew what they were for.

When I left CT for Raytheon in MA as a new EE I found them again! They were
used as receivers in an HF over-the-horizon radar system. Each receive site had
20 sets, receiver and synthesizer. The receive sites were up and down Europe
and the transmit sites were in Asia. You can probably figure out what they were
looking at!

The receivers were good, but the synthisizers were the best available at that
time in terms of phase noise. I was involved in the development of test
equipment to measure them and it was pushing the state of the art.

So one chassis is the HF receiver. complete except for HFO. The other chassis
is the synthesized HFO. The receiver can use another signal source as HFO. The
synthesizer can be used separately as an acurate signal source, but the
indicated frequency is the receive frequency, not the output frequency. After
all these years I don't remember the IF offset (or even my phone number <g>).

I hope that helps.

GL and 73,
Joel Hallas, W1ZR



WF2U wrote:

> Bob's Manson is an ISB receiver (independent sideband - LSB and USB can be
> received at the same time on separate channels on the same frequency) with
> synthesizer control and what looks like a tunable preselector/input filter.
> It doesn't have a military tag on it.
>
> Byron's Manson is  part of the military GRC-129 system which was a dual
> diversity system including 2 R-1247/GRC-129 receivers (Manson modified
> R-390A's with relays enabling to switch the receiver from the internal
> local oscillators to the external synthesizers) and modified T-368
> transmitters (synthesizer input instead of the local VFO, AM modulator
> removed and SSB exciter installed instead.
>
> I had the set of the synthesizers and the receiver sideband adaptors a few
> years ago, which I sold to someone who was restoring a GRC-129 system.
>
> 73, Meir WF2U
> Gowensville, SC
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: hallicrafters-admin at mailman.qth.net
> [mailto:hallicrafters-admin at mailman.qth.net]On Behalf Of ah7i at atl.org
> Sent: Wednesday, January 14, 2004 1:19 PM
> To: boatanchors at mailman.qth.net
> Cc: hallicrafters at mailman.qth.net; milsurplus at mailman.qth.net;
> collins at mailman.qth.net
> Subject: [Hallicrafters] Byron has a Manson, Bob has a different Manson
>
> Bob was told his Manson came from a missle silo but is skeptical.
> Byron's Manson needs a R390(A?) to make it work.
> Bob's Manson appears to be capable of working without any external help.
> But, he doesn't really have a clue what he has, so have a look.
>
> http://www.edebris.com/catalog2/item/1080
>
> and please tell me what you know about it.
>
> It uses vacuum tubes in both units.
>
> 73,
> -bob
> ah7i
>
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