[Hallicrafters] Bomb Testing Wrap Up

[Richard Knoppow]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Roger D Johnson" <n1rj at roadrunner.com>
To: <hallicrafters at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Sunday, June 29, 2014 7:46 AM
Subject: Re: [Hallicrafters] Bomb Testing Wrap Up


> There was a higher frequency radio in this series, the 
> S-37. It covered from 130 to 210 mHz.
> It looks different than the s-27/36 models in that it has 
> the old fashioned German silver dial
> for frequency readout.
>
> Interestingly, the S-27 and S-36 have the same front panel 
> layout. I've seen some with a S-36
> name tag that say S-27 on the bezel! The S-36A has a 
> slightly different panel layout and is
> easily recognizable.
>
> 73, Roger
>
     FWIW, There were at least four variations of the S-36 
and S-36A used by the Navy under the type RBK-12, 13, 14, 
15. I think the RBK-12 was the S-36.  The other variations 
had an ouput for a panadaptor, some a blanking input for the 
panadaptor and the RBK-15 had an additional untuned RF stage 
to reduce LO radiation plus a coaxial antenna connector in 
place of the screw terminals. It also had the panadaptor 
connections.  The receiver in the photos could be any of the 
RBK variations, they all look the same from the front. I am 
not sure of the S-36A had the A added to the model number on 
the tuning dial cover. The label next to the tuning dial in 
the photo would tell which version it was but the pix are 
probably not high enough rez to see it. In any case, there 
is no panadaptor in the photo.
     The S-27 and the S-36 and its variations seem to have 
had wide application in the military for various purposes. 
The British used them to track German radio guide beams for 
missles and they show up in a lot of photos of intellegence 
operations.  As crude as this receiver seems now it was 
pretty advanced for its time and there was nothing else 
similar available commercially so a better receiver would 
have required a development and manufacturing process, all 
of which takes time. It is interesting that while we deal 
with light wave transmission now (via optical fiber) the 
range above 50 Mhz was considered rather exotic at the time 
these receivers were made.


--
Richard Knoppow
Los Angeles
WB6KBL
dickburk at ix.netcom.com