[Milsurplus] ATD + RAX vs. 1980s Racals

[gl4d21a at juno.com]

>George,
 
>The RA6790 is a 1980's vintage receiver. This may have been true in the early 80's but there are lots of receivers today which can be remotely controlled via RS-232C.
In addition, the RA6790 is not longer supported by Racal, it's a popular "vintage solid-state" boatanchor.
 
>Does you comment about recent pertain to new installations?
 
>Thanks,
 
>Mike N2MS


Mike:

Sorry, I mixed up my comments in a hurry to get a supportive agreement about 1930s equipment with Dave.

When the Gov't started looking for solid state replacements for the R-390s in the 70s, one of the added requirements was remote control.  At the time, there were solid state receivers better then the 6790, but there were none which met the rest of the specs and had the type of remote capability specified.  So, thousands of those receivers ended up in sites for the next 15 - 20 years instead of radios which could reliably hear weak signals.  I have used new 6790s in the lab which worked, but I never encountered one in service in a government site which was as sensitive as any of the half dozen Kenwood R-5000s in our inventory.  I hooked them in parallel through a power divider to perform site peformance measurements, and the Kenwood reliably heard signals the Racal ignored.  They passed self test, and apparently had satisfied some tech's maintenance testing, but were blah performers.  They were easily outperformed by their Cubic, W-J and Harris replacements, which, of course, were later receivers.  I never had the opportunity to hook an R-390 in parallel with a 6790, but from separate use, I can sure tell you which I would choose and it wouldn't be the 6790, which was also outperformed by several earlier tube type Racals, although I would be hard pressed anymore to come up with those model numbers.  And there is absolutely no comparison with the latest replacement, the Ten-Tec with the DSP in the IF, but that is a very unfair apples and oranges comparison.  

Hope this clarifies,
73,
George
W5VPQ 


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