[Milsurplus] Mercury Comms

[mikea]

On Mon, Sep 11, 2006 at 09:41:40PM -0400, Jim Karlow wrote:
> David -
> 
> Yes - it is funny what one hold on to and what one throws away. I
> was never able to get documentation on these radios, but I know
> it exists. I was hoping that with the information I provided,
> someone could turn up the documents. I once contacted Collins
> Radio regarding the 618V-1 and they indicated that they no longer
> maintained documentation on this radio. They did indicate, however,
> that they were required to provide full documentation to be included
> as part of the permanent record of the Project Mercury program. In
> some dusty file cabinet somewhere this stuff does exist. I once
> also had the Mercury tracking station manual from the Kano, Nigeria
> station. It used a crystal controlled VHF convertor and an R-390
> as the IF. AMPEX FR-100 Telemetry recorders were used. Master
> Timing was done with a Vitro Timing Code Generator for establishing
> estimated AOS and LOS. For Gemini the converters and R390s were
> replaced by Vitro-Nems-Clarke Telemetry receivers.

We used AMPEX FR-1400 instrumentation recorders at the MSC when I was
there, 1965-67. Lovely machines, built like battleships. 7/14 tracks,
depending on the heads, on 1" or 2" tape. Freq response 50 HZ to 1.5
MHz direct, DC to 400 KHz FM at 120 IPS, top end down an octave for
each time you cut the speed in half. I've always thought of them as
the peak of analog tape technology. If I could get one at a price
I could afford, I'd give it serious thought.

-- 
Mike Andrews, W5EGO
mikea at mikea.ath.cx
Tired old sysadmin