[Milsurplus] AN/FRR-21

[Mike Morrow]

Gene wrote:

>Know of a FRR-21 for sale , how much should i offer ?
>14-600 kcs ( Yes VLF )

It's almost the same thing as the shipboard AN/SRR-11, except 19-inch
rack mounted.  It's Korean War vintage.  It uses little pencil-diameter
solder-in tubes that are in plug-in modules that can be a challenge
to troubleshoot without the extender units that the USN used.  It also
uses a projection screen type of frequency display.  You'd want to
make sure that the glass with the frequency scale engraving isn't broken.
You also want to make sure there's not a lot of slop and backlash in the
tuning gears.  If the main gears ever become unloaded (the spring relaxed,
the tuning can be very aggravating until the gear loading is corrected.

AFAIK, all the sub-mini tubes are still easily and inexpensively
obtained new-old-stock from most old tube dealers.  I need to get a
supply for my old AN/SRR-13A that I got from Navy MARS 40 years ago.

Personally, I'd prefer the much more modern, but still vacuum tube,
AN/WRR-3.  That was still in use on the nuclear submarine I served
on more than 30 years ago.  I have an AN/WRR-3B that I got for about
$150 on ebay a few years ago.  Although much more modern than the
AN/FRR-21, it uses normal 7- and 9-pin tubes, and has a mechnical
digital frequency display.

IMHO, an AN/FRR-21 would be worth about $200 tops, if it is more or
less working.  The same goes for the MF AN/FRR-22 and the HF AN/FRR-23.

A manual can be downloaded (for the AN/SRR-11 version) at:

http://bama.edebris.com/manuals/military/srr-11-12-13/

Mike / KK5F