[Milsurplus] AN/BRR-3

[Mike Morrow]

>No AN/BRR-3 here, but I still have an AN/WRR-3. A damned good receiver, IMHO.
>
>It sure as hell was designed for submarine service all right; it's so 
>damned heavy that without it the sub would submerge a whole lot slower!

A joke, I know, but...as far as USN stuff goes, the AN/WRR-3 isn't
particularly remarkable in weight.

Besides, the W in WRR indicates that its for both surface and submerged
applications.

Only a B, as in BRR-3, indicates that it is designed specifically for
submerged application.

The AN/BRR-3s were normally kept supplied with RF by a towed bouy that had
its own automatic depth control system.  It travelled just below the ocean
surface to allow a whip antenna to project above the water.  The bouy was
controlled from the control room, not the radio room.  Rarely, the bouy
would flood or have other problems.  It would be abandoned by having its
cable cut.  No telling how many millions of dollars that cost.  Only one
bouy could be carried, so there were alternate ways of receiving all those
megawatts of VLF energy that the Navy was continuously transmitting.

Mike / KK5F