[Milsurplus] Question(s) about TMC receivers

[Nick England]

You can find the STR-5 sales brochure here -
http://www.virhistory.com/tmc/tmc_pages/tmc_ssb_db/tmc_ssb_page.htm
and the manual here
http://www.virhistory.com/tmc/tmc_pages/tmc_manuals/tmc_commercial_manual_page.htm

Here's my understanding:
Lots of HF links were fixed frequency - Military and govt. RTTY &
voice, the airlines overseas SSB channels, weather fax broadcasts,
etc. So the STR-5 might show up at airports, weather bureaus, local
and state emergency operations centers, embassies, as well as probably
more esoteric places. In larger Comm Stations there'd be a separate
receiver facility which might not be located where the operators were.
Volume & maybe BFO tuning were remotely controlled.

Normally they'd just leave a receiver at a particular frequency and
select among receivers to change channels. A receiver frequency might
be changed to make a substitute for maintenance purposes or perhaps
for some frequency changes from summer to winter (just guessing at
this one).

FYI - here's a Navy comm station with a wall full of TMC's earlier FFR
receiver, which was tunable but usually operated in crystal-controlled
fixed frequency mode.
http://www.navy-radio.com/rcvrs/frr49-02.jpg

cheers,
Nick K4NYW
www.navy-radio.com

On Mon, Feb 21, 2011 at 12:36 PM,  <radioman390 at cs.com> wrote:
>  I have a pair of TMC-made  STR-5 "strip" receivers which I hope to
> sell
> soon. Basically its a rackmount HF receiver which uses plug-in
> subassemblies which control the frequency and mode. The plug-ins are
> rather sophisticated with a big crystal oven and a demodulator section.
>
> I've tried to figure out where and how they were used. I assume the
> receiver/power supply portions were permanently mounted in the
> operations are, and nearby (maybe under lock and key?) was
> a rack which contained multiple subassemblies, powered up to keep the
> ovens hot and the frequency stable. They'd change the plug-ins
> according to the mission need. Maybe they changed frequencies according
> to DEFCON levels?
>
> So I figure Cheyenne Mountain or maybe a WHCA site, but does anybody
> know for sure?
>
> The TMC website has the receiver listed, but the link to the photo is
> broken.
>
> http://webspace.webring.com/people/st/tmcvintage/index1.html
>
>
>
>
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