[Milsurplus] Siemens E-401

[Ulrich N Fierz]

Hi John and all
here in my shack is such a receiver to which I also did some work. You might be interested to know that this receiver not only was marketed by R&S as EK47 but the modules in it were shared in manufacture by both companies. In my E-401 all the frequency sythesizer modules were made by Rhode & Schwarz and clearly marked as such while the rest of the receiver is made by Siemens and has corresponding part numbers. I have not seen an EK47 open so I do not know how much of that R&S receiver was made by Siemens.

Having been in mobile radios at the period in question I was also involved in a shared project like this, done to raise the quantities of modules manufactured, sharing R&D expense while keeping one's own customer base. While our project was on the market for some time and reasonably successful, the exercise was not repeated due to the different philosophies in manufacturing. Would not be surprised to learn that in the case of R&S and Siemens similar differences appeared.

Just my 5c of "historical" information.

Have fun with your radios,
Ulrich

PS: the E-401 is a nice and well performing receiver, esp. when fitted with the optional preselector filter unit (on the rear of the set). It has switches to set frequency plus a clarifier. There is an FSK demodulator unit FSE-401 that can also be part of the system (as here in my shack).

 
Ulrich N Fierz
Telecommunication Engineering Services
Zurichbergstrasse 203
CH-8044 Zurich
Switzerland
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