[Milsurplus] What is it?

[Hubert Miller]

Looks like free-running oscillator, which surprises me. Also, why sterile?
Why no nameplate? I don't get that.
When i first read 6360, i thought "Sonobuoy", but it's not packaged for
that.
Are you sure about the level monitoring thing? I'm not familiar with radio
use for that; in cities i worked in ( granted,
smaller places ) water level monitoring was done over phone lines, which are
ubiquitous in the city. 
And no modulator? How is the normal / abnormal condition signalled ?
-Hue 

-----Original Message-----
From: Milsurplus [mailto:milsurplus-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of
Robert Nickels
Sent: Thursday, June 23, 2016 8:03 AM
To: milsurplus at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] What is it?

On 6/23/2016 7:54 AM, n2lxm at juno.com wrote:
> Looks like a VHF Beacon Transmitter. The motor would drive the disk to 
> send out a preset message or code that planes could home in on.

In the combined opinion of W9RAN and WD8INC that is close - but it's neither
military nor Russian, nor most likely aviation-related. The missing crystal
would confirm the output frequency but while it is likely VHF, even though
the inductors in the PA area looks more like UHF 
to me.    The PA tube is almost certainly a 6360 since the balanced 
inductors and butterfly caps make it obviously a push-pull output stage, and
the recessed socket mounting would be to accommodate the height of that
tube, which is the only dual tetrode I can think of that fits what we see.

The application?   We believe this is an early industrial telemetry 
transmitter that transmits a unique identifier when triggered by some 
external event.   The markings around the edge of the cam switch may 
indicate "bits" that can be programmed by the user to create a unique 
pattern.   There is no modulator, the carrier is on-off keyed (OOK) just 
like modern-day temp sensors and RKE keyfobs do.  Since the 6360 can deliver
12 watts or more output up to 200 Mhz, this suggests that it was used in an
application that required covering significant distances.  It would most
likely be used at a location where AC power would be available to support
this power level.

We've seen remote monitoring like this done on dams and weirs, irrigation
systems, and valves, but a good bet would be that this device 
was used to monitor wastewater lift stations.   A typical city would 
have dozens of them, scattered over a distance of up to 10 miles, so 
having the unique identifier and sufficient power would be a must.    
These systems were also an early application for telemetry and SCADA because
the cost of failure is high enough to justify such an investment.

73, Bob W9RAN
______________________________________________________________
Milsurplus mailing list
Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/milsurplus
Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
Post: mailto:Milsurplus at mailman.qth.net

This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html