[Milsurplus] thoughts on the SRR family of radios

[mstangelo at comcast.net]

Thanks to Ray, Nick and Ken for the interesting information on the SRR line of receivers.

It seems like the R-390(A) receiver was the F4 Phantom jet of communications receivers. I read an article about experiments using HF communications on a project Gemini flight. They used R390A at the earth stations. I've also seen pictures of them in various scientific as well as military installations.

The Navy still uses HF for backup communications. Does anyone know what equipment is used today - Cubic, Harris, Collins?

Mike N2MS
  
----- Original Message -----
From: Ray Fantini <RAFANTINI at salisbury.edu>
To: Nick England <navy.radio at gmail.com>
Cc: Military Surplus Mail List <milsurplus at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Mon, 09 May 2016 17:25:12 -0000 (UTC)
Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] thoughts on the SRR family of radios

I stand corrected on the time line, and if you look at the RBA,RBB and RBC dinosaurs and assume that the SRR was there direct descendant that makes the radio remarkable to the extent that almost nothing was carried over from the previous family of radios to the SRR family.  Also interesting to note that the SRR operational issues may have resulted them being replaced with a land base receiver like the R-390, some years back there was a discussion on what branch of the service pushed forward innovation and some of the best equipment and it’s good to see that a radio developed for the Army for teletype operation outperformed its Navy counterpart and ended up on ships.

RF

From: Nick England [mailto:navy.radio at gmail.com]
Sent: Monday, May 09, 2016 11:25 AM
To: Ray Fantini
Cc: Military Surplus Mail List
Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] thoughts on the SRR family of radios

I like them fine too Ray, but your timing is off. These receivers were primarily replacements for the pre-war RBA/RBB/RBC and RAL/RAK receivers, and pre-dated the R-390A. They were replaced shipboard by R-390A + CV-591 for FSK/SSB (and later by R-1051).
They were part of the Navy's big change in maintenance philosophy from component replacement to modular replacement that happened post-war.
The series included the following -
AN/SRR-11, -12, -13 shipboard LF, MF (rare), HF
AN/FRR-21, -22, -23 shore station LF, MF (rare), HF
AN/MRR-1, -2, -3 mobile in a waterproof case and 24v p/s option LF, MF, HF, (all very rare)
AN/FRR-32 dual diversity HF with two R-618/FRR-32 receivers (modified FRR-23 I think)
AN/FRR-18, -19 shore station 4 channel xtal control (or tunable) LF, HF (very rare)

Nick England K4NYW
www.navy-radio.com<http://www.navy-radio.com>