[Milsurplus] SPN-13 Radar

[Hubert Miller]

I was corresponding with a Seattle fellow who knew about PM electronics kits and also, like me, had worked for
Radar Electric in Seattle. So here's a part of his email to me, provided for as they say, your delectation. I think the time era this took
place was late 1960s - early 1970s. Still more details to nail down, as i'm real interested in the story of Radar Electric and also the
various surplus stores in these Northwest states.
-Hue Miller

" I become good friends with Bill Wood as he had out in the back of his house up on 94th a metal trailer with an old complete SPN-13 radar system that he had cobbled together from parts coming into the old surplus store that was halfway working so he could find "flying saucers" over Seattle airspace. Being a Navy trained electronics technician, A & B schools and a holder of a First Class FCC license with Radar Endorsement, and haven been working on radar systems aboard the USS Ticonderoga CVA-14 while in the US Navy, I was very familiar with the old system and was able to get it back to a fully operating state. He actually had a private endorsement radar license and a permit for the tower from the FCC to operate this rig. His wife Marion would bring us out coffee and snacks from the house as we would watch the scope for hours on end. We actually did see on several occasions' unidentified very fast moving craft over Seattle skies several times. Wood had made friends with several radar operators at different northwest military bases that had more modern radars installed and he would call them to get confirmation of many of the craft we would see and to get confirmation of commercial and military aircraft operating in the area. He kept a very detailed diary and would send his "reports" to the US Air Force liaison at Lewis McChord."

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/milsurplus/attachments/20231222/6eb73ebf/attachment.html>