[Premium-Rx] Cubic 3030 Rx

[refmon]

Hi Herschel & Group,

It's important that we are mindful that this list is one of the few places
where none of us need feel we have anything to prove or defend.  The fact is
that each of us have made a conscious, hopefully informed, decision to seek
older, ultra-state-of-the-art-for-their-time receivers rather than run to
the store and buy a retail super-duper receiver, even though the store
bought might well out-perform any true Premium-RX.  To me, and it seems to
most, the fun is in mastering the issues we find today in our 20-ish year
old equipment.

Each and every Premium-RX is unbearably cool, and as with anything else,
we'll each develop our own favorites, and that's fine.  The beauty of this
list is we can all compare equipment, test results, and modification/repair
ideas without concern for who has the "biggest receiver", if you know what I
mean.

I think it's valid to note that we each apply our receivers well outside
their originally intended usage envelope.  Most notably, many of us clamp on
headsets and listen for MDS sigs for hours on end; some of us hook up to lab
gear and stare at the setup.  Most, if not all, premium rx's were designed
to be racked in banks of remote-controlled receiver systems in any number of
specialty tasks.  My R3030 series receivers have 1/6 the number of knobs and
less than 1/2 the number of buttons that my R9000 Icom has.  The R3030 front
panel controls are likely maintenance access rather than hours-on-hours
twiddler controls.  This presents a bit of an ergonomic issue, true, but in
the end, after my mods and the mods by others, the R3030 meets or beats the
R9000 where the audio meets the ear.  No notch filter, true, but Cubic does
their notching very nicely in the HF Multicoupler (another story).   On the
other hand, I'd prefer to work on a Premium-RX than an R9000.  Just the
difference between mil-spec and retail spec coupled with the R9000 extensive
use of proprietary circuit elements.  With the R3030's, at least, components
are pretty much plain old every day items.

I expect that if I succeed with my software projects for remote control of
the R3030, I'll not be seeking to generate a fully-knobbed virtual front
panel, rather, I'll be building up a task-oriented screen that simply
presents the controls and indicators associated with a given task or result.

It might be of interest that in the book Secrets of Signals Intelligence in
the Cold War and Beyond, the authors (all from the trade) comment that
"Subsidization of the British Sigint effort, direct and indirect, appears
more pervasive than previously thought.  In the early 1980's, all the UKUSA
Sigint Organizations adopted the R-2174 HF Intercept Receiver made by the
British contractor, Racal, for use at all HF intercept stations around the
world.  This was done despite the fact that American Defense Contractors had
offered NSA better and less expensive equipment."  (see p.319)

Well, that's the professional opinion, I suppose, but it certainly doesn't
seem to match the preference curve on our list.  Unfortunately, the authors
never delve into their technical opinions, so the statement stands on its
own.  It's in print, so it must be true.  Anyway, I expect that the authors'
opinion is formed in the context of the original specs and tasking, where
our opinions are confined to our usage patterns.  That will be true of each
of our opinions...even given the same receiver, our usage patterns will
result in differing preferences or dislikes.

I guess my end point is that all our opinions are valid and none of us
should be put off by anyone else's opinion.  The group on this list has
achieved this better than any other list I have ever seen.  My compliments
for the safe and peaceful atmosphere AND the enlightening technical
discussions.  And also, thank goodness for government waste and
over-ordering...what would we do without it?

Always trolling for ideas,

John Collins
__________________________________________

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Herschel McCullough" <w5mc at austin.rr.com>
To: "refmon" <monitor at referencevideo.com>; <premium-rx at ml.skirrow.org>
Sent: Friday, September 12, 2003 10:31 AM
Subject: Re: [Premium-Rx] Cubic 3030 Rx


> Thank you John.. it was starting to look a little  " BASH 'E "  for the
3030
> and 3030A  ..
> mac/mc
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "refmon" <monitor at referencevideo.com>
> To: <premium-rx at ml.skirrow.org>
> Sent: Friday, September 12, 2003 6:18 PM
> Subject: Fw: [Premium-Rx] Cubic 3030 Rx
>
>
> > Hi Group,
> >
> > I had inadvertantly responded directly to Richard.  As I am always
> trolling
> > for ideas, I'd like it to go to the list in case there's any other 3030
> work
> > going on that I don't know about.  I have added a few additional points
> > since my original note to Richard.
> >
> > Soooooooo.....
> >
CLIPPED TO REDUCE BANDWIDTH & STORAGE NEEDS