[Premium-Rx] Old Nems Clarke 1670-E receiver on eBay

[George Georgevits]

Thanks to all who responded on this. I get the picture now. I was only knee high to a grasshopper around that time. 

Reminds me of one of my first jobs out in the real world. I was posted to Perth in Western Australia to work on the construction phase of the Northwest Shelf LNG project as a communications engineer. After a particularly hard day, the chief comms engineer invited me around to his place for dinner. Before we went in to eat, he asked me to follow him to the garage. Spread out on a big table was a whole pile of electronics bits and pieces. Now I thought I was pretty good with electronics by that time, having built a number of receivers etc. He picks up a piece and says "do you know what this is?" I looked at it puzzled. He went on to tell me that it was part of the guidance system from a Redstone rocket from Woomera rocket range! Apparently he had worked there for a few years, when Australia still had a space program. He was an amazing guy!

Cheers,
GG


-----Original Message-----
From: premium-rx-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:premium-rx-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Terry O'
Sent: Monday, 20 April 2020 11:07 PM
To: premium-rx at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Premium-Rx] Old Nems Clarke 1670-E receiver on eBay

Most of Nems-Clarke's receivers were sold to missile programs run by 
various branches of the military. However, from the earliest days of 
Clarke Instruments, they sold some radios to scientific organizations 
who used them for research.   A few were also purchased for Comint use 
during the early years of the Cold War.  I don't know how extensive this 
was.  The few bits of evidence I have point to facilities in Germany and 
Scandinavia.

The earliest mentions I've seen of a "Special Purpose Receiver" is in 
the 1955 Nems catalog.  In the 1956 catalog, all of the receivers are in 
a section called Special Purpose Receivers, including models that used 
to carry the label Telemetry Receiver. All of the catalogs from the 
1960s differentiate receivers into Telemetry, Communication, General 
Purpose and Surveillance.

Despite wild claims on eBane of "SigInt Spy Receiver" for a radio 
covered with labels clearly showing it is from White Sand Missile Range, 
the bulk of Nems-Clarke radios were used for missile and later space 
telemetry reception, even ones marked "Special Purpose."  Receiving John 
Glenn's vital signs while he's riding aloft in Project Mercury may not 
be as glamorous to some as a "SigInt Spy" receiver, but they were still 
the best radio technology money could buy and most of the customers used 
them on classified projects.

In short, there is no unique magic or mystery behind the label "Special 
Purpose Radio."   It was just a way of broadening their marketability.

Terry O'
watkins-johnson at terryo.org
http://Watkins-Johnson.terryo.org
http://BlackRadios.terryo.org
Facebook:   BlackRadios & BlackRadioSwap


On 4/20/2020 5:10 AM, George Georgevits wrote:
> Hi All,
>
>   
>
> I stumbled across an old Nems-Clarke
> 1670-E receiver for sale on ePay.
>
>   
>
> I found reference to it in Terry O's
> Nems-Clarke equipment directory. It has
> a frequency range of only 175 to 250MHz,
> and is referred to as a "special purpose
> receiver".
>
>   
>
> Does anyone have any idea what that
> "special purpose" might have been?
>
>   
>
> Cheers,
>
> George Georgevits
>
> VK2KGG
>
>   
>
>   
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> Premium-Rx mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/premium-rx
> Help Page: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:Premium-Rx at mailman.qth.net
> Help Contact eMail:  radio at 8zo.com
> Home Page:  http://www.premium-rx.org/

______________________________________________________________
Premium-Rx mailing list
Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/premium-rx
Help Page: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
Post: mailto:Premium-Rx at mailman.qth.net
Help Contact eMail:  radio at 8zo.com
Home Page:  http://www.premium-rx.org/