[R-390] Mechanical Filters and "A" (was Hi)

[John Kolb]

On Sun, 8 Jun 2003, Barry Hauser wrote:

> Hi Todd
>
> Well, there's a fly in that ointment.  For example, the R-1051 plain (not to
> be called "non-A" to prevent extreme confusion if the 'R-1051" part is
> omitted) -- what was I saying? -- Oh yeah -- the R-1051 plain has mechanical
> filters and there was no known R-1051A.  The R-1051B and later also had
> them.
>

As best I can recall now, when the R-1051 was first introduced, it
only tuned in 1 kHz steps - then someone noticed that the Navy
frequencies mostly ended in .5 for the actual carrier freq the
radios would be tuned to, so there was a quick field change
to add the .5 step switch. I think the R-1051A name was intended
to be used for newly manufactured sets which included the .5 kHz
step switch, but probably experience quickly found other necessary
changes causing the creation of the 1051B with few or no 1051A's
ever made. Anyone here old enough to prove or disprove this?

As far as I know, I was the first one to successfully copy the
fleet broadcast when it was introduced to westpac, using R-1051's
and UCC-1's. Of course there weren't many ships with the equipment
to compete with for the honor.

John