[R-390] RE: R-390 Digest, Vol 48, Issue 10

[mikea]

On Wed, Apr 09, 2008 at 05:40:51AM -0400, Richard Spargur wrote:

> Message: 1
> Date: Tue, 8 Apr 2008 18:52:43 -0500
> From: "Don Reaves" <don at reatek.com>
> Subject: [R-390] R-390 writeup
> To: <r-390 at mailman.qth.net>
> Message-ID: <005301c899d3$a3662a30$6400a8c0 at DELL1>
> Content-Type: text/plain;	charset="us-ascii"
> 
> Newly discovered wikipedia reference to R-390A at 
> 
>   http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R-390A
> 
> I just made a minor correction there (a grammatical typo).  
> 
> Did anyone here contribute to these pages?
> 
> I don't understand the comment in the wikipedia link below saying it was TOP
> SECRET.  Methods and sources were classified.  Stand alone equipment
> avaliable for commercial sale are not classified by them self.  Installed
> with other equipment and the mission for what it was doing would be.  TOP
> SECRET, as a stand alone, not likely.  For development prior to deployment
> it may have been SECRET, but once released, and as a stand alone piece of
> equipment, it would have been unclassified.  Just my thoughts.

In support of which I advance my experiences:

In my experience, the maintenance and operation manuals for classified
equipment are themselves classified at the same level as the equipment 
they cover, since the maintenance manuals tell how the equipment works 
and is repaired, and since the operation manuals tell how to use the 
equipment. 

My experience also is that classified equipment is tagged with the    
equipment's classification, and with any special-access requirements  
and/or compartment labels.

None of the versions of the R-390 or R-390A manuals I've seen -- from
the very old (1950s) through the most recent 1960s/60s) -- have had
any classification markings whatever, whether printed on the original
or stamped on later. This includes my original depot manitenance,
field maintenance, and operation manuals from the Army.

Moreover, the Collins R-390 and/or R-390A document I've seen carried 
no classification markings at all, but discussed the internal economy
of the receiver in enough detail that it certainly should have been 
classified if the hardware was. 

YMMV. 

-- 
Mike Andrews, W5EGO
mikea at mikea.ath.cx
Tired old sysadmin