[R-390] Radio Facility, R390 in use

[Jim Haynes]

I sure don't know the site, but those are interesting pictures.

My first thought was that  it is a transmitting site - with just
a few receivers for monitoring their own signals.  But then 
there is an aisle with pairs of R-390s in racks, and what might be 
AN/FGC-1 RTTY terminals between them.  So must be a transmit/receive site; 
and I thought those were fairly unusual.  Are those things diversity
adapters that are below the pairs of R-390s?

With one exception the guys are all dressed up in wool uniforms with
neckties.  Wonder if they always dressed that way - or was there some
special occasion when the pictures were taken.

The whole installation is very neatly done, almost like a showplace.

2-1/2 generations of receivers are shown: the Hallicrafters SX-73 and
the 51J and the R-390.

Curious that there is a wall around the building.  Wonder what it is
intended to keep out, or in.  The ground outside looks like it is
gravel, with furrows plowed in it.

The power switchboards are very quaint.

You can see the O-5B/FR or equivalent FSK generators grouped together
in racks.

I'm only guessing that the racks of equipment with lots of drawers
are a carrier telegraph system, possibly AN/FGC-29.  No, that isn't
right because the FGC-29 is a 16-channel carrier and the racks shown
have drawers in groups of 12.  So some other carrier telegraph system
maybe.  The time period seems too early for transmitting carrier
telegraph by radio.  You don't use SSB or ISB with BC-610s.  So maybe
these are used with a wire line connecting the station to the outside
world.

There seem to be two of these.  In one picture there are three tall
racks and a Teletype machine on the left end.  In the other the
equipment looks a little different and there are two stacked
short Western Electric racks on the left end.  These racks typically
held telegraph repeaters, or regenerative repeaters.  And a Teletype
barely visible on the right end.  Maybe one set is for transmitting
and the other is for receiving, in which case there are 36 telegraph
channels in all.  Curious they have incandescent light fixtures overhead
for one set, while the rest of the building is all fluorescent; and
these fixtures closely resemble some that were standard in Western
Union offices.  The ceiling construction in that room is different, too.

Some field-type equipment in addition to the fixed-station stuff.
I think that field-type stuff is some kind of carrier system, or
possibly a VHF link.

I'm guessing the time period is early 1950s.  They're still using
BC-610s.

There seems to be an open-wire transmission line running the length
of the transmitter aisle, but with nothing connected to it.