[R-390] EAC R-390A - American Embassy Duty

[rbethman]

The AN-47, by both logic and old memory, was a dipole antenna.

Most likely operated by "Military Attache" or "Agency" personnel.

Assets in Europe were transmitting updates on their "Missions". They did 
not listen for a response.

Embassies served multiple purposes.  They always had Agency and Attache 
persons.

Assets would have been all throughout Europe and the old USSR.

Bob - N0DGN
On 9/28/2012 8:02 PM, Bill - KK4XO wrote:
> I have an EAC R-390A which will be going in for a complete
> repair/restoration later this year.  In the meantime, I am trying to learn a
> bit more about the history of the unit.  I know for sure that it came from a
> storage room in the American Consulate/Munich, Germany, but was not on any
> State Department equipment inventory which would indicate that it was
> probably used by another agency within the Consulate building there.  It is
> very clean and appears to have seen little real band-switch usage which
> makes me believe that it was possibly used to receive a single guard
> frequency or to monitor a single fixed broadcast station channel - perhaps
> by FBIS or VOA monitoring personnel.  The only other real clue as to who may
> have used it originally is on the Technical Material Corporation Model LSP-7
> dual speaker rack panel which still has two red Dymo embossed labels - one
> indicating "AN-47" and the other indicating "VRA-6".  My guess is that these
> were two different antenna systems attached to two different R-390A's
> monitored between the two switched speakers.  Indeed, through internet
> searches, I've learned that the VRA-6 was an 18 foot vertical receiving
> antenna which was used by various USG and DOD agencies overseas.  I have, so
> far, been unable to find any information as to what the "AN-47" may have
> been.  There are signs of another embossed label above these two but
> unfortunately it was missing when I received the unit from another Ham
> operator and ex-State Dept employee who was told to "get rid of it" in the
> early 1990's..being a Ham, he took it home rather than "deep six" it in a
> dumpster.
>
> Can anyone on the list help with the "AN-47" part of this mystery?
>
> Thanks,
>
> Bill, KK4XO
>