MILITARY COLLECTOR GROUP POST, Aug. 19/98 Index: SEM-52A DATA; by Alan Tasker ESTATE SALE IN OHIO; MEMBERS WRITE; More on the "Special Purpose" Generator, Military Inverter Supplies for the PRC-10? NVIS Web Site, NEW MEMBER; Traverso Leandro HUMOR; *********************************************** SEM-52A DATA; by Alan Tasker The stages of the SEM 52-A are varacter tuned. The little resistor divider on each crystal board tunes the radio properly by supplying the proper tuning voltage to the varacters. Evidently, there is a voltage multiplier inside the radio producing 22 Volts, and this is applied to the top of the divider. For 55.5 MHz, my divider produces 14.5 Volts. For the other frequency (40 something), the voltage is 2.75 Volts (these were measured in my unit). Crystal frequency is Fout + 20 MHz. I do not know if series or parallel, and if parallel, how many pF load? These were made by Standard Elektrik Lorenz AG, Stuttgart. If any of us acquire even a schematic, I'm sure we all would like a copy. Similarly, a source of mike connectors and crystal boards, and better crystal information. Hey, how about a SEM users group, or should I say a "trying to get going with the SEM" group???? Alan ed) Our general need for all these items for the SEM-52 has been posted here many times, but as yet to no avail. Mark Gluch has been successful in putting his SEM on 52.525, has fabricated the channel boards, and offered this service as swapping material. His only hindrance has been a source for quality crystals at a reasonable price. As far as I know his home email is still down(because he's too damn tight to get a new monitor), and only his work email is functional. Due to the rules in his work place, he's not now receiving our post, and is only allowed to receive minimal personal message traffic. Perhaps I'll send him a message and get him to detail his procedure for us, I already have it in a letter he wrote me some months ago, but as his hand writing sucks, I hesitate to try and reproduce it here. *********************************************** ESTATE SALE IN OHIO; Heads up on this for folks nearby or willing to drive there..... There is an unusual estate sale in central Ohio with about 3,000 square feet of electronic surplus. Most of it is from the 1940s and 1950s. There is NOS and surplus military and civilian components, test equipment (some GR), connectors, cables, cabinets, spools of wire, meters, aircraft instruments, waveguides, power supplies, x-ray machines, transformers, etc. There is also optical and mechanical surplus. Substantial amounts have been sold already including most of the tubes, WW2 radar stuff, and electronic counter-measures equipment, and all of the communications gear, and hi-fi items. But there still is so much that you have to see it to believe it. If you are interested, you must go there to see it. It is in Springfield, Ohio, near Dayton, just off I-70. The seller is NOT able to describe items over the telephone and will NOT ship. Please do not ask him to. But if you go there, he will let you browse to your heart's content and his prices are very reasonable. He will sell one piece or as much as you can haul away. If you want to make an appointment, call Reece between 9 and 1l am, Monday through Friday, at 937-323-6300. I have no connection except as a satisfied customer and am posting this for the seller who not have net access. If you go, plan on getting hot, dirty, and happy. Take boxes. Reece needs to leave by noon on most days so you should plan to end your visit by then. *********************************************** MEMBERS WRITE; More on the "Special Purpose" Generator, Dennis: Dimensions: Carring Case. 11 1/2 in Long, 9 5/16 in. wide, 12 1/16 in. high Weight of Case 5 lb. 2 oz Total weight of Gen & Case 24.5 lb. Dated Manual January 1962 Thank you, It is in a fiberglass case, highly portable and the last one that I had in 1978 was painted black. could it be GRC-109 ? Pat It sounds like very low power but could this have been for the PRC-47? I don't have a manual in front of me so I can tell how much current the PRC-47 uses on 115VAC. Tom Bryan ed) Gas Generators for the RS-1, GRC-109, RS-6 etc would not have had an output of 110vac at 400cps. Rather they were similar to, and in all known cases used the PE-162 same as used with the BC-654, -1306, TRC-2, GRC-9 etc. It produced 450vdc(B+), and 6vdc(heaters & battery charge). Your generator will operate an RS-6(80 watts required), or GRC-109/RS-1(90 watts required), but it lacks the 6vdc output used to charge a storage battery, so was most likely not intended for this purpose. I/E DC operation of such portable radios was the primary mode either by storage battery, or hand crank generator. Gas generators were used as auxiliary power, or were basically a luxury item and this accounts for their relative rarity today. True, the battery charge function could have been performed by either of the GRC-109/RS-1, or RS-6's associated power supplies, but without some evidence I remain a sceptic. The color of black is not significant. I have in my collection an extremely small generator(PU-158) that produces 1.5, 90, & 500vdc. It was used to operate a GRC-13, and has an MFP date of 1950. It's contained in an aluminum transit case that's about the size of a bread box. Both the generator, and transit case are black. A few years ago I had a commercial generator that was about the size of a lunch box. It used what appeared to be a weed eater motor, and produced 110vac 400cps at 200 watts, and 12vdc at 10 amps. It was built for the marine industry. The 12 volt battery charge function was obvious, but I have no idea what the 110/400cps would have been used for in marine applications. The PRC-47 requires 320 watts so use with this radio is not viable either. I lean towards the same use as those generators of this type in late WW-II, till the late 60's. Here they were used to operate the teletype in mobile or simi-fixed installations. They could be had in either 60, or 400cps types. To support this assumption, a very small portable teletype was produced from the early 60's till the early 70's that was housed in a fiberglass cabinet. I can't remember the numbers anymore, but it looked much like a 1/4 scale UGC-74 and had a retracting keyboard for storage and transit. It's rumored use was with the PRC-47, and aircraft applications. Two versions where available, both 110vac but one was 60cps, the other 400cps. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Military Inverter Supplies for the PRC-10? I saw an ad for French-reconditioned PRC-10 sets with DY-27B power supplies, which supposedly power the set from 12VDC and fit inside the batter case along with 8 D batteries. The price seems high, but I'm curious. I've never heard of the DY-27B before. Do you know anything about it? Thanks for any info. -- Mark J. Blair, KE6MYK PGP public key available from http://pgp.ai.mit.edu/ ed) the Canadians are known to have produced an inverter supply for their version of the PRC-10(CPRC-510) that clipped between the standard battery box and the radio. In turn, the French ER79A (similar to PRC-10 but 33-47mc) had a vibrator supply and run from 8 D cells. As it was very common for NATO countries using US equipment to produce some very interesting accessories for them on their own, I'm not surprised to see the French PRC-10 inverter. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- NVIS Web Site, Dennis, Surfing the web, I found this reference on-line that has a good discusion on NEAR-VERTICAL INCIDENCE SKY-WAVE PROPAGATION http://155.217.58.58/cgi-bin/atdl.dll/fm/24-18/FM24-_22.htm#REF47h2 out of FM24-18 Ralph WB4TUR Ralph Hogan Huntsville, AL. ralph.hogan@vmic.com *********************************************** NEW MEMBER; Traverso Leandro I thank for the fast reply. I do a premised my english writing isn't any better therefore eventual excuse errors. I am all right for dots since 1 at 7, in limits of my possibility (you keep present that on Italy market of the military surplus is more narrow respect to United States), is this one right for which the best you contact I have it via Internet and would do me much liking entering to make part of yours" group of friends". Mine interest is equipment of american soldier (US Army, Marines, etc.) from the 1960 in after with a care to period of war of Vietnam. At this care I am the responsible of a group of friends fans to history of period, that it has reconstituted a team of the 101 Airborne remaining the faithfulest possible in fact than uniform and veicles with which participe at assemblies of historic military veicles in Italy and in France. We are building a site Web on topic. Going on the personal my passion is radio, I am radio amateur, for my transmissions I use in prevalence device of military provenience [GRC 106a); I have got a M151A1 restored for which told first with thin radio bridge . Actually I am searching with little success the 2 following pieces of Prc 74: BASE ANTENNA SUPPORT AB-995/PRC-74 MOUNTING MT-3613/PRC-74 cordially, Traverso Leandro *********************************************** HUMOR; It is "sexual harassment" when a sergeant does it. It is "adultery" when a female 2nd lieutenant does it. It is "furthering a subordinate career" when a general does it. It is "personal" when the Commander in Chief does it. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- IDIOTS AT WORK Sign in a gas station: Coke --49 cents. Two for a dollar. I was signing the receipt for my credit card purchase when the clerk noticed that I had never signed my name on the back of the credit card. She informed me that she could not complete the transaction unless the card was signed. When I asked why, she explained that it was necessary to compare the signature on the credit card with the signature I just signed on the receipt. So I signed the credit card in front of her. She carefully compared that signature to the one I signed on the receipt. As luck would have it, they matched. IDIOTS & GEOGRAPHY After interviewing a particularly short-spoken job candidate, I described the person to my boss as rather monosyllabic. My boss said, "Really? Where is Monosyllabia?" Thinking that he was just kidding, I played along and said that it was just south of Elbonia. He replied, "Oh, you mean over by Croatia?" ADVICE FOR IDIOTS An actual tip from page 16 of the Hewlett Packard "Environmental, Health & Safety Handbook for Employees" "Blink your eyelids periodically to lubricate your eyes." IDIOTS IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD I live in a semi-rural area. We recently had a new neighbor call the local township administrative office to request the removal of the Deer Crossing sign on our road. The reason: Many deer were being hit by cars and he no longer wanted them to cross there. IDIOTS & COMPUTERS My neighbor works in the operations department in the central office of a large bank. Employees in the field call him when they have problems with their computers. One night he got a call from a woman in one of the branch banks who had this question: "I've got smoke coming from the back of my terminal. Do you guys have a fire downtown?" IDIOTS ARE EASY TO PLEASE I was sitting in my science class, when the teacher commented that the next day would be the shortest day of the year. My lab partner became visibly excited, cheering and clapping. I explained to her that the amount of daylight changes, not the actual amount of time. Needless to say, she was very disappointed. IDIOTS IN FOOD SERVICE My daughter went to a local Taco Bell and ordered a taco. She asked the individual behind the counter for "minimal lettuce." He said he was sorry, but they only had iceberg. -------------------------------------------------------------------------- A guy gets home early from work and hears strange noises coming from the bedroom. He rushes upstairs to find his wife naked on the bed, sweating and panting. "What's up?" he says. "I'm having a heart attack," cries the woman. He rushes downstairs to grab the phone, but just as he's dialing, his 4-year-old son comes up and says, "Daddy! Daddy! Uncle Ted's hiding in your wardrobe and he's got no clothes on!" The guy slams the phone down and storms upstairs into the bedroom, past his screaming wife and rips open the wardrobe door. Sure enough, there is his brother, totally naked, cowering on the wardrobe floor. "You jerk," yells the husband, "my wife's having a heart attack and you're running around with no clothes on scaring the kids!" ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- THE AGE GAME It's amazing!!!!! (Some mathematician was really bored!) 1. First of all, pick the number of days a week that you would like to go out. 2. Multiply this number by 2. 3. Add 5. 4. Multiply it by 50. 5. If you have already had your birthday this year, add 1748. If you haven't, add 1747. 6. Last step: Subtract the four digit year that you were born. see below... . RESULTS: You should now have a three digit number: The first digit of this was your original number (i.e., how many times you want to go out each week). The second two digits are your age! *********************************************** (The preceding was a product of the"Military Collector Group Post", an international email magazine dedicated to the preservation of history and the equipment that made it. Unlimited circulation of this material is authorized so long as the proper credits to the original authors, and publisher or this group are included. For more information conserning this group contact Dennis Starks at, military-radio-guy@juno.com) ***********************************************