Nuclear Research Corp NPS 28/25YAGD Power Supply

The Air Force also used a lot of ground-based gear. If it has an AN/ designation, the next letter tells whether it is for Mobile, Aircraft or Fixed station use. (U would be undersea and S for surface ship, but that won't be Air Force.) The Air Force had a lot of radar stations, and some of them ran off 400 Hz because all the gear was lighter that way, and they ended up transporting much of the gear and spare parts by air. I poked around in some Korea-vintage radar trailers, and that was all 400 Hz stuff.

NASA may have used some of the Mil-Spec gear in tracking stations, too, the antenna mounts, etc. are essentially identical to a radar dish mount I know some of the big fixed installations at NASA-Wallops Station ran on 400 Hz, the sound was unmistakable. Woomera had a big NASA tracking station for years.

Jon

When were you at Wallops? I worked on a lot of the equipment Microdyne supplied the NOAA ground station around 2000 to track & control their birds.

U is general Utility, submarine is "B"

I also got to see a exametnet super-loki datasonde launch from a mile away, the rocket simply disappears with 120 G acceleration off the pad.

I was in the blockhouse for the launch of MTS-D, the meteoroid technology satellite, on a Scout-II.

Lots of other cool stuff, like the FPS9 radar and the advanced data acquisition site.

I worked with 2-way radio and CCTV, mostly.

Jon

OOps, I wrote that from memory, you are quite right. AN/UYK-7 for instance, is certainly not submarine gear, although they might have been used there, too.

Jon

I was in the Army at that time, at Ft. Rucker. My job was to maintain the 'Weathervision' system of CATV, cameras microwave relays and about 350 video monitors. I installed the first emergency alert system, where the Army could take control of the civilian CATV system in an emergency, and transmit on all channels. I did work on some of the older RADAR systems around the base, and worked out of the main RADAR installation with a pair of 2 MW Westinghouse built systems. They were installing new IFF hardware when I was transferred to Ft. Greely, and they needed the space for the new equipment. I don't know where they were moved to, since I left while we were still packing up everything.

Easy to remember, "S" is ship, "B" is boat.

Most likely the equipment it powered was replaced by newer gear. Then = the spares were surplused, and sold way below 1 cent on the dollar. Once in the surplus chain it can end up anywhere in the world.

Um no. See here:

And the N does relate to McClellan.

Korea-vintage

I worked on UYK-7 equipment in the mid 1970s. Yourself?

?-)

Nope, never in the military, but did work for NASA for a couple years. Have worked with lots of surplus military gear over the years. Such stuff as R-392, CV-57 and some older stuff. I did get to tour the Minuteman silo turned into a museum at Whiteman AFB in MO, that was a gas! There's a UYK-7 there, too, supposedly still operational and used for training. Just seeing this stuff a decade or so earlier would have gotten you shot.

Jon