#nems-clarke 1302a

[commodorez]

Nems-Clarke 1302A Special Purpose Receiver

[commodorez]

Nems-Clarke 1302A

A special purpose vacuum tube radio receiver, built to last.  Even so, it’s due to have the passives and wiring replaced before its next use. While most of it is vacuum tube based, it has a single custom-printed PCB with a few transistors and a single integrated circuit on board.  All of the tubes are encased in protective metal shells with springs to prevent the tubes from inching out of their sockets.

The 1302A is from the 1960s, and it is designed to be hooked into a unit with a special oscilloscope (also rack mounted).  I’m told that the combined units intended purpose was to monitor telemetry data from Soviet ICBM tests and other Soviet rocket launches!  And now it’s mine! How I got it is stranger than most items in my collection.

My friends watched a construction worker toss this heavy thing into a dumpster our freshman year of college.  After the worker left, my friends climbed in and retrieved it, and brought it over to one guy’s dorm room.  They tried figuring out what it was before giving up and calling me in.  I came over a half hour later with my toolbox in one hand and pack of oreos in the other.  Seems that even after being thrown a good distance, all of the tubes were still intact.  I figured out that it was a radio receiver, so I hooked up a makeshift antenna and hit the power switch.

It actually turned on just fine, and let us tune in the campus radio station!  My friend gave it to me as a present at the end of that semester.  I found a reason to turn it on every so often, and scanned through its extended tuning range above the normal broadcast FM band.  I’ve found some stuff that completely puzzles me as to its purpose and origin. 

For now, it sits in deep storage.

[commodorez]

Mismatched Audio Gear

[commodorez]

lrgfmt replied to your photoset: Nems-Clarke 1302A A special purpose vacuum tube...

Passives really need replacing, you wouldn’t want to burn up the transformers or red plate anything. Good find! Really like!!

It’s a quality piece of gear, and I don’t want to destroy it.  Plus, learning how to restore vacuum tube based equipment is going to be a useful skill for me, based on some of the other things I’ve got in my collection.

[commodorez]

So about 2 weeks back I posted a picture of a pair of electronics that are important to me: see this post.  But I'm missing the oscilloscope portion that goes with my Nems-Clarke 1302A.

"It is a special purpose vacuum tube radio receiver that can pick up below and well above the typical FM band. ... The 1302A is from the 1960s, and it is designed to be hooked into a unit with a special oscilloscope (also rack mounted).  Its purpose was to monitor telemetry data from Soviet nuclear missile tests and other Soviet rocket launches!"

So this here is what supposedly would go with the unit that I have.  I'll have to keep an eye out for one somewhere out there for sale.

[commodorez]

 Seems that I now have over 75 followers.  I had 74 earlier today, gained one, and now I'm at 77 somehow...  go figure.  But it does mean that it's now time for a special treat; a veritable 2-for-1 special of old tech to celebrate this milestone.

Behold, my IBM PC XT! I inherited this from a family member, complete with an NEC monitor, and the stock PC/XT keyboard (the direct predecessor keyboard to the Model F).  Update: turns out, I misidentified this, and it’s actually an IBM 5150.  Complete with original Model F, so that’s cool.

It wasn't kept in the best of conditions in an old house with cats everywhere, so it smells funny.  I've opened it up once or twice to see what it looks like inside, but I can't remember a lot of details about it.  Seems that it has an abundance of extra memory and what I'm guessing is a CGA or non-standard graphics card.  It also has 2 floppy drives, and one hard drive.

However, it also has memory issues.  It fails a memory test on boot up, and the problem can be traced back to RAM in one of the card slots.  I never did have a ton of time or money to mess with it before it went into deep storage. 

Below that, we have the Nems-Clarke 1302A. It is a special purpose vacuum tube radio receiver that can pick up below and well above the typical FM band.

My friend's watched a guy toss this heavy thing into a dumpster our freshman year of college.  They climbed in and retrieved it, and brought it over to one guy's dorm room, then called me up to help.  I came over a half hour later with my toolbox and a package of oreos, and took a look.  Seems that even after being thrown a good distance, it was all still intact!  And while most of it was vacuum tube based, it had one single printed circuit board, possibly custom made, with a few transistors and a single integrated circuit on it.  I figured out that it was a radio receiver, so I hooked up a makeshift antenna and hit the power switch.

It actually turned on just fine, and let us tune in the campus radio station!  My friend gave it to me as a present at the end of that semester.  I brought it home, and fired it up once in awhile, and even got it to tune into weird stuff above the FM band that completely puzzles me as to its purpose and origin.

The 1302A is from the 1960s, and it is designed to be hooked into a unit with a special oscilloscope (also rack mounted).  Its purpose was to monitor telemetry data from Soviet nuclear missile tests and other Soviet rocket launches!  And now it's mine!

It is due to have the capacitors, resistors, and other wires replaced before I use it next.  However, it too is in storage for the moment.

So I had better come up with something good for the next milestone, eh?