From: military-radio-guy Full-Name: Dennis R Starks To: military radio collectors#2 Fcc: Sent Date: Thu, 15 Jul 1999 05:29:20 Subject: MILITARY COLLECTOR GROUP POST, July 15/99 Message-ID: <19990715.052828.4663.6.military-radio-guy@juno.com> X-Status: Sent X-Mailer: Juno 1.49 MILITARY COLLECTOR GROUP POST, July 15/99 Index: CHINESE LISTENING STATIONS IN CUBA; BC-611 INVERTER PERFORMANCE; By Peter Berg BATTERY FOR AN/PSS-11 MINE DETECTORS; HUMOR; *********************************************** CHINESE LISTENING STATIONS IN CUBA; CHINESE LISTENING STATIONS IN CUBA; China installs two communication bases in Cuba. By Pablo Alfonso, El Nuevo Herald Published Thursday, June 24, 1999 China is operating in Cuba a sophisticated network of electronic espionage aimed at the United States and taking advantage of the Castro regimes designated "electronic war against yankee imperia- lism", this according to intelligence sources and documents from government agencies in which El Nuevo Herald has had access to. "For China the use of Cuba as a base of electronic eavesdropping is of tremendous importance because it signifies for them a strategic placement in the rearguard of the United States", commented an ex-official of US intelligence. The Chinese bases of electronic espionage have been camouflaged under the pretext of a collaboration between China and Cuba in the fields of electronics and radio communications, where both signed accords in the past month of February during the visit of Chinese Defense Minister Chi Haotian to Havana. The principle bases of Chinese eavesdropping and tracking in Cuba are located northeast of Santiago de Cuba at the eastern most part of the country and in the zone of Bejucal in the province of Havana accor- ding to intelligence sources. The encampment of antennas in Santiago de Cuba are primarily dedicated to the tracking of US military satel- lites while in Bejucal the Chinese have mounted a complex system of intercepting telephone communications. To cover these activities the official Chinese government radio station China Radio International is transmitting from Havana its shortwave programs toward the US and Latin America. "The transmissions of China Radio International are now originating from Havana on 9570.0 kHz", asserted an internal report from the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The FCC located China Radio Internationals transmitter at 22.56.00 North and at 82.23.00 West, near the town of Bejucal, southeast of the city of Havana. "Cuba is now interfering with upper and lower frequency bands with a powerful transmitter as it has never done before", indicated the FCC report. "On occasions where interference has been so strong it has sounded like star wars", the report added. According to reports of US government agencies obtained by El Nuevo Herald, Cuba in the last couple of weeks has been interfering with powerful equipment in the upper frequency bands and radio communi- cations of air traffic in New York. "The Cubans have been interfering with air traffic control communi- cations and making false aeronautical transmissions of the Air Traffic Control of New York", stated an FCC communication obtained by EL Nuevo Herald. This interference has been tracked by US agencies electronic moni- toring and locating the source southeast of Havana in the province of Pinar del Rio. On May 13 at 4:48 p.m. a false communication made at New York air control was made from Pinar del Rio and the transmission's origin was found at 22.12 North and at 83.34 West. On this occasion they spoke on a high frequency band identifying themselves falsely as "OPEC21", a US C130 military plane flight, stated the report. "This is a delicate issue that is treated practically in a secret at- mosphere because of its political implications", commented a source. The Chinese bases are an addition to the electronic espionage station in Lourdes, province of Havana, that Russia has continued to operate since the disappearance of the Soviet Union and for which Cuba receives $200 million annually. Source: Pablo Alfonso. 1999. China instala dos bases de comunicacion en Cuba. El Nuevo Herald [Edicion Electronica]. Junio 24. Translated from original Spanish text. --- Armando F. Mastrapa For further information on anti-Castro clandestine radio stations and programming visit the Clandestine Radio: An Anti-Castro Historiography Website at http://polisci.home.mindspring.com/ach.html Interested in clandestine radio in general, read the biweekly report Clandestine Radio Watch (CRW) available at http://www.swl.net/swl-de/swl-cla.html *********************************************** BC-611 INVERTER PERFORMANCE; By Peter Berg Hi Dennis As I mentioned to you before, I had ordered a DC-DC converter for the BC-611 from Carmelo, just to try it before we order a bunch of them. It arrived last week, and I had a chance to do preliminary tests this weekend. The converter consists of two potted cylinders, connected side-by-side, but offset. It requires 4 D-cells as follows: Open bottom of set. Drop 3 D-cells into the B battery hole. Drop in the converter. The "high" cylinder goes on top of the 3 D-cells and fills the remainder of the B battery hole. The "low"cylinder drops into the A battery hole, and makes contact with the A battery spring. The fourth B cell goes on top of the low cylinder and now sticks out at the A battery hole. Close the lid. Pull out the antenna. It works ! Good points: extreme battery life. I ran the BC-611 (an E model) on the bench, with antenna out, HF Generator at 3.885 MHz, 400 Hz modulation (60%) and adjusted RF level till about 10 dB or so S/N. Started test about 4:00 a.m. on sunday and this morning, more than 24 hours later, the receiver was still going strong (no subjective degragation of S/N = tone sound). About every two hours, I would operate the Transmitter for about a minute and measure ERP on a spectrum analyzer with a dummy antenna. The output power started to degrade after about 10 hours, but was still within a few dB after 24+ hours. A very nifty design, and easy to drop in and play. However: the unit produces a very slight but discernible whine. Not bothersome but audible. I guess we have to live with this because at a higher inverter frequency it would probably interfere with the receiver's IF and/or RF input. And: it did not fit in the "tall" BC-611F case. I e-mailed Carmelo about this and he said that he was making a small physical change to the length of the cylinders so that the converter would fit both (all?) models. It is only a matter of about 3 mm and eassy to fix, sez Carmelo. I concur. I modifierd a base of a tall F case and managed to get it to fit (and work). Should be a piece of cake. I was impressed by the simplicity of installation and the "drop it in and play" design. When/If we place our Group order we must make sure that we get the latest and greatest version so that it will fit all BC-611 models. When I receive the new model then I will do a "would-be scientific" test by measuring the battery voltages vs. time in both Receive and Transmit modes. So far, so good. Peter Berg 7/12/99 *********************************************** BATTERY FOR AN/PSS-11 MINE DETECTORS; I finally broke down and ordered one of those AN/PSS-11 mine detectors from Fair Radio, and now I'm trying to come up with a suitable battery for it (either the right kind, or a home-made pack which does not require any set modifications). If anybody knows of a source for the correct battery, or has successfully built equivalent battery packs and can offer suggestions, I'd appreciate it if they could drop me a line. Between searching around on the Internet, and dissecting a dead battery pack that was kind enough to come with my metal detector, here is what I know: The original battery pack was the BA-1389/U (NSN 6135-00-691-3603). This was a 10.4V mercury battery pack consisting of 8 "camera type" mercury batteries connected end-to-end with little spot-welded metal cups, then shrink-wrapped. The dead pack that came with my set measured 0.65" dia x 5.21" long. It was manufactured by Alexander manufacturing Co. in Mason City, IA, and it looks like it was made in 1986. I could take a couple pictures and temporarily stick them on my web page if that would be helpful to anybody. Around 1995, the Army began a program to replace "evil" mercury packs with different types of batteries. Around 1997, they deployed the BA-3389/U (NSN 6135-01-442-4580), an alkaline pack, as a replacement for the BA-1389/U. My assumption is that it is made from 7 alkaline cells in series, perhaps with some sort of spacer to get the length right. I've considered trying to get some lithium or alkaline cells of an appropriate size such that I could build a pack with a suitable voltage and about the right size (or possibly shorter, with a hunk of metal to get the length right), but I'm not sure how well that will work without being able to spot-weld the cells together like in the original. At least I won't need to fabricate any funky connectors, since the pack is a plain cylinder with a contact at each end, sort of like a AA cell that's really happy to see you. Any ideas? In any case, I hope the information I have dug up so far might be helpful to somebody. My information about the replacement program comes from the following URLs: http://www.monmouth.army.mil/cecom/lrc/tools/spr95.html http://www.monmouth.army.mil/cecom/lrc/tools/fall97.html Once I build a proper battery, I will finally be able to find out if there are any mines in my back yard! :-) -- Mark J. Blair, KE6MYK PGP 2.6.2 public key available from http://pgp.ai.mit.edu/ Web page: http://www.qsl.net/ke6myk/ ed) note Mark's new email address. *********************************************** HUMOR; To all non-technical employees who lump employees with a technical background under the same classification - "nerds" - the following illustrations should clearly show the small but perceptible diversity between Mathematicians vs Physicists vs Engineers regardless of race, gender, country of origin, or whether or not they have been abducted by aliens. What is "pi"? Mathematician: Pi is the number expressing the relationship between the circumference of a circle and its diameter. Physicist: Pi is 3.1415927 plus or minus 0.000000005. Engineer: Pi is about 3. A mathematician, an engineer, and a physicist are being interviewed for a job. In each case, the interview goes along famously until the last question is asked: "How much is one plus one?" Each of them suspects a trap, and is hesitant to answer. The mathematician thinks for a moment, and says "I'm not sure, but I think it converges". The physicist says "I'm not sure, but I think it's on the order of one". The engineer gets up, closes the door to the office, and says "How much do you want it to be?" An Engineer, a Physicist, and a Mathematician all go to the same Conference. University budgets being what they are, they all stay in the same cheap hotel. Each room has the same floor plan, has the same cheap TV, the same cheap bed, and a small bathroom. Instead of a sprinkler system, the hotel has opted for Fire Buckets. The Engineer, Physicist, and Mathematician are all asleep in bed. At about 2AM, the Physicist wakes up because he smells smoke. He looks in the corner of the room and sees that the TV set is on fire! He dashes into the bathroom, fills the Fire Bucket to overflowing with water, and drenches the TV set. The fire goes out, and the Physicist goes back to sleep. A little while later, the Engineer wakes because he smells smoke. He looks in the corner of his room and sees that the TV set is on fire. He grabs a handy envelope, estimates the BTU output of the fire, scribbles a quick calculation, then dashes into the bathroom and fills the Fire Bucket with just enough water to douse the flames. He puts the fire out and goes back to sleep. In a little while, the Mathematician wakes up to the smell of smoke. He looks in the corner of his room and sees the TV on fire. He looks into the bathroom and sees the Fire Bucket. Having determined that a solution exists, he goes back to sleep. Engineering is the art of molding materials we do not fully understand into shapes we cannot fully analyze and preventing the public from realizing the full extent of our ignorance. Things Engineering School didn't teach 6. Theory tells you how a circuit works, not why it does not work. 5. Always try to fix the hardware with software. 4. Engineering is like having an 8 a.m. class and a late afternoon lab every day for the rest of your life. 3. Overtime pay? What overtime pay? 2. Managers, not engineers, rule the world. 1. Dilbert is a documentary. Q: What is the difference between Aerospace Engineers and Civil Engineers? A: Aerospace Engineers build weapons, Civil Engineers build targets. ----------------------------------------------------------------- 19 Things Not To Say To The Nice Officer... 1. I can't reach my license unless you hold my beer. 2. Sorry, I didn't realize that my radar detector wasn't on. 3. Aren't you the guy from the village people? 4. Hey you must have been going 125mph just to keep up with me. 5. I thought you had to be in good physical condition to be a cop. 6. Bad cop! No donut! 7. You're gonna check the trunk, aren't you? 8. I was going to be a cop, really, but I decided to finish high school. 9. I pay your salary. 10. That's terrific, the last guy only gave me a warning also. 11. Is that a 9mm? It's nothing compared to this .44 magnum! 12. What do you mean, have I been drinking? You're a trained specialist. 13. Do you know why you pulled me over? Good, at least one of us does. 14. That gut doesn't inspire too much confidence, bet I can outrun you. 15. Didn't I see you get your butt kicked on Cops? 16. Is it true people become cops because they are too dumb to work at McDonalds? 17. I was trying to keep up with traffic. 18. Yes, I know there are no other cars around - that's how they are far ahead of me. 19. Well, when I reached down to pick up my bag of crack, my gun fell off my lap and got lodged between the brake pedal and gas pedal, forcing me to speed out of control. ----------------------------------------------------------------- If you came across Bill Clinton struggling in a raging river and you had a choice between rescuing him or getting a Pulitzer prize-winning photograph..... What shutter speed would you use?? ----------------------------------------------------------------- The Story Behind the Picture of the Praying Hands Back in the fifteenth century, in a tiny village near Nuremberg, lived a family with eighteen children. Eighteen! In order merely to keep food on the table for this mob, the father and head of the household, a goldsmith by profession, worked almost eighteen hours a day at his trade and any other paying chore he could find in the neighborhood. Despite their seemingly hopeless condition, two of Albrecht Durer the Elder's children had a dream. They both wanted to pursue their talent for art, but they knew full well that their father would never be financially able to send either of them to Nuremberg to study at the Academy. After many long discussions at night in their crowded bed, the two boys finally worked out a pact. They would toss a coin. The loser would go down into the nearby mines and, with his earnings, support his brother while he attended the academy. Then, when that brother who won the toss completed his studies, in four years, he would support the other brother at the academy, either with sales of his artwork or, if necessary, also by laboring in the mines. They tossed a coin on a Sunday morning after church. Albrecht Durer won the toss and went off to Nuremberg. Albert went down into the dangerous mines and, for the next four years, financed his brother, whose work at the academy was almost an immediate sensation. Albrecht's etchings, his woodcuts, and his oils were far better than those of most of his professors, and by the time he graduated, he was beginning to earn considerable fees for his commissioned works. When the young artist returned to his village, the Durer family held a festive dinner on their lawn to celebrate Albrecht's triumphant homecoming. After a long and memorable meal, punctuated with music and laughter, Albrecht rose from his honored position at the head of the table to drink a toast to his beloved brother for the years of sacrifice that had enabled Albrecht to fulfill his ambition. His closing words were, "And now, Albert, blessed brother of mine, now it is your turn. Now you can go to Nuremberg to pursue your dream, and I will take care of you." All heads turned in eager expectation to the far end of the table where Albert sat, tears streaming down his pale face, shaking his lowered head from side to side while he sobbed and repeated, over and over, "No ...no ...no ...no." Finally, Albert rose and wiped the tears from his cheeks. He glanced down the long table at the faces he loved, and then, holding his hands close to his right cheek, he said softly, "No, brother. I cannot go to Nuremberg. It is too late for me. Look ... look what four years in the mines have done to my hands! The bones in every finger have been smashed at least once, and lately I have been suffering from arthritis so badly in my right hand that I cannot even hold a glass to return your toast, much less make delicate lines on parchment or canvas with a pen or a brush. No, brother ... for me it is too late." More than 450 years have passed. By now, Albrecht Durer's hundreds of masterful portraits, pen and silver-point sketches, watercolors, charcoals, woodcuts, and copper engravings hang in every great museum in the world, but the odds are great that you, like most people, are familiar with only one of Albrecht Durer's works. More than merely being familiar with it, you very well may have a reproduction hanging in your home or office. One day, to pay homage to Albert for all that he had sacrificed, Albrecht Durer painstakingly drew his brother's abused hands with palms together and thin fingers stretched skyward. He called his powerful drawing simply "Hands," but the entire world almost immediately opened their hearts to his great masterpiece and renamed his tribute of love "The Praying Hands." The next time you see a copy of that touching creation, take a second look. Let it be your reminder, if you still need one, that no one - no one - - ever makes it alone! *********************************************** 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 concerning this group or membership contact Dennis Starks at, . A list of selected articles of interest to members can be seen at: http://www.softcom.net/users/buzz/backmail.html ***********************************************