HP 8648A 100 kHz - 1000 MHz Signal Generator

© Brooke Clarke 2007 - 2024

Background

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Pagers (Wiki)

Frequencies: POSSAG,  FLEX

Adding this 2024 Sep 18 after the Hezbollah (Wiki: Hezbollah, Lebanon Pager Explosions, AR924) pager (and Icom 2-way radio) explosions.
2024 Sep 18:WaPo: Hezbollah explosions put spotlight on old-school pagers - Gold Apollo AR-924,  Icom IC-V82 VHF walkie-talkie
2024Sep21:WaPo: Exploding pagers leave clues to Israeli ‘red button’ plot, officials say - sounds like explosives were added to the pagers and radios.

It turns out that the patents initially found for Al Gross and Pagers actually cover three fields:

IFF, Joan-Eleanor and maybe pagers.

Note that in general "paging" was done over a public adress system or by a bell boy walking around saying "paging Phillip Morris".  Other systems used lights.
The modern pager or beeper allows someone to phone the pager company number and send a target phone number and numereical message that then gets routed to the telephone prefix area and then transmitted using a high power transmitter.  The pager beeps and displays the phone number of the person placing the pager call as well as a short numerical message.

Cell phone acts like a beacon transmitter that can be found by direction finding and also identifies the owner.  So they can be used for targeting assinations.  An important aspect of pagers for Hezbollah is that pagers do not transmit so do not have this problem.  Pagers operate like the numbers stations (Wiki), that's to say everyone can hear the transmitter signal, but they do not know who or where the listener is.  The news media does not usnderstand this is why the switch to pagers.

The operational use of pagers would require that cell phones be powered down and put into a Faraday Cage (Wiki).  The reason for the Faraday Cage is that it is not easy to tell the difference between a cell phone in standby more and in the power down mode.  After a page is received the cell phone would be activated for a very brief time to get the message, then powered down.  The probabiity of interception a Burst transmission (GRA-71) is much lower than the certenity of receiving a cell phone tower ping.

Pagers might have been developed by Al Gross (Wiki), but so far I have not found any patents by "Al Gross" or similar names like Alexander Grossman.
Also see Stewart Warner patents on the APX-6 IFF page.
If you know of any Al Gross patents, please let me know their numbers.

The explosive may be PETN (Wiki).  A blasting cap (Wiki: Detonator) would probably have enough power to cause the damage that's been reported without any additional material.

Stewart-Warner Radio - Irving "Al" Gross Patents

2502647 Signaling system, De Witt R Goddard, RCA, App: 1945-05-18, TOP SECRET, Pub: 1950-04-04, - instead of Puch-To-Talk this is Slide-To-Transmit, Release_To-Receive.  Joan-Eleanor?
2513796 Switch and tuning device for radio transceivers, De Witt R Goddard, RCA, App: 1945-10-04, TOP SECRET, Pub: 1950-07-04, - Joan-Eleanor?
CA459516 (eSpaceNet) Ultra high frequency communication system, Witt R. Goddard De, G. Maclean Kenneth, RCA, 1949-09-06, - Joan-Eleanor?
2587146 Antenna, Irving A Gross, Stewart Warner Corp, 1952-02-26, - Joan-Eleanor (Wiki) maybe also the URC-4.
2760056 Radio tuning apparatus, Irving A Gross, Stewart Warner Corp, 1956-08-21, -
2760058 Radio frequency oscillator mounting, Irving A Gross, Stewart Warner Corp, 1956-08-21, - 460-470 MHz, Tubes: 6K4, 1V5, 2 audio amp tubes - Joan-Eleanor (Wiki)
2770723 Ultrahigh frequency tuner, Harry C Rowe, Stewart Warner Corp, 1956-11-13, - 500 - 1000 MHz receiver, 2C40 lighthouse tube,
2774052 Mechanical assembly of electronic circuit components, Flour William, Stewart Warner Corp, 1956-12-11, - PCB, rugged,
2875264 Bracket means for joining printed circuit panels, Irving A Gross, Cleveland Metal Specialties Co, 1959-02-24, -
2698380 High-frequency transmitter and receiver, Irving A Gross, Stewart Warner Corp, 1954-12-28, -
2945162 Method and apparatus for assembling and interconnecting electronic apparatus, Flour William, Stewart Warner Corp, - functional module sub assemblies
2945189 Ultra high frequency tuner, Harry C Rowe, Stewart Warner Corp, 1960-07-12, - 500 - 1000 MHz receiver, 2C40 lighthouse tube,
3025516 Frequency control system for radio identification apparatus, Irving B Bickler, Stewart Warner Corp, App: 1952-11-03, SECRET, Pub: 1962-03-13, - IFF

Possible Pager Patents

1272641 Telephone system, Henry C Egerton, Western Electric, 1918-07-16, - uses many earphone->carbon mike amplifiers, PA system

2138894 Radio paging system, Ware Paul, 1938-12-06, - Cited by 15 patents

2472158	Radio beacon system	Henry James Matthew	American Telephone And Telepho	1949-06-07	Omni Tx - pitch depends on bearing from Tx D (1-cos(t))/V
2494451	Personal call system	Harry F Olson	Rca Corp	1950-01-10	no loudspeaker, 40 individual pagers, 100 - 1600 Hz inductive coupling, dual reeds.
2567431	Communications system of restricted-range type	William S Halstead	William S Halstead	1951-09-11	T-Coil, for HoH people,
2790899	Antenna system which supplements that of portable radio inside automobile		Stromberg Carlson Co	1957-04-30
2800104	Radio controlled electric cutaneous signal type animal obedience device		Cameron	1957-07-23
2831976	Transmitter for remote model control		John W Chalfant	1958-04-22
2836724	Self-quenching oscillator		Bell Telephone Labor Inc	1958-05-27
2870435	Calling system		Graaf Nicolaas Robert De	1959-01-20
2971806	In-and-out pager cabinet		Norman H Andreasen	1961-02-14
3001177	Superregenerative remote control receiver		Zenith Radio Corp	1961-09-19
3005910	Radio-frequency circuit		Richard R Florac	1961-10-24
3044054	Receiver for electromagnetic signals		Multitone Electric Company Ltd	1962-07-10
3098220	Personal call system		Nl Ind Radio Artikelen Nv	1963-07-16
3113270	Paging and alarm system		Standard Res Consultants Inc	1963-12-03
3329957	Antenna system employing human body as radiator		Dagfin S Hoynes	1967-07-04

2340798 Remote control system, Harmon B Deal, RCA,  App:1941-07-23, W.W.II, Pub:  1944-02-01, - for controlling air raid sirens
2457149 Selective signaling circuit, Herbst John Amos, International Standard Electric Corp, 1948-12-28, - an 11th frequency is used to represent "repeat the prior number" so numbers with the same number in adjacent positions can be handled.
2591937 Selective calling system, Roswell H Herrick, Automatic Electric Laboratories (AEL), 1952-04-08, - 3 of 10 tones so 120 possible receivers. vibrating reed relays (see tuning forks)
2695951 Remote-control device, Julius J Hupert, Goldstein Richard, ARF Products, 1954-11-30, - one tube radio for garage door opener
2695977 Remote relay control by radio, Julius J Hupert, Goldstein Richard, ARF Products, 1954-11-30, - inductive coupling, 50-300 kHz, shielded Rx loop
3017631 Selective paging receiver, Marvin J Fink, Christopher J Birk, GM, 1962-01-16, -
3080547 Selective calling apparatus, Cooper Martin, Motorola, 1963-03-05, - while intended for mobile phones this transistor unit would make up the heart of a pager receiver.
3575558 Telephone paging system and method, Derek Leyburn, David Horton, Edward G F Baker, Claude Lemieux, Bell Canada, 1971-04-20, - allows a single paging system to be used in many cities rather than have one system per city.  Cited by 37 patents.
3623064 Paging receiver having cycling eccentric mass, Sholly Kagan, Bell and Howell, 1971-11-23, - motor w/offset weight
3783193 Apparatus for activating a remotely located device in response to the ringing of a called telephone subscriber station, M Lee, Pantek, 1974-01-01, -

3049592 Method of controlling a terminal circuit by remote control and remote cotnrol apparatus
3267379 Automatic radio telephone and signaling communication device
2363145 Telephone electrical circuit control system
2616972 Telephone operated lighting means - like a desk lamp
3347987 Telephone call-responsive automatic telemetering system
3383467 Remote control system using a commercial communication network to connect control and remote stations
3400219 Remote station apparatus for remote control system via telephone line
3428750 Sequential coded ringing of party line telephones
3484553 Alarm system connected to a telephone subscriber's circuit so as to transmit an alarm through the central office without interfering with normal telephone operation
3485952 Electronic phone control -
3324245 Ringing signal responsive, recording and control device
3308239 Selective answering and commanding telephone circuit - for an answering machine, or to turn on or off an appliance (tone operated relay).

Joan-Eleanor

Radio system (Wiki) used in W.W. II to allow a spy in the Netherlands or Germany to talk directly to their handler, who would be in a bomber at 25,000 to 30,000 feet altitude, directly using voice communication.  It was a 2-way link and the whole conversation was recorded on a GE Model B1 (81?) wire recorder.  The radios worked near 260 MHz, just above the highest frequency any German surveillance receiver could hear.  See Ref 1.

2502647 Signaling system, De Witt R Goddard, RCA, App: 1945-05-18, TOP SECRET, Pub: 1950-04-04, - Dual triode RF circuit Joan-Eleanor?
2513796 Switch and tuning device for radio transceivers, De Witt R Goddard, RCA, App: 1945-10-04, TOP SECRET, Pub: 1950-07-04, - instead of Puch-To-Talk this is Slide-To-Transmit, Release_To-Receive. Joan-Eleanor?
CA459516 (eSpaceNet) Ultra high frequency communication system, Witt R. Goddard De, G. Maclean Kenneth, RCA, 1949-09-06, - Joan-Eleanor?
2587146 Antenna, Irving A Gross, Stewart Warner Corp, 1952-02-26, - Joan-Eleanor (Wiki) maybe also the URC-4.
2760058 Radio frequency oscillator mounting, Irving A Gross, Stewart Warner Corp, 1956-08-21, - 460-470 MHz, Tubes: 6K4, 1V5, 2 audio amp tubes - Joan-Eleanor (Wiki)

References

Ref 1. OSS Technology Film - Joan and Eleanor, 18:26 - OSS Presents through it's Field Photography Branch,

@2:25 the GE Magnetic Recorder and Reproducer may be the Model B1 (81?) see Magnetic Recording Ref 6.
@2:28 Joan - Ground equipment
@4:09 The antenna pattern shown is wrong, it's more like a donut, i.e. strong signal straight up.
@5:04 Elenor, the airborne unit: Transceiver, Wire Recorder (AAF Radio: ANQ-1), Antenna extension support & manual direction control, Power Supply with Dynamotor, all mounted on a plate that has the same mounting arrangement as the K7C aerial camera.  An insulated box holds 4 ea. 6V wet cell batteries.
8:06 Antenna Extension Tube 260 MHz: 1.15m wavelength, 0.577m (22.7") half wavelength.  Not sure why lower antenna 30"?
8:40 Four Main Antenna Types: Dipole, Array, Turn style, Vertical Rod (experimental).
@10:09 Standard Camera Well - @10:38 K-7C Camera, T-3 Camera, K-3B Camera...
@10:48 Antenna mast installation & Battery Box
@11:15 Recommended Procedure for Ground Check
@13:24 Initial Tests in B-17 at 25,000 feet, properly siting the Joan is important, "shifting Joan antenna position changes operating frequency",
@16:45 - Blinker related to Oxygen Flow (Aero Antique: Delco PN 1506523) 3221704 Fluid flow apparatus, Vernon E Johannsen, Bendix, 1965-12-07, -
@17:39 Conclusion

Ref 2. Decoding Pagers with Software-Defined Radio, 37:12 -

page created 26 Oct. 2001.