Bwana Bob wrote:
No HF, even as backup? Ancient history now, but I was in Tel Aviv on
business in 1993 and all the embassies I saw had HF antennas on the
rooftops.
Quite a number of U.S. embassies had HF backup until the mid-1990's.
Most of them in the third world have SSB "Emergency & Evacuation" gear,
but none for the record traffic circuit. There's so much demand for
bandwidth these days. There's a need for ISDN voice circuits, e-mail
and even video/imaging.
Interestingly, most were dipoles fed with 600 ohm open wire
line. One embassy had an HF log periodic.
Most U.S. embassies used open wire fed dipoles with KW-rated,
nitrogen-filled autotuners. Many foreign embassies use/used cage
dipoles with open wire line. It was seldom that you'd see any type beam
antenna.
Wasn't the Ten Tec Paragon sold under GSA contract to government
agencies?
It may have been, but it wasn't used by the U.S. Department of State.
Our SSB gear changed in the 1980's from Collins to Transworld. In
J5-land, I had a Paragon at home and I tried to wear it out making 75k
or so QSOs as J52US. It made another 65,000 at 9L1US before being set
aside for an Omni VI at A22MN.
I wonder if any are tucked away in a corner of an embassy comm
room somewhere... Just in case.
Nope. The Swedes in Guinea-Bissau used a large LP with a Drake TR-7 and
L-4B. Then again, all of their traffic was sent in the clear too.
Dave K8MN
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