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Vintage Amateur and Military Radio Amateur/military receivers and transmitters, morse, and any other related vintage comms equipment. |
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23rd Nov 2018, 10:50 am | #1 |
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Location: Exeter, Devon and Poole, Dorset UK.
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Ptarmigan Video
With all the Military radio threads at the moment I peaked my interest in Ptarmigan again.
I was a Plessey Avionics and Communications from 75 to 78 at West Leigh on this project so still have an interest. I believe it finally came out of service some 3 years ago. It obviously developed over that period adding functionality. A lot of the actual hardware was built here in Poole and I often discuss the PTD's with some of the guys here at the time. Anyway for anyone interested I found a quite interesting (well to me anyway) video on Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKJXnDmql-k It looks pretty much as I remember, I worked on what is described in the video as the CIG but we referred to as the TCU (Terminal Control Unit) Cheers Mike T
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24th Nov 2018, 12:54 am | #2 |
Dekatron
Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Brentwood, Essex, UK.
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Re: Ptarmigan Video
Thanks for the link. I worked on some of the radio modules for Ptarmigan's predecessor, Mallard, when I was with Plessey. Mallard got axed in the early 1970's, and I left before Ptarmigan got going. Interesting to see how it worked out.
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24th Nov 2018, 8:21 am | #3 |
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Re: Ptarmigan Video
There was a complete Mallard A model Node in a container on site at West Leigh some of the people on site had worked on it although not in our team I will PM one name you might recall.
The container was to go on a 7.5 or 10 ton lorry I was told. We used to rob it for parts mostly mechanical at the prototype stage. ISTR the Radio was Hybrid with 4CX250 output valves. No one ever talked about the technology but I will use the cvsd encoder/decoder before the 3 bit companding encoder was available. I might still have a Mallard encoder Cheers Mike T
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25th Nov 2018, 10:57 am | #4 |
Hexode
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Buntingford, Hertfordshire, UK.
Posts: 362
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Re: Ptarmigan Video
Hi All,
Interesting video. I have a bit of ptarmigan kit I picked up a couple of years ago. It’s not without its issues as it had suffered water damage, but I’ve nanaged to dry it out and Hope to get some power on it when time permits. I know little about it apart from it has some of its test kit still in place, although I suspect the useful kit was where the gaps in the racks are now. ATB Chris G1rpo
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25th Nov 2018, 12:07 pm | #5 |
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Re: Ptarmigan Video
I never saw one in the flesh in that container but that looks like it might be a Switch.
I used to see the switches "naked" and of course one rack of pc's look pretty much like any other. During the design phase the test equipment of choice to create traffic were the Computer Appreciation Naked Minis. Although data traffic was sometimes created by Membrain random sequence generators. ISTR that the switches had air purification systems to prevent operator contamination by fall out and radiation. I suspect that the bits that are missing will be the cryptos and PTD's In a switch there will be a lot of cryptos I would expect. At the time I left most of the pcbs were populated with thick film hybrid parts. Is this the case with your equipment? Be nice to see some pics inside Cheers Mike T
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25th Nov 2018, 1:34 pm | #6 |
Hexode
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Buntingford, Hertfordshire, UK.
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Re: Ptarmigan Video
Hi Mike,
My understanding is that it’s just a repair body, which seems to agreed with the layout. A few pics attached. ATB Chris G1rpo
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BVWS, VMARS, RSGB, DEHS, RAOTA Nothings too big or too heavy, otherwise it wouldn't be where it is! |
25th Nov 2018, 4:08 pm | #7 |
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Re: Ptarmigan Video
Never saw one of those so thanks for the pictures.
I don't think much effort was being made when I left the project on repair facilities well not at West Leigh anyway Cheers Mike T
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