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The ATU, a dying art?
On Wed, 12 Feb 2014 11:36:21 +0000, Kafkaësque
wrote: Just to add, I wasn't condoning the use of such radios on 6.5 or 27MHz. However, there's no point in denying that it happened. I should probably mot mention this, but since the company has been defunct for about 20 years, I think it's safe to leak a few stories. I used to work for a US marine radio manufacturer. We have various marine operator licenses and ham radio operator licenses. We had STA (special temporary authority) licenses and an FCC first class radiotelephone license (now known as a GROL). The problem was that few of the licenses were issued to the company. Most were all held by individuals. As employees came and went, so did the licence. The final inspection and compliance certificate included my FCC first class license number, which was used for many years after I had left the company, because nobody found it necessary to order a new rubber stamp. One of the radios I worked on was a 2-30 Mhz marine SSB transceiver. While the output lopass filter limited the operating frequency range to the normal marine bands, it was easy enough to build a filter that would work on CB frequencies. This was used for occasional air checks as the commercial HF radiotelephone operators did not appreciate our interruptions asking for air checks. So, we got our signal and modulation reports from a variety of local CB'ers. CB was also useful for testing how our receiver responded to off frequency, over modulated, and problematic transmitters. Some of our dealers were also buying replacement 150w PEP power amplifiers and repackaging them as CB linears. All I knew was that my power amp had an apparently high failure rate and that dealers claimed that they fixed the blown amps themselves (to avoid returning the original amp). Eventually, someone returned one of these linears to the factory for repair and the secret was out. We put an end to that nonsense rather quickly. Later, I worked for a company making radios for the electric utility industry. I soon discovered that I was the only engineer with an FCC license. When we submitted paperwork for type certification, all that was necessary was for one responsible and licensed individual to sign on the dotted line. That was me. I also worked for other companies with similar licensing arrangements. -- Jeff Liebermann 150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558 |
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