In article , "George R. Gonzalez"
wrote:

"David Stinson" wrote in message
...
Trying to identify a vacuum tube based missle seeker head.



Can anyone ID this? The box said "NIKE AJAX."

Thanks,
Dave S.

Here's the tech manual:

CHAPTER 3. SIGNAL DATA CONVERTER CIRCUIT OPERATION
Pulse stretcher 18 20
Cathode follower driver 19 21
Filter unit 20 21
AGC amplifiers 21 22
P- and Y-discriminator 22 23
Command burst circuit 23 25
Fail-safe burst circuit 24 27
CHAPTER 4. CONTROL SECTION OPERATION


Doesn't look like much of a manual, looks more like the table of contents
for one chapter.


Regards,

John Byrns


Surf my web pages at, http://users.rcn.com/jbyrns/

"John Byrns" wrote in message
...
In article , "George R. Gonzalez"


Doesn't look like much of a manual, looks more like the table of contents
for one chapter.


Regards,

John Byrns


Surf my web pages at, http://users.rcn.com/jbyrns/


oops, there should have been links in there...

Here's the link to the whole manual, scroll down a bit to get to your
stuff...


http://ed-thelen.org/tm9-5000-28.html



Regards,


George

"George R. Gonzalez" wrote:

Here's the link to the whole manual,

Thank you very much for your kindness!

David Stinson wrote in message ...
Trying to identify a vacuum tube based missle seeker head.



Can anyone ID this? The box said "NIKE AJAX."
================================================
Dave:

The Nike Ajax was a "Command Guidance" anti-aircraft missle system.
The computer (analog computer) was ground based and the computer was
fed information from a Target Tracking Radar (TTR) and a Missle
Tracking Radar (MTR). The computer digested this information and sent
commands to the missle via the MTR beam. The TTR and MTR operated in
the X-band (the 9 to 10 GHz range). The advantage of Command Guidance
is that the computer could determine the optimum trajectory to fly
missle to the target.

What you have is the electronics that received the MTR signals,
decoded the missle commands, and sent them to the control surfaces of
the missle. I went through the Officers Basic course at Ft. Sill back
in 1961. I was trained on the Nike Hercules System as the Ajax was
being phased out at that time. We did spend some time studying the old
Ajax system as there were still a few Ajax sites active until the late
1960s. I saw quite a few Ajax missles being fired at the White Sands
missle range.

Lt. Ed Engelken
5th Msl Bn, 517th Arty
(My old Hercules Missle outfit)

In article , wrote:

John Byrns wrote:
In article , wrote:


Trying to identify a vacuum tube based missle seeker head.



Can anyone ID this? The box said "NIKE AJAX."



I would
love to hear more about it if anyone knows? With all those "submini"
tubes, it looks a little like one of Robert's "Engineering what ifs" gone
awry. Did the "NIKE AJAX" actually use a "seeker head", or was it steered
to the target by control signals from the ground? I know there were
several very different incarnations of the "NIKE" missile, but I have no
idea what the operational differences were?

Three - Ajax, Hercules and Zeus. All were ground directed (by RADAR) to
target. The electronics on board received the radio control signals and
used that to actuate the control surfaces as directed. The various
versions were all similar - with improving speed, range, accuracy, etc.

I thought they were directed from the ground. The "Technical Manual" at
the link George posted looks interesting, although I have only just gotten
started with reading it. It is definitely boatanchor technology. With
all those "moving parts" in the ground based guidance system I wonder how
they were able to get enough accuracy to shoot anything down? When I was
growing up in the 1950's, some SAC F-102s were based at the local Air
Force base, I think the F-102s were another 1950's system designed to
shoot down Russian bombers. I have a book buried somewhere around here
that I bought in the early 1970's, which claimed that the missiles used on
the F-102 had nuclear warheads to make up for the lack of accuracy
provided by the 1950's technology.

Brings back memories of the 1950s, when "NIKE" missile bases ringed many
of our larger cities. I wonder when they were decommissioned, seems like
they were gone by the mid 1960s at the latest?

More like mid 70's. Here is a picture of one (Hercules version) from
Lynwood, CA - Memorial Day 1963 (right in your back yard, Jeff!). A
friend of mine (still living) was in the parade - as he was in the
National Guard at the time - and his unit was one of the units in the
parade that day. A few years later he took us to Camp Roberts - where
we got to ride in jeeps, tanks, and all manner of neat stuff- neat guy!

I occasionally passed by a Nike site in the late 1950's, which seemed to
have disappeared by the early 1960's. In 1969 I moved into an apartment
that was a couple of miles down the road from a former Nike base, all that
was left of the Nike installation at that time were the radar's, and the
National Guard, which I think continues to use the site even today,
although the radar's are long gone.

Regards,

John Byrns


Surf my web pages at, http://users.rcn.com/jbyrns/

John Byrns wrote:
In article , wrote:


John Byrns wrote:

In article , wrote:



Trying to identify a vacuum tube based missle seeker head.



Can anyone ID this? The box said "NIKE AJAX."



I would
love to hear more about it if anyone knows? With all those "submini"
tubes, it looks a little like one of Robert's "Engineering what ifs" gone
awry. Did the "NIKE AJAX" actually use a "seeker head", or was it steered
to the target by control signals from the ground? I know there were
several very different incarnations of the "NIKE" missile, but I have no
idea what the operational differences were?

Three - Ajax, Hercules and Zeus. All were ground directed (by RADAR) to
target. The electronics on board received the radio control signals and
used that to actuate the control surfaces as directed. The various
versions were all similar - with improving speed, range, accuracy, etc.


I thought they were directed from the ground. The "Technical Manual" at
the link George posted looks interesting, although I have only just gotten
started with reading it. It is definitely boatanchor technology. With
all those "moving parts" in the ground based guidance system I wonder how
they were able to get enough accuracy to shoot anything down? When I was
growing up in the 1950's, some SAC F-102s were based at the local Air
Force base, I think the F-102s were another 1950's system designed to
shoot down Russian bombers. I have a book buried somewhere around here
that I bought in the early 1970's, which claimed that the missiles used on
the F-102 had nuclear warheads to make up for the lack of accuracy
provided by the 1950's technology.


Brings back memories of the 1950s, when "NIKE" missile bases ringed many
of our larger cities. I wonder when they were decommissioned, seems like
they were gone by the mid 1960s at the latest?

More like mid 70's. Here is a picture of one (Hercules version) from
Lynwood, CA - Memorial Day 1963 (right in your back yard, Jeff!). A
friend of mine (still living) was in the parade - as he was in the
National Guard at the time - and his unit was one of the units in the
parade that day. A few years later he took us to Camp Roberts - where
we got to ride in jeeps, tanks, and all manner of neat stuff- neat guy!


I occasionally passed by a Nike site in the late 1950's, which seemed to
have disappeared by the early 1960's. In 1969 I moved into an apartment
that was a couple of miles down the road from a former Nike base, all that
was left of the Nike installation at that time were the radar's, and the
National Guard, which I think continues to use the site even today,
although the radar's are long gone.

Regards,

John Byrns


Surf my web pages at, http://users.rcn.com/jbyrns/

IIRC, One former Nike site is the FAA facility in Van Nuys. Seems I was
told this by a former crew member.
Bill Higdon

"David Stinson" wrote in message
...
"George R. Gonzalez" wrote:

Here's the link to the whole manual,

Thank you very much for your kindness!

Hey, I didnt do the hard part, scanning and OCR'ing the manual!


I would love to see the actual schematics of this thingy.....

"George R. Gonzalez" ) writes:

Even in the free spending 1950's there was only enough spare $ to put up a
miniscule shield. Many of the Nike sites were put up in full view of major
public thoroughfares, to reassure the public that the US govt was on the
job!


Yes, I remember seeing one site just off a main street in
Detroit, MI. The site was surrounded by a high fence but
citizens (and visitors from Canada, like me) could easily see
the missiles sticking up above the fence. This was early '50s.

Just wonder if the second part of the name (Ajax, Hercules, etc)
refers to the booster rocket that the Nike was mounted on. I
recall that some upper atmospheric research rockets were mounted
on Ajax boosters.

.... Martin VE3OAT

Bill Higdon wrote:

IIRC, One former Nike site is the FAA facility in Van Nuys. Seems I
was told this by a former crew member.

I think the California Air and Army National Guard units took over those
sites (IIRC one was just south of the air port - and the other bit
further south in the hills??? been a long time---).

According to the Boeing site - some of the Nikes were in service into
early 1974. I think most of the sites were indeed abandoned by the mid
to late 60's - IIRC Whittier Narrows was abandoned by the very early
60's. There used to be some old runways there - and in the early 60's
kids used to run go-carts and minibikes there on the weekends. We also
suspected there was one up in the Puente Hills - just east and up the
hill from what is now Rio Honda Community College (actually -just above
the old Pellisser dairy farms)- but I've heard later that was just some
sort of communication station. There was indeed another Nike site about
10-12 miles southeast in the Puente Hills - just sw of what's now
Rowland Heights.

Figures - been gone 33 years -- and this stuff comes back - yet I can't
remember what I had for dinner last night...

best regards...
--
randy guttery

A Tender Tale - a page dedicated to those Ships and Crews
so vital to the United States Silent Service:
http://tendertale.com

"George R. Gonzalez" wrote in message news:D47_a.127329$Ho3.15956@sccrnsc03...

I would love to see the actual schematics of this thingy.....

It might scare you.

The only Nike tech manual I have is for the AN/MPM-48 test set. Five
Hundred and fifty 11" by 17" pages of schematics, diagrams, and
pictures. No theory, no parts lists. They were included in other
volumes of the manual set.

--
William Donzelli