"Jim" wrote in
k.net:

The 30 looked like one
of those old fashioned satellite dishes on steroids. It could see out
about 250 miles, I believe. Ah the good old days.


The 30 was an interesting beast on S-band, I think. If you pointed it at
the moon and kept a pulse generator on the repeater to keep it sweeping
past its range, you could actually measure the distance to the moon by
counting the sweeps X range plus wherever the moon showed up on the last
sweep with the sweep set as far out as it would go. The 30 ran so much
power you had no trouble seeing the moon's reflected signal...(c; It would
cook a seagull that had the audacity to fly right in front of it out of the
air for several hundred yards in its narrow beamwidth.

Did you ever see someone slew the 30 antenna too fast and rip off the
mounting bolts? BIG drive motors, heavy antenna...(c; It could actually
make the ship it was on change course a tiny bit....

Ah, magnetrons driving amplitrons and large klystrons.....POWER IS OUR
FRIEND! Wonder how many of us it cooked with its Xrays leaking out of the
rectifier cabinets?

Larry
--
Halloween candy left over.....
Is there a downside?