For TMC Lovers

[w1guh]

I found a site (Link below) that has lots of pix of TMC equipment, but there's a problem.  It's a free geocities site and appears to have some sort of periodic data transfer limit.

After I download a bunch of pix I got a message saying the site had exceeded its limit, so trying to see the site may be frustrating.  But worth it, IMHO, for some great pix of TMC stuff (10 KW Mobile anyone?)

www.geocities.com/radiotmc/bobscollection.html

This "data transfer limit." I've never heard of it.  Is it new?  It kinda makes a site like this next to worthless.  I couldn't even look at all the pix before I triggered it.  Wonder what "problem" this fixes for geocities?

[w3jn]

Many of these free or inexpensive website packages have a monthly data transfer limit.  Even so, bandwidth is not free.   For example, I would bet that the bandwidth bill for this site is not inexpensive, and Gary generously supports this site out of his own pocket.

73 John

[Herb K2VH]

This is what I just got on this site now.

Sorry, this GeoCities site is currently unavailable.
The GeoCities web site you were trying to view has temporarily exceeded its data transfer limit. Please try again later.

Are you the site owner? Avoid service interruptions in the future by increasing your data transfer limit! Find out how.

Learn more about data transfer.

[w1guh]

I looked at a the site in more detail and learned that the free sites have a 4 MB/Hour download limit.  That gets you about half of the pictures. 

But they're honeys.  Rigs in the plant, rigs in the field.  Worth the hassle of waiting.

[John K5PRO]

My first real job was at Delta Electronics in (then) Springfield, VA. They had a 10 kW TMC rig in the lab, which was used as a test source for various projects. We used to fire it up to put some power through the contacts of the balanced antenna switches that we built/rebuilt for international broadcast sites. We'd drive the input RF with an old Hp606A sig gen cranked up. It was a honey all right, a lot of knobs were required to make a frequency change or tweak a stage.

[w1guh]

I'm pretty much done downloading pix from the site, so I won't be hogging the data transfer.  And John,
thanks for story of using TMC equipment at work.  That's one company that's always fascinated me.  My first knowledge of them was in th '56 handbook where there was a great spread of the console with a GPR-90, the transmitter control unit, and something else (mabe a speaker), with a GPT-750 sitting next to the console.  The look of the receiver really caught my attention.

It's been a while since I related my personal contact with TMC.  In my last job one of my friends/coworkers was a ham whose father was a VP at TMC while he was growing up.  he "said" he designed the RF deck of the GPT-750 on a summer job out of high school...and maybe he did.  What he said about the GPR-90 was that it was designed by ex-hammarlund engineers who were given license to "design the receiver they always wanted to."  Ergo, the resemblance.

My brief review of the '90 I had for a while exactly parallels Paul,VJB's comments on qsl.net.  Paul, your statement, "I really wanted (tried?) to like this receiver, but I couldn't."  Excatly my experience.

It was built really well, mine was very stable, it was pretty.  But...but...something about it was a little bit "off."

The AM sound was not good.  As for other modes the receiver had to suffer from the lack of a product detector, so...   Never did a lot of CW with it.  Perhaps if I had I'd be saying something different.

BUT...and the GSB-1 and that becomes a very interesting receiver.  I was listening a (gasp!) ssb roundtable one night while working on something.  At one point one of the stations faded, and I tried to "tune it in" better with the bandspread.  Oops...it was sideband!  The point is...the stability and sound of the SSB made it sound like I was listening to comm. grade AM.  The sound was very smooth.

The next day I told my TMC friend about that and he told me that TMC put much effort and bucks into reducing the phase distortion in the 17 KC filter to an absolute minimum.  You could hear that in the sound.

Final note...they also had a plant in Nyack, NY right off the Thruway.  I drove by it on my way to work.  The building was unchanged untill sometime in the late 80's...maybe early 90's...when it got bought and the new company got rid of that distinctive extended roof over the front door.

Paul

[AJ1G]

As a JN in the late sixties, I always wondered what fantastic stuff might be inside a Technical Material Corporation facility, which must have been an off-site location of their Mamaroneck, NY offices, in West Nyack, NY, just to the north of the NY State Thruway on Snake Hill Road.   Used to pass by it every day.  At some point in the 70s, they moved out/on. I'm sure Glenn, NY4NC remembers the location.  At that stage of my ham radio  life, my knowledge of TMC came mainly from their ads in the back of the 1964 ARRL Handboook, which I had on virtual perpertual check out from the Clarkstown Junior Hhigh School Library.

[Glenn NY4NC]

Absolutely!... I remember it well, on the northbound side of the Thruway, ..I used to think about those handbook ad's, as Chris mentioned, when I would drive by...

Early in my electronics career, (mid 70's) I worked as an assembler for "Rockland Systems" also in West Nyack. A small company that manufactured test equipment (later bought out by Wavetek) One of the women I worked with on the line used to work for TMC in Mamaroneck. She did the point to point wiring on some of that gear... interesting stories she told about that place!

I know it's not the greatest performer, but I'd still lke to have a GPR-90 some day... I had a bunch of TMC gear at one point (exciters, VFO's and amplifiers) but I sold it all a few years ago...

As a JN in the late sixties, I always wondered what fantastic stuff might be inside a Technical Material Corporation facility, which must have been an off-site location of their Mamaroneck, NY offices, in West Nyack, NY, just to the north of the NY State Thruway on Snake Hill Road.   Used to pass by it every day.  At some point in the 70s, they moved out/on. I'm sure Glenn, NY4NC remembers the location.  At that stage of my ham radio  life, my knowledge of TMC came mainly from their ads in the back of the 1964 ARRL Handboook, which I had on virtual perpertual check out from the Clarkstown Junior Hhigh School Library.

[AJ1G]

I tried to get a job like yours at Rockland Systems for my last smmer home from college (1973) but it didn't pan out.  Glenn, if you were still living on Spruce Lane then I imagne you could have walked to RS!!  I think the building they were in is now a discount tire shop.

I came across some of thier bandpass filters later on in my engineering career.  Interesting that there is a Wavetek connection - I always thiought a lot of the Wavetek stuff looked like Rockland Systems products.

[Glenn NY4NC]

Yep, ...right down the road from my parents house although I had moved out on my own by then.

Did you know Gil's wife Muriel worked there?.... she was my supervisor (small world)

It's funny you mentioned the bandpass filters, I did the final assembly on those!.. ..I've been seeing them on E-bay 

When Wavetek bought Rockland Systems, they moved to Rockleigh NJ, I left the company just after the move...went to work for Materials Reasearch in Pearl River building RF generators for sputtering machines.
...big amplifiers that used a 3-1000Z... that was a fun job!...

I tried to get a job like yours at Rockland Systems for my last smmer home from college (1973) but it didn't pan out.  Glenn, if you were still living on Spruce Lane then I imagne you could have walked to RS!!  I think the building they were in is now a discount tire shop.

I came across some of thier bandpass filters later on in my engineering career.  Interesting that there is a Wavetek connection - I always thiought a lot of the Wavetek stuff looked like Rockland Systems products.