Historical microwave test equipment

Updated May 7, 2007

You load sixteen bits, and what do you get?
Another day older and deeper in debt!

(and our apologies to Tennessee Ernie Ford...)

This page will eventually describe some of the old test gear that was used in days gone by. For now it serves as a parking lot for photos of test equipment that is obsolete by today's standards, but was the cat's pajamas way back when. Got some old photos? Send them in and we'll reward you with a gift if they make it onto this page!

New for September 2005! Here's a page on wavemeters! Also, check out our page on slotted line measurements.

If there is interest we will create a page of historical hardware that is other than Test Equipment. We've got plenty of bandwidth, there is almost no limit to how much dusty old stuff that Microwaves101 can display!

Below is Les Besser sitting at one of the first versions of the HP automated network analyzer (ANA) which cost $250K way back in 1970 (about US $1M in today's less-powerful dollars). The modern network analyzer costs and weighs about 1/20th of this unit, and might indeed work over 20 times more bandwidth. Check out the dial telephone, and notice the four-legged chair of death Les is sitting on--try to buy one with less than five legs today!

Here's a handsome Dude sitting at a Tektronix graphics terminal, several years before PCs were available. It dissipated enough power to heat the room, yet could take an hour or more to "draw" printed circuit board artwork of any complexity. In the background is a Radio Shack "Trash-80" for running very short Basic programs, and the Tektronix graphical output device which used thermal paper. You had to learn not to park your coffee cup on top of those printouts! Nice pocket protector, homey!

Here's a trio of geeks sitting around an HP 8409 automated network analyzer (ANA) circa 1981, complete with 16-bit HP computer (see the row of sixteen square buttons near the top of the left bay for programming in binary code?) You can't see it, but this unit featured a revolutionary trackball interface! On a good day it would give you data from 2 to 12 GHz, and even provided time domain outputs thanks to Harold Stinehelfer's software from "Made-it Associates". Check out the rotary joint test cable, which today would only be useful as a mugging tool. That Dude with his back to us was recently co-chair of the 2004 IEEE IMS Symposium, and has no idea that his picture appears on this web site, so don't tell him!

ITT transmitter test

This is a description of a test that was done at ITT in Nutley New Jersey during the 1960s. The description and photos were provided by MW101 contributor OAH of Towaco NJ, so we'll just quote his letter:

"These four shots were part of a package sent to the contractor (US Navy) concerning the testing (for Rad Haz) of the parabolic antenna for a 10 kW X-band transmitter, to be installed aboard a Navy ship. This antenna was part of a satellite transmit/receive system; and was designed to remain locked to the satellite, independent of the pitching of the maneuvering ship.

Results were rather interesting. A radiation level of one mW per square centimeter is considered safe. A level above 10 mw per sq. cm. is considered hazardous. It developed that until the beam was formed no hazard was present... you could peep into the antenna dish without harm. The beam finally formed about 200 feet in front of the antenna. From there out to about 1000 feet the hazard level was unsafe.

Photo #1 (top left): the antenna, together with its automatic pointing base (see 2nd unit at the corner of the building) is pointed at the top of the ITT tower. A field receiver is set up at the base of the tree, 100 feet in front of the antenna. No hazard at this point.

Photo #2 (top right): Test site at the base of the tree. Level of received signal is comparison-calibrated with a sig gen, using a waveguide coupler.

Photo #3 (bottom left): Shot of the near-signal measurement set-up. That's me at the receiving site, under the tree.

Photo #4 (bottom right): A shot of the antenna-to-tower path. The signal at the top of the tower was measured to be less than one mw per sq. cm., at a distance of about 1000 feet.

The Navy concluded that this installation comprised no hazard to shipboard personnel since it would be mounted on the highest platform of the ship."

Thanks, OAH! Click on each thumbnail for a high-res jpeg photo!

The ITT tower was nicknamed "Sosthenes Behn's last erection" by some of the happy ITT employees that worked on the Nutley plant site. Sosthenes Behn was the founder of ITT, and was about 70 years old when the tower was built, in the pre-Viagra 1950s. ITT is (was) a conglomerate company with an interesting history, including ties to Nazi Germany.

The tower was originally built for testing TACAN--the original direction finding equipment for aircraft. The tower could "see" for 100 miles in any direction. That would cover New York City plus Bergen, Hudson, Union, Essex and Morris Counties in New Jersey--i.e. a good piece of northern New Jersey. This tower was 300 feet tall!!!

Here's ITT's B17 Flying Fortress (thanks for the correction, Doug!) outfitted with some special direction-finding equipment in the 1960's (see the large box out on the wing?) It was borrowed from the Army, but had the ITT logo on the tail. Engineers would fly this baby from Teterboro NJ to upstate NY on a good day, up to eight hours in the air. It was downright civilized, it even had a lavatory. But the power inverter was inches away from the "throne room", so you could barely hear yourself think, or whatever else you were trying to do!

Click here to see a movie of the ITT tower being leveled by real estate terrorists (what fools these mortals be!) What happened to the ITT tower and surrounding lands? The ITT Clifton building was originally supposed to be part of a shopping center but ITT eventually bought it back and it is still a facility for ITT Industries, and it is truly an eyesore. The 500 Washington Ave building now houses a religious cult. The River Road building is a shipping terminal for some other outfit. The main golf course--the ITT campus where the tower was--is now covered with condos--town houses and a smattering of single family homes.

Here's two thumbnails of missile hardware from the old Hughes Aircraft corporation, circa 1960, contributed by Lorraine K. The well-dressed man at the test station is Mr. W. Keith Kilpatrick. Click on them to see enlarged photos. Nice shot of a Falcon missile... we've seen similar ones on Ebay!

Want to see some slotted line equipment? We have some pictures on our VSWR page.

Click here to go to our page on wavemeters.