It looks like a RF goniometer. It might be a multi-clock phase generator as well. Dwight
________________________________ From: cctalk <cctalk-boun...@classiccmp.org> on behalf of Brent Hilpert via cctalk <cctalk@classiccmp.org> Sent: Friday, January 17, 2020 2:22 AM To: General Discussion: On-Topic and Off-Topic Posts <cctalk@classiccmp.org> Subject: Re: Interesting device on eBay -- CDC clock generator? On 2020-Jan-17, at 12:11 AM, William Maddox on CCTalk via cctalk wrote: > The seller thinks this may be a drum memory, but it is clearly not. My > guess is that it is some kind of clock generator. Anyone recognize this? > > https://www.ebay.com/itm/Vintage-Mainframe-Computer-Part-Drum-Memory-Control-Data/312942951497 The circumferential wire bundles feed two-stage transistor amplifiers that drive toward the center, then drop down to the interior board through inductors and then feed back toward the circumference near the coax connectors. It looks like one of the coax connectors (J26) is out of regular angular displacement from the others. I'm wondering if it could be some sort of rotating / multi-phase modulator. An RF carrier injected on the odd-one-out coax connector, modulated or switched in a rotating sequence via the circle of drivers, out to the circle of coax connectors. Sheer guess as I've never seen one, but perhaps for a VOR station, to set up the (electronically-generated) rotating beacon, the coax connectors would feed out to RF amps and a circle of antenna segments. It looks a little too engineered to be for a lab experiment. Date codes 1980-1982.
