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Complete surveillance receiver
The A2C-S was a self-contained surveillance receiver designed and built by
Mason Engineering Inc. in the late 1960s.
The A2C-S was in essence a standard Mason A2, enclosed in an
aluminium container, with all plug-in units and accessories integrated in
the main unit.
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The image on the right shows a typical A2C-S unit, as it was used by various
agencies for bug-finding and surveillance tasks. Behind the top lid of the case
is the control panel, containing all connections, controls and read-outs.
The unit can be powered by the internal battery, or directly from
the mains.
Unlike with the A2, no patch cables are required to operate the A2C-S.
Instead, all units are wired internally, and a built-in selector switch is used
to select the required frequency range.
The selector switch is at the bottom center.
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On the A2, the green phosphor CRT display can be used for two
purposes: as an HF spectrum analyzer and as an LF (audio) analyzer.
In the A2C-S, a seperate CRT display is used for either task,
so that HF and LF spectrum can be monitored simultanously.
To cover the wide frequency range of the unit,
several antennas were supplied with the unit.
In the image above, a telescopic antenna
is connected at the top left of the receiver. For field-use, a rechargable
battery was hidden inside the top lid of the aluminium case.
Please note that, compared to the A2,
the frequency scales are missing from the individual frequency modules.
Instead, the unit is equipped with a digital frequency readout
(right behind the telescopic antenna).
Apparently, this was not such a good idea, as the scales would return on later
models, such as the A3-C.
According to one source [1], only around 240 units were ever built,
220 of which were sold to the US Government. The A2C-S featured on this
page however, has serial number 333. It was in use at the
USIA for many
years, until it was decomissioned when the agency closed in 1999.
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© Copyright 2009-2011, Paul Reuvers & Marc Simons. Last changed: Thu,22 Mar 2012.15:25:38
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