[ih] ruggedized Honeywell 516 ARPANET IMP cabinet top lifting hooks (Was: The IMP Lights story (Was: Nit-picking an origin story))

[Barbara Denny]

 As far as I know Barry Leiner wasn't involved.  Mark Lewis would know more as he was originally the principal for the project when it started.  I was working on something else and got involved after the hardware was done.  I  always spoke to people at CECOM ( when the command was at Fort Monmouth).  I particularly remember Paul Sass and I think Mike Bereshinksky (sp?) was also heavily involved. 
I should also mention Mike Pursley as being an important member of the team.   There also may have been others who participated before I started working on it.  Unfortunately I just saw Mike Pursley has passed away too. Here is a link for those who would like to know more about him. SINCGARs is mentioned..https://comt.committees.comsoc.org/inmemoriam/
Short on time right now but I wanted to mention the demonstration at Fort Gordon was particularly memorable for me. The army had put us in a small building out on the range somewhere for the exercise.  There was also a small team (two people or maybe one) who were also there for support because there was a satellite dish.  I was certainly happy someone else was with us as it turned out Hurricane Hugo was on the way (It was predicted to hit Savannah but ended up hitting land near Charleston).  I sent the other SRI person who was there to support the application back to the Bay Area early because he said he needed to be back in a couple days.  I told him he should leave now because he probably wouldn't make it back if he didn't.  They did close down the Atlanta airport and the military decided to shut down the base.    The satellite people were very nice and volunteered to help me tear down the equipment.  It was quite some experience to be there as many people were evacuating the coast.  I just saw the name Hugo will no longer be a name eligible for a hurricane because they retired it.  Don Alves (SRI) came to support me as soon as he could finally get a flight to Atlanta. This was after the storm had passed through.
barbara

    On Monday, August 25, 2025 at 10:55:35 AM PDT, Vint Cerf <vint at google.com> wrote:  
 
 that was Barry Leiner's program, wasn't it?v

On Mon, Aug 25, 2025 at 1:53 PM Barbara Denny via Internet-history <internet-history at elists.isoc.org> wrote:

 Having trouble with the mailing list 
  Another story....
I thought SINCGARs radios we were getting at SRI were milspec.  I was surprised when in one shipment a radio had been broken by the post office.  Nothing major, just a corner piece had broken off.  
Some of you might be wondering what SRI was doing with these radios.  We had a project with ITT to develop a packet applique (another box) to transform the analog radio to one that supported packet switching. We used the packet radio protocols as a starting point for  the nodes and we did demonstrate it during exercises at military bases (Fort Bragg and Fort Gordon).  Hosts were using TCP/IP for the applications. Last I heard ITT and General Dynamics were competing? for the next production of the radios and this included support for packet switching.  This was back in the late 80s(?),  shortly after our project ended. I know ITT had also done more internal IR&D in this area. I don't know how much of the original packet radio technology got incorporated.
barbara

    On Monday, August 25, 2025 at 06:00:24 AM PDT, Steve Crocker via Internet-history <internet-hist

The 516s were ruggedized but they were not "milspec."  Frank Heart was
concerned they might get roughed up in transit or, possibly, in the
research labs where they were accessible to STUDENTS!

I believe the hooks -- really eyes, to be precise -- on top were for being
picked up by a crane for loading and unloading.  I don't know if they were
ever used.

There was no requirement or expectation that the IMPs would survive a
nuclear event.  The idea that the net was designed for nuclear
survivability is a red herring.  At best there was the possibility that
some aspects of the technology, if successful, might be useful in
the future for designing a nuclear survivable communications system.  It
was NOT a design goal for the Arpanet.

Steve