Military Collectors Group Post,Oct.11/97 Index: PVS-502,STARBRITE,& CAMERAS?? MORE TONKIN HEATHKIT?? VC & Heathkits; More Humor;(so-so this time) Internet Easdropping Bill; MEMBER PROFILE;Lenox ******************************************************* PVS-502,STARBRITE,& CAMERAS?? A couple days ago I got a PVS-502 Starbrite scope for my M-14, or it was supost to be, the mount that came with it is for an M-16. It appears the M-16 adapter mount can be removed, has anybody ever seen, or know where I'd get a mount for my M-14? Also I'd like to experement buckling this thing up to my 35mm SLR, does anybody know if this is feasable or not? Where adapters might be found? How it might be done? Thanks, Dennis ******************************************************* MORE TONKIN HEATHKIT?? Dennis & all, here is the April 1st post that I was too slow to realize was a joke. The set I used was definately a PRC-33 but I never knew who made the damn things, we had 6 of them. It is 'lunchbox' looking(construction worker lunchbox not HeathKit) grey with side hung motorola mike, base loaded whip antenna, top handle, top half radio-bottom batteries and neon TX indicator. They were used on crash boats and seaplanes at Camran Bay and in some other places as fill in radios. If I remember right the plane handling freq was 40.58mc. A common prob was salt water and fuel getting into the unsealed battery box, the ant. was easily damaged too. Dennis' post on the set is the first I've heard of the canvas cover or other accessories. The PRC-33 would probably be OK for the CD duty but banging around in a boat with a bunch of armed Boatswains mates was a bit too much. (NOTE;keep in mind, the below was a hoax, in fact during this period some of the most rushed & extensive radio development in our history was going on. We were progressing from tubes to solid state & AM to SSB. Thanks Ed for the historical input on the use of the PRC-33. 40.50mc was the guard freq use mainly for helicopters, it was most likely this one you were useing, also note that it's third harmonic is 121.5mc, & the second of that is 243mc. Dennis) The April 1 post that got me started: About two years ago, while attending a meeting at nearby Fort Monmouth, NJ, home of US Army CECOM (Communications and Electronics Command), I met an old timer engineer (now retired) who told me the following story: Early on in the Vietnam war, the Army was already pursuing cost reduction programs for many systems, including manpack radios. One radio was a lowband VHF unit which was a militarized 6'er, produced by Heathkit in Benton Harbor, MI. The circuit was identical to the ham version, except for frequency coverage. Construction was with milspec components in a ruggedized enclosure which included spares (tubes). An initial production of 4,000 units was procured, at total contract cost of approximately $ 5 million. Units were put through operational testing and evaluation at Army test labs and in the field in Southeast Asia. As can be imagined, the field trials were less than spectacular. When word got up the chain of command that the soldiers had begun to call the radios "Tonkin Gulf Lunchboxes", SOA (Secretary of the Army) killed the program overnight, in spite of the bargain-basement cost per manpack unit, for fear of negative publicity should that moniker ever reach the ears of the public, who would never have tolerated another debacle like the Korean conflict. As a side point, note that even today, 50+ years after Korea, the motto used by the Army as it draws down in size while supposedly maintaining it's readiness is, "No more Task Force Smiths!". Has anyone ever seen or heard of one of these "cost reduced" 6'ers? If anyone has one, I'd like to buy it! 73, Kalman W2ES klaudon@pica.army.mil Not having seen a set for 30 years I thought....Well..maybe?????? Ed Zeranski This is a private opinion or statement. home email: ezeran@cris.com ******************************************************* VC & Heathkits; Dennis, In reference to the VC building Heathkits in the October 10th Group posting, I was not certain if they actually meant radio/electronic kits supplied by the Heath Company of Benton Harbor or the sarcastic "HeathKit" for anything cobbled together from spare parts. The July 1967 Technical Intelligence bulletin shows a transmitter and receiver built into a 50 cal ammo can. Used 1.5 volt filament tubes, about 90 volts on receiver plate and 150 volts on transmitter plate. I put together a copy which works, both receiver and transmitter. The Ordnance Museum has on display a radio built into a 30 cal (7.62mm) ammo can. It had two sections, one was wired and the other was not wired. Assume it was going to be a transmtter when finished, I also built a copy of this set and finally got it working but had to modify the circuit extensivly to make it operate. The assumption I made is that this set never actually got into service but got captured before it was completed. I also assume it was captured after 1968 as I did not see it when I was over there. The NVA radio research units primary intercept set was the captured PRC 25 or 77. They monitored most allied radio freq and in many cases were able to use the same set to countermand orders for Air Strikes as we were sloppy about aunthentication. The primary command radio that these intercept units had was the Chinese 102 E or latter XD6 sets. These are almost a copy of the SCR 684 of WW II vintage (AN/GRC 9 of post war fame) Probably just re-packaged. They would use the PRC 25s to learn of our plans and when they found out about an attack or air strike, they got the word out on the 102 E set and warned the higher headquarters. Higher Hq then put the word out on other nets and the VC/NVA left the target area long before we got there. In many cases they used commercial broadcast stations, A VC agent could be sitting in his office listening to music and receive a "news broadcast" and decide to make a sudden trip home or to the next town or what ever and nobody was any the wiser. Remember the "EAST WIND RAIN" message in Nov 1940 just before Pearl Harbor. Same idea. The only bonafied Heath kit I saw was one being built by the Lt in our Signal Section. I think it was a stereo amplifier. It gave him something to do during the day, in between flaps and museum tours. Bill Howard LTC Armor USAR(Retd) THE WILLIAM L. HOWARD ORDNANCE TECHNICAL INTELLIGENCE MUSEUM e-mail wlhoward@gte.net Telephone AC 813 585-7756 ed) Test For Technology, the official history of all signal activities in Vietnam mensions "commercial radios" assembled in 50 cal. ammo cans, though does not mension Heathkit or any other company by name. ****************************************************** More Humor;(so-so this time); Dennis, And you accuse me of bad jokes!! Being warped? This one isn't much better! Bill Howard > A farmer walked into an attorney's office wanting to > file for a divorce. > The attorney asked, "May I help you?" > The farmer said, "Yeah, I want to get one of those dayvorce's." > The attorney said, "Well, do you have any grounds?" > The farmer said, "Yeah, I got about 140 acres." > The attorney said, " No, you don't understand, do you have a case?" > The farmer said, "No, I don't have a Case, but I have a John Deere." > The attorney said, "No you don't understand, I mean do you have a > grudge?" > The farmer said, "Yeah I got a grudge, that's where I park my > John Deere." > The attorney said, "No sir, I mean do you have a suit?" > The farmer said, "Yes sir, I got a suit. I wear it to church on > Sundays." > The exasperated attorney said, "Well sir, does your wife beat you up > or anything?" > The farmer said, "No sir, we both get up about 4:30." > Finally, the attorney says, "Okay, let me put it this way: > WHY DO YOU WANT A DIVORCE?" > And the farmer says, "Well, I can never have a meaningful > conversation with her." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ What if Dr. Seuss wrote technical manuals? If a packet hits a pocket on a socket on a port, And the bus is interrupted as a very last resort, And the address of the memory makes your floppy disk abort,Then the socket packet pocket has an error to report! If your cursor finds a menu item followed by a dash, And the double-clicking icons put your window in the trash, And your data is corrupted 'cause the index doesn't hash, Then your situation's hopeless, and your system's gonna crash! If the label on your cable on the gable at your house, Says the network is connected to the button on your mouse, But your packets want to tunnel to another protocol, That's repeatedly rejected by the printer down the hall. And your screen is all distorted by the side effects of gauss, So your icons in the window are as wavy as a souse, Then you may as well reboot and go out with a bang, "Cause as sure as I'm a poet, the sucker's gonna hang! When the copy of your floppy's getting sloppy on the disk, And the microcode instructions cause unnecessary RISC, Then you have to flash your memory and you'll want to RAM your ROM, Quickly turn off your computer and be sure to tell your mom! ***************************************************** Internet Easdropping Bill; Dennis, saw your post on SAFE and the Oxley ammendment. I was following this one too. You might let the guys who are interested know what happened... The SAFE bill has already passed intact without the big brother Oxley snooping ammendment. One for liberty and freedom (finally)! ....until the next bill.... Congrats on internet access, I hope it works for you this time. Remember, computers are supposed to make your life easier! (#$O@#$!) Ralph Hogan VMIC VME Microsystems International Corp Huntsville, AL email: ralph.hogan@vmic.com wk ********************************************************* MEMBER PROFILE;Lenox Well, Dennis, I guess I forgot to include the member profile when I updated my trade/want list so here goes: I have been interested in radio since I was a kid. Had a Command Set receiver setup under my bed as a teenager with the control head on the headboard. Used to lie awake at night tuning from 3 to 9.1 mc. In those days, it was unusual to find more than two or three stations on. Graduated to a BC-348. Sort of quit radio for undergraduate school but then got into RTTY while in graduate school. Collected a lot of TTY stuff since I thought it was neat! (I'm a mechanical and nuclear engineer) I couldn't resist all of those moving parts and the smell of warm oil! After graduating, getting married and having three kids I got into the Confederate Air Force and again got interested in WW-II radio equipment. I supplied most of the radio equipment for the Memphis Belle restoration and the CAF's R4D. I am a pilot and fly a restored Korean war vintage L-19E (O-1E). I am now 57 years old. Now, I collect WW-II memorabilia and WW-II radio equipment. I have a 1942 Ford GPW Jeep and use it in a lot of parades and public displays. I also use a lot of the WW-II radio equipment in public displays. I have an operating TCS setup (mixed dash numbers) that is a great hit with the public. It is a hands-on display where the public can actually talk on the radio. We originally communicated with a borrowed BC-611 and I am now trying to find one of our own to use in future shows. I also collect a little post war stuff just to show the evolution of radio communications. Sometimes I lose my mind and get something that really has nothing to do with my main interests but just seems "neat." I collect for two main reasons: 1. I like the stuff, 2. I enjoy educating the public, most of whom don't know anything about the war. I think everyone should understand the incredible impact that WW-II had on the course of history and the sacrifices of those who made it possible to live as we do today. Lenox -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lenox Carruth, Jr. carruth@swbell.net Dallas, Texas Collector of WW-II Communications Equipment and Memorabilia Wanted: TCS-14 Transmitter, TBX, BD-71, Sextant -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ******************************************************** When finished reading use browser back button or go to http://www.prc68.com/MCGP/MCGP.html