MILITARY COLLECTOR GROUP POST, JAN.5/98 INDEX: RADIO FACTOIDS; SCR-195 in Italy 1943, BC-611 canvas bags? by Hue Miller, and Dennis Starks WEB SIGHT INPUT, & MORE; MYSTERY RADIO; the PRR-15, by Dennis Starks, & Bill Howard ************************************** RADIO FACTOIDS; SCR-195 in Italy 1943, BC-611 canvas bags? by Hue Miller, and Dennis Starks Here are a couple radio factoids i noted in an afternoon book shop prowl in dankest oregun ( perfect bookstore weather, grey from ground to heaven, steady heavy rain. that's why the northwest is deservedly reknown for being a very literate region. ) i again looked at the Time Life WW2 book "The Italian Campaign" and the cover illustration has a USArmy infantryman wearing what appears to be an SCR-195 "in the approach to the mountain fortress of Troina, during the campaign for Sicily". This would be 1943. The photo, very dark, is from the rear and the two section bag is visible, also the substantial AN-29 telescopic antenna, and a telephone handset. BTW, the end cap on the AN-29-C, does it attach to the bottom section of the antenna by a small chain? because it looks like some little object hanging from the first section of the antenna and i would guess this is the end cap. Also btw, this would indicate that the Army by this date was already doing what we are mostly forced to do today: substitute later suffixes of the AN-29 for the earlier one originally specd for the SCR-194/195. Also, in Infantry Journal -i believe it was - i saw a grainy photo of some airborne troops inside a plane on D-Day. 2 men were with BC-611, carried at the top of a chest pack horizontally, at about shoulder level. What was of interest to me was, no canvas bag on them. ( There is a supposed paratroop padded bag for the BC-611. I don't think it appears in the WW2 issue manuals. ) One talkie also seemed to be painted on the side with some large characters, M-3 or some such type thing ( hard to make out exactly). and this reminds me of the BC-611 i saw in the northwest that had been found in a ditch, antenna broken off, by a dutch boy, after the battle of Arnehm. It has a simple camo pattern of dark brown paint in three stripes winding up around the set, the bands of the stripes maybe 2-3 inches wide. The finder still owns it, having replaced the antenna. He also found a bazooka, which he enjoyed firing. hue miller ------------------------------------------------------------- All the AN-29 series antennas are identical except for an insert in the bottom that changes the thread. 1/4 x 20 for the SCR-194/195, 3/8 x 18 for the BC-620/659, 3/8 x 24 for the early SCR-300's. The Cap & chain are located at the top of the antenna's first section, same with the AN-30, which is the antenna used with the SCR-195. The AN-30 is cosmetically different than the AN-29's, though it's collapsed length, & the threaded insert are the same, it's overall extended length is shorter because of the higher frequency range of the radio it was used with. As a result, the diameter of the first section is also smaller do to fewer antenna sections. I have seen some AN-29's that were expertly shortened, & had 1/4 x 20 threads, I can't testify if these were Signal Corps modified to sub for the AN-30, or a later civilian mod, especially as 3/8 x 18, & 3/8 x 24 examples have also been found in the same condition. I have often fought the cause of the actual wartime use of the SCR-194/195, but I was not aware of it's use in Italy. But this is not surprising. When Allied forces reached the Italian mountains, the communications equipment in hand was found to be too heavy, bulky, or fragile for transport and use in this terrain. As a result, a blanket "Urgent" battlefield request was sent back to the States to immediately search out & ship all the available old Cavalry, or mule/horse carried equipment in the Signal Corps warehouses. Thus the SCR-194/195's might well have been thrown in. The canvas bag for the BC-611 is a bit of a mystery. I suspect it was only really included with AN-190 DF antenna & it's conversion kit, especially as this is the only way it ever appears in the manuals. After Operation "Torch", the Allied invasion of North Africa in 1942, a complete re-thinking of radio packaging took place. As this was the Army's first experience with a large scale marine landing, there were many lessons learned the hard way. Much of the equipment reaching the beach was inoperable do to either being submerged in water, or from salt water seepage into the radio equipment from spray. The Signal Corps began to develop canvas covers, and bags to protect it's equipment in future landings. In the case of the BC-611, the Signal Corps found that a standard weapons bag (for the 30 M1 carbine), did an excellent job, and even allowed the radio to be used while contained in it. This method of protection became very common as can be seen in many surviving photos. The canvas bag for the BC-611 was first described in the original manual supplements for the SCR-536 which also contained the DF conversion kits. Though many have said that this DF set was designed especially for the "D" day invasion, I find this hard to believe. I would sooner think that this addition was designed "as a result of the D'day invasion". Contrary to popular dogma, the DF antennas for such radios as the BC-611, & PRC-6 were not intended to be used in the locating of enemy transmitters. They were meant to be used by small units to locate where "they" were in respect to their higher echelon. As we know, many assaulting forces did not end up where they were suppose to be, both in the beach, and airborne landings of the "D" day invasion, or even later in the case of airborne troops in operation "Anvil" in southern France. Nor did these poor soles have any idea where they where for considerable time. In the case of the inland airborne troops, they began a frantic search for street signs, villages names, or any recognizable landmarks that would identify their location. Those displaced units on the beach were in even worse shape. Thus we can see why the need for a direction finding set would result from this experience. And with this direction finding modification for the BC-611, it's associated carry equipment, I/E canvas bags. Dennis Starks; MILITARY RADIO COLLECTOR/HISTORIAN military-radio-guy@juno.com ************************************** WEB SIGHT INPUT; Dennis, When you get the web page be sure to put the info on the PRC-47, GRC-109, etc. on it. BRUCE ----------------------------------------------------------------- Bruce, When the web sight is done, I don't plan to have much by way of the articles that were in the Post, or Backmail/archives etc, other than maybe the indexes. Many of the articles I plan to have printed, an index presented, and volumes sold to help pay for the sight/server ($265 year). Big problem would be, that if I make available all the assets, and accomplishments of the Group via the Web sight, what would be anyone's incentive to participate, or be a member of the group? Maybe will include everybody's Want's, but no available equipment, possibly all the MEMBER PROFILES, INVITATION, a teaser article taken from the Group Post once a month. I think the primary mission of our web page should be to promote, and further our cause. While including too much of our material might indeed promote our cause, I think it would do little to further it. Something else for everybody's consideration, while I have a name for our group publication (Military Collector Group Post) I don't have anything in mind for the name of our group. We can't go on just referring to it as "The Group", especially in conversation outside group channels. So we need a name. Any suggestions? A request that has been received several times, is a net frequency for the use of CW on the various Ham bands. This so that members will more readily be able to use their old xtal control equipment. While AM opertational freqs are all pretty well established, CW freqs arn't. Another consideration might be a freq for SSB ops, many of my early SSB rigs are also xtal control. Dennis Starks; MILITARY RADIO COLLECTOR/HISTORIAN military-radio-guy@juno.com ***************************************** MYSTERY RADIO; the PRR-15, by Dennis Starks, & Bill Howard Dennis, As you can tell by the information below, I don't know a hell of a lot about this radio but have made some pretty good guesses, I think. Bill Howard ------------------------------------------------------------------- The PRR 15 Radio I was talked into buying this by Kevin Kuzel. It seemed cheap at about $125.00 and would fit in somewhere. It finally arrived and was in two containers. Container one housed the radio and had space at the bottom for a power supply and a Dictaphone cassette recorder. Case number two had four compartments, one housed the extra power supply, one held extra tape cassettes. two more compartments held an assortment of wires, cables and a Dictaphone michrophone. There was no Technical manual so I do not know what all should be with this radio. There was a lot more space in the second chest so I concluded there must be somethings that were missing. Supposedly this set was devloped for the U.S. Marine corps during the Vietnam era. Efforts to track down information from the Marine Corps proved futile as did the efforts to get information from the U.S. Army Signal Corps. The set is a receiver which is connected to a dictaphone cassette recorder and allows the program listened to, to be tape recorded. It is powered by either a 120 VAC power supply or from batteries that fit in the second power supply. When it arrived and after I figured out what all was there and how to connect things, i powered it up and with the 2 foot (Approximate) steel ribbon antenna such as was used on the PRC 6, 10s, etc the set began to pick up some message traffic. I listened only long enough to be certain the set was working. It was my conclusion that this set was designed to be used by a sort of long range patrol, set up on a hillside and would monitor enemy communications. There was a microphone connected to the set which allowed you to make comments on the tape at the same time it was recording. The basic plan must have been for a patrol to set up on a hillside and monitor and record enemy radio traffic and every so many hours take the tapes to a pickup point and get a new supply of tapes. The recorded tapes would then be taken to the rear where they would be transcribed or decoded. If there is a better explanation, I would accept it. I have never seen any document or book which outlined this set or even mentioned it. THE WILLIAM L. HOWARD ORDNANCE TECHNICAL INTELLIGENCE MUSEUM e-mail wlhoward@gte.net Telephone AC 813 585-7756 ----------------------------------------------------------------- The PRR-15, and it's major component, the R-1484, were obviously designed for intelligence gathering purposes, much like the R-901/GR, R-395/PRD-1, R-744/PRR, TRQ-30(R-1218, R-1518) etc. If compared to some of those other receivers listed above, the PRR-15 had several very obvious advantages as listed below. #1) it was a 100% solid state design. #2) operation was from a multitude of various power sources, including 12vdc, & 110vac. #3) as a set, it was much smaller than any of it's contemporaries. #4) it had a much wider frequency range than any of the other radios in this family. Even if compared to the current TRQ-30 which requires two receivers to cover a similar frequency range. #5) and expanded modes of reception include AM/FM/CW/ & SSB. While the example in Bill's collection includes more of the accessories than that in mine, I do have the advantage of a manual copy. TM-05599A-15, Dated May, 1969. As the size limitations of this Post have just been reached, I'll conclude "Mystery Radio, the PRR-15" in the next issue. In the mean time, you can contribute any info you have on this set, or any other. Currently there are no proposed candidates for the next "Mystery Radio". So I suppose it will be left up to me to choose one. So how about the GRR-5? Dennis Starks; MILITARY RADIO COLLECTOR/HISTORIAN military-radio-guy@juno.com ***************************************** EDITOR; Dennis Starks; MILITARY RADIO COLLECTOR/HISTORIAN military-radio-guy@juno.com