From: military-radio-guy Full-Name: Dennis R Starks To: military radio collectors#2 Fcc: Sent Date: Mon, 17 May 1999 17:32:54 Subject: MILITARY COLLECTOR GROUP POST, May 17/99 Message-ID: <19990517.173201.8951.5.military-radio-guy@juno.com> X-Status: Sent X-Mailer: Juno 1.49 MILITARY COLLECTOR GROUP POST, May 17/99 Index: ANNOUNCEMENTS; Dayton Reports Expected! RADIO MEMORIES; of Ltc. Bob Paterson USMC, USA(ret) MEMBER WEB SITES; Mark J. Blair, Steve Hill, Bill Howard, MEMBERS WRITE; Western Europe Surplus Shops? HUMOR; *********************************************** ANNOUNCEMENTS; Well I'm sure a number of you have just returned from Dayton. I expect an "After Action Report" from each of you! *********************************************** RADIO MEMORIES; of Ltc. Bob Paterson USMC, USA(ret) I have enjoyed your e-mails concerning military radio gear. I am a retired LTC from the Army and before that was a radio operator for several years in the Marines in the late 50's and early 60's. I was a CW op in a Force Recon unit and I remember we used some very small gear that we borrowed from the Special Forces in about '63 or '64 that was suposedly very classified at the time. It was two units (rcvr / xmtr) about 5" to 6" square and had a small CW key that swiveled out of the side of the xmtr. The rig ran about 10-15 watts and worked pretty well! Largest part of the system was the hand crank generator! (I recall that I thought the whole thing would be a nice little rig for Ham Radio Hi!) You might know something about this gear... Boy that was a long time ago!! I just can not remember much about the little CW rig that I mentioned, as I only got to use it for a few days. The SF had only 2 or 3 of these little rigs and we got one to try out. I got to work it and made a contact from a NC field site to another Marine Recon team we had training along a Florida coast line. As I remember I set the freq from a chart that was attached...dialed in one or two controls according to the chart and then it was ready. We used a short pre made dipole and it worked pretty good. I also used the old ANGRC 9 on CW a lot. Clunky but good an reliable. First FM gear I used was an AN/VRQ series rig. At that time the Artillery used one (AN/VRQ-2) on on set of freqs...the Infantry used another (VRQ3?)on the freqs a little higher (I think it was)...and armor used the (AN/VRQ4) which was higher still in freq. Artillery and Armor over lapped into the Infantry freqs..This allowed the infantry to talk to everyone, but armor and artillery could not interfere with each other. Or so was the plan. It caused a lot of foul ups by not being able to talk across the board. Another special rig I ran across was an English RACAL (Special Air Service)SAS rig used by commando and special ops units. I was a commo officer in Europe in a security unit that provided security for US Pershing Nuc Missiles. Once we had a two week field problem working against Belgian and US Special Forces type units. We had all the new 'toys' to use against them and NADIC LABS gave us lots to play with. (New night vision gear, ground radar, seismic devices that looked like a string of tent pegs connected to a 2 meter HT!) Anyway, we "captured" most of a Belgian SF unit that mistakenly parachuted right into our base camp (shades of the Longest Day!!) and I got all their commo gear to look over. Of special interest to me was a small RACAL rig for CW that had a special unit with a "wind up" device to plug into the transmitter. To use it, you recorded your message off-the-air using a one-time code/cipher and this device recorded it at a regular speed. Then you wound this thing up like a clock and plugged it into the xmtr. At the exact pre-programmed time, you came up on freq..gave one short call and turned this device known as a "Burster" on. It sent a CW message that sounded like a high pitched "zip". You could send a minute or two of CW in just seconds! It was recorded on the other end at the fast speed, and when played back at a slow speed it could be copied and then deciphered. Rather neat idea for special ops units who did not want to be DF'd and caught sending long transmissions! We made lots of homebrew directional antennas and regularly got 40+ Km range from rigs (PRC25's). Used tin cans, dirt and motor oil to make a 600 ohm resistor to terminate the antenna..Left these things all over Germany up in the trees! Ha! Also made 3 el yagis from wood stock and welding rods and lots more. The range was important, but just as important was the directivity that helped avoid direction finders (DF) and getting caught on patrols. In Europe for 3 years and then later in the US (I was Army Aviation Advisor to ARK Army Guard for a 3 years in 78-80) I taught Electronic Warfare training for tactical units. Used to have some neat jamming tapes around that I used. If I can find them , I'll send one along if you like. Let me have your address. We had lots of good training (and a quite a few laughs)fouling up the units training in Europe when they tried to talk like they were on 2 meters!! They really learned quickly how to work thru and around this stuff as I chased them all over the air. (Incidentally, I noted in the paper today that the Serbs are doing a good job of monitoring NATO aircraft and reacting to the message traffic just as I did!! Seems some more training might be in order?) Well thought this might be of interest to you, Dennis...Maybe I will catch you at the Fest here in Springfield this year.. 73 Bob Patterson K5DZE ed) Of course, the radio Bob describes in paragraph #1 is the RS-6. The VRQ series he relates in paragraph #3 are the RT-66, -67, -68 family of radio systems. Isn't it ironic how the Navy always chooses to change designations just enough to confuse things! It would be nice to know exactly what the British SAS Racal set was, but we can be sure that the "burst keyer" in question was the GRA-71. The North Vietnamese & Viet-cong forces were very highly adept at using radio anti-electronic-warfare techniques. I/E directional antennas on HF and even VHF radios at all times. They religiously used the lowest power setting a radio had whenever possible, and kept transmission time to an absolute minimum. As a result, the efforts of Military Intelligence search, surveillance, and direction finding where completely in vain, and jamming was impossible as they could detect nothing to jam. In contrast, the enemy's own Electronic Warfare efforts against us were highly effective. Today, the armies of the would try to counter the effects of Electronic Warfare with supper high tech frequency hopping, encrypted radios with so may bells and whistles that they can't be kept operational in the field. The can only be used by the most skilled of highly trained operators, and reliability is non-existent. After nearly 35 years a viable replacement for the aging, and primitive PRC-77 has yet to materialize. Isn't it a shame that we can't learn from history! *********************************************** MEMBER WEB SITES; Mark J. Blair, Here's a list of the tech info on my page, * 1999 MRCG meeting pictures * 1950's vehicular sets (scans of the foldout in the GRC-3-8 manual which shows the components of a lot of the 1950's vehicular sets) * BC-348 FAQ (originally from a Boatanchors posting by Buzz Harrah) * Some sketchy SEM-25 info * Installation of VRC-46 or GRC-125 into M37 * Modifying the Elpac 24V supply that Fair used to sell for 28V, with schematic * Solid-state replacements for ballast tube and thermal relay in AM-65 * TV-7 alignment hint All of these articles have links on my main page at: http://members.home.net/mblair1 -- Mark J. Blair, KE6MYK PGP 2.6.2 public key available from http://pgp.ai.mit.edu/ Web page: http://members.home.net/mblair1 ----------------------------------------------------------------- Steve Hill, You may wish to let the group know that I have updated my web page. Lots of green stuff to look at. cheers ----------------------- Steve Hill VK4CZT visit my military radio page Brisbane. Australia. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Bill Howard, I have been able to set up a web site, titled: THE WILLIAM L. HOWARD ORDNANCE TECHNICAL INTELLIGENCE MUSEUM. It is dedicated to the subject of Technical Intelligence. The main section contains an explanation of what Scientific and technical intelligence is all about. There are links to several other articles on the History of Technical Intelligence which I wrote for the Remembering Project.. There is a link to the History of Technical Intelligence in the European Theater, which is the starting point and a short history of Technical Intelligence from WW II to the present. There are links to other sites which contain pictures of various items of Foreign Material. Mostly tanks, rockets and WW 2 weapons, there are links to several sites that show modern Russian/USSR combat vehicles. There are also links to several sites that have pictures of Foreign Radios, and a section on “Collecting Japanese Radios of WW 2” and one on “Communication Equipment of the North Vietnamese and the Viet Cong”, an article on Russian Military Radios and the most recent addition was on “The Iraqui Radios of Desert Storm” Coming in the near future will be one on German Radios of WW II. The there is a Tour of my Museum which takes you on a brief tour of the museum. For further information on the museum, the artifacts or technical intelligence, please contact me. The URL for the site is:: http://home1.gte.net/wlhoward/index.htm Finally I would like to thank Mark W Felhofer of San Antonio, Texas WEB MASTER of www.felhofer.com www.vrc-50.org who has done all the work in getting the site set up. With out his expertise and time, this site would not have been possible. THE WILLIAM L. HOWARD ORDNANCE TECHNICAL INTELLIGENCE MUSEUM e-mail wlhoward@gte.net *********************************************** MEMBERS WRITE; Western Europe Surplus Shops? Dennis Can you tell me the names and locations of any surplus shops worth visiting in Western Europe or England please? (Mostly interested in Vietnam era equipment.) Regards Doug Armoured Vehicles Collector Douglas Greville *********************************************** HUMOR; How the War in Kosovo REALLY Started Secretary of State Albright walked into the decisive meeting of the North Atlantic Council (NATO's supreme political authority) and, after looking around the room and noting that there were no other female delegates, asked: "So, gentlemen, what shall we make - Love or War?" The vote was unanimous. ------------------------------------------------------------------ The Mafia was looking for a new man to make weekly collections from all the private businesses that they were 'protecting' Feeling the heat from the police force, they decided to use a deaf person for this job-if he were to get caught, he wouldn't be able to communicate to the police what he was doing. Well, on his first week, the deaf collector picks up over $50,000. He gets greedy, decides to keep the money and stashes it in a safe place. The Mafia soon realizes that their collection is late, and sends some of their hoods after the deaf collector. The hoods find the deaf collector and ask him where the money is. The deaf collector can't communicate with them, so the Mafia drags the guy to an interpreter. The Mafia hood says to the interpreter, "Ask him where da money is." The interpreter signs, "Where's the money?" The deaf replies, "I don't know what you're talking about." The interpreter tells the hood, "He says he doesn't know what you're talking about." The hood pulls out a .38 gun and places it in the ear of the deaf collector. "NOW ask him where da money is." The interpreter signs, "Where is the money?" The deaf man replies, "The $50,000 is in Central Park, hidden in the third tree stump on the left from the West 78th Street gate ." The interpreter says to the hood, "He says he still doesn't know what you're talking about, and he doesn't think you have the balls to pull the trigger." ------------------------------------------------------------------ 24 REASONS: WHY IT'S GREAT TO BE A MAN??? 1.) Phone Conversations are over in 30 seconds flat. 2.) A five-day vacation requires only one suitcase. 3.) You can open all your own jars. 4.) Dry cleaners and hair cutters don't rob you blind. 5.) You can go to the bathroom without a support group. 6.) You don't have to learn to spell a new last name. 7.) You get extra credit for the slightest act of thoughtfulness. 8.) If someone forgets to invite you to something, he or she can still be your friend. 9.) Your underwear is $10 for a three-pack. 10.) If you are 34 and single, nobody notices. 11.) Everything on your face stays its original color. 12.) Three pairs of shoes are more than enough. 13.) You don't have to clean your apartment if the meter reader is coming. 14.) Car mechanics tell you the truth. 15.) Gray hair and wrinkles only add character. 16.) Wedding dress - $2,000. Tuxedo rental $75 bucks. 17.) You don't mooch off other's desserts. 18.) You can drop by to see a friend without having to bring a little gift. 19.) If another guy shows up at the party in the same outfit, you just might become lifelong friends. 20.) You are not expected to know the names of more than five colors. 21.) You are unable to see wrinkles in your clothes. 22.) The same hairstyle lasts for years, maybe decades. 23.) One wallet and one pair of shoes, one color, all seasons. 24.) You can do your nails with a pocketknife. ------------------------------------------------------------------ BLONDE STORY "How come you're late?" the bartender asks the blonde waitress, Judi.. as she walks in the door. "It was awful," she explains. "I was walking down Elm street and there was this terrible accident. A man was lying in the middle of the street; he was thrown from his car. His leg was broken, his skull was fractured, and there was blood everywhere. Thank God I took that first-aid course; all my training came back to me in a minute." "What did you do?" asks the bartender. "I sat down and put my head between my knees to keep from fainting!" ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ PIG STORY My friend likes to read his two young sons fairy tales at night. Having a deep-rooted sense of humor, he often ad-libs parts of the stories for fun. One day his youngest son was sitting in his first grade class as the teacher was reading the story of the Three Little Pigs. She came to the part of the story where the first pig was trying to acquire building materials for his home. She said "...And so the pig went up to the man with a wheelbarrow full of straw and said "Pardon me sir, but might I have some of that straw to build my house with?" Then the teacher asked the class "And what do you think that man said?" and my friend's son raised his hand and said "I know! I know! He said 'Holy Shit!! A talking pig!'" The teacher was unable to continue for the next 10 minutes... *********************************************** (The preceding was a product of the"Military Collector Group Post", an international email magazine dedicated to the preservation of history and the equipment that made it. Unlimited circulation of this material is authorized so long as the proper credits to the original authors, and publisher or this group are included. For more information conserning this group contact Dennis Starks at, military-radio-guy@juno.com) ***********************************************