From: military-radio-guy Full-Name: Dennis R Starks To: military radio collectors#1 Fcc: Sent Date: Wed, 14 Jul 1999 04:23:01 Subject: MILITARY COLLECTOR GROUP POST, July 14/99 Message-ID: <19990714.042205.12063.6.military-radio-guy@juno.com> X-Status: Sent X-Mailer: Juno 1.49 MILITARY COLLECTOR GROUP POST, July 14/99 Index: GERMAN PANZER HEADPHONE DISCUSSION; From Bill Howard & Hue Miller INTERNET B-29 DISINFORMATION ALERT; By Dave Stinson MEMBERS WRITE; PRC-25/77 Long Wire Antenna? Japanese BC-312? Military OD Paint Dilemma, War Time 2 Meter Freqs, HUMOR; *********************************************** GERMAN PANZER HEADPHONE DISCUSSION; >From Bill Howard, Dave, Answer to your questions. German "Panzer" Headphones,I have a pair of German "Panzer" headphones.This pair has all the outside markings but has no German Eagle stamped on the inside band as you normally find.Any idea why some of these would be stamped with the eagle and swaztika and some not? TE EAGLE/SWATZIKA STAMP WAS APPLIED BY THE WAFFENAPT, A MILITARY ACCEPTANCE OFFICIAL. IF YOU HAVE ANYTHING GERMAN WITH OUT THESE MARKS, IT PROBABLY WAS MADE AND HAD NOT YET GONE THROUGH THE MILITARY ACCEPTANCE OFFICE. MOST LIKELY THEY WERE TAKEN FROM THE FACTORY PRODUCTIN LINE BEFORE THEY WERE COMPLETED. THIS WOULD ALSO EXPLAI THE MISSING PLUG. Also, if anyone has an original plug for this set,I'd sure like to trade for it. YOU CAN USE A STANDARD EUROPEAN HOUSEHOLD ELECTRIC PLUG FOR THIS, BUT ORIGINAL PLUGS ARE RARE. AS AN ALTERNATIVE, YOU CAN TAKE A PAIR OF "CHEAP" STANDARD HEADPHONES AND PIRATE THE PLUG FROM IT. Finally-- The black rubber on one of the earmuffs has a crack and both of them are "stiff." I asked about this around three years ago, but thought I'd ask again just in case something "new" has come up-is there any way to restore plyablity to these black rubber pieces? ABOUT ALL THAT I HAVE EVER TRIED IS ARMOR ALL, A SPRAY WHICH SEEMS TO HELP AT LEAST IN APPEARANCE 73 Dave Stinson AB5S arc5@ix.netcom.com Panzer headphones complete are now worth about $125 to $150 versus about $25 to $50 for a standard headset.I to am looking for some of these plugs, if you find a source of supply, let me know. I have a set of Panzer headphones, missing the panzer head band. My friend in St Pete has the headset with the correct head band but no plug. We have been batting this back and forth for several years. Can not seem to agree on any form of traGerman "Panzer" Headphones, Bill Howard THE WILLIAM L. HOWARD ORDNANCE TECHNICAL INTELLIGENCE MUSEUM e-mail wlhoward@gte.net ----------------------------------------------------------------- >From Hue Miller, >German "Panzer" Headphones, >I have a pair of German "Panzer" headphones. >This pair has all the outside markings but has no German >Eagle stamped on the inside band as you normally find. >Any idea why some of these would be stamped with the >eagle and swaztika and some not? --i just looked at a couple of DFHb ( "Double Head Phone type b" ) and was able to find the acceptance stamp by unsnapping the headband from one of the phone units. the stamp is visible on the flat outside surface of the phone unit, usually obscured by the headband. perhaps i misunderstand Dave's note, but i don't think i have ever seen the acceptance stamp on the band itself. for one thing, the band is too dark, at least most of it where it is covered by fabric. the headband itself has stamped into the metal, DFHb on one end and the 3-letter maker code on the other end. btw, i wonder if the DDR used throatmikes built on the WW2 German model, and if so, is there any clue to distinguish these, other than the lack of the Nazi eagle acceptance stamp. Seems to me there's a lot of throatmikes around, compared to headphones. of course that may merely be a function of the headphones greater usefulness to the average souvenir taker. >Finally-- The black rubber on one of the earmuffs has >a crack and both of them are "stiff." I asked about this >around three years ago, but thought I'd ask again >just in case something "new" has come up- >is there any way to restore plyablity to >these black rubber pieces? --that's a darn good question. some materials are worse than others, for example the soft rubber cups used on the USAAF WW2 headphones seem to be pretty bad, and also those on the TBY USNavy portable radio. i've had a couple of headsets where the rubber cushions have gone to the consistency of heated marshmallow, and what's worse, when stored with other headphones, the sticky sludge adheres to other headsets also. what a mess! i have a Japanese pilot's microphone, this thing kinda looks like a single unit headphone with rubber cushion, this fit against and over the pilot's mouth. yes, i agree, that sounds like a very poor idea! anyway, the cushion is pressed flattish, out of round, but i don't dare try to round it, lest i crack and destroy the cushion material. ( these style microphones seem to be very rare. also, by the way, i suppose this would have to be used with a non-oxygen supply aircraft, i.e. a relatively low flying plane, only, is this right, do you think? ) regards, hue miller ----------------------------------------------------------------- Military OD Paint Dilemma, Hi Dennis, Obtaining the original codes will help, but may not be the complete answer. There are a zillion different olive drabs, and some have faded, aged, and changed colour. Each green radio I have, is a differnt shade of green, and finish. The only ones with reliable colours are the black ones. When I want a match, I lug the radio (or the case) to the local paint shop. They attempt to find a close match in their colour charts, then adjust the additives a little. They usually go very close. Ray vk2ilv ed) Your exactly right, there are hundreds of accepted OD color variants which depend on a number of factors. Just a few are the vintage, country of origin, and the manufacturer. The PRC-74(General Dynamics) OD is completely different from that of a PRC-25 or -77. WW-II radio OD is not the same as post-war etc. The auto-paint supplier tip is a very good one and one used by a close friend who is a master at restoring WW-II vintage radios. The government supplies a set of color reference cards that can be used to match the shades of all officially used colors, and they are available cheep. But the best method is to just take the radio to a automotive paint supplier who has a computer controlled color matcher(fairly common today). They simply scan the color in question, and the paint mixer spits the wanted color out the other end. Matching the color on the inside of a radio should negate any problems of a miss match caused by fading. Caution! Unless you have a radio that is in total shit condition, do not re-paint it! Especially if it still retains some unit markings etc. For instance, I have a PRC-25 that most of the paint is missing from one side, the other side is marked with the emblem of the 4th Field Artillery Group(4th FAG on a field of blue, gets a lot of snikers when on display). The 4th, stationed out of Ft Riley Kansas was the last field Artillery unit to actually use horse drawn equipment. A second example is a WW-II BC-1000 which saw service in three wars in the hands if three different counties. First the U.S. in WW-II and Korea, then French & Vietnamese in Vietnam. The to return back home again in the late 70's as surplus. Every blemish it has was well earned! One last example is a 30M1 Carbine in my collection, it too served through three wars. It has the name of each soldier who carried it carved on the stock. It realy looks like shit, but I wouldn't have it any other way. I like to refer to any imperfections in the finish of a radio as "character marks", other's prefer to call them "battle scars", in any case, they need be proudly displayed just as we do our own scar's. The value of any antique is cut in half or more by re-finishing, this includes guns, furniture, etc. I see no reason the same should not be true of our old radios. *********************************************** INTERNET B-29 DISINFORMATION ALERT; By Dave Stinson Military Radio Disinformation Alert #1 More and more myth and misinformation about historic military radios are being posted to the web. As an assistance to newcomers, I will post these alerts as the errors are identified. ---------------------------------------------------- http://navismagazine.com/sample/b29/tour-radio.htm While Navis Magazine's online B-29 tour is well presented and very interesting, the Radio Operator page is erroneous. The SCR-274N HF Command Set is not mentioned at all and is misidentified as antenna controls. The ARN-7 compass control box is labeled as an electrical panel. The flight suit thermal heater control is labeled as a part of a gun turret. The ART-13 transmitter and the dynamotor shelf below it are labeled as the Navigator's position. A description of correct radio complement of the B-29 from early WW-II to Korea plus corrected graphics were emailed to the webmaster. No corrective action has been taken and Navis Magazine did not send a courtesy reply of any kind. The correct information and corrected graphic- which is a U.S. Air Force photograph from about 1950 and thus in the public domain- are available on request. If you, as a fellow military radio enthusiast, are aware of a site containing incorrect information, please forward the URL and correct information to me. After peer review, we will contact the site's webmaster and ask that the page(s) be corrected. If no action is taken in a reasonable time, we will post the URL and information in one of these alerts. 73 DE Dave Stinson AB5S arc5@ix.netcom.com P.S. Does anyone remember the infamous URL of the company that was claiming it invented airborne VHF with the ARC-1? Can't find it here. *********************************************** MEMBERS WRITE; PRC-25/77 Long Wire Antenna? Hi Dennis, I have seen all sorts of references to using terminated longwire antennas with field sets such as the PRC-25/77 but I haven't seen anywhere how to hook the antenna to the radio. Do you poke the wire into the BNC jack or do you wrap it around one of the whip antenna bases or what? Thanks, Conard, WS4S ed) A special long wire antenna kit(AT-984/G) was produced for both the -25, and -77, that was constructed around a commercial fishing reel(used with fly rods). It was provided with a terminal lug on the radio end and connected to the radio by first installing the spring base(AB-591) for the long whip antenna(less the whip). The long wire's lug was connected to the radios antenna mount, under the AB-591. The AT-984 long wire antennas are fairly common and inexpensive. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Japanese BC-312? Hi Dennis, I know you don't have web access so you can't look at this but could you post it to the group and see if anyone knows anything about it? This is a Japanese marked BC-312. It has minature tubes and a turret to select the band coils. Does anyone know if it was produced in Japan or in the U.S. and given to Japan? I am pretty sure it is not war time production because of the minature tubes. http://www2.pos.to/~milradio/bc312/junk_jbc312.html Tom Bryan ed) After WW-II, Japan was supplied U.S. equipment for the self defense forces. This was carried on for some years, then they began to clone their own U.S. derived models. This practice continued until our transition from tubes to transistors when the Jap's began to branch out with their own designs. Some U.S. equipment known to have been domestically produced in Japan includes the JBC-375, JBC-611, JJ-38, JEE-8, JGRC-9, and JPRC-10. It would not be un be unfeasible that they produced their own version of the BC-312(especially given that they built their own BC-375's which was used in vehicles after WW-II when 2vdc became the standard vehicle voltage). Of course, all the above is simple speculation, but I'm sure we'll soon find out. ----------------------------------------------------------------- War Time 2 Meter Freqs, > Does anyone know what standard VHF frequencies were used during the > war? I am trying to put crystals in my SCR-522 and only have pairs for > 116.10 mc and 126.18 Mc. Obviously there were at least four channels in > the most common VHF equipments. I know that one was a guard channel so > it must have been a common frequency. I also can't imagine retuning the > VHF radios for each mission like they could with the Command Sets so > there must have been fairly commonly used frequencies. > > Lenox Carruth Dallas, TX carruth@geo-thermal.com > Collector of WW-II Communications Equipment and Memorabilia Response: In the RCK receiver manual of 1944, E.H. Scott Radio Laboratories lists a number of VHF frequencies for which standard crystals were available. Per the parts list, the frequencies (in Mcs) listed are as follows: 116.10 117.90 119.34 121.50 123.66 124.02 124.38 126.18 128.70 140.58 140.76 140.94 141.12 142.02 142.56 142.74 143.28 143.64 144.00 144.36 146.16 147.96 149.49 151.20 Regards, Jerry Proc VE3FAB jproc@idirect.com Web: www3.sympatico.ca/hrc/haida HMCS HAIDA Historic Naval Ship, Toronto Ontario *********************************************** HUMOR; Subject: Interesting item on eBay web site item#90696969533: Blow job by Monicka Lewinsky Date: Monday, July 12, 1999 12:57 AM I saw this item for sale at eBay, the world's largest personal trading community, and thought that you might be interested. Title of item: Blow job by Monicka Lewinsky Seller: pbclinton@aol.com Starts: 06/12/99, 22:37:37 PDT Ends: 06/19/99, 22:37:37 PDT Price: Currently $202.00 To bid on the item, go to: http://cgi.ebay.com/aw-cgi/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=90696969533 Item Description: This is a blow job from a well known White House Aid. Lucky Bidder must pay air fare from Los Angles, Ca. Satisfaction guaranteed ----------------------------------------------------------------- Subject: (none) Date: Friday, May 21, 1999 7:43 AM There is a story many years ago of an elementary teacher. Her name was Mrs.Thompson. And as she stood in front of her fifth grade class on the very first day of school, she told the children a lie. Like most teachers, she looked at her students and said that she loved them all the same. But that was impossible, because there in the front row, slumped in his seat, as a little boy named Teddy Stoddard. Mrs. Thompson had watched Teddy the year before and noticed that he didn't play well with the other children, that his clothes were messy and that he constantly needed a bath. And Teddy could be unpleasant. It got to the point where Mrs. Thompson would actually take delight in marking his papers with a broad red pen, making bold X's and then putting a big "F" at the top of his papers. At the school where Mrs. Thompson taught, she was required to review each child's past records and she put Teddy's off until last. However, when she reviewed his file, she was in for a surprise. Teddy's first grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is a bright child with a ready laugh. He does his work neatly and has good manners...he is a joy to be around." His second grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is an excellent student, well liked by his classmates, but he is troubled because his mother has a terminal illness and life at home must be a struggle." His third grade teacher wrote, "His mother's death has been hard on him. He tries to do his best but his father doesn't show much interest and his home life will soon affect him if some steps aren't taken." Teddy's fourth grade teacher wrote, "Teddy is withdrawn and doesn't show much interest in school. He doesn't have many friends and sometimes sleeps in class." By now, Mrs. Thompson realized the problem and she was ashamed of herself. She felt even worse when her students brought her Christmas presents, wrapped in beautiful ribbons and bright paper, except for Teddy's. His present was clumsily wrapped in the heavy, brown paper that he got from a grocery bag. Mrs. Thompson took pains to open it in the middle of the other presents. Some of the children started to laugh when she found a rhinestone bracelet with some of the stones missing and a bottle that was one quarter full of perfume. But she stifled the children's laughter when she exclaimed how pretty the bracelet was. She put it on and dabbing some of the perfume on her wrist. Teddy Stoddard stayed after school that day just long enough to say, Mrs. Thompson, today you smelled just like my Mom used to." After the children left she cried for at least an hour. On that very day, she quit teaching reading, writing, and arithmetic. Instead, she began to teach children. Mrs. Thompson paid particular attention to Teddy. As she worked with him, his mind seemed to come alive. The more she encouraged him, the faster he responded. By the end of the year, Teddy had become one of the smartest children in the class and, despite her lie that she would love all the children the same, Teddy became one of her "pets." A year later, she found a note under her door, from Teddy, telling her that she was still the best teacher he ever had in his whole life. Six years went by before she got another note from Teddy. He then wrote that he had finished high school, third in his class, and she was still the best teacher he ever had in his whole life. Four years after that, she got another letter, saying that while things had been tough at times, he stayed in school, had stuck with it, and would soon graduate from college with the highest of honors. He assured Mrs.Thompson that she was still the best and favorite teacher he ever had in his whole life. Then four more years passed and yet another letter came. This time he explained that after he got his bachelor's degree, he decided to go a little further. The letter explained that she was still the best and favorite teacher he ever had. But now his name was a little longer. The letter was signed, Theodore F. Stoddard, M.D. The story doesn't end there. You see, there was yet another letter that spring. Teddy said he'd met this girl and was going to be married. He explained that his father had died a couple of years ago and he was wondering if Mrs. Thompson might agree to sit in the place at the wedding that was usually reserved for the mother of the groom. Of course, Mrs. Thompson did. And guess what? She wore that bracelet, the one with several rhinestones missing. And she made sure she was wearing the perfume that Teddy remembered his mother wearing on their last Christmas together. They hugged each other, and Dr. Stoddard whispered in Mrs. Thompson's ear, "Thank you, Mrs. Thompson, for believing in me. Thank you so much for making me feel important and showing me that I could make a difference." Mrs. Thompson, with tears in her eyes, whispered back. She said, "Teddy, you have it all wrong. You were the one who taught me that I could make a difference. I didn't know how to teach until I met you." Warm someone's heart today. Pass this along. Never underestimate the Power of Purpose. *********************************************** 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 concerning this group or membership contact Dennis Starks at, . A list of selected articles of interest to members can be seen at: http://www.softcom.net/users/buzz/backmail.html ***********************************************