From: military-radio-guy Full-Name: Dennis R Starks To: military radio collectors#2 Fcc: Sent Date: Sat, 9 May 1998 04:22:48 Subject: MILITARY COLLECTOR GROUP POST, May 9/98 Message-ID: <19980509.042146.2991.11.military-radio-guy@juno.com> X-Status: Forwarded X-Mailer: Juno 1.38 MILITARY COLLECTOR GROUP POST, May 9/98 INDEX: ANNOUNCEMENTS; PRC-6 GROUP PROJECT; JAPANESE HRO TYPE RADIO RECEIVERS; By: LTC William L. Howard ON THE COMMERCIAL FRONT; HUMOR; *********************************************** ANNOUNCEMENTS; The PRC-6 project has taken off, looks like we might need a couple articles on what to do with them once their in your hands. Bob Simpson has reminded me that Fair Radio not to long ago had the proper xtals for them priced at $5.00ea(up from $3.00ea the last time I ordered any). Anyway, they still may yet have some and that's far better than $15.00 to have them made. See below for current tally. The Louisiana Museum of Military History downsizing is well underway, note, their list is still posted here. As equipment is added, or liquidated, this list is updated, so it's not the same in every post. While I'm prone to agree that some items are priced out of my league, they are receptive to reasonable offers. There has been a bunch of new members added to our group since the introduction of the "On the Commercial Front" column. A description of the purpose or use of this column was not included in the invitation/guide lines originally sent them when they sign on. So Monday we'll have a re-hash of what this part of our post is all about. It's Saturday again, so have any additions, or modifications you want included in the Sunday morning Group Want's/Trade's Post in by tonight. Dennis *********************************************** PRC-6 GROUP PROJECT STATUS; My Address is:(this is not a UPS shipping address!) Dennis Starks P.O. Box 95 Cross Timbers Mo. 65634 (USA) Tally; so far I've got the below people down, let me know if I've missed you, or am incorrect. I will place the last order on Tuesday morning May 12, so if you want any, let me know by Monday. I only put it off that long because I know we have quite a few members off at Dayton, also theres a GSA sale on the 14th with a bunch of great old vehicles and I'll be strapped for cash. PRC-6($20.00) / Batteries($22.50) Steve Hill 2ea / 2ea Lee Orsborn 1ea / Dave Sundheimer 1ea / Ed Guzick 2ea / Todd Huss 4ea / 8ea William Smith 2ea / 2ea Bob McCord 1ea / 1ea Paul Monroe 2ea / Brian Scace / 4ea Jim Wood 2ea / 2ea John Kidd 4ea / Pete Williams 2ea / Steve Bartkowski / 1ea Bruce Haffner 1ea / 1ea Dave Prince 2ea / Jay Coward / 3ea Kevin Hough 1ea / 2ea David Ward 2ea / Mike Cowart 1ea / 1ea Ralph Hogan 2ea / 2ea Bob Simpson 1ea / Mikhael Brown 1ea / Hal Blaisdell 2ea / 2ea Sheldon Wheaton 2ea / Me 1ea / 1ea *********************************************** JAPANESE HRO TYPE RADIO RECEIVERS; By: LTC William L. Howard 1934 the National Company came out with a new radio designated as the HRO, supposedly for "Hurried Rush Order". This set was a 9 tube superhetrodyne set that used plug-in coils in the front panel, and an unusual four gang tuning condensor that was mounted at right angles to the worm gear attached to the tuning control. The tuning dial also had windows that revealed dial graduations. This set was copied by many nations, if not directly, then in a similar style, plug-in rectangular coils, four gang tuning condensor. Figure 1 Schematic of Type HRO receiver. By the late 1930s the Japanese realized that new radios were needed and by 1943 these sets began to appear in the field. For the most part, Aircraft radios began to be made using octal base tubes. Examples include a radio direction finder that was copied from a pre-war Bendix Aviation set. Other aircraft radios began to use octal base tubes. The first of the Japanese HRO sets was an exact copy of the HRO with some minor changes. Once the factories were tooled to produce parts for this set, it would appear that radio engineers were instructed to design furure radios making use of the components that were made for the HRO. Principaly these were the plug in coil forms and the four gang tuning condensor. The first set of the HRO copies was designated as the Mark 1 Ground Wireless Receiver. It came in a large wooden chest that housed the receiver, a power supply, two drawers of plug-in coils and a drawer of accessories. These accessories included the headphones and another set of IF transformers as well as other items. The power supply contained two switches and a meter. This set was followed by a Mark 2 Wireless Ground receiver. I have not seen any of these so am unable to comment in detail on this set. This set seems to have been issued with a companion transmitter. It used eight tubes, a UZ6D6, a Ut 6l7G,another UZ6D6, two UY 76s,two Ut6B7/2 and a UZ 41 as the final audio amplifier. This set seems to have followed the schematic of the HRO but with out the amplifier tube for a speaker. Figure 2 Block Diagram of Mark 2 Wireless Set Receiver. The Type 99 series of aircraft radios had progressed from the Mark 1 to the Mark 4. The Mark 5 series had a receiver that appears to have been strongly influenced by the HRO design. This set made use of five tubes while the National HRO had 9 tubes. A 6F7 and four UZ 78s were mounted behind the ganged tuning condensor, and behind the row of tubes were the interstage transformers. Since the aircraft did not need a speaker, the last tube in the HRO schematic could easily be eliminated. Other modifications could have been the elimination of one of the IF stages and possibly one stage of RF amplification, although the four gang condensor would indicate two stages of RF amplification. The next set in the HRO series that I have encountered was called the Mark 3 Ground Receiver. Little information on this set exists. Someone sent me a polaroid photo of this set. By checking in a post war Japanese book on radios, it was identified as the Mark 3 Ground set. It appears to have been developed by the same group that developed the Type 99 Mark 5 receiver. The set was mounted in a metal case that had two elements below the receiver. What these were is not certain but was probably the power supply. It appears to have been the same power supply as used in the Mark 1 set but without the meter. By 1943 the Germans had begun to eliminate meters from their sets as parts were in short supply and it can be assumed that the Japanese experience was similar. Meters were needed for transmitter and not for power supplies. The Mark 3 set used the four gang tuning capacitor and a plug in coil. It however used only five tubes. A UZ 6D6, a Ut 6A7, and three more tubes, UZ 78 or UZ 6D6 which appear to have been interchangeable. Figure 3 Block Diagram of Mark 3 Wireless Receiver. There was also a companion transmitter with this set. It had three meters across the top, three vernier tuning dials, a plug in crystal socket and other controls. This transmitter appears to have been a four tube transmitter. The Japanese text refers to an 807A so it is assumed that all the tubes were 807As. Probably some sort of MOPA circuit. I have never seen one of these transmitters so the information is limited. The Mark 3 Wireless set set seems to have been superceded by a new ground radio designated WIRELESS STATION MARK 4 GROUND. Exactly what this set was designed for is uncertain, but the data plates on both the transmitter and the receiver had been stamped with a star emblem that was usually associated with civilians attached to the army. It is possible that this set was designed for use by homeland defense forces. The data plates were made to have the date of manufacture stamped on them but on the examples I saw, this date stamping was missing. This set had a receiver that resembled the HRO. It used a rectangular plug in coil on the front panel. According to information supplied by Takashi Doi, there was an early model and a later model of the Mark 3 sets. In addition a photograph in a post war Japanese book identifies the receiver and transmitter as the MU 23 set. MU is the Japanese abbreviation for MUSEN which means radio or wireless. Photographs on the next few pages show the Mark 3 and Mark 4 sets. The Mark 4 set probably was closer to the National HRO as it had 9 tubes, however the tuning capacitor only had three gangs and the coil box had three coil units. The IF transformer was mounted in a plug-in container so it is assumed that the requirement to change IF transformers when switching bands still existed. It can be assumed that there was also an accessory container for this set which housed the other coils, headphones, keys, cables etc. This set used UZ 6D6 tubes throughout. The 6D6 tube is a 6 pin tube with a grid cap. The five tubes mounted directly behind the tuning capacitor were protected by tube shields, the three tubes in the rear and one on the side were not encased in tube shields. The example that I saw had three plug-in coils. Coil Number 1 covered 4 MC to 6 MC, Coil Number 2 covered 6 MC to 9 MC and coil Number 3 covered 9 MC to 133 MC, a considerably wider range than the frequencies marked on the companion transmitter. Controls on the front panel of course were in Japanese but some one had penciled in BFO, Volume Control, Main tuning, Wave Tuning, High Cycle, and Antenna Decrease. Two other items were binding posts for Antenna and Ground connections. This receiver was designed to be connected to the companion transmitter. When removed from the case, there are two power ports, one four pin and one six pin. When I slid the receiver back into the case, the four pin socket was not exposed! It is therefore assumed that the four pin socket was to provide power when the set was out of the case and being worked on. Once back in the case, the set must be connected to the transmitter for power. The transmitter also has two power ports, both of which can be seen when the unit is in the case. The Six pin plug from the power source went to the transmitter and then a connecting cable transferred power to the receiver. The power port on the transmitter was marked with a red dot and the number 1 while the transfer ports on the transmitter and receiver were marked with a yellow dot and the number 2. While this set is easy to transport, it takes time to set the staion up and place it in operation. The transmitter for the Mark 4 Wireless set is shown on the pages following the photographs of the receiver. The entire station was designed to be carried in a canvas pack which is also shown. The example shown had two packs, presumably one for transmitter and receiver and one for the power supply and accessories. What sort of power supply was used with this station is unknown. Presumably a dynamotor or battery pack and generator were employed although it is possible that an AC Main line power supply was provided. As with other Japanese sets, all the parts are numbered and in the receiver, part number 1 is the antenna connector and the last numbered part is the headphone socket. In the transmitter, the reverse is usually the case with the key being number 1 and the higest number is the antenna connector. Part numbering facilitates following a schematic during repairs. While most tactical ground Japanese sets have a schematic mounted somewhere in the set, these sets had none. The HRO copy, Mark 1 set was also powered by a dynamotor. The dynamotor for use with this set is shown in the pages following the transmitter and receiver. In addition to the dynamotor, detailed photos of the power supply are shown. This power supply had provisions for input voltages as high as 500 Volts. By late 1943 or early 1944 the Japanese began to use octal tubes in the HRO sets. The set owned by Ken Lakin had what appeared to be factory installed octal tube sockets except for the oscillators. Changing these tubes to octal tubes would have required other major changes. Not being able to test these receivers and transmitters limits ones observations to the manufacturing process and to speculation on the reason for the design changes. Since the National HRO did not come out until 1934 it can be assumed that the Japanese did not get any samples until 1935 or 1936. As the Japanese Empire began to expand, especially to the far away islands, reliable long range communication was needed and the HRO was probably the best receiver of the time. Work was begun to copy the set and once tooling was made, there was a reluctance to re-tool, hence later versions tended to make use of parts that were already in production. As the war went on and the Japanese suffered defeats as well as a shortage of raw materials, manufacturing short-cuts were taken. This was most apparent in their rifles. Radios, on the other hand, were not something that readily led to manufacturing short cuts. The lack of a meter on the Mark 3 set's power supply was not a major change but rather an economy measure. The transition from a four gang tuning condensor to a three gang with a resultant shift from four coils to three coils, probably was a manufacturing short cut. It also shows that as the empire was collapsing, the range of communication decreased and perhaps one stage of RF was enough for the Japanese. Reducing the number of coils needed from the original 9 with the Mark 1 set to 3 coils for the Mark 4 set also reduced the amount of metal needed. The receivers turn up now and then but transmitters are rare items and the dynamotors are extremly scarce items as are the power supplies. Connecting cables and plugs are virtually non existant. Any effort to power up these receivers will require fabrication of plugs and cables. A power supply should also be built, if the original can not be found. Personally, I would not want to use the original power supply as too many things can go wrong. U.S. transformers, rectifiers and capacitors can be used to make a power supply that will work with out taking any chances on destroying the original power supply. Photograph Credits: Japanese HRO Set, Colin McKinnon, QST Magazine Japanese Type 99 Mark 5 receiver, Pat Lombardi Collection Photos by Pat Lombardi Japanese Ground Wireless Station Mark 4 transmitter and receiver, Lou Demers Collection, Photos by William L. Howard, Japanese Mark 1 Dynamotor, William L. Howard Collection Japanese HRO set and power supply, Ken Lakin Collection Photos by Janet Lakin Information on the National HRO and the Type HRO schematic were supplied by John Orahood. Schematic of the Mark 3 Set supplied by Takashi Doi, Yokohama, Japan. THE WILLIAM L. HOWARD ORDNANCE TECHNICAL INTELLIGENCE MUSEUM e-mail wlhoward@gte.net Telephone AC 813 585-7756 *********************************************** *********************************************** ON THE COMMERCIAL FRONT; The Louisiana Museum of Military History, due to financial realities will be will be moving to smaller quarters. We have been asked to help liquidate some of the Commo gear. Below is the first list of equipment that's been made available. If you have an interest in any item contact Joe below via email and he'll pass along any needed info. AM-1780 untested but good condition $ 25 AM-2060 with cable $ 95 ART-13 untested but good condition $ 150 AS-2851 30-80 log periodic complete $ 125 BB-451 NOS with electrolyte kit $ 185 BB-451 used $ 100 BC-611 details later BC-639 untested but good condition $ 35 CPRC-26 with most accessories $ 70 CU-2267/GR Five unit multicoupler - with two spare F-1482 $ 125 CY-6121/PRC-74 Wet cell battery box $ 25 DY-105 untested but looks good $ 45 DY-105 no dynamotor $ 25 GRA-71 almost complete $ 125 GRC / VRC lots of cables ASK GRC-106A RT and AM- with cables, base mount and handset - working $ 650 GRC-109 details later GRR-5 ASK MD-522 with cables $ 100 PPS-4 complete except for optical sight $ 300 PRC-10 with accessories $ 100 PRC-25 with accessories $ 300 PRC-41 with antenna and PP-3700 AC power supply - working $ 175 PRC-68 with handset, antenna and battery - working but a little rough $200 PRC-68 with handset, antenna and battery - working, good condition $ 235 PRC-77 with accessories $ 350 PRC-90 with battery - working $ 100 PRC-90 with battery - no 282.8 transmit $ 50 PRR-9/PRT-4A working w/manual copy $ 50 R-392 good condition with power cable $ 200 R-442 working, good condition $ 225 RT-524A unchecked $ 300 RT-524A working $ 500 RT-68 no meter $ 40 RT-858/PPS-6 RT only Make offer Russian 62R1 VHF cargo pocket transceiver with mike and dipole wire antenna - ASK Make offer Russian R-105 no accessories $ 100 Russian R-123M with power supply and control box $ 200 TRC-77 untested but good condition $ 75 TS-323 good condition $ 35 TT-722/TG untested $ 50 ITEMS NOT FOR EXPORT All reasonable offers will be considered All items plus shipping Payment to: Glen Thibodeaux c/o Louisiana Museum of Military History P. O. Box 92110 Lafayette, LA 70509 If folks would just contact me directly, I will take care of getting things to Glen. Joseph W Pinner EMail: kc5ijd@sprintmail.com Looking for PRC-64 accessories, G-43 or G-58 generator and M-1 Carbines / accessories. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PRC-70 SELECTOR ASSEMBLY, UNUSED, FOREST GREEN. NSN 5820-01-092-5904, ALSO CALLED THE A1 MODULE. THIS IS PART OF THE FRONT PANEL, WITH 6 FREQUENCY KNOBS AND READOUTS, CONTROLS FOR POWER, MODE, VOLUME AND SQUELCH. INCLUDES THE PRINTED CURCUIT BOARD WITH MICROPROCESSER. $60 EA. PLUS SHIPPING I AM LOOKING FOR ONE NEW IN THE PACKAGE AS1730 LOWER ELEMENT. PREFER CARC STEVE HANEY HANEY ELECTRONIC CO tc0654@mesh.net ed) Steve has a list of manuals available on request via email. *********************************************** HUMOR; There was this man who was in a horrible accident, and was injured. But the only permanent damage he suffered was the amputation of both of his ears. As a result of this "unusual" handicap, he was very self-conscious about his having no ears. Because of the accident, he received a large sum of money from the insurance company. It was always his dream to own his own business, so he decided with all this money he had, he now had the means to own a business. So he went out and purchased a small, but expanding computer firm. But he realized that he had no business knowledge at all, so he decided that he would have to hire someone to run the business. He picked out three top candidates, and interviewed each of them. The first interview went really well. He really liked this guy. His last question for this first candidate was, "Do you notice anything unusual about me?" The guy said, "Now that you mention it, you have no ears." The man got really upset and threw the guy out. The second interview went even better than the first. This candidate was much better than the first. Again, to conclude the interview, the man asked the same question again, "Do you notice anything unusual about me?" This guy also noticed, "Yes, you have no ears." The man was really upset again, and threw this second candidate out. Then he had the third interview.. The third candidate was even better than the second, the best out of all of them. Almost certain that he wanted to hire this guy, the man once again asked, "Do you notice anything unusual about me?" The guy replied "Yeah, you're wearing contact lenses." Surprised, the man then asked, "Wow! That's quite perceptive of you! How could you tell?" The guy burst out laughing and said, "Well, You can't wear glasses if you don't have any ears!" --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Words of Wisdom * Accept that some days you're the pigeon, and some days you're the statue. * I can please only one person per day. Today is not your day. Tomorrow isn't looking good either. * Last night I lay in bed looking up at the stars in the sky and I thought to myself, "Where the heck is the ceiling?!" * On the keyboard of life, always keep one finger on the escape key. * Someday we'll look back on all this and plow into a parked car. * There are very few personal problems that cannot be solved through a suitable application of high explosives. * Good news is just life's way of keeping you off balance. * Carelessly planned projects take three times longer to complete than expected. Carefully planned projects take four times longer to complete than expected, mostly because the planners expect their planning to reduce the time it takes. * I still miss my ex-wife, but my aim is improving. * Stupidity got us into this mess-why can't it get us out? * Politicians and diapers have one thing in common. They should both be changed regularly and for the same reason. * People will accept your ideas much more readily if you tell them that Benjamin Franklin said it first. * I don't mind going nowhere as long as it's an interesting path. * Indecision is the key to flexibility. * In just two days, tomorrow will be yesterday. * I considered atheism but there weren't enough holidays. * I always wanted to be a procrastinator, never got around to it. * Dijon vu-the same mustard as before. * My inferiority complex is not as good as yours. * I am having an out of money experience. * I plan on living forever. So far, so good. * Not afraid of heights-afraid of widths. * A day without sunshine is like-------night. * I have kleptomania, but when it gets bad, I take something for it. * If marriage were outlawed, only outlaws would have in-laws. * What if marriage licences had to be renewed every five years ?!? --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A cowboy rode into town and stopped at a saloon for a drink. Unfortunately, the locals always had a habit of picking on strangers, which he was. When he finished his drink, he found his horse had been stolen. He goes back into the bar, handily flips his gun into the air, catches it above his head without even looking and fires a shot into the ceiling. "WHICH ONE OF YOU SIDEWINDERS STOLE MY HOSS?" he yelled with surprising forcefulness. No one answered. "ALRIGHT, I'M GONNA HAVE ANOTHA BEER, AND IF MY HOSS AIN'T BACK OUTSIDE BY THE TIME I FINNISH, I'M GONNA DO WHAT I DUN IN TEXAS! AND I DON'T LIKE TO HAVE TO DO WHAT I DUN IN TEXAS!" Some of the locals shifted restlessly. He had another beer, walked outside, and his horse is back! He saddles-up and starts to ride out of town. The bartender wanders out of the bar and asks, "Say partner, before you go... what happened in Texas?" The cowboy turned back and said, "I had to walk home." *********************************************** (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 are included. For more information conserning this group contact Dennis Starks at, military-radio-guy@juno.com) ***********************************************