[ARC5] Re: [Milsurplus] Radio in USMC Gun Motor Carriage 75mm M3

[WA5CAB at cs.com]

Groups,

Over the weekend at an MV meet in College Station, TX I had the opportunity 
to talk to a USMC WW-II vet of one of the battalions that operated the TD's.  
Knowing ahead of time that he was supposed to be there, I took along an RU-19 
receiver (recently acquired from a list member), an RU-10 dynamotor and because 
I don't currently have any GF transmitter, a black BC-??-230.  He is I'll say 
about 97% certain that the radios installed in the halftracks looked like the 
ones on my table.  I described the appearance of the TCS and he said he 
didn't think so.

He said that they were installed on the floor under the gun, between the 
driver's and passenger's seats.  He also remembered that they were used for 
intra-battalion communication (between the TD's).  And that they were (lock tuned) 
used only on their assigned channel and that they didn't change 
channels/frequencies.  The microphone cord was long enough that he could stand up in the 
passenger side and talk, but he might have to stoop down to hear was was coming 
from the loud speaker mounted down somewhere around the radio.  He doesn't 
recall where the volume control was and could only say that the loudspeaker might 
have looked like an LS-3 I had sitting nearby.

Of general interest, he also recalled that on Iwo Jima they were under HF 
radio silence restriction and had a radio operator with a backpack radio assigned 
to them.  From his description of the shape and weight and that it had a 
handset, I concluded it was a BC-1000, not a TBY.  It was used to talk to the 
gunfire support Destroyer, and to the Carrier to call in Corsairs.

The TBY was used earlier, as I've seen a scan of a photo taken I think on 
Saipan.  The photographer must have been standing on top of the gun as it shows 
the driver from above, and the top of the barrel with what I ID'd as a TBY 
headset slung over it.  And the microphone lying across the folded-down 
windshield.  The radio itself is not visible.

73
Robert Downs - Houston
<http://www.wa5cab.com> (Web Store)
MVPA 9480
<wa5cab at cs.com> (Primary email)
<wa5cab at houston.rr.com> (Backup email)