[ARC5] Re: RAT-1 Production

[Mike Hanz]

David Stinson wrote:

>
>-----Original Message-----
>
>>From: LI WHA HO WALLY <k5op at yahoo.com>
>>Subject: RAT-1 Production
>>...Please note the Navy bought NO transmitters in this frequency range, 
>>so the receivers were NOT for aircraft communication.. The receivers in this range were used for signal intelligence... 
>>
>I hate to gainsay Wally; he was researching Command Sets when I was
>learning to read.  
>

 From what I know of Wally and his time in Manchuria post-1945, he was 
aware of the RATs before you were _born_... :-)

>But, humbly:
>The RATs had both missions.  
>

With great respect for your well established understanding of the 
genré...the RATs _may_ have had both missions...heh, heh.  While I 
totally agree with the early  GO-* comment, I'm not sure we can say with 
any certainty.  The ELINT connection serves Occam's Razor very well.  
The general comms proposition much less so - given the acquisition 
quantity involved.

>The RATs started at 13.5 MC because that's where the RUs petered out.
>They needed a receiver that would work better then the RUs and
>would be light enough to fly in light, fast aircraft.
>Radios available "off the shelf" for 20+ MC that were stable 
>enough to do the job were scarce and heavy.
>

Except the RAX-1 set.... :-)

>Not so humbly:
>I have an eye-witness account, gotten by such accident 
>it almost counts as a minor miracle, 
>of the RATs being used in about 1940-41 in signals intelligence.
>

I'm in that court as well, Dave.  A critical analysis of likely uses 
brings a reasoning person back to a very specialized use.  Comparison 
with ELINT equipment acquisitions throughout the last 60 years provides 
an interesting perspective in that regard.

73,
Mike