[ARC5] B-24 Bomber on the air in the air

[Steve Williams]

  I thought I'd let all of you know about an upcoming operating event next
week. You may remember Taigh Ramey's plea for help with an A-36 restoration
a while back and he's also mentioned on this list about a project involving
a flying B-24 Bomber called Witchcraft. I answered his call for help and
have been involved with both ever since. I leave for Florida where the B-24
is spending the winter on Tuesday 2/19. I will be getting the Liaison set
ready in the B-24 for its first flight on the national tour set for Friday
morning, 2/22. 
  I spent a week working there in January getting the radios installed and
will be tying up the loose ends on this next trip. We plan on operating the
radios on the ground Wednesday and Thursday night and possibly some during
the day. The first time in the air will be Friday 2/22 sometime between 9
and Noon Eastern Time. Unfortunately the flight will be short so we won't
get much in air operating time. This flight is just a test of the radios, I
don't know at this point when they will be back on the air next because we
don't have full time operators, nor do they have any temporaries lined up,
at least none I'm aware of. I guess you could say we wanted to make sure we
could do it before we got too far ahead of ourselves. I'll keep you informed
as the plan develops. 
  The main purpose of this email is to ask those who are interested to
monitor the frequencies I'm about to list and try and work us on the days
mentioned above. The call we will be using is mine, KB4DMF. My name is Steve
Williams and a friend of mine, Joe Fox, N4NYT will be along to help. Look
for us on or about these frequencies.  

Daytime, 7.290 or 3.880 MHz
Nights, 3.880 or 1.985 MHz

The mode will be AM phone. I wish I could say that we'd be operating CW too
but I'm afraid I'm way too rusty for that right now. Joe may try it, but not
me. I can't really pin down any times since we will be working and that will
take priority over operating. We should be on sometime between 5 pm and 10
pm in the evenings though. As I said before, the actual flight should take
place between 9 AM and 12 Noon. All times listed are for the US Eastern Time
Zone.
  For those of you who may not be familiar with the radio equipment in a
B-24, the transmitter is the BC-375 and the receiver is the BC-348. Both are
being operated with dynamotors, complete with carbon microphones and HS-33
headphones. We will have both the fixed antenna and the trailing wire
antenna when in flight but we will obviously be limited to the fixed antenna
while on the ground. The fixed antenna is too short to be resonate on 3880
and 1985 so we will have somewhat of a disadvantage on those frequencies
while on the ground. 
  The planes are owned and flown by the Collings Foundation. You can find
them and a lot more information with a web search. They also have a B-17 and
B-25 that will be starting the national "Wings of Freedom" tour along with
the B-24 on the same day.
I hope to do the same thing with the B-17 next winter when this tour ends.
The Collings Foundations website lists tour stops and dates if you'd like to
try and catch them when they are in your area.  

Listen for us on the air and I hope we get to work you. I would like to add
though that this is more of an informal test than a scheduled event.

Tnx and 73s,
KB4DMF