[ARC5] Radios at Midway

[Mike Morrow]

>I would assume that the TBDs at Midway were equipped with RF/GU equipment.

RU/GF.  You can safely bet that TBDs did NOT carry the RU/GF set.

The TBD is a large aircraft with three-man crew.  Almost all early-war USN
single-engine aircraft with crew greater than one (i.e., at least a pilot and
gunner/radio operator) carried the RU-* (stand-alone model) and the medium-power
GP-* radio gear.  See Mike Hanz's excerpt from a 1943 USN training publication
at http://aafradio.org/docs/Navy-radio-gear-1943.pdf which has an entry for a
TBD.  A DU-* LF/MF DF loop would also have been part of the installation until
the ZB-* homing adapter eliminated that need.

Only single-crewman single-engine aircraft like the F4F-* would make do with
an RU/GF, at least until the ARA/ATA replaced that.

Mike / KK5F