[ARC5] C-47 radio "Island in the Sky"

[GOMEZ, STEVEN B]

Hello to the group!
I noticed the radio operator used a "bug" which may have been accurate for commercial post war practice.
Here is the radio op position in the C-47 "Boogie Baby" at Frederick Army Air Field in Oklahoma...
http://i214.photobucket.com/albums/cc292/ke5o/C47RadioOpPosition.jpg
I think the straight key was standard thru the war?
Steve Gomez
ke5o


A friend of mine has a clock that came off a ship.  It has red pie shaped areas marked to indicate the periods when you were to shut down your transmitter and listen for distress calls.

I guess there is an effort underway now to make 500 KHZ an amateur frequency.

As for Island in The Sky, the BC-348 aboard the C-47 can barely be seen in a few views.  I don't think the transmitter is visible at all and in any case I don't think they were using it, lacking an operating engine with which to run it.

Only bad thing about that movie is that the C-47's had postwar USAF markings.  Don't know what radio fit they had, but I was able to see the 348.

Wayne   


  



You can clearly see part of the BC-375 transmitter.  The whine of the
dynamotor is clearly heard although his method of starting/stopping is was
a little odd as I recall (knife switch?).  Part of the story revolves
around the plane's battery going dead - the dyno gets slower, slower and
stops.  As I also recall the transmitter was cabled, unlike the '375 in The
High and the Mighty, another John Wayne film.

Clare




hello , well , i thought it was a jolly good film and still do. of course they got some technical details wrong , they always do. what they are trying to produce is entertainment . for example in "kelly's heroes" , you see someone using a BC611 talking to someone using a BC1000.
when we supplied the radios for "the band of brothers" , i told them this and asked please do not repeat it. well, they did, and that series was notable for it's authenticity. they had a techincal adviser who was actually there for more or less every episode .
on 633 squadron , pete warden , flying a mosquito . was supposed to attack a police post . he did it as he would have done in the RAF , and was gone before they got the cameras rolling ! after that the director said that he had to do it as told by ground control , ie a little to the left , a little to the right etc. 
 after the scene was over , pete said it was ridiculous. "pete you know that , i know that , but they do not know it in kansas city" was the reply. alan

*************************************