[ARC5] The comms war - VHF & HF (a bit OT).

[Geoff]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Kenneth G. Gordon" <kgordon2006 at frontier.com>
To: "J. Forster" <jfor at quikus.com>
Cc: <ARC5 at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Sunday, July 08, 2012 12:51 PM
Subject: Re: [ARC5] The comms war - VHF & HF (a bit OT).


> On 8 Jul 2012 at 9:11, J. Forster wrote:
>
>> I believe a few things (rubber, gasoline?) were rationed in the US,
>
> A "few"? No. Hardly!
>
> To begin with, radio parts, meters, tubes, etc. Also many food items: 
> meat,
> butter, sugar, chocolate. Whole automobiles and applicances.
>
>>From Wikipedia; "typewriters, coffee, sugar, gasoline, bicycles, clothing, 
>>fuel
> oil, silk, nylon, stoves, shoes, meat, cheese, butter, lard, margarine, 
> canned
> foods, dried fruits, jam, and many other items.
>
> Also, manufacturers were ordered to stop making metal office furniture,
> radios, phonographs, refrigerators, vacuum cleaners, washing machines,
> and sewing machines, among other things.
>
> A national speed limit of 35 mile per hour was instituted to save on gas 
> and
> tires, not to mention cars. After March of 1942 dog food could no longer 
> be
> sold in tin cans. If someone wanted to buy toothpaste, he had to turn in 
> an
> empty tube.
>
> Sugar was the first item rationed, all sugar to civilians being completely 
> cut
> off at the end of April 1942, although limited amounts could be bought, 
> with a
> ration book, after May 7 of 1942.
>
> A Ration Board member had this to say: "We discovered that the American
> people are basically honest and talk too much."
>
> In addition, any Doctor over the age of about 25 was immediately drafted
> and sent overseas. The shortage of qualified doctors in the U.S. was 
> acute.
>
> For the U.S. to ship the many millions of tons of "stuff" to the UK and to
> Russia cost us more than either of those two countries will ever know...or
> admit.
>
> Despite the fact that we weren't being bombed, it wasn't easy for any of 
> us.
>
> Some here may not know that German submarines were detected in the
> Mississippi River, and that the coastal towns' stupidity in NOT dimming 
> their
> lights cost us many, many merchant ships sunk within sight of land, even 
> in
> the Caribbean.
>
> There were repeated articles in "The National Geographic" on this issue, 
> with
> many heart-rending photos.
>
> Ken W7EKB
>

There was also limited availability of several items during the Korean War.