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

[J. Forster]

Not so OT IMO.

Another list has been discussing R.1155s. They are well known examples of
what happend to poor quality rubber over time...  It becomes like caked
mud and crumbles at the slightest touch. This can be very problematic in a
radio.

It is clear that some WW II rubber was pretty bad. Items from the 1920s
and 1930s are fine, but 1940s stuff tends to become rock hard and almost
as brittle as glass. Rubber improved by the early 1950s, but not all.
Lately it has been replaced by vinyl, but some of that degrades into
nasty, sticky, goo.

BTW, does anyone know of a modern source for multiconductor real rubber 
control cable, preferably with multicolor wires, about #20 or #22 that
could be used to rewire radios? Belden/Alpha used to make it, but
seemingly not now.

-John

====================





>
>      I think one big difference is that rationing went on in
> the UK for much longer than in the US. I did find a partial
> list of rationed items on the web with dates.  The earliest
> listed was tires and rubber.  I remember that some delivery
> vehicles in Detroit were horse-drawn. I think this may have
> been partly due to the depression but also horse-drawn
> wagons do not use rubber or gasoline. They disappeared
> pretty quickly after the war.
>      There has been some controversy about the necessity of
> some of the rationing but I think that does not recognize
> that the U.S. was supporting the UK and Russia and other
> allies.  This is really OT so I will stop.
>
>
> --
> Richard Knoppow
> Los Angeles
> WB6KBL
> dickburk at ix.netcom.com
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "J. Forster" <jfor at quikus.com>
> To: "Richard Knoppow" <1oldlens1 at ix.netcom.com>
> Cc: "Leslie Smith" <vk2bcu at operamail.com>; "ARC-5 List"
> <arc5 at mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: Sunday, July 08, 2012 10:06 AM
> Subject: Re: [ARC5] The comms war - VHF & HF (a bit OT).
>
>
>> OK. I was too young to have seen rationing in North
>> America, but I
>> remember it as a kid visiting in the UK as I've said.
>>
>> -John
>>
>> ==================
>>
>>
>>>
>>> ----- Original Message -----
>>> From: "J. Forster" <jfor at quikus.com>
>>> To: "Leslie Smith" <vk2bcu at operamail.com>
>>> Cc: "ARC-5 List" <arc5 at mailman.qth.net>
>>> Sent: Sunday, July 08, 2012 9:11 AM
>>> Subject: Re: [ARC5] The comms war - VHF & HF (a bit OT).
>>>
>>>
>>>> Hi Leslie,
>>>>
>>>> It was not only British factories that suffered.
>>>>
>>>> In about 1956, I was visiting my grandparents in Surrey.
>>>> I
>>>> was repeatedly
>>>> told not to go digging in the gardon or playing in the
>>>> pond because there
>>>> were still unexploded bits from WW II dogfights there.
>>>> This was a full
>>>> decade after the war ended. They still had a bomb
>>>> shelter.
>>>>
>>>> Also, in either 1952 or 1956 a few things were still
>>>> rationed. I remember
>>>> eggs being scarce. The same grandparents had a chicken
>>>> coop and a few
>>>> hens, BTW.
>>>>
>>>> I believe a few things (rubber, gasoline?) were rationed
>>>> in the US, but
>>>> nowhere near the UK.
>>>>
>>>> -John
>>>>
>>>     I don't know about British rationing but it was
>>> heavily
>>> applied here. Not only rubber and gasoline but meat,
>>> leather
>>> goods, including shoes, many metals and things made of
>>> them,
>>> also paper, a long list of things.  I picked up a little
>>> alarm clock not long ago at a swap meet. The dial said
>>> Waralarm on it so I looked it up.  Turns out that clocks
>>> were rationed because they contained brass.  This alarm
>>> clock was designed to minimize the use of brass and was
>>> made
>>> to sell to war workers who needed to be there on time. I
>>> have not done a web search for rationing but there may be
>>> a
>>> list somewhere.
>>>     I remember shopping with my mom and seeing the ration
>>> books.
>>>
>>>
>>> --
>>> Richard Knoppow
>>> Los Angeles
>>> WB6KBL
>>> dickburk at ix.netcom.com
>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>
>