[ARC5] Radios and the Canal

[Mike Everette]

High humidity promotes corrosion.  The South Pacific was a tropical environment which meant huge levels of humidity, much of the time.  Plus, it's a salt air environment which makes things even worse.

My Dad served in the CBI, in India and Burma.  He pointed out that one big bugaboo in their gear was little tubular ceramic capacitors which would collect moisture inside the hollow center, and short out.  Or, that insects would nest inside the capacitors and cause them to fail.

This is the main thing MFP was developed to protect against. 

Salt air works on exposed metal, real quick.  Antennas are at risk as well as radios.  The copper turns green in a hurry and solder joints deteriorate. 

Dad also said that corrosion went hand in hand with infection.  Even years later, he would warn me to watch out when handling surplus gear, because "You don't know where it's been; could have come from the tropics where infection was high!"  If I got a even a tiny cut when working around a surplus rig, he'd insist on my swabbing it down with merthiolate or mercurichrome (do they even still make these any more?) or maybe even haul me to the doctor for a tetanus shot.

73

Mike
W4DSE


--- On Sun, 5/12/13, Robert  Eleazer <releazer at earthlink.net> wrote:

> From: Robert  Eleazer <releazer at earthlink.net>
> Subject: Re: [ARC5] Radios and the Canal
> To: arc5 at mailman.qth.net
> Date: Sunday, May 12, 2013, 8:27 AM
> I thought the same thing as Mike at
> first.  Surely the coastwatchers would have been better
> off with something like the SCR-288 or even a land-based
> version of the SCR-274-N - rather than the behemoths they
> probably had.
> 
> But first, they originally were sited and equipped in
> peacetime and did not have to do a lot of running around,
> mobile style, even after the war started.
> 
> Second, they needed some real RF power!  Communications
> had to be as reliable as possible.  There were times in
> which vital messages were not received or had to be relayed
> through intermediate stations.
> 
> And by the way, they mention in the book that the "high
> moisture levels" in the South Pacific were an serious
> impediment to good communications.  Not sure what they
> men by that. Corrosion is an obvious problem, as are storms,
> but it's not clear to me why water in the air is a concern.
> 
> Wayne          
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