[ARC5] Was arc-3, now military supply

[Bob kb8tq]

Hi

Just in case anybody thinks this is a problem unique to the military ….

Back in the “good old days” computer access was granted only to the few who 
“needed that sort of thing”. The rest of us got to fill out paper and send it up to
the few. The feedback loop on this process was less than ideal. If one had a part
that was about to go obsolete, you did the last time buy by paper. You put in a 
part number (*possibly* an abbreviated part number starting with an M …) for 
the item you needed. 

Let’s say you felt that 100,000 germanium small signal transistors would be needed
to keep things running for a reasonable period. You put in a request for the M9xxx
transistor. Somebody else mapped that to a real number. The PO was cut by someone 
else. A light went on when the PO went over some limit. A phone call was made 
asking “do we really need these, they are obsolete !!”. The answer would come back 
“of course we need them, it’s a last time buy”. 

Everybody would chug along for a few months while the order went here and there. After 
the better part of the year, in would come the transistors. Hmmm ….. odd that they
came in on four pallets. Really odd that they came from TRW rather than our own fab. 
Gee wiz, we seem to have a bunch of $48 a pop RF power transistors sitting on those 
pallets. It’s … errr …. 4.8 million dollars (in the 1970’s dollars) worth of obsolete RF
power transistors. Seems there was more than one M9xxx abbreviation being used.
Being obsolete, no way to return them and no value in the market. 

As far as I know, they are probably still sitting in a warehouse being depreciated at 0.1%
per year. I didn’t order them. The guy one desk over from me did ….

Stuff happens !!

Bob 

> On Nov 28, 2017, at 2:54 PM, Spencer Petri <petewa5jci at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Ask K7IRK, on the list, about what happens if an airplane is
> "accidently" ordered and what became of it.
> 
> On 11/28/17, Craig <cvcantwell at verizon.net> wrote:
>> One of the F-16 guys across the field from us ( Carswell AFB), made a
>> small error in writing up a parts request. Transposing two numbers in
>> the NSN sequence, he got 3 155mm howitzers delivered, instead of the
>> bearings he wanted...Talk about a 3 ring circus to rectify that mistake...
>> 
>> Craig
>> 
>> KF5JOT
>> 
>> 
>> On 11/27/2017 02:23 PM, Robert Eleazer wrote:
>>> One of the stranger aspects of the military supply system was the
>>> difficulty in getting rid of something that had been delivered to
>>> you but did not order and did not want. A friend of mine was in the
>>> USAF, working aircraft maintenance, when a .50 cal machine gun
>>> arrived.  it did not fit any of their aircraft and they had no need
>>> for it.  They tried to refuse it and were told that was not possible,
>>> and since it was a weapon it would have to be locked up and guarded
>>> very carefully.  So after calling around and not finding no one to
>>> take it off their hands, my friend decided to try something.  He
>>> filled out a requisition form for 10,000 rounds of .50 cal Armor
>>> Piercing Incendiary ammunition.  A couple of days later their shop was
>>> surrounded by armed Security Police who demanded to know why they
>>> needed that ammo.  He pointed to the gun and they said, "You're not
>>> supposed to have that!" and hauled it away.
>>> No doubt we could go on for some time on this subject.
>>> 
>>> Wayne
>>> WB5WSV
>>> 
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