[ARC5] FW: Radio from G4M 'Betty' bomber

[Hubert Miller]

I started looking online for a G4M 'Betty' bomber model and one thing led to another.
I found this photo of a radio from a Betty wreck on Yap Island:

[cid:image001.png at 01D5D78F.D6E3DBD0]    https://www.aviationarchaeology.com/src/Yap/site4betty.htm
The provenance shows signs of earlier human intervention. Perhaps some native wanted the cables for a belt, or to help construct a hut, or a weapon.

I thought it looked familiar. I then saw one on the Yokohama Military Radio Museum site:
      http://yokohamaradiomuseum.com/tenjitop.html

I have a Navy O.N.I. ( Office of Naval Intelligence ) list of Japanese aircraft with radio type carried. However, I find this list next to useless.
There seems to be no hard and fast rules. This radio is listed for the 'Dinah' observation plane, but not the 'Betty'. Additionally, I have seen a
bringback VHF radio from a crashed Betty, with a photo of the crashlanded plane in a Philippine rice paddy, and this was the ONLY radio onboard.
So the radio may have been keyed to the mission, that is, whether long distance or not? As well as availability, and we know the Japanese were
poorly supplied for spare equipment.

I recalled then, I do have this radio, stored elsewhere far from here. It was taken from a base in Japan. Unfortunately, I do not have the crystal
calibrator/ RF output indicator, or the control box. In Allied nomenclature, I think this radio is called 'Type 103'.  The "103" means 1943. This is
a HF  5 - 10 MHz AM, CW radio of about 75 watts input. Allied publications called it one of Japan's best, most modern radios. As you can see,
it departs from usual Japanese design, in that is designed for remote, not local control.

Ah, now back to what I really should be paying attention to: taxes and medical bills.
-Hubert Miller



























-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/arc5/attachments/20200131/7b11b1d6/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.png
Type: image/png
Size: 96268 bytes
Desc: image001.png
URL: <http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/arc5/attachments/20200131/7b11b1d6/attachment-0001.png>