[ARC5] [Milsurplus] Gibson Girl question ( BC-778 ? )

[Bart Lee]

Nice story! Thanks!

We'll put it in the Museum's Gibson Girl file.

73 de Bart, K6VK ##
-- --
Bart Lee, K6VK, CHRS Archivist and fellow, AWA Fellow, ARRL Liaison

Texts only to: 415 902 7168

www.bartlee.com

{Bart(dot)Lee(dot)K6VK(at)gmail(dot)com}
<http://www.lawforhams.com/>



On Fri, Jul 21, 2023 at 12:47 AM millerke6f--- via ARC5 <
arc5 at mailman.qth.net> wrote:

> In the middle 50s when I was in the 6th grade I bought a Gibson Girl at a
> local rag merchant surplus store in Eureka California for 5 dollars.  No
> knowing it's exact purpose I and some of my fellow urchins
> strapped it down to an old work bench in the garage, cranked the rascal
> and played with the knob and damned if the little lamp behind a plastic
> lens didn't start to blink.  We were able to
> receive the unit's transmission on the bottom of the BC band on a little
> AC/DC table radio and boy that was quite a surprize.  we did open up the
> unit and in doing so we damaged a coil in the
> unit but it did not stop it from transmitting.  A local Flying A service
> station near the house played music all day and night on outside speakers
> and when we added a long wire antenna that ran
> the length of our alley we were able to hear the thing on that station's
> speakers.  Drove the owner, E.P. Ray, nuts.
>
> While we never knew we were causing problems for the Coast Guard, the
> Skipper of the Youkona (spelling) did mention it to member's of my dad's
> carpenter's Union meeting and that the
> clandestine SOS messages were driving them crazy.  That we were always
> moving our little yellow toy around the neighborhood and even took it to
> school (Lincoln Grammar School) and found
> out that you could burn your finger on the little pig tail wire inside the
> circular antenna storage compartment.  We eventually grew tired of the
> thing and it was replaced by a Bud Phono Oscillator
> which was a real hoot as what would be classified today as a Pirate AM
> station.  It's amazing how far that little rascal with it's 117L7/M7 tube
> could transmit with a long wire the length of our alley.
>
> Fortunately, Ham radio finally got our attention(s) and the CRT3 and the
> Bud Phono Oscillator ended up somewhere at the Lolita Dump.
>
> Bob, KE6F
>
> On Thursday, July 20, 2023 at 08:09:39 PM PDT, Tim <timsamm at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>
> FWIW, the Gibson Girls (presumably the CRT-3 morph) was aboard P-3 Orions
> in the mid 1970's with the parachute pack.  We had one aboard my ship
> (Minesweeper) in 1986....Routine PM was done on it while I was aboard but I
> don't know to what extent ....
> Tim
> N6CC
>
> On Thu, Jul 20, 2023 at 3:31 PM Hubert Miller <Kargo_cult at msn.com> wrote:
>
> >Okay, I'll scan that page and send it to you.  I do not know when they
> were removed from use, but I recall when I was stationed at Tinker AFB in
> 1974-1978 that a surplus store near the base had some for sale in a large
> soft sided container that was probably at least 2.5 ft square and looked to
> be designed to float.  Tinker AFB would have been the logical place for
> such surplus equipment to be excessed, since it is the depot for B-52 and
> KC-135.
> Wayne
>
> Wayne, the manual page says this radio was strapped to the wall of the
> plane near an emergency exit. I kinda don't get that. I thought they were
> always
> somehow packed with the liferaft. I am thinking if it was indeed strapped
> to the wall, that might make exiting in a hurry somewhat iffy. What think ?
> -Hue
> ______________________________________________________________
> ARC5 mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/arc5
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:ARC5 at mailman.qth.net
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: https://www.qsl.net/donate.html
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> ARC5 mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/arc5
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:ARC5 at mailman.qth.net
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: https://www.qsl.net/donate.html
> ______________________________________________________________
> ARC5 mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/arc5
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:ARC5 at mailman.qth.net
>
> This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
> Please help support this email list: https://www.qsl.net/donate.html
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/arc5/attachments/20230724/b22002df/attachment-0001.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: LR-Gibson-Girl-Survival-Radio-v2 copy.pdf
Type: application/pdf
Size: 1173590 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://mailman.qth.net/pipermail/arc5/attachments/20230724/b22002df/attachment-0001.pdf>