[Milsurplus] Antennas AN-29, AN-29-C and AN-30-B

[Kargokult@aol.com]

<< 
 I don't see how it was possible for a troop to 
 carry these big, long steel antennas without breaking them 
 off on something.  The AN-29 is so long you could 
 use it for a flagpole.  Might as well run up a
 red flag marked "drop mortor rounds here."
 73 Dave S. >>

In all the photos i have seen of the 222/  322 in use,
none show the antenna pulled out to max height, they
all show only 2 sections or even just  1 section -
i.e. antenna totally collapsed down. 
I don't know where my manual is right now, but i seem
to believe that the manual discusses this as  permitted -
so in  mobile conditions, you could use less sections.
I long wondered how this would work with antenna matching.
But for receiving, with a superregen receiver, it's "who cares",
as long as the oscillator can oscillate, it's fine. In  fact, a
resonant antenna is more of a load, hence challenge, to
maintaining oscillation.
For transmit, i assume it's a permissable mismatch. If you
start with a high-reactance, non resonant antenna, and 
keep shortening it, it gets higher reactance, but that's not
as bad as say, going from high reactance to say, a 
resonant load, low Z. So the thing will still work, but with
lessened range, due both to smaller less efficient antenna
and less of a transmitter-antenna match. ( I think ) you see
something of the same effect in the toy  walkie talkies out
now, where the antenna matching is something hit and miss,
but the things work -  sort of. And, the 222/ 322 was a lot
more powerful than these.
A ham in the Chicago area told me he loaned one to a friend
during one late 1950s dx season, and the friend worked most
states and Mexico. ( This is a 2-tube walkie talkie. ) But that
was probably with a regular base station antenna. 
Norman Weed ( i think it was )  told me that in 1940 ( i think
that was the year he gave ) he was using a 222 or 322 at the
Presidio of San Francisco ( former Army base, now historic
& beautiful park, I still remember the mighty Eucalyptus 
trees ) when somebody came back to him on the channel.
Turned out the other party  was another GI with a 222 or
322, but at Ft. Monmouth, New Jersery. Pretty good haul
for such a simple radio.
Another couple things make me think antenna matching
was kind of hit and miss. There is a photo of one in a 
motorcycle sidecar, with a non-telescopic whip antenna
of about 5 ft. mounted on the sidecar. Also, there is an
adaptor that screws into the antenna receptacle so you
can hook up a wire antenna, for use in trucks.
If you look at that Time-Life book on the Italian campaign,
you can make out a 222/ 322 on a GI's back ( this may
be the ONLY actual combat use i have ever picked up on)
and the antenna is telescoped down to just one section.
(Actually, the radio looks better, more jaunty and combat
ready you might say, with this short-antenna configuration.)
BTW, Japanese soldiers were stuck with such simple 
circuits for their walkie-talkie type radios thru out the war.
Regards, Hue