[Milsurplus] SCR-183 question

[David Stinson]

Mike Feher wrote:
>I also have one of these receivers with a commercially made AC power supply
> to go along with it. The original nameplates were removed and theirs
> inserted in place. The plates on them now say the were made by the "Wave
> King Co." " Type PX". The power supply, interestingly, also has the slide
> type hold down clamps as if intended to be shock mounted. The receiver still
> has them on also. Wonder if anyone has ever seen another set similar to it?

I remember reading somewhere that the GF/RU got mounted in 
some navy landing craft and I have a photo of them mounted
in an ambulance.  Remember the TBYs running on ship current
in the liberty ship radio logs I wrote about a couple
of years ago?  Some used batteries, some the vibrator
packs and a few had the 115 VAC supplies (lucky dogs).

These are examples of what we've said before-
you can't say "always" or "never" with WWII radios.
The troops used them just about anywhere they could 
wedge them in.  
While there were a few places where you could get anything,
there were lots more where you couldn't.
You used what you could scrounge, especially early on.
My father's infantry unit trained with inoperative radios 
from the 1920s until the new stuff arrived.

If you're on a remote Pacific island
and need to talk to the limping fighters that 
want to land on your little strip, you aren't going to
wait around for that long-promised "regulation" equipment
to come steaming up to the beach.  You're going to 
go out to that wrecked P-38 on the end of runway,
yank out the command set and haywire it in.

In my collection of papers, I have original 
Signal Corps instructions for converting the
BC-348 to 115 VAC, including the stock number
for the power supply and other parts.
I suspect a lot of field expediant powering went on.

73 Dave S.