[Milsurplus] Government "planning" vis a vis WW2 A/C radios

[William Donzelli]

> Maybe a couple of isolated guys in the Signal Corps were trying to push
> ahead, but the great massive bureaucracy was unmoving.

I would think the Navy rather than the Signal Corps. In the 1930s, the 
Navy radio and sound people were developing some nice electronics. The 
Signal Corps, on the other hand, was really lagging. When 1942 rolled 
around, the Navy at least had some halfway decent sets in service 
(RAK/RAL and TBS, for example). The Signal Corps mostly had junk 
(SCR-131, SCR-203, etc.). 

>  1941:
> Hallicrafters was designing ham rigs.  National worked on better
> receivers.  Millen developed several unique ham accessories.  Etc.

By 1940, however, the military had plenty of good radios in the works. 
Most did not see service until 1942-43, but some excellent sets resulted.

> 1963: Vietnam.  Whoops, unexpectedly(?), VHF tactical radios don't
> penetrate the jungle very well.  Need backup.  HF radio?  Government
> developed with millions of dollars spent?  Ha ha.  Ham rigs, Collins
> S-lines, B & W and Hy Gain antennas.  Just like the BC-610 in WW2.  Take
> some design developed with commercial money for the ham market, make a
> couple of mods, slap a mil nameplate on it and go.  Government planning
> by forward looking deep thinkers which covered all the eventualities? 

A couple of points:

First, the military has always purchased sets (radio, radar, sonar, or 
otherwise) that have a commercial pedigree. This is nothing new - the U.S. 
did so from the 1920s, thru the 30s, all thru the war, and well after. 
Sometimes they received real military nomenclature, sometimes not. The 
biggest reason they did so was not because the military radios fail 
(sometimes they did, as per your example), but because they were simply 
"there", and met the requirements (or could with minor modifications).

Second, failures of military designs are fairly rare. Most of the radios 
worked well, and did what they were intended to from the day they left 
the drawing board. Sure, there will be "TBY"s (the infamous 
fail-because-of-the-jungle radio of World War 2), and they get lots of 
press. The stuff that does work the way it should gets forgotten about 
*because* it works the way it should. For example, one of the best 
transmitters the Navy ever produced was the TAJ line. These were in 
production for almost 20 years, and in service over a span of at least 30 
- but who remembers them? They never broke. They tuned up easily. 
Decently stable. Easy to forgot - just a big black box down in Radio 3. 
And the thing is, the military is full of sets just like the TAJ - they 
work exactly the way they should.

William Donzelli
aw288@osfn.org