[Milsurplus] Re B-29 HF Radios

[David Stinson]

Re: The quality of Russian radio equipment.
Although I cannot speak first-hand about Russian radio gear
of WW-II, I can tell you about the equipment they brought for
the Joint Testing Event in the late 1980s.

The trailers, equipment carriers and other misc. stuff all looked like
it had been teleported NOS from a WW-I equipment depot.  
For example, the wheels on one of the trailers had what looked to be 
cast iron rims with big, blocky rubber tires on them.

In contrast- their scientific and testing equipment was 
built to the very highest standards both technically and 
mechanically. Contrary to popular myth, the equipment performed 
as well- and in some cases better- then what we were using.
When told to what pulse frequency our scopes would respond
they laughed, and justifiably so.

A friend who had worked closely with some of the Soviets 
explained it to me.  A trailer has a practical purpose:
you put things on it and pull them somewhere.
The factory that produced that model trailer had done so 
successfully for eighty years, and that model had done it's 
job successfully every year.  They did not need to impress
people with fashionable wheels or satisfy some hairbag
that the rubber tires weren't going to endanger a snail darter.
They had a task.  The trailer worked perfectly for that task.
Why retool a successful plant and produce another product 
when there would be no commensurate improvement in the work done?

If you understand this attitude of mind- pragmatism, practicality,
and a willingness to embrace expedience- you can understand
Soviet technology.  
We in the west often seek elegance in our solutions 
to a problem or task, at the expense of time and money.  
The Soviets sought solutions- period.

We in the west could use a little of that attitude sometimes.
I once heard a manager who was implementing that 
great, loony humbug and productivity destroyer
of the 1990s, "Total Quality Management," say:
"We need to forget about that old "get the job done" attitude."
He could have used a little training in Leningrad.

73 Dave S.