[Milsurplus] Connectors for TBX-8...

[Hue Miller]

> Anyone have the transmitter- and receiver-to-power supplies
> connectors for the above? I don't know the connector number, and I
> really don't want to solder to the pins.
>
> Ken W7EKB

If the pins are soldered to, the next owners on down the line will
all
have cause to regret this.
If you really cannot get a connector (most likely the transmitter
connector)
AND you are REALLY a careful person, not the kind who knocks things
over, you can power up by using Radio Shack jumpers, with the plastic
covers on the alligator ends, clamped on the individual connector
pins.
IF you are  not able to be extremely careful, of course, this is
playing with
fire.
Sometimes, depending on the equipment, you can use banana sockets,
or parts taken off other connectors, even tube socket parts, to do
the
job of individual connection points. Of course, you still aren't safe
from the
connector pulling off. Good luck finding that transmitter connector
for the
TBX. At least it's only 4 pins.

BTW, i was in a bookstore last weekend and for some unknown reason
found myself near the Film & Television section, normally not where i
would spend any time browsing, as i pretty much consider both
pastimes
a poor way to spend time, but anyway this title "Windtalkers" leapt
out
at me. This is a large format  softcover book on the Amerindian "Code
Talkers" of WW2 fame. ( I learned they worked in European theater as
well as the Pacific). The book is profusely illustrated with photos
from this
new (apparently) movie - i have not heard or read anything about it,
elsewhere - and text about the making of the movie, and about the
original
'Codetalkers'.  There is the usual, frequently seen, photo of
Codetalkers
using a TBY, but without a power supply. There is another photo i had
never seen before, of Codetalkers using a TBX, as usual the early
version,
one with white meters ( and no Radium!), a pre-TBX-8  model. This
photo
is also staged, one man writes on a notepad while another speaks into
a microphone ( must be duplex operation ), and there's no antenna
connected. Accompanying the large photo is a paragraph that starts
off,
something like, "We used several radios, but mostly the TBX. It was a
heavy two-man load, and had to be cabled together with big cables.
The handcranked generator was meant to be strapped to a bench
[ see "whaleboat" installation  photos in non-Preliminary editions of
manual - H.M. ] but this did not  work  well, stay put, in soft sand.
The
coconut trees provided the solution, and the generator was just
clamped
to a coconut tree......"
This preceeding section in quotes is my paraphrase from the original.
You might have a look at the book if you happen to be in  one of the
large chain bookstores. Once you have seen the book and a couple
photos, that might suffice, as i don't think the rest is worth more
than
a quick perusal. The photos from the movie have that typical older
war movie fakiness, everybody looks too handsome, non-average,
clean, chipper, attentive, healthy, interested, soldierly, rather
than
the dirt, confusion, boredom, oddity of the war front reality.
Another interesting item, i think, is in Walt
Hutchen's typically excellent article on this radio in a past number
of
E R magazine, where he quotes marine vet Steve Kiraly as saying the
sound of the cranked generator drew fire.
Okay, enuff TBX for now. Nice radio, especially the more spartan
earlier model, all 34's and ONE 837 in an absolutely true ECO
circuit.
Hue Miller
( CC to my dad, of the 63rd division, 254 regiment, 7th Army )