[Milsurplus] RS-6 employment

[Hue Miller]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: <WA5CAB@cs.com>
Sent: Saturday, September 20, 2003 9:10 PM
Subject: [Milsurplus] RS-6 employment


> I've always accepted the common story that the RS-6 was built for B-47 crew 
> usage.  But it never has made much sense or rang true.  The RS-6, like the 
> AN/GRC-109, has too much the feel of a set intended to be used over and over under 
> various contingencies, several different power sources, and CW only.  

>The 
> receiver is tunable, with no provision for crystal control.  The transmitter 
> requires a stretched out wire antenna.  All just the sorts of things you'd want in 
> an E&E radio to call the pickup helo.

-Interesting ideas. But- do you mean the "Operation Armageddon"
story is bogus entirely, or that it did exist and was a cover for the
RS-6? I think there's enough evidence that the "Operation Armageddon"
link existed. ( Or else we, and Air Classics magazine, have been 
scammed. )  The article explains that the RS-6 was used for the long 
distance signalling, from downed crews located in neutral countries or
even enemy countries.  The other radio employed was the URC-4, for
the closer in signalling at the landing field for the rescue craft. Since 
the URC-4 had standard mil nomenclature and markings, you have a 
point, there was no need to be coy about the RS-6's nomenclature 
and owners.  Additionally, i agree that for the SAC employment, you
wouldn't think the USAF would have needed more than a couple 
hundred?

> There was also some detail including a 
> description of the hand crank generator (specifically a Telefunken GN-58-A) and 

The RS-6 production, however, predates any Telefunken production of
GRC-9 accessories. There would be no reason whatever for the RS-6
maker to go to Telefunken for components. I am also not convinced that
by the early 1950s Telefunken, or German electronics industry in general,
was really equiped to produce such equipment.

> shortened legs carried in a jump bag somewhat larger than the BG-175,  He sold or 
> gave away the book years ago, before he became a radio collector, and has 
> recently been trying to turn up another copy.  I haven't seen the book so this 
> isn't admissable in court of course.

-What's the point of the shorter legs?

The CIA book: it would be very unusual for any memoir type book 
to go into such specialist detail on a piece of radio hardware, even
IF it was CIA in-house type of publication, IMO. I wonder if your
source on the book is working from faulty memory mixing with 
something he read from another source.

I read that the US ( CIA or?? ) for many years of the cold war had 
radios and other equipment hidden thruout Europe, in case these
countries were overrun by the USSR forces in a Hot War. Then
local partisans could uncover the comm gear and weapons. I don't 
know more details on this, only that it existed. I wonder what the
radios were - would the RS-6 fit the bill? The radio count for this,
i would imagine, would be in the high hundreds, or at best, i  imagine,
in the low 1000+. BUT- when the Cold War ended, where did these
go? Usually when programs or wars collapse or end, there's a bunch
of leftovers that get grabbed for souvenirs. However, i haven't seen
anything about such clandestine radios appearing in numbers in
Europe. Or, another possibility, maybe the radios were produced 
but the secret cache program never really became widely established.
Hue Miller