[Milsurplus] How could radio ops hear anything in B 17, B 24 etc?

[w8au@sssnet.com]

At 01:52 PM 01/20/2004, BOEING377@aol.com wrote:
>A couple of years ago I was at the World free Fall Convention in Quincy
>Illinois. I was fortunate enough to be able to make a freefall jump from the
>Collings Foundation's beautifully restored B 24 bomber.
>I had hoped to be able to fool around with the BC 348 rcvr, but it was not 
>to be.
>The good old BA gear was all there (BC 375, BC 348 , etc.) but not hooked up.
>The noise level inside the plane was very high.  I have used WW 2 
>headphones before and know that
>they do not do a very good job of blocking external acoustic noise.  I 
>also know
>that the audio output levels from the receivers and interphone amps were not
>exactly ear slitting either.  How did they do it?  I doubt if I could have
>copied much under those conditions.

I had the privilege in 1960 of riding a C-54 transport from NAS New York during
a "hop" home for Christmas.  The Radio opr position was all there in full 
glory.
I fired up the BC-348 and tuned all over the bands, using the earphones that
were there.  The ambient noise level may have been high, but hearing the 
receiver
was not a problem.  Would have loved to have made a few contacts, but I was
not (at that time) knowledgeable about firing up the ATC (ART-13) and I doubted
if the Pilot or CoPilot would have known how, or even appreciated my 
asking.  At
that time they used only the comm gear in the cockpit.

Quite a memory.... seems like last week!

Perry    w8au