[Milsurplus] Re: Conelrad

[Hue Miller]

>Hue wrote:
>
> >It occurred to me, that "Cold War" re-enacting might be more practical
> >than Civil War, WW2, etc
>
>I know some silos and SAC bases have been made available for private
>purchase, but the submarines may be a little bit difficult to get!  : - )
>
>Mike  / KK5F

Well, you'd have to maybe buy a surplus Russian (diesel) sub, maybe modify 
it to look
like one of ours.
Somebody up in Seattle bought one, has it parked on the Seattle waterfront, 
and
has it as a paying tourism attraction. I have to admit, i haven't been thru 
it yet,
but maybe i'll do it toward the holidays.

Slight digression, but when i was going thru the U-505 at Chicago around 
2000, the
day i went thru, a couple hams were in the radio room doing a "Submarines On 
the Air"
thing. The lighting inside the tiny radio room was poor, the walls dark and 
drab, and
here's these two guys seated inside privately hunched over some small  SSB 
ricebox.
The tour guide said, "Oh those are just hams doing their thing". I suppose 
their "special
event station" was not intended with the public in mind. I was as bewildered 
about
their arcane practice as any other of the tour group. They could as well 
have been
repairing a watch in there, or maybe reading Reader's Digest. Totally 
unimpressive and no
credit or honoring to WW2 veterans, experiences, or ham radio. "How not to 
do a
WW2 commemoration, special events station." Oh, that reminds me too, my 
friend
Greg Schilling found some scrapyard operation in Everett WA that was 
disassembling
some ex-US Navy sub, that had been sunk for a while  - towing accident, not 
some
active duty accident - and after hours he'd go thru the thing. ( Where were 
the
liability lawyers? ) He scrounged a few RF connectors, the actual remaining 
electronics
items were in bad shape.
If there's a point to this long shaggy dog story, it's yes, subs are out 
there, if you
want to pay for one. The "Border Checkpoint" or "DFing Spy Radio" scenarios 
are
a lot more affordable, even do-able. If you wanted, for example, to re-enact
Col. Abel's highjinx, why you could even utilize an older - building  
apartment
and Hallicrafters civilian equipment. There definitely is a lot of Nifty 
Fifties and
sixties gear out there that's very practically usable. -Huey  Miller