[Milsurplus] MBM questions

[Hue Miller]

Anyone have information on contract date of Navy's MBM equipment?
I am trying to determine, as i can, the intentions for it, and the extent of 
its deployment. The manual is absolutely clean of any date.
I believe it was intended for coast watcher and/or weather station use in
China, in the war against the Japanese occupation.

It does have some drawbacks and features, compared to the standard
Navy portable radio, TBX.

The MBM can only be operated from these two power sources: hand
crank generator; or, its internal 6 volt rechargeable battery. The battery
can be recharged from AC mains, or from another battery, like from a car
battery, but cannot be operated from those sources, only recharged.
So if you're really out in the jungle, you are going to have to use the
handcrank generator. Also, the receiver runs off the same power as
transmitter, so you cannot have the receiver run with separate 
receiver batteries, like the TBX  does. So you'd have to handcrank to
receive also.
On the other hand, if the battery + vibrator unit is left behind, the MBM
becomes a 2 - man carry, i mean radio and handcrank, unlike the TBX,
which is 3-man minimum: generator, radio, and accessory box - receiver
batteries. The TBX does have its own carry canvas while in the 
outdoors setting the MBM units would have to be strapped to a
packframe.
The MBM with its 4 - 14 Mcs. range is more fixed on long-distance
skywave. The TBX with the Navy modification, worked only to 7 Mcs.

I see two sources which indicate the TBX was the radio of choice for
the China mission. I think the MBM might have had a role, say for 
wx reporter station far out in the Gobi desert. But who knows if it 
was actually used at all. Perhaps the power supply business, just 
was too much of a hassle. I believe somewhere between 50 and 100
were built. TBX's were in the thousands.  The MBM has a higher
classification than the standard TBX, CONFIDENTIAL versus the
usual RESTRICTED.  If the MBM offered no substantial advanatage
over the TBX, it would have been advantageous, i suppose, from a 
cost and supply basis to just issue the TBXs.  -Hue Miller