[Milsurplus] TBX part two

[Mike Morrow]

William Donzelli wrote of the TBX:

> Keep in mind that it was probably the best field radio 
> around when the line was introduced in the 1930s. 

That's a real good point.  At the time the Army was still fiddling around with stuff like the SCR-131 and the SCR-178.  That brings to mind two questions:
(1)  When did the TBX-series first reach production/deployment?
(2)  The antique SCR-178 (BC-186/187/188) was still being produced in 1942.  Does anyone have any stories of it being used for anything other than training during WWII?

>The Signal Corps sets at the time were pretty bad.

To their credit they more than made up for lost time with some pretty good ground HF sets like the SCR-288, SCR-284, SCR-694, and SCR-299/399.  The VHF-FM SCR-508/608 and SCR-300 sets were impressive designs too, without a rough USN equivalent except the archaic TBY-series.  I'd say that the Army did a better job coming up with capable gear, including the great ART-13/BC-348 AN/ARC-8 combo for aircraft HF.  Except for the ATC, the good war-designed Navy stuff (AN/ARC-1, 2, 12, ARR-15, etc.) seems to have showed up late or not at all before war's end.

Incidental question number 1:  Has anyone seen any evidence of an ATD actually being installed in a military aircraft?

Incidental question number 2:  Why was the late-war SCR-619 (BC-1335) FM set designed without squelch?  Even the SCR-300 had squelch.  I really like the BC-1335 except for that one characteristic.

73,
Mike / KK5F