[Milsurplus] WWII Japanese VHF?

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

On 5/19/05, Hue Miller <kargo_cult at msn.com> wrote:
> Another factoid that may or may not weigh in.
> I recall readinng that ( i think it was ....) Pappy
> Boyington in his book talked about Japanese
> jamming of fighter radio traffic. Now, did Pappy's
> fighters use vhf or hf?? I know from other accounts
> the Japanesse frequently jammed hf combat
> communications during island invasions. I would
> be *very* surprised if they had vhf am-modulated
> transmitters on hand just to jam fighter traffic.
> Since none of their other combat communications,
> air or ground, used much above about 50 MHz.

Another thing to keep in mind are the stories of Pappy taunting the
Japanese into coming up for a fight when he flew over their fields, by
calling them over the radio. For the longest time I thought this was
just hype from the TV series, but recently saw a program with several
members of his squadron relating stories. One story was of Pappy
calling them to come up and fight, with them obliging. So if you can
determine what gear they were using in his squadron, you can at least
determine with some certainty if they had and used VHF. Considering
the size of the gear and limited space of the fighters, it seems
unlikely they carried a lot of mixed gear.

Even if they used VHF though, I'm not sure it would qualify for Dave's
original question of widespread use.

~ Todd,  KA1KAQ