[Milsurplus] WWII Japanese VHF?

[Mike Hanz]

David Stinson wrote:

> Actually, all this continues to build the case for long-standing and
> continuous use of HF in combat aircraft throughout WWII in the PTO.
> What prompted the question was period literature I have that was
> used to drill proper radio procedure among Navy fighter
> and patrol aircraft pilots.  They speak of several documented
> instances where the Japanese, having intercepted talk between
> fighter aircraft, gleaned intelligence from it and used it.
> That would be hard for them to do if the U.S. aircraft were on VHF,
> since they had no wide-spread VHF intercept capability


No argument on the VHF versus HF question, but the Bell History book 
describes its development of the UHF ARC-12 and ARC-19 as providing 
"more secure" aircraft comms, and in another reference I can't find at 
the moment, apparently driven by Japanese VHF ducting intercepts in the 
Pacific.  I don't believe it was widespread, but it undoubtedly occurred 
enough to warrant the new equipment.

> Mike Hanz graciously sent me photos of an APR-4 knock-off
> done by the Japanese that now resides in the Smithsonian.
> This had to have been late-war at best, because of the time
> the APR-4 would have been deployed, time to capture one intact,
> time to back-engineer, ramp-up and produce it.


Lest there be a misunderstanding, I was alluding to the operational 
concept and general circuit construction (with motor driven scanning), 
not the modular aircraft packaging that the APR-1 and -4 involve.  It 
might well have followed German developments, who after all were no 
slouches when it came to VHF.  It actually looks more like a shipboard 
package than aircraft, but I'm not familiar with Japanese aircraft sets, 
so dunno for sure.

73,
Mike