[Milsurplus] was: Pre-WW2 USAAF nomenclature

[William Donzelli]

> Again, what did the first letter of the two letter middlecode 
> represent?
> Examples, BC-RC-183, BC-SA-167

If it is a code, it is a pretty twisted one. I do not think there is any
sort of real order, as in some equipments the middle codes are all over
the place.
 
> Isn't it surprising, for apparently how few prewar SCR-183's
> survived, how many actual production runs there were?
> ( AA thru AS at least )

I do not agree - I think the pre-War SCR-*-183s survived quite well. The
coilsets from the 30s sets are actually not that rare. It is very hard,
however, to manage to get a complete set of the same series, however. I
have not managed it - only maybe halfway with an -AH- (seemingly the most
common of the 30s sets).

> I wonder if in the US Army there tended to be less of a need for
> long-distance type aircraft radio than in the US Navy and USCG.
> Witness the ultra-rare CW add-on for the SCR-183 series.

This may have been used to tune up the BC-AA-191 as well, sort of a father
to the BC-221.

The BC-*-183 may be ultra rare because it just is not that good of a VFO
or frequency meter. With the rush of BC-221s and LMs in the 50s and 60s -
who would want to use the miserable BC-*-183s? Most were probably scrapped
to harvest that nice vernier knob on the front.

> William, do you know which  SCR -A*-183 set used the CW 
> oscillator.

No. 

> I note that the Navy's similar RU receivers all - apparently -
> were CW capable from the start.

The Navy had a small VFO sidekick in the 1930s as well. I think it was
LJ. I have never seen one.

William Donzelli
aw288 at osfn.org