[Milsurplus] was: Pre-WW2 USAAF nomenclature

[WA5CAB at cs.com]

In a message dated 11/19/2005 11:40:06 AM Central Standard Time, 
aw288 at osfn.org writes: 
> >No one that I know of has ever come across the instruction covering this. 
> And 
> >there are too few examples known to determine it empirically. Most examples 
> 
> >are "A*".
> 
> Most that we see today start with A, but back in the 1930s they were all
> over the place. The little tone generators for the BC-114s were GN-WQ-33s
> (I think - I am not home right now).
> 

Yeah, forgot about that one.

> Off the top of my head, I have seen "first letter middle codes" A, B, C,
> G, H, R, and W.
> 
> >First, it was both a Ground and an Aircraft set.  Second,
> >although all but two of its dozen+ accessory units are also "AA", you
> >have BC-AA-193 and BC-BB-193, and BC-AA-196 and BC-CC-196.
> 
> Even tubes got it - VT-BB-4. Never seen one, though.
> 
> >The above examples alone are internally inconsistent with any of the 
> theories 
> >of what the letters "meant". So I will simply contend that whatever the 
> rule 
> >might have been supposed to be, it was not followed correctly.
> 
> I tend to think the whole system was a failure, thus its short end.
> 

I agree.  And apparently so did the Signal Corps.  :-)


Robert Downs - Houston
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