[Milsurplus] F-100 survival radio

[Mike Morrow]

Hue wrote:

>I wonder what survival radio was carried by USAF pilots in 'Nam 1968?

I'd say that a likely candidate is the AN/URC-64.  It figured prominently in the BAT-21 rescue operations in 1972, as described on the USAF Museum web page at http://www.wpafb.af.mil/museum/history/rescue/res13a.htm .

Even though that took place in 1972, I think the AN/URC-64 dates from the mid-1960s.  I have seen no reference to other services using it other than the USAF.  It's a neat four-channel unit, but I've never been able to find the special one-of-a-kind battery for mine.

Other candidates might include the AN/URC-10 series, as well as the ACR RT-10 type units, but I think that these were predominantly US Army sets.

Another contemporary survival radio was the US Army's AN/URC-68 four-channel VHF-FM/UHF-AM set.  But...I know a good number of US Army aviation personnel who served in Vietnam between 1968 and 1972, and none can remember *ever* seeing a AN/URC-68 set in service.  It is quite flimsy in its plastic construction.  AN/URC-10 radios seem to have been the popular army standard for the era.

>1) What activated the survival radio - was this what transmitted, or 
>was it the survival sled or ejected seat?  Was the survival radio 
>intended to be left on, in beacon mode? Or was the pilot to shut it
>off, to conserve battery?
>
>2) What model of survival radio?
>
>3) Was it standard to carry two?

Some of the aircrew survival radios had a capability mounting a device using a lanyard pull to actuate beacon mode.  I think one is described in the manual for the AN/URC-68 (which I can't find right now).  Similarly, there was the Vietnam-era AN/URT-21 243 mc beacon.  My understanding is that if a URT-21 beacon-only set was employed, then a separate RT unit would also be carried.

Maybe someone on the list can describe how the auto-beacon sets were arranged for automatic start.

I'd be curious to know when the common all vacuum tube RT-285/URC-11 and the early 1960s transistor/vacuum tube RT-285A/URC-11 sets were phased out of USAF use.

Mike / KK5F