[Milsurplus] The RAS question

[William Donzelli]

> My question is if the RAS was ever intended for use in a
> shipboard environment?

Probably not - it is really not suitable for shipboard duty. Still, some
ships had them (BB59 did, but it was removed during the war).

> Was the RAS series
> an attempt to use a civilian radio until the RBA/B/C series was in
> place?

It was early enough (before the big scare of not having enough radios in
1939-40) that I think the Navy just picked them up as they saw a good
thing.

> I know that the RAK/L predates the RAS, when did the RBA/B/C
> series show up?

They started dripping out in early 1941.

> And a last
> footnote, if you look at the last page of almost all the QST magazines
> from the war years you will see a National Radio advertisement touting
> that three out of every four Navy ships have a national radio installed
> onboard, often depicting a HRO radio in the background, maybe this was
> more wartime disinformation?

RAOs and RBHs were reasonably common on ships - but they are not in the
HRO clan.

William Donzelli
aw288 at osfn.org