[Milsurplus] RE: NPC: A Tune for Pearl Harbor Day

[Mike Hanz]

Hue Miller wrote:

> Mike, do you have an ANQ-2 ?  I'm wondering if that was the small 
> airborne disk
> recorder i saw some decades back in the surplus store.  I am still 
> puzzled as to
> the use.


Yup, I acquired one on the purchased one a couple of years ago for 
restoration and installation in the Enola Gay.  Story and photos at 
http://aafradio.org/countermeasures/recorders.html , including a photo 
of a slightly different mobile use.  Note the sophisticated support 
system in the B/W picture, sometimes called a shipping crate.  :-)    In 
the Hiroshima mission on 6 August 1945, Jacob Beser (the RCM officer) 
made a voice recording of the interphone conversation for posterity 
after the weapon was dropped.  I wanted to find a recorder of the same 
type that we could install in the Enola Gay's countermeasures area to 
complete the avionics suite back there, so I started researching the 
available technology that might have been used.  (We couldn't find any 
documentation at the Smithsonian on what was installed, so I had to make 
some assumptions...)  My initial leaning was toward an ANQ-1 wire 
recorder, for the simple reason that disk recorders have the drawback of 
coupling airframe vibration into the recording as it is being made, 
unless a very sophisticated shock mounting system is used. 

Dave Stinson was kind enough to send me an ANQ-1, and I set about making 
a shock mount for it.  About the time we were planning on installing it, 
my NASM boss finally discovered the missing flight report for 6 August, 
long buried in the archives at Wright Patterson (see 
http://aafradio.org/docs/ANQ-2/Flight_report_Aug-6-1945.jpg ).  In it, 
the last pieces of countermeasure gear installation were recorded, 
including an "ANQ-2 Recorder".  That resulted in a shift to finding the 
new device.  I have never seen any other photographs or documentation of 
it in use.  I'm fairly curious as to the fidelity we might get from it, 
once I have its shock mount and control box made and have a chance to do 
some testing - the turntable speed seems very slow.  I managed to find 
some acetate record blanks close to the right 7.25" size (will need to 
drill a different drive hole in them) so we'll get a chance to find out, 
hopefully this spring sometime.

73,
Mike   KC4TOS