[Milsurplus] Philco

[Mike Morrow]

>BC-966 'radio receiver'
>
>really the MkIII 160-210 mhz IFF transponder, tag was intended
>to throw off investigators upon capture.

Yes, that's the Mk III/G SCR-695, also known under USN nomenclature as the ABF-#.

The USN did the same thing with the earlier model of Mk III IFF, the model ABK-# (which served the USAAF as the SCR-595).  The nomenclature tag on the main unit states that it is an "Aircraft Radio Receiver."  But the unit model number on the same tag is CZR-43AAY.  As we know, "43" indicates "receiver-transmitter" and the use of three alphabetic characters (rather than numbers) like "AAY" indicates "radar-related."  Thus "43AAY" clearly indicates the true character of the device.

I wonder why the "radio receiver" game wasn't played a little better by assigning something like CZR-46987 as the model number.

Mike / KK5F