[Milsurplus] LM-18 and AC PS Questions.. More

[J Forster]

I agree with your skepticism. While such a request might result in some common and useful
meters, it seems improbable that many could have found their way into deliverable hardware.
Maybe they were scrapped for the permanent magnet material or something.

I read somewhere that the aluminum drives were essentially propaganda exercises, designed to
give the general populace the feeling of participating in the war effort. The resulting
aluminum was probably of such variable composition that it would not be useful for much.
Fumble..  Google..

>From Wiki:    http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_was_the_US_economy_during_World_War_2

"After pearl harbor, the American people were ready to pour everything they had into the war
effort. Women donated
thousands of tons of aluminum cooking supplies to help build planes-- though it was later
found that only virgin aluminum was
good enough for aircraft and so their pots and pans were melted down and sold back to them as
pots and pans. In the first
months of the war washington was a mess, and mobilization was slow. This is because our
governmnet is not made to act
swiftly, it was designed to take time and thought before any decision can be made. Scrap
drives were unorganized and so were
the efforts of the common people. Those who could not physically join the armed forces wanted
to know what they could do to
help but the governmnet expected little more from them than the purchasing of war bonds and
for them to practice conservation
of goods. Other items which were recycled included bone and fats which were used in making
explosives and other materials."

There is another possible reason also..  to take non governmental receivers and especially
transmitters out of service.

FWIW,
-John



Hue Miller wrote:

> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "John Franke" <jmfranke at cox.net>
>
> > There was a shortage of meters.  The ARRL ran a meter collection program and
> > many amateurs donated meters.
>
> I wonder what that was about????
> You couldn't very well have a production line for a radio, and next to it, a box of misc.
> donated meters to use.  -Hue Miller