[Milsurplus] Fighter Plane Radios

[BSugarberg]

Hello,

Interviewer:  Did you ever use radio when you flying in combat?

Saburo Sakai: The radio was useless. We knew a week before the opening of the 
war that it was useless. It just made bunch of noise - if there was a worst 
piece of equipment in the Japanese Navy, it was the radio for the fighter 
planes. You couldn't hear anything at all. Close to the opening of the war, 
we pilots realized the radio was heavy and useless so I removed mine to save 
weight, as well as the wooden antenna pole. I cut that off. My commander, a 
very difficult man, saw this and yelled, "What did you do with this 
airplane?" I told him, "I need to make my airplane lighter to fly to Manila. 
It's much better." He replied, "Please, take mine out too!"

Here is the complete, incredible, interview:

http://www.microsoft.com/games/combatfs2/articles_sakai.aspx

73, Bruce WA8TNC
=================
Hue Miller wrote:

> I have somewhere a military newsletter with an interview with a former Japanese pilot 
 > who says "we" took the radios out of our planes because they just didn't
 > work very well anyway...
> Saburo Sakai ( sp? ), the Japanese fighter ace, made a hundreds of miles return flight
> to his base, almost miraculous, wounded, with blood and glass in his eyes, apparently
> just visual and compas navigation,  no voice comm radio or beacon receiver whatsoever.
> -Hue