[Milsurplus] Ricebox hams on WW2 warships...

[revcom at wbsnet.org]

It really helped to have Curtis LeMay a ham and his very close
friend being Mr. Collins.  A LOT of Collins gear at Air Bases.  Every
one that LeMay would visit would have a complete set.  Had to
have Mil numbers so could be bought by Defense Dept.
There were used in Nam also in the forward comm facilities.






> The KWM-2A was a variant of the KWM-2 ham transceiver.
> The 'A' indicated that a separate crystal board was added
> to provide operation on frequencies other than those offered
> by the standard 'ham' KWM-2.  This variant was commissioned
> (so to speak) by the US Air Force to provide an easily deployable
> HF comm capability.
>
> When I left the 3d Combat Comm Grp in 1975, our radio shop
> still had probably 40-50 complete AN/FRC-153 sets which were
> always being deployed for one purpose or another.  Our teams
> went to Panama and a whole lot of other places to set up the
> initial HF communications in various "trouble spots."
>
> My subsequent assignment to the 1985th Comm Sq across
> Tinker AFB, OK had me maintaining about a dozen of them
> in the base MARS station.
>
>>From there it was off to Hofn Air Station in SW Iceland for
> about a year at the remote radar site there, where we had
> three complete sets, including 2 30S-1 and 1 30L-1 amps.
>
>>From there it was back to Tinker and the 1985th until I
> retired in 1981, still fixing the FRC-93/FRC-153/KWM-2A rigs.
>
> No, they certainly didn't compare with the monstrously costly
> and complicated fixed HF gear at fixed transmitter and receiver
> sites, but like the proverbial Timex watches, they took a licking
> and kept on ticking.
>
> US embassies all over the world used them.  I'd guess that they
> were being used during the final evacuations from Viet Nam!
>
> Mac, K2GKK
> USAF, retired
>
>
>
> Date: Mon, 29 Oct 2007 18:25:45 -0500
> From: kk5f at earthlink.net
> To: milsurplus at mailman.qth.net
> Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] Ricebox hams on WW2 warships...
>
> Even use of a military AN/FRC-93 (Collins KWM-2A) would
> be inappropriate, outside of a USAF-related Vietnam-era
> display.  On a ship, even a Vietnam-era ship, though its
> a military set it would be complete nonsense. (BTW, how
> did the KWM-2A get a military nomemclature anyway...
> it's far from being military quality!)
>
> So riceboxes aren't the only things that spoil a historical display.
>
>
> Mike / KK5F
>
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