[Milsurplus] Re: Late version of BC-366

[David Stinson]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Unserviceable but Repairable" <cosmoline at aa4rm.ba-watch.org>
Subject: [Milsurplus] Late version of BC-366


>> Fact that SCR-522 stopped hf command radio in Europe seems generally
> accepted.  Hence "VHF COMMAND" label obvious

Sorry, Marty- as has been posted here several times,
the "VHF only" theory, although "generally accepted," 
is absolutely, demonstrably, and documentedly wrong.
One mode did not exclude the other. 
Both modes were in service and
both were used for many years even after WWII.
Many aircraft had one or the other set.  Many had both.
It depended on operational location and mission,
and what equipment was available 
at the particular time and place.

I've heard this "VHF repeater" story many times.  
Enough times to convince me it was at least tried 
and maybe implemented somewhere.
There are mentions of it and apocryphal stories about it, 
but there is no conclusive evidence that it was ever fielded 
as the primary aircraft communication system
 in Europe or anywhere else.
To the best of my knowledge
(and if I'm wrong I'd sure like to hear about it),
to date, not one training manual,  
not one mention in any log book, 
not a single piece of operational paper, 
such as inclusion in a Radio Operator's Information File, 
exists anywhere.  If this were *the* primary comm mode
in Europe, we should have lots of accessory parts and 
materials and books marked for the "VHF repeaters."
Where are they?  I haven't seen any, 
and I've been collecting this stuff for forty years.
I've not seen a single photo of radio techs working on this
complex VHF lash-up, yet I have lots about HF; 
you'd think operating and maintaining 
such a VHF set in WWII would have required extensive training 
for "90 day wonder" radio mechanics, 
so where are the training docs?
We have them for SCR-274N and SCR-287, lots of them.
There may be a manual somewhere on the hook-up 
of two ARC-1 sets as a repeater, 
and I think someone had something technical on two SCR-522s,
but neither of these prove when 
and where this may have been used.
Yet we have dozens and even hundreds of documents, log books, 
training manuals, flight sectionals, training and operational  photos
and Radio Operator Information Files telling us 
that HF was not only used throughout the war, 
but was indespensible to operations in every theater.

I don't mean to "jump on" you, Marty.  You're not alone in this 
"VHF took over" idea, but I honestly don't understand
why some of us, after all this has been proven beyond doubt,
continue to hold this mistaken belief. 
Sometimes, I feel like all the research I've done and shared here
just goes straight into the bit bucket.  It's frustrating.