[Milsurplus] VHF Relays were division->leader-pilots

[Unserviceable but Repairable]

This addresses "vhf relay" over-channel traffic.  A sort of prehistoric
comsat. Guys interested for continuity were Hue & Bob.

Only the lead bomber & it's deputy(ies) were equipped with the "second
scr522."  Traffic passed from division to lead bombers were mission
changes & adjustments.  The most secure stuff.  That appears the reason
for this frequency-split "new channel"

NOW THIS'S PRETTY LONG & YOU MIGHT SKIP TO SHORT PARA JUST BEFORE
SIGNATURE TO COMPLETE BASIC MESSAGE.  However there's more about 
bomber radio op.s in general that may prove interesting.

This just in yesterday via conversation with ex-Tech Sgt. Bill Johnson.
When I asked his rank he was pretty proud he was a 5-striper @ age 20. 
And he was radio op in lead plane (b17 - see below).  
Again, 2/45-5/45. (5)

He was just going home fom a 60 day hospital stay.  We're lucky we
got this data.

English AAF bomber force had 3 div'ns.  1 & 3 were B17s, 2 was B-24s that
went 40mph faster.  It wud wreck  a B17s that tried to keep up w. B24.

Bill was in 3rd div'n, 418th squadron.  Based @ field K30 between towns of
Diss & Thorp Abbot.  Sqdn had 12 planes.  Please note: 4 sqdn / group,

   3 groups / wing,  3 wings / div'n - 432 bombers!

Note Bill sez SCR-287 was ALWAYS used on return trip by lead plane to
report on mission.  Mode was CW (1).  Tho every plane had one, only
leader's used.


On hf command sets -  interplane use then gone.  All 522s. But pilots
sometime  used 274n-s for their own stuff(4).  I asked if Europe had
same field civvy deal as US.  IE call tower  on 3105 or 6210 & expect
reply on 278 kcs.  Wud require a BC-696 or BC-458 & a  BC-453 (Q5-er).
I asked if you set em as such & just got "it's been 60 years man"

A little later I asked about what rec'd SCR-287 @ K30.  He sed he never
went to radio chack but knew it was small, < 200w(3).  Durn... but it
shows something & that's this man, tho a wire head, had enuf of war
stuff when he got back

Can I hear Dave Simpson's heart pounding on 274n use to the end.
Mystery use, tho.

Bill had never heard of the BC-1366 box w. VHF liasson sw. setting.  He
emphatically defended lead-pilot-only vhf relay in each squadron's lead
plane (& 2 'deputies').  He seen enuf BC-366s though.

Now on that secret radar.  It was the BTO H2S built in US for X-band.
Called H2X(2) & code-named Mickey(2).  Still rankles him he cudn't peak
'cause secret

To close on "vhf relays."  Ran into responsible fella @ monthly techno
gathering that reports he'd read of these recently in some book.
Perhaps entitled, "Radio War." In it is detailed same strategy for spy's
suitcase radios.  Technique worked so well that AAF adopted it as described


  Marty

(1) Asked if they ran 'tone' on '375 (mcw).  Never.  Then wondered how other
    '375s sounded in cw service & sed "pretty OK, no objection."  I
    responded that if used with home-brewed supplies they're chirpy & 
    I guess '375 running w. dynamotor improved things.

    Also asked if '348 crystal filter ever used.  Answer was rarely - if
    there was interference

(2) APQ-13 id for Mickey.  Good user's description at
    http://home.nycap.rr.com/heros/ut_page_1.htm
    BTO is bombing thru overcast, not bachman turner overdrive.
    APQ-13 sub'd for ball turret.  First installed late '43 & odd still
    top secret in 2/45.

    Wondered if ARW-thing for silmultaneous (salvo) release in
    use.  Bill'd never heard of it tho he sed a leader's smoke bomb
    drop indicated a salvo release

    It's sed H2S stood for "home sweet home."

(3) there's a surviving field base operator here.  Russ, AE4NY.  He swears
    he used a BC-348 & a BC-375 @ Oran, Morocco in 6/42.  I figured it was
    AC SCR-188 running on a PE75 2.5kw genset.  That'd be a BC-342 & I
    showed him both.  348! he exclaimed

    My other guess was a BC-191 & a BC-224 / SCR-187.  12V on batteries
    & probable spare system for a 12V bomber

    But almost no acft traffic, mostly interbase.  & this ended too when
    fone wires installed.  They'd still probe each other over the air. A
    'dit' here, a 'dit dit' there.  Etc.  Not an Old McDonald lead-in

    They dropped the old giz when the "bread truck" arrived in Italy in
    '43. SCR-299.

    So I bet '299 @ K30 too.  Never know fer sure

(4) British insisted VHF early on.  Bendix functionally copied their
    E1148(?) with the smaller, wider-range '522.

    HF commands surely had mighty little hf radiation since very small
    length of fuselage-perpendicular antenna component.  Hence small 
    radiation resistance.  'Frinstance, BC-442 showing 5A @ 10w output
    wud say radiation R 0.4 ohms.  (Arithmetic can be ur friend)
    Big lead-in resistive loss wud result in terrible antenna efficiency.

    Might say gud design since command traffic expected as confi-
    dential to formation 

    Still the 274ns reportedly cud still be heard 'way out of formation.
    Especially if skip.  Bad


(5) Bill  shipped to Europe (eto) in 11/44.  He'd undergone 3 mo.s basic,
    6 mo.s radio, 2.5 mo.s gunnery, 3 mo.s overseas training.  Over
    a year

      - - - miscellany - - -

    Bill's plane's top gunner shot down one of only three ME262 jets

    I wrote following a year ago & Kees replied w. a "thank you Bill."
    Bill dropped food to Dutch @ war's end.  B17s came in down roads at
    near-stall on the deck.  Germans were required to stand by their AAs
    on ground with hands up