[Milsurplus] US mil-surplus overseas, cont'd

[Hue Miller]

> Well, now, TRC-10s and Pogo Sticks to Angola. Say> whut?> --------------> You can't tell me Hue Miller that's you've never heard this story!!!
 
No- Hue Miller heard it, but grew more skeptical over the years. Pogo sticks to Angola?
That would have to be during the Portugese era. Was Portugal really that broke?
Maybe so. Another colonial or settler regime, Rhodesia, was buying state of the art
manpacks.What country in 1990 would want a single channel, heavy clunky handheld radio with a 
1 mile max range?
I have seen SSB handheld radios made by Northern Radio for the Philippine police or military
near the end of Northern Radio's ( NRC of Seattle, that is; way different from E Coast mfgr
of TTY accessories ) in the late 1980s. The Philippines is not a rich country. What country
was using BC-611s in the 1990s? Upper Volta? For what? Urban warfare?
What the US gov't thought they were in terms of viable weaponry, well, Uncle Sam has
done mighty dumb things. They have sold surplus on one coast and bought it back from
the same dealers on the other coast....
> Or the large order of BC-611 batteries from on undisclosed country in the early 90's from Brentronics. Or the fact that as stupid as it may seem the BC-611 is still classed as ordnance by the US Government & silly though it may seem is still illegal to export. Just ask Mike Murphy.
 
If it's still illegal to export, i suggest Uncle Sam forget them....and why waste time on 
reclassifying an antique?
 
Maybe it's not too late to track down that battery story and try learn more.......> >  BC-1306 and BC-611> to Thailand, okay; to Vietnam, of course you mean with> the French colonial forces.> ------------------> Though the French had their own supply lines connected directly to the US, no I do not mean them.> The CIA was passing out 1306's & 611's before & after 1960. The French pulled out in 1958. I have pictures of non-French types inspecting their new rigs in 1961 Thailand. In actuality, the communication equipment of all generations & types from the BC-611 to the gigantic radio relay equipment that was sent to Vietnam during the French period was intended for use by the Vietnamese government & the French role was to install, & train the Vietnamese to use it. However, when the French pulled out completely in 1958 they took everything they could with them. This is all very well documented in Test for Technology by John Began. Among the first Post WW-II, & French period Americans killed in Vietnam were US Signalman sent there to try & salvage what the French did not abscond with.
 
I will have to check out this book but my impression, not totally without grounds, is that the French colonial
regime was not particularly oriented to equipping their colonial puppet armies with the same level of
technology that French military was using. ( That's how a colonial regime works - whether US in Philippine
Territory or the Japanese with their Thai or Indonesian allies. ) Why would they? Once France saw that its 
colonial regime was coming to an end, why would they have any interest in supplying and training the nationals? 
Oh- i see something i missed: the equipment was supplied by the US with the intention that it go to build
up the actual VietNam so-called government under French control. Of course France would have a strong
disinterest in the colonial or client regime being too strong or independent. Since very few of their 
nationals were going to stay in-country after the colonial power pulled out, why not plunder anything
worthwhile from those ungrateful little brown people? 
I am remembering now when in France in 1972 i still saw "AF" graffiti on walls: "Algerie Francaise"
( i think....).  Die-hards who resisted the pullout from Algeria and who almost pulled down the
French government in their struggle.
 
Did i mention the BC-342/312 receivers that i saw advertised in France around 1972? That was around
the same time G&G of NYC was buying them there and re-importing them and rewiring them for 
non-diversity reception. So i'd guess they were used in France pretty well up to that time. Probably some
France radio hams would have good input on this but in 2008, the barrier of language is still there.
-Hue K7HUE 
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