[Milsurplus] The Army-Navy Game

[Hue Miller]

Just read D. Starks' older on on some site like "Army Radio
Sales". Probably some of this info is now understood to be
outdated altho still posted online. As for Navy equipment
being more advanced, i had to think of the SCR-300
replacing the TBY and other such sets, and the BC-348
replacing the RAX. Also the MBM was i'm pretty sure no
raider radio: it comes packaged in civy-looking suitcases.
More likely it was the Navy's idea of the PRC-1 type thing,
possibly intended for SACO use, China, for coast watchers
and weather stations. But apparently this task was given
to the humble TBX, which with the Navy modification could
work up to 7 Mc/s or so, and which handled the task just 
fine. The MBM was certainly more expensive than the TBX;
maybe more expensive than the PRC-1; however it seems 
to me the PRC-1 was a better design and execution than 
the MBM - i partly chalk that up to Jefferson Travis's typical
odd ( i think ) mechanical engineering. 
Whatever flaws the SCR-284 had, it was certainly more 
rugged than the TBX, and it served thru to the end of the
war in the Pacific. There's a real nice photo of some GI's 
wearing rain ponchos listening to the announcement of the
end of the war over a BC-654 on Okinawa. 
I recall a couple decades back Tony Grogan and i trying to 
speculate about the reason for the MBM's wide and tall
but only a few inches deep design. He guessed it had to
fit on a makeshift table of some kind. Neither of us guessed
it was to fit inside a civilian suitcase.