[Milsurplus] Chicken or Egg Question

[WA5CAB at cs.com]

I agree with John, except to say that the companies which built the SCR-211 
weren't small unknown companies by the standards of the day.  All were well 
established pre-war and had histories of dealing with the Army and Navy.  
While favoritism may (I've no evidence that it did) determine which one got 
which contracts, none particularly needed any help getting business after 69 
years ago yesterday.

I found my list of contractors:

CBK Cardwell built one model (-B)
CIY Rauland built 4
CPR Philco built 8
CRR Bendix built 4
CZR Zenith built 9

In a message dated 12/8/2010 10:11:49 PM Central Standard Time, 
jfor at quik.com writes: 
> Perhaps, but I'm not entirely convinced:
> 
> Because of the huge amount of war production, things were farmed out to
> companies that had available production capacity.
> 
> During the 30s, radio receivers were a hot commodity and many small
> companies sprung up to assemble them. Building a BC-221 is not so
> different than a 30s vintage high end broadcast receiver. These smaller
> companies were a logical fit for smaller production runs, like the BC-221.
> Bigger outfits would build ARC-5s and even bigger outfits complete
> airplanes.
> 
> Bottom line is, altrhough politics is awlays an issue with government
> projects, I'm unconvinced the contractors were politically chosen.
> 
> FWIW,
> 
> -John
> 
> ==============
> 
> 
> 
> >There were so many models of the BC-221 because there were
> >a lot of congressmen who wanted jobs in their districts.
> >
> >As it was in WWII, so it is today:  it's not totally about who
> >can build what to specification.  It's also about which congressman
> >gets how much pork to take home to the folks.
> 

Robert & Susan Downs - Houston
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