[Milsurplus] Green Books - JAN

[Mike Morrow]

>Nonetheless there is some great reading and equally revealing pictures.

I liked the description in one of the green books of the SCR-187 being
used in the mind-1930s to broadcast a Roosevelt speech.

>And don't forget the AN/CPG-1A, better known as the pigeon (just
>kidding about the nomenclature).

That JAN nomenclature would denote an "air transportable gun-laying radar"
(but the "C" meaning "air transportable" was dropped from the JAN system more
than 60 years ago).

But up to a few decades ago, the JAN system did indeed have an official
designation for carrier pidgeon equipment.  It was a "B" in the second place
of the JAN equipment identifier, as in AN/xBx-yy.

In a mid-1950s issue of CQ Magazine, a reader referred to an earlier issue's
explanation of JAN system application to WWII surplus and asked (no doubt
tongue-in-cheek) if a TBX-8 really was a "ground transportable pidgeon used
for identification or recognition."

Such are the perils of incompatible nomenclature systems!

Mike / KK5F