[Milsurplus] can anyone id the radio used on this clipper?

[Bruce Gentry]

Bruce Gentry wrote:
> Mike Hanz wrote:
>> Dennis DuVall wrote:
>>  
>>> Are we sure that the picture in the video is of the actual radio  
>>> position on the Clipper that made the around the world flight at 
>>> the  time of the event, not a photo from another time/aircraft?
>>>     
>>
>> Yeh, things are getting a little diffused here, Mac.  There were 
>> three different aircraft involved in the Pan Am Clipper program in 
>> the 1930s.  The original youtube video that started this thread off 
>> was about the *last* of them - the Boeing 314.  The radio position of 
>> Dave Hollander's video appears to have the same radio set even though 
>> the Clipper was a 1935 Martin M-130.   It appears that Pan Am simply 
>> preferred their own relatively unchanging radio designs to 
>> increasingly more capable commercial offerings as the 1930s wore on.  
>> After all, the magnificent Boeing 314 was delivered to them in *1939* 
>> - sheesh!   I suspect they were about the only ones who were still 
>> using regen sets in aircraft by then.  Change does come hard to some 
>> folks....   :-P   In fairness, they had set up a worldwide HF comms 
>> network that worked extremely well, so perhaps Todd's observation 
>> about "if it ain't broke..." is a reasonable one.
>>
>> 73,
>> Mike
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>>   
> There are other possibilities. One very real one was patent problems. 
> In those times, almost every component in a practical radio was 
> claimed under a patent. Not only the construction of the component, 
> but also the use and application. Into the 1960s, vacuum tubes had a 
> warning reading something like: "Licensed only to the extent listed on 
> carton" .   One prohibition was communications for toll or hire. On 
> such a luxurious airliner crossing oceans,  personal messages were 
> probably handled for  a price.  By building their own equipment, PanAm 
> may have been able to avoid  these problems. Patents apply to everyone 
> using them, but RCA and Hazeltine Research usually did not bother 
> small specialty builders ( like Scott)  for anything more than a 
> reasonable royalty for each radio built.  A larger manufacturer had to 
> register with them and pay all sorts of fees and b... s...
>
> Bruce
>