[Milsurplus] Gibson Girl rescue

[Mark]

In Latitude 38, a West Coast sailing magazine there was an account of a Gibson Girl signal playing a key role in a yacht rescue near San Francisco about 20? years ago. Definitely decades after WW2. The story was written by a USCG pilot who was on the mission. The pilot had his ADF tuned to 500 KC. There was a big storm raging. Not sure how the distressed yacht managed to get an antenna up. Kite?

I commercial fished tuna between Midway Island and Japan in the early 80s. We carried a Gibson Girl complete with hydrogen generators, box kite, balloon, etc. Bought it from George Bello, an Oakland CA surplus dealer. Anyone remember George? The Gibson Girl came with a yellow tag indicating that it had been on a USAF C 130. It was in a yellow bag laced up with something like a long shoelace. Fortunately we never had to transmit a Mayday or SOS. Got a many tons of Albacore tuna out there. Delivered them in Hawaii. Good times. 

Mark
AF6IM