[Milsurplus] A military surplus question please ( Long! )

[Hue Miller]

-----Original Message----- 
From: Jim Klotz
Sent: Saturday, June 16, 2012 3:56 PM
To: 'Hue Miller'
Subject: RE: A military surplus question please

> We chatted about the electronics/surplus store on NE
45th in Seattle (now a comics store) and the several garages full of surplus
gear the owner (Zinn? or close) had stashed around the city.  My father and
I laid the tile on the floor of that store and I had a chance or two to make
free selections from the stacks of equipment in the 1960s but, as a dumb
high-school kid, I just didn't know enough about the gear to make informed
choices. <

The only surplus store on 45th Street was something called "Wallingford
Surplus". I never went there. I heard they had a lot of solid state 
components
and I always wondered how anyone could stay in business selling small
quantities of components. Then they went out of business. What intrigued
me was I was told that the store owner at the closing had sold some kind of
receiver to a local dentist, the receiver described as # 1 wooden; #2 used
plug-in coils; #3 was a ship's receiver.
That was something I would rue not seeing and not soon forget. However,
several years later, someone, possibly Art Corbus, bless his soul, told me
some young guys in the "U" district had a radio to sell and I should contact
them. They turned out to be 4 Filipino hip-hop types. I felt vaguely
uncomfortable, like maybe I was going to be robbed or maybe scammed, or
maybe I shouldn't let show I was very interested in the radio. However,
the transaction went well, all parties content with the deal, and I ended up
with a Marconi 730 ship's receiver, regenerative, a 3-tube radio from
1940. Another example of what I sometimes call "The Monster Magnet
Effect" ? Uncanny.

Bill Zinn, also bless his soul, had a surplus store on California Avenue
in West Seattle. This was before my time as an independent agent.
His home was on something like 47th Street West. Years later, after
the store had long closed and he had passed away, I and friend would
get invited over there for purchasing forays, the visits arranged and
managed by a couple of ham radio guys who were friends of Mr.
Zinn's widow. The visits were of limited duration, only from about
10:00 - 15:00 and I think there was a mandatory lunch break. My
friend and I would have loved to keep digging longer, but the hours
were set and the visits were only about one a month.  Altho the store
had been gone for years, there were dozens of RU-GF components
and Command Sets transmitters N.I.B., all the non-ham band models.
I eventually had to move to Nebraska, so I lost track. The widow's
ham radio friends both passed away, so no more visits, then the
widow passed away.  I heard from a guy I see at antique radio
swapmeets still, that somehow in an eventual estate clean-up,
they found a "bunch of SW-3's still in cardboard boxes". Mr.
Zinn had in the period 1946 to maybe thru the war years, worked
for Alaska Steamship Company as their radio provisioning person.

Wm. Zinn, bless his soul, had also REALLY liked paper. So he
had movie posters, scores of movie handbills from the silents
era; radio manuals by the score; radiotelegraph message pads;
radio logs of Alaska Steam ships; his daily work logs for years;
even boxes of 1930s pencils and fresh writing pads. An amazing lot.


My friend got a Japanese army walkie talkie out of there, the type
that approximately resembles our BC-611 "Handie-Talkie" except
that the Nippon version employed a single-tube superregenerative
circuit, due to limitations of their technology. I never heard any
more about the talkie and I putting two and two together I suspect
from tidbits  I heard, that my friend threw the thing in a lake after
his wife experienced nightmare dreams of screaming Japanese soldiers.



The only time I have ever seen anything like this is the time I
visited a Roland somebody in Portland, who had in his back yard
a couple DUKWs and whose basement looked like an Army
Quartermasters base. I can't remember now whether he was
married or not; I can't imagine any woman wanting to live in
a suburban home that put the armies of some small countries
to shame. I bought from him a German Torn.E.b. receiver. One
thing I declined was some kind of portable 75 MHz ( I think )
portable beacon transmitter for temporary airfields. It was on
some kind of L or Z shaped metal frame, kind of an odd looking
thing; never seen one before or since, and wish I had bought it
after all.



In Seattle around 1960 there was also a "University Surplus"
right on University Avenue, now a higher rent area. I never
went there either, but a friend in Jr. High School showed me a
radiosonde transmitter, the old 3.5 MHz version, that he had
bought there.
I recall seeing in the Zinn's basement, new crated MN-26
receivers, a dyno power supply for the TA-12, some kind of
instrument panel from an aircraft, and stacked high wooden
crates and Navy metal spare parts cases. I still wonder where
all that stuff went. I can guess, since in never heard about any of
it showing up on the local scene, other than the SW-3s. I also
recall seeing above the garage some kind of 1930s ship transmitter,
and maybe 20 ARN-5s. However, our trips there were always sort
of like when someone wins a shopping spree; you have  to make
your best frantic choices while your allotted time is ticking away.
You see some intriguing crate underneath a dozen others. Should
you unstack and restack all those, in a really cram packed crowded
basement or attic, and maybe be disappointed, or go for something
of obvious interest, but not earthshaking,  closer to hand?  "Door
number 1, or Door Number 2, what is your decision? Time is
running out!"

Why did I go into such length in replying to your question, and
broadcasting it to a wider audience? Because I'm real interested
in this, for me, real fun subject, and maybe this will elicit some
memories about the Seattle or Northwest surplus scene, from
other folk.

> YES! Thanks, the tuning unit sure looks close.  THANKS!

Would you know if there are schematics or manuals for these tuning units
available online?

-Jim Klotz <

Jim, I don't think anyone put a GP manual online. The paper manual is about 
3/4 inch thick
and has foldouts too. You should, I suggest, put a request on milsurplus 
list asking someone
to just copy the T.U. unit B  schematic, and why you're interested.   Maybe 
if you unearth more
info about the strange story it was involved in, you'll publish some of 
that. I think at least
some antique radio site would be interested in that.
-Hue Miller