[Milsurplus] MARS

[Todd, KA1KAQ]

On Tue, Jun 26, 2012 at 12:35 AM, David Stinson <arc5 at ix.netcom.com> wrote:

> I was an Army MARS training net control back
> in the mid-1970s.  In many of the state MARS
> orgainizations, there was a lot of  "good'ol boy"
> involved in who got what.  Carping about this may
> have had something to do with it being cut-off.
>


I was in Army MARS in the late 80s/early 90s. About all that was given out
in the 90s were some surplus 8088 computers that no one wanted. Though I
did get a decent R-390 and T-368 RF deck 're-assigned' to me, sans
paperwork. Back then it was still written off after 5(?) years or so.
Sometime in the last decade or so, that ended and everything remained
accountable.

An OT friend of mine had been the state screener in the 60s and similar
stories of the good ol' boy network abounded. I was told stories by several
former members of how he kept all the good stuff, all they got were pencils
and resistors. Sounded pretty bad until some of the same members related a
story of one of the other 'victims' taking home a DUMPTRUCK load of gear
one weekend, trailing a roll of TTY paper behind. Seems it was a big laugh
for years. I picked up a huge Wilcox transmitter from this guy and saw a
small building full of surplus gear, exposed to the weather, that he'd
gotten over the years. I came to understand that, while good ol' boys
networks certainly existed, many of the stories related to them likely came
about when someone didn't get a particular item they wanted. Someone had to
be to blame.


> But I also think the "John Lennon" types who came
> in with the Carter administration brought the
> attitude: "let's destroy the tools of the baby killers"
> and that attitude has survived to this day.
> Don't get me started on that ;-).
>

In the recent past when M-1 Garrands were in the news for this, W1RC
started a small group of us who worked to stop such nonsense. We got
numerous items like T-368s, R-390As, R-392s and so on excluded from the
list and returned to surplus status (supposedly). Unfortunately, we found
out a year or so later about a room full of R-390As out west being used in
an explosion test. Turns out none of it was excluded from 'testing', though
we never figured out how 1950s-60s heavy equipment could yield accurate
results for comparison with modern gear. We figured it was just a way to
get around the recent changes.

Just the nature of the beast, I guess. The bigger and more bloated the
machine gets, the less sense it makes and the harder it is to manage. Big
surprise there. In one way or another, it's gone on since WWII, probably
longer. The cast of players and excuses change, that's about all.

~ Todd,  KA1KAQ/4