[Milsurplus] [Glowbugs] Hallicrafters is WWII subs (long), was Fw: WG Booklets?

[Hue Miller]

>From Hue Miller:
I will forward your interesting post to the milsurplus list also for 
comments.
A few years back I toured the U.S.N. Bowfin in Honolulu. Besides the usual
receivers RAK, RAL, RBS, I recall seeing another receiver, and I recall it 
was
a Halli civilian receiver, in some other place in the sub, not in the radio 
room.
Sorry, I don't recall the type, but it was something very much like the 
SX-25
and maybe exactly that. At the time I thought, hey, what's this doing here?
BTW, the Bowfin is a self-tour, with an audio gizmo you take along for
narration. Thus the tour is at your own pace, and you can linger and 
imagine,
like up on the conn tower, with no cattle-chute moving you along. Unlike the
Chicago U-505, where you moved with the cattle.  But, Chicago does probably
have a whole lot more people to move thru. The Bowfin was a palace inside
compared to the accommodations aboard the U-505.
BTW, I would betcha every U.S. sub DID have G.E. motors. But that's not a
sure thing bet for me.
-Hue Miller

-----Original Message----- 
From: Tom NØJMY
Sent: Saturday, August 31, 2013 5:22 PM
To: tetrode at googlegroups.com
Subject: [Glowbugs] Hallicrafters is WWII subs (long), was Fw: WG Booklets?

Occasionally, over the last 15 or 20 years, I've mentioned to this list
my fruitless search for the model of Hallicrafters radios that the WWII
submarines were said to carry in their wardrooms and the crews messes.
A short recap: America's underwater Ace-of Ace's, RADM "Dick" O'Kane,
M.O.H., stated in his book "Clear the Bridge" that General Electric and
Fairbanks Morse each donated a shortwave receiver to every new sub.  I
doubt that that's totally true, as not all subs had GE motors or FM
engines, but anyway...

The radios were meant for "morale purposes", though they were a long
ways from a Minerva Tropic Master, which is what I think of when I hear
"morale radio".

O'Kane called them "the finest Hallicrafters" and said they were known
for their outstanding audio quality.  Incidentally, I would recommend
"Clear the Bridge" to anyone interested in a really in-depth, yet
riveting account of WWII undersea warfare.  In it you will find the
story of how the crew of O'Kane's U.S.S. Tang, (SS306) ingeniously
rigged up one of the Halli's for use in a secondary radio shack during
Tang's epoch-making "life-guard" operation at Truk in May, 1944, when
she rescued almost two dozen downed U.S. Navy aviators from under the
guns of the Japanese.

Anyway, back to the radios.  I've talked to several hams that were on
the "boats" during the war, including a couple that had actually been
radiomen.  No luck in finding out about the Hallicrafters,  though.

Finally, for Father's Day this year, the xyl got me yet another WWII sub
book, "The War Below" by James Scott.  Inside (finally), a good picture
of some men in the mess, I believe it was U.S.S. Silversides (SS236).
And in that picture sat a nice Hallicrafters on a shelf, just above
their heads.  Which model?  Well that was a problem.  To my weary eyes
it could have been an SX-24 or an SX-25.  Finally, after much
scrutinizing with a loupe and several magnifying glasses, I was able to
discern the broad, labeled skirts of the band selector and selectivity
controls of the SX-25.

That doesn't mean that they *all* were SX-25's, of course, but now I
feel that I can put that mystery to rest, for me anyway, as I sit back
and listen to SWBC on my own SX-25.

73,
Tom

On 8/25/2013 6:26 PM, Hue Miller wrote:
> I asked Wayne about his booklets. I wanted to acquire a couple, 
> particularly his memoirs of being
> in the submarine service WW2.
> -Hue Miller
>
>

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