[Milsurplus] Merrill's Marauders unique HF radio

[mac]

All,

Hmmm,  custom design and SECRET?  Seems unlikely given the short time  
frame, logistic support problems, Army conservatism, etc., but  
anything can happen in wartime.  Note that during the latter part of  
the campaign an SCR-177 was put into operation, which radio came in a  
chest with four lags, fold-down shelf and a companion gasoline  
generator........

Have spent enough time on this.

Dennis D.  W7QHO
Glendale, CA

***************
On Feb 21, 2013, at 4:39 PM, Tim wrote:

> Hi All - this just in from Bob.  The plot thickens....It wasn't the  
> AWA set, apparently it was a custom job, which alone is pretty  
> amazing under the circumstances.  Merrills Marauders Ops in Burma  
> were pretty well photo-documented so there's gotta be some photos  
> somewhere as Bob suggests.  This radio would be a rare bird  
> indeed...  Bob's reply:
>
> "Tim,
> I am sort of shocked as to how much of the AN/RPC-1 I no longer  
> remember. As I stated the radio was a special design for the  
> Marauders. Lt Bright was involved with the company that designed it  
> and built it in about 3 months from September 1943 – December 1943.  
> We had serial numbers 1 – 12, no one else had the radio before us. I  
> know that we still had them when the 475th Inf. continued on into  
> Central Burma and we no longer used the hand generator. We advanced  
> to a gas powered one. I have no ides as to what happened to them  
> after I was rotated back to the stated. It is possible no others  
> were built. The radio did have the brackets that enabled the four  
> legs like the 284, and a shelf used for the key.  I believe in the  
> movie series “War In The Pacific” there is a shot of me cranking the  
> hand generator, I am sure the radio is also shown. I searched for a  
> photo, without any luck, there may not be any for it was secret.
>
> Warm Regards,
> Robert E. Passanisi, Historian,
> Merrill's Marauders, Association."
> On Wed, Feb 20, 2013 at 8:50 PM, mac <w7qho at aol.com> wrote:
> Tim,
>
> FB!   Please let us know what Bob says.  Note same power range s the  
> SCR-284, though, and originally (at least) no hand crank generator   
> power option.
>
> Dennis
>
> *********
>
> On Feb 20, 2013, at 8:18 PM, Tim wrote:
>
>> I will run that website by Bob and see what he recalls...
>
>