[Milsurplus] [Boatanchors] Gates Radio and RCA and WWII equipment

[C.Whitaker]

de WB2CPN
Some History From WWII, and Way Back.
US Army Signal Corps, and the US Air Corps, had
extensive high-power CW networks to all the continents,
and Press Wireless and RCA manufactured some large
transmitters.  The BC-339 and BC-340 (?) did 10 KW,
and the MS Amplifier, by Westinghouse maybe,  did
50 KW (?).  Used rhombic antennas.
While in AACS after WWII I worked with radio operators
who had worked a CW circuit from Wash, DC, to
Natal, Brazil (?), then to Port Lauode (?) in Africa, then
into the European war zone.  This circuit shut down
after D-Day, and RTTY became more common..
We had high-power CW  circuits from California into
the Pacific areas at about the same time.
Even before WWII there were companies like RCA
and McKay Radio that had some big transmitters,
The Swedes at Malmo were used as a relay station,
but most of their equipment was German before WWII,
and for some time after.
The Gates people made he LF Beacon, the AN/URN-5,
for the Air Force, and Armed Forces Radio used it for
some of their stations.  This was in the early 50's.
Small Trivia:  A continuous tape with the offer for Japan
to surrender, and the arrangements for them and us to
meet at Ie Shima on Okinawa, was sent by high-power
CW from Austrailia and from Manila, PI.
There's some copies of that CW tape around.
EOT  (End Of Trivia)
73  Clete



On 3/14/2013 9:47 AM, J. Forster wrote:
> I don't know about any specifics, but an early boss once told me 40+ years
> ago he worked for a company making big transmitters during WW II.
>
> He always wondered what they were for, and guessed they were used to
> barrage jam German communications on the night before D-Day. This sounds
> plausible for a high power transmitter maker.
>
> -John
>
> ========
>
>
>
>
>> The March 1, 2013 issue of RadioWorld magazine has a Remembering Gates
>> Radio
>> story and I noted two comments on Gates Radio's involvement in making
>> transmitters
>> during WWII.
>>
>> Associated with one of the photos was a comment regarding Parker Gates'
>> knowledge
>> of the D-Day Invasion, apparently associated with a contract to "provide
>> transmitters
>> for the invasion."
>>
>> Another comment was that Gates Radio received several subcontracts from
>> RCA for
>> the manufacture of military short wave transmitters.
>>
>> Were any Gates branded transmitters used in support of the D-Day invasion?
>>   Were
>> these transmitters perhaps part of the RCA subcontracting and produced
>> with RCA's
>> name?
>>
>> Were these comms tranmsitters or were they broadcast transmitters?
>>
>> 73
>>
>> Sheldon
>>
>> http://www.rwonline.com/article/remembering-the-gates-radio-company/218087
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