[Milsurplus] MAB

[Hue Miller]

QST for Apr 1943 has its cover photo a Marine using what is probably a Navy type MAB 
radio. The photo, as are so many WW2 combat radio photos, is staged. The Marine is
wearing a service cap, lying on the ground ( no pun ); holding what sure looks like the
MAB antenna, held in hand with its butt on the ground; radio is not actually visible;
microphone he is using is in the style of the Telefonics ( maker ) mic the MAB uses.
In front of his hand you can see the flexible wire from the antenna with its connection
joint; also – the little white paper tag on the antenna cord, the same little white tag as
on the antennas sold by FAIR RADIO for many years.
This makes the third outside of the manual photo I have seen of the MAB  in use, if you
can call it that. Number one, in a copy of war years Radio News magazine, showing 
a reporter for an Army AFRS station on one of the islands, interviewing a GI, doing a
“broadcast remote” using the MAB. Two, a similar photo subject, a young woman 
using an MAB to interview a couple, in the USA, for some radio station program, this
also war year. Note, war year and civilian use, get that?
My conclusion: MAB never used in combat. I dunno why not. It certainly doesn’t seem
that bad a radio, and the replaceable antenna means the radio doesn’t have to go 
back for repair if you break the antenna. However, present day sellers of the MAB 
will always ask high prices, because it is a “Marine paratroop radio”.
-Hue Miller