[Milsurplus] " World War II Radio Heroes "

[Ray Fantini]

The TBX family can be broken into two groups, everything before the TBX-8 and the TBX-8. I like the older prewar design of the first radios like the TBX-6 that used just one tube in the transmitter, a lot of 34 tubes in the receiver  and a huge dynamic microphone. The pre eight design was very simple and clean and had the incredible capability of receiving while  drawing less than 10 Ma from the B battery and using just a D cell or two for the receiver filaments. The receiver did have its disadvantages with no AVC system in a net operation you have to ride the gain control or have you ears blasted off by the near in stations also there was no ability to do push to talk , use 1/4 inch plugs for the headset  and you had to use a special high output microphone to modulate the one tube transmitter. I never had the correct microphone for my TBX-6 but I did build a T-17 with a transistor pre amplifier in it that did a great job modulating the radio. The TBX-8 used all newer components and had a microphone pre amplifier, master oscillator tube and  PTT operation along with other improvements. I once thought that the TBX-8 arrived too late for any deployment in WW-2 and was only used in Korea but think in a past series of emails it was proven to have been used in WW-2 but not at all surprised at all that it would have been used in Korea, especially by the Marines being they have never been cutting edge on technology.


Ray F/KA3EKH

-----Original Message-----
From: Milsurplus [mailto:milsurplus-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of Don Merz via Milsurplus
Sent: Monday, March 23, 2015 10:23 AM
To: Hue Miller; milsurplus at mailman.qth.net; armyradios at yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] " World War II Radio Heroes "

I am currently reading Breakout--The Chosin Rsevoir Campaign by Martin Russ. He makes various mention of WWII-era radios in use by the Marines. At one point, he talks about a battalion commander using a TBX radio! Really? The TBX would surely be an antique design by 1950. Of course the Marines always were shall we say "modestly" supplied with up-to-date gear!!  Other radios mentioned are of course the SCR-536 and BC-1000. The book is exciting and I could not put it down for long stretches.73 de N3RHT