[Milsurplus] Gibson Girl ( re: Milsurplus Digest, Vol 138, Issue 18 )

[Hue Miller]

Message: 2
Date: Sun, 18 Oct 2015 22:44:34 -0500
From: Robert Nickels <ranickel at comcast.net>
To: milsurplus at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] Gibson Girl, more
Message-ID: <56246722.9050401 at comcast.net>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowed

I think all the transistor-era ones did AM on 2182 kHz. On 500 kHz the 
receiver is fixed-tuned. On the HF freqs a converter brings the signal
down to 500 kHz.  These things should be able to do 40 meters easily by 
retuning the receiver, which will have 2 tuned stages at HF or
maybe only one, the oscillator. The thing to avoid is one with no manual and 
no hope of finding the manual. The switching on these
things is pretty complex and it would be a hopeless task to trace out.  The 
manuals in most cases are unobtainable. The prices of the
last few I looked at on Epay are insane. They can of course ask what they 
want but in truth there  is no  rarity to these things and no one's
going to pay those prices. Which will dawn on the sellers after umpteen 
relistings.
-Hue

>I don't know how often these things turn  up on eBay but I spotted a
Russian one last night and upon checking, found several others,
including a couple made by  Skanti Marinetta that look unused, and one
Polish one (search for "lifeboat radio").    They all transmit on 500,
2182, and 8364 khz with tunable receivers and have an automatic morse
alarm of some kind, with hand cranks for power.  The antenna appears to
be a base-loaded whip operated against a counterpoise wire.   I can't
tell from the vintage whether they would be solid-state or tube type,
although I suspect the latter.

The presence of a microphone indicates that the Russian one has voice
capability, and since it won't come up in search due to a typo in the
name here is the link for it:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Russian-Marine-Emergency-Crank-Ratio-Radiotelephone-/151180164640

These things look really cool but don't seem very attractive other than
as a collectible, especially at the prices asked for most of them.  And
who'd have thought an ebay search for "Gibson Girl" would turn up nearly
3,000 hits?

73, Bob W9RAN