[Milsurplus] interesting picture

[Ray Fantini]

Maybe or perhaps in a different time it just the people I know who are active duty today including my one daughter's boyfriend who works in avionics at Langley are slaves to the book, so much so that he regularly has his tools inspected to assure that he has only what's issued and nothing else. I asked him about this and he tells me that's it's to prevent anyone from doing anything that's not according to the written procedure. The Air Force gives you the appropriate tools and protocol and that's all there is to it.
So seeing a transmitter that's clearly not commercially produced is a red flag. What are the rules for "Field Expedience" and deviation from the program?
I know from the commercial service that you cannot use a radio that's not type accepted for that class of service period. Always wondered how they got around that with the people who were supposedly using TCS radios on boats back on the HF/AM band? Maybe there was a type acceptance certificate for the TCS when the transmitter was crystal control only? Or perhaps the rules don't apply for marine radios like they did for Land Mobil service? Or maybe it was a different world before the seventies when I studied for the commercial license?

Ray F/KA3EKH





-----Original Message-----
From: milsurplus-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:milsurplus-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On Behalf Of B. Smith
Sent: Friday, August 04, 2017 12:14 PM
To: Milsurplus <milsurplus at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] interesting picture

    Never, never, never -    -    under estimate what a G.I. will beg, 
borrow, steal and then modify, to accomplished an assigned mission.
Adapt- Improvise - Overcome
k4che


On 8/4/2017 11:28 AM, Ray Fantini wrote:
>
> Would speculate that there is no way this would have happened at a 
> military installation, USCG was under department of Commerce at that 
> time so maybe they had more ability to swap and play around with other 
> radios. The thing I would wonder about is the issue of type 
> acceptance, would assume that no way would they use any radio that was 
> not type accepted and commercially built. Perhaps upon further thought 
> about the picture I have to wonder if this is an amateur station at a 
> USGC facility.
>
> Ray F/KA3EKH
>
> *From:*Michael Hanz [mailto:aaf-radio-1 at aafradio.org]
> *Sent:* Friday, August 04, 2017 10:51 AM
> *To:* Ray Fantini <RAFANTINI at salisbury.edu>; 
> milsurplus at mailman.qth.net
> *Subject:* Re: [Milsurplus] interesting picture
>
> On 8/4/2017 8:50 AM, Ray Fantini wrote:
>
>     Stumbled across this image in a search on EBay, look at the
>     command transmitter. Was it commercial built?  EBay item #
>     201308536904
>
>
> Unlikely.  But it depends on what you mean by commercially built.  It 
> is a modified SCR-274N transmitter with balanced output, which says 
> that there are interior changes to match.  The adjustable inductor 
> inside the transmitter has been removed and mounted in the tuner above 
> the set.  I have a couple of these transmitters with that sort of 
> modification, but any ham that is a builder could have put this rig 
> together in short order.  I suspect it was made by a ham in the Coast 
> Guard, who would have had access to one of the machine shops to make 
> the job easier.  There are articles in ham magazines back in the 40s 
> and 50s that describe all of the mods necessary.
>
>
>     Assume the item next to transmitter is modulator and also like the
>     antenna tuner on top the transmitter.
>
>
> Yup, but if you look closely you'll see they used another command 
> transmitter chassis and built the modulator inside it, with a new 
> front panel.  It still has the snap off tube cover on top.  Both units 
> are sitting on a standard FT-226-A rack.
>
>           73,
>  - Mike  KC4TOS
>
>