[Milsurplus] Newly acquired RT-46/TRC-10

[Hubert Miller]

>What a gem you've come across, Meir!  That's one of the rarest of the rare "spy sets" like its predecessors AN/PRC-1 and AN/PRC-5.  It appears to be the best designed and it is a very attractive set.

The only part I have is the original instruction book.  Note that it is conspicuously marked SECRET, equivalent then to our current TOP SECRET.  That's no doubt due to the listing of frequencies in the standard set of crystals that is part of the set. < 

The 2 manuals I have, TM 11-636  14 March 1945, are labeled only " RESTRICTED " on front cover. 
This manual has a pasted inside front cover update, ADDENDUM 12 April 1945. TECHNICAL DEVICES CORPORATION. 

However, the Pilot Radio Corp. notes read, " Memorandum for: File  April 17, 1945.....Detailed List of Modifications and Deviations,
AN/TRC-10....A conference was held at Pilot Radio Corporation during the period 2 April to 10 April 1945 relative to the requirements for
Radio Set AN/TRC-10 to be manufactured on Contract No. W-36-039-so-20749. This conference was initiated by representatives of Coles
and Fort Monmouth Signal Laboratories for the purpose of improving the performance, serviceability, and reliability of the equipment
within practicable limits, taking into account the time limitations imposed by the delivery schedule."

I have some puzzlement over this.
1. What was ' Coles Signal Laboratory ' ?
2. If Pilot contracted the thing, designed it, why the addendum from Technical Devices ?
3. The complete manual is dated 14 March, while this revision conference was almost a month later. 
4. The invasion for recapture of the Philippines began Oct. 1944, so right around then the push to establish observer stations
there was ending. So I believe this radio actually never saw action. I believe the time of depending on guerilla warfare had ended
by the time the TRC-10 arrived. I may be wrong. Another manual, this for the MBM, is dated 1945, and there is documentation
that this radio was issued for the Philippines. 
I have not sorted this out yet. 
5. You would expect this set to be classified ' SECRET '. I had a PRC-5 manual, now traded away, and I think it WAS labeled
SECRET.  The MBM manual is labeled ' CONFIDENTIAL '.
-Hue