[Milsurplus] Truk Lagoon collectibles

[Hubert Miller]

Here is a text I published on the Facebook group "WWII Japanese Military Radio".
Yes, I really did break down and join FB. I am well aware of its limitations, crudities,
and so on, but I joined for access to some groups, which I have to admit, is very 
worthwhile indeed, but you do have to ignore other nonsense. Anyway, some few
of you may find this moderately interesting. 
-Hue Miller 

" Today i don't have a photo to show. But i have a little story. In the early 1980s, i saw in a collector newsletter an advertisement selling some things removed from sunken ships near Truk ( now name is Chuuk Lagoon ). There were offered some antenna insulators and a microphone. The microphone looked like the 96-4 microphone photo i recently posted. This microphone was brass, so the microphone itself was still in good condition, but the wood handle was completely gone. The antenna insulators were of course, in excellent condition. I bought the antenna insulators. What i really wanted was a telegraph key, but no key was offered in the advertisement. Maybe the divers kept it themselves, or more likely, it was completely corroded away. As i have no interest in collecting small parts like insulators, i gave them to a friend in Portland, Oregon, U.S.A. who collects radio antenna insulators. ( Yes, there are collectors for any and every thing ! ) He was very happy to get these rare items, especially as there is the provenance history with them ! ( Provenance, for non-English readers, means the story of all owners from the beginning to today. ) Now these Pacific small countries have forbidden removing anything from the offshore seas  or from the battlefields. This law change was in the  late 1980s so that these items, which i learned were collected from the Truk lagoon in the late 1970s, were among last items taken. I have the I.T.U. Lists of Ship Stations so i was able to look up, from the list of Maru freighters sunk at Truk, and the information the divers provided, that these insulators were from two ships. I looked up the ship names in the ITU List and here is the information i found, which i also gave to my friend: 
Akibasan Maru  JYZA   100-160 kHz 500 watts A1;   375-500 kHz 500 watts A2; 4000-22000 kHz  200 watts A1 
Asakaze Maru  JPAM  375-500 kHz  500 watts A2;  4000-22000 500 watts A1 
 ( Source:  "List of Coast Stations and Ship Stations / published by The Bureau of the International Telecommunication Union / 14th Edition / May 1941 / Berne 1941 " )
 I thought maybe some of you readers would be interested in this little story. Maybe later i can show some photos of the insulators.
A1 = CW telegraphy A2 = tone modulated telegraphy"