[Milsurplus] "The Coastwatchers" question

[Hubert Miller]

You are right: USA never made any radio used by the Australian coastwatchers. 
Even the Philippine Islands US coastwatcher stay - behinds used Australian equipment - US equipment proved not so suitable. MBM, for example. 
"The Coast Watchers" book has very little info about the actual radios. There is another book, title eludes me at moment, which is much better.
The other book identifies radios as 3BZ and for short range ( ~ 50 mile ) work, the ATR-4. 
I think the British B2 set would have been much better suited for this job, much better. Who knows why it wasn't adapted? Maybe as simple as
"not invented here". OH - it occurs to me - the B2 was CW only, which might not have cut it, since not every watcher was CW capable. Still, there
had to be other radios that didn't require "12 to 16 bearers". 
-Hue Miller