[MRCA] [MRCG] Fwd: Project WASHTUB comms

Sun Sep 7 15:03:13 EDT 2014

Hi Andy!  It's interesting that the required range of the individual
Project WASHTUB agents' radio was 200 miles.  The planning range of the
Gibson Girl (BC-778 anyway) is 200 miles in, and over seawater.
Hmmmmmmm  Well, why not....

There was plenty of capable radio comm gear in inventory in the early
1950's that would be vastly better than a Gibson Girl for this
application.  Even Forest Service radios; there were probably some in
Alaska at that time anyway....
With all those Lend Lease aircraft we gave to the Soviets - that had 500 Kc
Nav homing receivers - 500 Kc would not be a good choice for any
clandestine Intel radio system....The requirement for the principal to have
a "long range, heavy duty combination receiver - transmitter  type radio
that will be battery operated" would not rule *out* the more obvious Signal
Corps sets of the era, at least for that guy ....

Just looks to me like very sloppy staff work, or more hopefully, just a
preliminary draft of an evolving plan.  The use of a Gibson Girl for
"agents" would not have passed a design review of any sort...

Hope you can find that book - would make an interesting
read...Incidentally, a good movie highlighting the Gibson Girl, on the
ground in the sub-arctic, is the 1953 "Island in the Sky" with none other
than John Wayne commanding....LOL
Betcha the comms staffers working on Project WASHTUB watched that one in
the Base theater.....(It's a pretty good adventure movie by the way...)

Yeah, its been a slow day....
Tim
N6CC

On Sun, Sep 7, 2014 at 12:46 AM, AMillerTKX--- via MRCG <
mrcg at mailman.qth.net> wrote:

> Somewhere in all the declassified papers I saw a report indicating that the
>  SPF radios were working well. The SPF is one of the forestry radios of all
>  things. That's weird.
>
> In my stacks of books somewhere is a biography of a famous Alaska bush
> pilot who was also a radio operator. In the post war era he modified a
> 'Gibson
> Girl' to give it a voice capability. There is even a picture of it. I will
> be looking for that book but it's not going to be easy. Might fit in with
> the report you quoted Tim. Very interesting.
>
> Andy
>
>
>
>
> In a message dated 9/6/2014 5:01:06 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time,
> timsamm at gmail.com writes:
>
> Hi Rob -  Well Project WASHTUB comms planning is an interesting  thought
> exercise.  Yep, at TBW/RBM or similar MW setup would be useful  there.
>
> My personal guess (and personal favorite !) would be an RS-1  (later to
> become the GRC-109), or even an RS-6 set.  One of those  sets, in capable
> hands, is capable of doing anything - and everything -  according to me
> HaHaHa.  A GRC-9 would also be a good candidate in the  early 1950's.  Up
> to
> the task, supported in the Federal supply system  for logistics support,
> hand-powered etc.  Would be a logical  choice.  IMHO
>
> So I got curious and dug up the actual FOIA  reference that the AP new
> article was quoting.  It is here at the top  of the New Releases list:
> http://www.governmentattic.org/
>
> PDF  document page 53 states that the "principal" (presumably the cell  Ops
> Officer or Commander) would need comms good for 1000 miles, his  agents
> would need something in the order of 200 miles.  These comms  would be to a
> submarine, aircraft or a base station in a "secure  area".  Or via drops,
> messenger etc. This plan, like many contingency  operations plans are
> pretty
> vague, especially with regards to  communications details....
>
> It goes on to state that "the "*principal"  should have a "long range,
> heavy
> duty combination receiver - transmitter  type radio that will be battery
> operated.  In addition, the principal  shall be furnished with a small
> concealable pocket type receiver and  transmitter similar to the "Gibson
> Girl" for the purpose of communication  with agents.  This latter equipment
> should have a transmission range  of 200 miles, with a fixed-wave
> transmission*." etc...
>
> It goes on to  state that the dry cell batteries for these radios will be
> resupplied by  air drop.
>
> Hopefully someone other than the staff officer who wrote that  stuff gave
> it
> a 5 nanosecond sanity check and planned for something that  would actually
> be usable.  A Gibson Girl?  Holy  cats....
>
> Later on in the document it describes the training and  candidate-type
> recommended.  (hams, duh)...The use of One Time Pads is  mentioned.
>
> PDF page 178-9 has some additional comms details.   Including a reference
> to
> a "UT4" radio recommended for Ground-to-Air  comms.  I assume the author
> actually meant a URC-4?
>
> It's a  pretty interesting, long read.  Lots of background material  for
> training potential stay-behind personnel on how the Soviets  successfully
> used partisans against Germany in WWII (and later liquidated  them as
> security risks).
>
> One interesting entry is "The problems of  communications will be so
> difficult to solve that preoccupation with them  will considerably hamper
> agent operations."
>
> Indeed, with the  recommended stuff.
>
> Enjoy,,,
> Tim
> N6CC
>
>
> On Sat, Sep 6,  2014 at 4:13 PM, Rob Flory  <farmer.rob.flory at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> > A challenge to say  the least.  Long distances to cover, lots of auroral
> >  absorption(although early 1950s was more towards a solar  minimum.
> >
> > Small sized units like GRC-9 or its predecessor would  be easy to use and
> > stash, but something more powerful and with a MF  capability like TBW/RBM
> > might give better results.
> >
> >  RF
> >
> >
> > On Mon, Sep 1, 2014 at 8:46 PM, Tim  <timsamm at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> >>
> >> Probably many  of us have heard about the recently declassified Project
> >> WASHTUB  which hit the news today.  It was an effort to recruit, equip
> and
> >> train Alaska residents in the early 1950's to act as "stay  behind
> agents"
> >> in the event the Soviet Union attacked and occupied  Alaska during the
> early
> >> days of the cold  war.
> >>
> >>
>
> http://www.military.com/daily-news/2014/09/01/military-trained-alaskans-as-stay-behind-agents.html?comp=7000023435700&rank=2
> >>
> >>  Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to specify the type
> of
> >> radio equipment that might be available in the early 1950's to  be used
> in
> >> this effort.  You would design the training  program for operators and
> >> assist in specifying communications  components for the supply caches
> >> containing this radio  equipment.  What radio equipment would be best
> suited
> >> for  this task?
> >>
> >> You have as much time as Ivan will  allow...
> >>
> >> This E Mail will self-destruct in 5, 4, 3, 2,  1
> >>
> >>
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