[MRCG] [MRCA] Fwd: Project WASHTUB comms

Sun Sep 7 03:46:39 EDT 2014

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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