[NJARC] Military radio commercial history WW1 - WW2

[Pmalvasi at aol.com]

Wondering if anyone on this net knows something about military radio  
commercial policy from WW1 thru WW2? Im specifically wondering if the various  field 
sets and semi-portable sets were restricted to only US military - even  their 
peak time?  The reason Im asking is that Ive been reading a few  different 
pieces on the history of US Forest Service radios. They started using  radio comm 
in the early 30's out of sheer necessity given the great distances  involved, 
remote locations and critical needs.  Using radio was a way to  put the right 
resource at the right incident and thus save thousands of  acres,  many lives 
and lots of material.
 
It seems however that the US Forest Service could not find commercial sets  
suitable to their needs.  They needed portability, ruggedness and battery  
power. In the earliest days - in the 30's - they even sacrificed fone operation  
for CW - training non radio op's, non tech people morse code and claiming the  
results were effective and efficient.  In the late 30's and 40's, according  
to a IEEE report, they begun to use fone.  The articles I have read all  recite 
instense R&D work, and some "homebrewing" by the  US Forest  Service (based 
at the radio labs in Oregon). In the late 30's they starting  letting out bids 
for contract manufacturing, The IEEE article says they built  "live" 
prototypes and supplied them to the various manufactures simply to  duplicate - they 
DID NOT provide design details.  Quantities were less than  1000 in the early 
days to several thousand, perhaps up to 5,000 by the start of  WW2. And there 
were a mix of sets - base units, quasi portable - trailer mounted  - and 
portable. Later there were "miniature" sets for paratroopers and some  field people - 
but these were essentially lunch box size - with separate  accessory boxes 
which housed larger batteries for stationery portable work - the  boxes could be 
detached and left behind while the small rig taken out to the  field.
 
I just don't understand why the BC9 set would not have been used in the  
early days - the packaging seemed at lot more "together" and even robust and  
user- friendly than the clunkers they show in pictures. Even the later day sets  
up to WW2 are very home-brew looking.  These sets operated CW and AM in the  2 
- 4 mhz range and in the later days they used "ultra high frequency" sets - 30 
 - 40 Mhz - starting with AM and then FM.  They even had AM repeaters in the  
late 30's - which surprised me as a former Motorolan was told that mobile 
relays  didn't come into existing till post WW2. They use some clever but hairy 
control  circuitry back then.
 
Anyway - anyone know more about this OR whether mil radios were strictly  
off-base to sell to non mil?  One has to wonder why they wouldn't have  contacted 
the various mil makers to make these sets too ...??
 
73 Pete, W2PM