Military Collector Group Post

Backmail #57

(16pages) Index: RADIO MEMORIES; of Ltc. Bob Paterson USMC, USA(ret) (RS-6, GRC-9, PRC-25 & Others) RAYTHEON STORY PART I; RAYTHEON'S NAME ORIGINATES RAYTHEON STORY PART II; RAYTHEON COMES OF AGE DURING WW-II WAR EMERGENCY RADIO SERVICE; By Jeffrey Herman NAVAL HISTORY, Old Iron Sides; From Sheldon Wheaton B-17 RADIO OPERATOR; A GLIMPSE OF NAVAL RADIO OPERATIONS IN KOREA; By Jerry Proc VE3FAB *********************************************** RADIO MEMORIES; of Ltc. Bob Paterson USMC, USA(ret) (RS-6, GRC-9, PRC-25 & Others) I have enjoyed your e-mails concerning military radio gear. I am a retired LTC from the Army and before that was a radio operator for several years in the Marines in the late 50's and early 60's. I was a CW op in a Force Recon unit and I remember we used some very small gear that we borrowed from the Special Forces in about '63 or '64 that was suposedly very classified at the time. It was two units (rcvr / xmtr) about 5" to 6" square and had a small CW key that swiveled out of the side of the xmtr. The rig ran about 10-15 watts and worked pretty well! Largest part of the system was the hand crank generator! (I recall that I thought the whole thing would be a nice little rig for Ham Radio Hi!) You might know something about this gear... Boy that was a long time ago!! I just can not remember much about the little CW rig that I mentioned, as I only got to use it for a few days. The SF had only 2 or 3 of these little rigs and we got one to try out. I got to work it and made a contact from a NC field site to another Marine Recon team we had training along a Florida coast line. As I remember I set the freq from a chart that was attached...dialed in one or two controls according to the chart and then it was ready. We used a short pre made dipole and it worked pretty good. I also used the old ANGRC 9 on CW a lot. Clunky but good an reliable. First FM gear I used was an AN/VRQ series rig. At that time the Artillery used one (AN/VRQ-2) on on set of freqs...the Infantry used another (VRQ3?)on the freqs a little higher (I think it was)...and armor used the (AN/VRQ4) which was higher still in freq. Artillery and Armor over lapped into the Infantry freqs..This allowed the infantry to talk to everyone, but armor and artillery could not interfere with each other. Or so was the plan. It caused a lot of foul ups by not being able to talk across the board. Another special rig I ran across was an English RACAL (Special Air Service)SAS rig used by commando and special ops units. I was a commo officer in Europe in a security unit that provided security for US Pershing Nuc Missiles. Once we had a two week field problem working against Belgian and US Special Forces type units. We had all the new 'toys' to use against them and NADIC LABS gave us lots to play with. (New night vision gear, ground radar, seismic devices that looked like a string of tent pegs connected to a 2 meter HT!) Anyway, we "captured" most of a Belgian SF unit that mistakenly parachuted right into our base camp (shades of the Longest Day!!) and I got all their commo gear to look over. Of special interest to me was a small RACAL rig for CW that had a special unit with a "wind up" device to plug into the transmitter. To use it, you recorded your message off-the-air using a one-time code/cipher and this device recorded it at a regular speed. Then you wound this thing up like a clock and plugged it into the xmtr. At the exact pre-programmed time, you came up on freq..gave one short call and turned this device known as a "Burster" on. It sent a CW message that sounded like a high pitched "zip". You could send a minute or two of CW in just seconds! It was recorded on the other end at the fast speed, and when played back at a slow speed it could be copied and then deciphered. Rather neat idea for special ops units who did not want to be DF'd and caught sending long transmissions! We made lots of homebrew directional antennas and regularly got 40+ Km range from rigs (PRC25's). Used tin cans, dirt and motor oil to make a 600 ohm resistor to terminate the antenna..Left these things all over Germany up in the trees! Ha! Also made 3 el yagis from wood stock and welding rods and lots more. The range was important, but just as important was the directivity that helped avoid direction finders (DF) and getting caught on patrols. In Europe for 3 years and then later in the US (I was Army Aviation Advisor to ARK Army Guard for a 3 years in 78-80) I taught Electronic Warfare training for tactical units. Used to have some neat jamming tapes around that I used. If I can find them , I'll send one along if you like. Let me have your address. We had lots of good training (and a quite a few laughs)fouling up the units training in Europe when they tried to talk like they were on 2 meters!! They really learned quickly how to work thru and around this stuff as I chased them all over the air. (Incidentally, I noted in the paper today that the Serbs are doing a good job of monitoring NATO aircraft and reacting to the message traffic just as I did!! Seems some more training might be in order?) Well thought this might be of interest to you, Dennis...Maybe I will catch you at the Fest here in Springfield this year.. 73 Bob Patterson K5DZE ed) Of course, the radio Bob describes in paragraph #1 is the RS-6. The VRQ series he relates in paragraph #3 are the RT-66, -67, -68 family of radio systems. Isn't it ironic how the Navy always chooses to change designations just enough to confuse things! It would be nice to know exactly what the British SAS Racal set was, but we can be sure that the "burst keyer" in question was the GRA-71. The North Vietnamese & Viet-cong forces were very highly adept at using radio anti-electronic-warfare techniques. I/E directional antennas on HF and even VHF radios at all times. They religiously used the lowest power setting a radio had whenever possible, and kept transmission time to an absolute minimum. As a result, the efforts of Military Intelligence search, surveillance, and direction finding where completely in vain, and jamming was impossible as they could detect nothing to jam. In contrast, the enemy's own Electronic Warfare efforts against us were highly effective. Today, the armies of the would try to counter the effects of Electronic Warfare with supper high tech frequency hopping, encrypted radios with so may bells and whistles that they can't be kept operational in the field. The can only be used by the most skilled of highly trained operators, and reliability is non-existent. After nearly 35 years a viable replacement for the aging, and primitive PRC-77 has yet to materialize. Isn't it a shame that we can't learn from history! *********************************************** RAYTHEON STORY; Forward: I am a 25 year employee of E-Systems, which has recently been bought by Raytheon. I have requested and received permission to reprint two articles on your net from an in-house Raytheon publication. The articles are titled "Raytheon's Name Originates with Radio Tube" and "Raytheon Comes of Age During World War II". The first article is a short story about 6 paragraphs long detailing the origination of Raytheon and their tube production. The second article, about 5 paragraphs long, details an interesting story about Raytheon's efforts to manufacture the magnetron tubes for British radar for the war effort. George Humphrey, KC5WBV gah@koyote.com The following is Reprinted with permission from a Raytheon Systems Company publication "The Bulletin" RAYTHEON'S NAME ORIGINATES WITH RADIO TUBE "Who is Mr. Raytheon?" This is one of many questions that employees have asked about the history of Raytheon Company. Mr. Raytheon never existed, but there was a Laurence Marshall. In 1922, Laurence K. Marshall formed the American Appliance Company with his college roommates, Vanevar Bush, and Charles G. Smith, a young scientist who had developed the prototype for a home refrigerator that used artificial coolants. Marshall, an engineer, businessman and trained physicist, and Bush, a scientist and professor of electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, along with several other financial backers dreamed of prosperity and a potential market for their newly developed refrigerator. As is the case with so many other entrepreneurs, however, the product that launched the company was a bust and never left the laboratory. Facing failure, they decided to revisit an earlier idea Smith had experimented with: a new kind of gaseous tube that would allow radios for the first time to be plugged into a wall socket and operate on electricity rather than batteries. The tube would overcome the need for two expensive, short-lived batteries, the greatest shortcoming to widespread radio use at the time, by devising a way to replace the B battery with a tube, the small company not only triumphed over the army of researchers and engineers of RCA, Westinghouse and other corporate giants. It produced a device that forced the entire radio industry into a new direction and made radios affordable and accessible to every household. Perfected and introduced to the public in 1925, the tube named "Raytheon," which was derived from the Old French name for a beam of light, "Rai" and "theon," a Greek term meaning "from the gods," brought in more than $1 million in sales by the end of 1926. In 1925, an Indiana company made it known that it held prior claim to the American Appliance Company name. Because of the success of the Raytheon radio tube, company officials at that time elected to extend the use of the name to describe the entire organization, and the company's name was officially changed to Raytheon Manufacturing Company. Both the product and company name were deemed scientifically appropriate given groundbreaking research at the time on the mystery of the Wolf-Rayet star Zeta Puppis, which emitted bright ultraviolet lines believed to be the result of gaseous substances. Laboratory experiments by C. G. Smith on the source of these gases became the basis of crucial importance to his development of the company's radio tube. The success of the Raytheon tube positioned the company as a major contributor to the fast-growing radio tube market for nearly two decades. *********************************************** RAYTHEON STORY PART II; Raytheon Comes of Age During World War II By Jacqueline Sagl, Raytheon Corporate Communications This is the second in a series of articles for The Bulletin exploring the company's history:Reprinted with permission from an internal Raytheon Systems Company publication titled " The Bulletin". During World War II, British scientists had developed short-wave, or microwave, radar in an effort to protect itself against enemy aircraft. Britain considered the radar to be its most important advantage against Nazi raids because it enabled them to "see" at night when the Nazis were virtually blind. However, at the time, Britain was not able to devise a method of mass producing magnetron tubes, the heart of its radar. In urgent need to mass produce the tens of thousands of magnetron tubes that would be required to thwart Luftwaffe raids and counterattack the Germans, Britain turned to the United States for help. In 1940, British scientists traveled to the United States to enlist help from America's largest industrial firms. Raytheon, which already had been experimenting with microwave tubes and producing transmitting tubes, was considered too small to be in the running and was not on the list of companies the British planned to visit. At the recommendation of Edward Bowles, director of MIT's Radiation Laboratory, Raytheon was added to the list and a meeting was arranged between Britain's leading scientists and Raytheon engineer, Percy L. Spencer. Spencer, a man with only a grade school education, listened carefully to the British describe their method of producing the magnetron tubes, a process Spencer boldly informed them was "awkward and impractical." He persuaded the scientists to allow him to take the tube, Britain's most valuable secret weapon, home for the weekend. On Monday, Percy Spencer arrived at work with it all figured out. Not only had he come up with radical changes that would simplify the manufacturing process, his recommendations would also improve the functioning of the radar overall. Impressed, Britain awarded, through the MIT Radiation Laboratory, "little" Raytheon a small contract to supply the magnetrons at the same time it awarded giant Western Electric a large contract. By 1944, Raytheon was producing 2,000 magnetron tubes per day. Raytheon eventually was established as the major magnetron supplier during the war, providing the most important military advantage for Britain and the Allied Forces. At the end of the war, Raytheon was producing 80 percent of all magnetrons, leaving Western Electric, RCA, GE and other giants far behind. Submitted by George Humphrey 73 KC5WBV gah@koyote.com *********************************************** WAR EMERGENCY RADIO SERVICE; By Jeffrey Herman First a bit of background: In 1939 there were 51,000 US hams. In Sept. of that year war came to Europe. Of the 250 DXCC countries, 121 of them immediately went off the air (including Canada and the UK). The US maintained the strictest sense of neutrality. This was re-enforced by the ARRL, which came up with a neutrality code for amateurs. Hams were asked by the ARRL to voluntarily abide by the code, which they did en masse; this earned additional support for the amateur radio service in governmental circles. (In an effort to streamline its operation in preparation for possible US involvement in the war, the FCC at this time introduced multiple- choice tests.) By June 1940, the US invoked the Telecommunications Convention prohibiting US amateurs from contacting hams elsewhere; at the same time all portable and mobile operation below 56 MHz was banned (except the ARRL Field Day). At the request of the ARRL, the ban was modified to allow the League's Emergency Corps to continue work on the lower frequencies for training and drills. All licensees were required to send a set of fingerprints, a photo, and proof of citizenship to the FCC. The FCC needed 500 radio operators to man listening and direction- finding stations - they asked the League's assistance - the League put out the word in QST and within days of that issue, the FCC had the 500 operators it needed. (It's important to note for the duration of the war, the military and government always turned to the ARRL when radio operators and equipment were needed; the League would put out the call in QST and over W1AW, and the quotas were always filled in short order. Of the 51 kilohams mentioned above, 25k enlisted, and 25k remained at home to teach radio and electronics, serve in the communications industry, and serve in WERS.) By June of 1941, tubes and other components were in short supply; each time the military asked hams to donate parts, they were flooded with whatever was needed. Many US hams were recruited for a Civilian Technical Corps to operate and repair British radar equipment. Also at this time, the Office of Civil Defense, at the offering of the ARRL, created a CD comm system with ham radio as its backbone (this relationship between between CD and ARS exists even today). Because the Army needed 80m, the FCC gave hams 40m phone privileges for the first time, to make up for the loss of 80. December 7, 1941, the US entered the war; hams were immediately ordered to go QRT. By special FCC order, the ARRL's W1AW was to continue its transmissions. At the request of the ARRL, the War Emergency Radio Service (WERS) was created in June 1942. The GPO was inundated so the rules for WERS appeared only in QST. At the League's insistence, the FCC continued to offer amateur licensing throughout the war; this to provide standards for WERS applicants, and more importantly, to enable amateurs to prove their ability before enlisting in the armed services. The purpose of WERS was to provide communications in connection with air raid protection, and to allow operators to continue their role in providing comms during times of natural disaster as they'd been doing as hams (WERS was not part of the amateur service, but was manned by hams; non-amateurs were permitted to serve in WERS in low level positions). WERS was administered by local CD offices; WERS licenses were issued to communities, not individuals. WERS operated on the former amateur 2 1/2 meter band (112-116 MHz) and on higher frequencies. Again, WERS was not part of the amateur service but hams were asked by OCD to join - and they flocked to it. Until the end of the war, if a ham wanted to operate he could only do so as a WERS operator. QST fully supported WERS by publishing technical articles on building WERS gear and modifying existing 2 1/2 m ham equipment so as to meet the rigid WERS standards. Nearly every issued of QST contained WERS articles - two examples: Oct. 1942: WERS operating procedures; how to train auxiliary (non-amateur) operators. Feb. 1943: OCD's plan for selecting frequencies. A sample of WERS operations: May and July 1942 - comms support for flooding of the Mississippi and Lake Erie; 1944 comms support after an Atlantic Coast hurricane; 1945 - Western NY snowstorm early in the year, spring flooding, and a September Florida hurricane. After VJ Day in 1945, hams were given authorization to begin operating again on the 2 1/2 m band, on a shared basis with WERS. WERS was terminated in mid-November. By the 15th of that month, the FCC released bands at 10, 5, and 2m for amateur use. The post-war era of amateur radio had commenced. This is probably more than you wanted to know! I really love radio history and enjoy sharing it with anyone who expresses an interest. 73, Jeff KH2PZ *********************************************** NAVAL HISTORY, Old Iron Sides; From Sheldon Wheaton Wooden Ships and Iron Men. From "Oceanographic Ships, Fore and Aft", published by the Oceanographer of the Navy. It has to do with a cruise of the 204-foot frigate USS Constitution, commonly known as Old Ironsides, in 1779. It reads: On 23 August 1779, the USS Constitution set sail from Boston loaded with 475 officers and men, 48,600 gallons of water, 74,000 cannon shot, 11,500 pounds of black powder and 79,400 gallons of rum. Her mission: to destroy and harass English shipping. On 6 October, she made Jamaica, took on 826 pounds of flour and 68,300 gallons of rum. Constitution reached the Azores, where she provisioned with 550 pounds of beef and 6,300 gallons of Portuguese wine. On 18 November, the ship set sail for England where her crew captured and scuttled 12 English merchant vessels and took aboard their rum. But the Constitution had run out of shot. Nevertheless, she made her way unarmed up the Firth of Clyde for a night raid. Her landing party captured a whiskey distillery, transferred 40,000 gallons aboard and headed for home. On 20 February 1780, the Constitution arrived in Boston with no cannon shot, no food, no powder, no rum, no whiskey. Just 48,600 gallons of water. Detailed analysis: Length of cruise -- 181 days Booze consumption -- 2.26 gallons per MAN per day (plus whatever they rescued from the 12 English merchant ships) Guestimated re-enlistment rate -- 100 percent, winner of the Secretary of the Navy Golden Anchor for Retention. Probable EPA Award of Gold Certificate for water conservation. ************************************************ B-17 RADIO OPERATOR; Originally from a web site on the 487th bomb Group in WW II Bill Howard This is a story about the wartime experiences of my father, Sabatine Joseph Branco, who was a Technical Sergeant in the 839th Bomb Squadron, 487th Bomb Group, 4th Air Wing, 3rd Division, 8th Air Force, in the European Theater during WW II. He was a Radio Operator / Gunner (ROG) on a B-17G crew based at Station 137 in Lavenham, Suffolk, England. Suffolk, England is far away from Camden, NJ where Dad was born in 1923. This story really begins, however on December 7th, 1942, when, in the middle of his freshman year at Temple University, Dad and others in his class enlisted in the USAAF. Reviewing his records, I was surprised at how much training he received. He went through extensive training all across the country, in such places as Fenn College (Cleveland OH), Aviation Cadet Center (Yuma AZ), MacDill Field (Tampa FL), Hunter Field (GA), and Camp Kilmer (NJ). He deployed to Station 137, Lavenham, England on 14-Dec-1944. Dad put in 34 combat missions over target from January 8th, 1945 to April 21, 1945, most of them in a B-17G named "Dinah-Mite" (tail # 48694) After the war, he returned to New Jersey, completed his degree in psychology and worked in contracting and marketing for 34 years with the RCA Corporation, before setting out to enjoy retired life. In all that time, Dad never wore his veteran status "on his sleeve", but was always willing to talk at length about his experiences when asked. He told me of the rigors and travails of flying an unpressurized combat aircraft on 10+ hour missions on oxygen and in deep cold; of having to plug into portable O2 bottles to move between stations and frequent intercom check-ins to make sure no one was unconscious; and of electrically heated suits and metal so cold you didnÌt touch it with bare skin for fear of sticking to it. Dad described the power and beauty of an armada of hundreds of gleaming aluminum B-17s streaming four contrails (which unfortunately made them more visible to the flak batteries and fighters). He told me of being swarmed by ME-109s and FW-190s, and even occasionally seeing ME-262s and ME-163s (which he did not consider much of a threat due to their speed and limited duration). The crew was always relieved to have P-51 escorts, which they referred to as "our little friends", to fend off the German fighters. Dad seemed to have more fear of the deadly anti-aircraft flak than the enemy fighters, which he described as often being so thick you could "get out and walk on it". He took to sitting on a flak jacket after he saw another ROG taken off a Ë17 with flak shrapnel in his buttocks. Although he did not receive a purple heart, his hearing was damaged by a flak burst that exploded just below the plane as he was checking the bomb bay after the "toggle", and he saved as a "souvenir" a piece of flak that lodged in the fuselage after narrowly missing him.