MILITARY COLLECTOR GROUP POST, FEB.14/98 INDEX: ANNOUNCEMENTS; SURVIVING EQUIPMENT, AND INFLUENCES ON IT; by Brian Scace MEMBERS WRITE; HUMOR; **************************** ANNOUNCEMENTS; Members Write: Today marks the beginning of a new regular feature of the Group Post, MEMBERS WRITE. Sometimes I run low on material and this seems like it would make a worth while addition, especially as it reflects some of our members interest. And to a lesser extent, sometimes bolsters my ego. Of course I like the controversial stuff too. You can always request that I withhold your name and email address if your afraid of having it published, or my raking you over the coals for all to see. In any case, we like to hear from you. On the Commercial Front: I might also propose another regular feature, ON THE COMMERCIAL FRONT, or something like that. Here we can spread the word on deals currently running by reputable dealers. Announce the availability of their catalogs etc. Or generally post the availability of something from a non-member source. Some rules should apply, you must know the source of the equipment etc, and either vouch for their integrity, or be able to post a warning to the contrary. I will not re-post here what has been forwarded to me from another group. Though I do like to see this material for my personal info. And there will be no $1000 R-390's, or 75A4's, or $300 BC-611's! While it has been general policy in the past to deny membership to this group of commercial dealers, I propose the following: That REPUTABLE commercial dealers be allowed limited membership so that they might monitor the needs of this group, and provide assistance when within their power. That further, they be allowed the use of the above featured column so long as what they post in it reflects a fair market value, and a particular savings to members of this group, and no other. I/E special prices good for group members only! That they also be allowed access to our member profiles that they may insure that they are indeed extending this special price to a group member. This would of course mandate that you submit your member profile before you could participate. What are your thought's?? If it is generally agreed, I will begin to draft an invitation for prospective dealers, along with the guide lines. Next Mystery Radio: I do not remember what the next MYSTERY RADIO was to be, and I'm too lazy to search through the archives to find it. Any nominations? Remember, a Mystery Radio should be one that is generally known, but we know very little about it, or it's surrounded by mystery, and unanswered questions. PRC-64's: How are you coming on your PRC-64's? Remember, parts are being retained to help you restore, or otherwise get yours up to par. I'm receiving constant messages in regard to the residue from this project, but your needs must be met first. It has been rumored that the batteries for these things still exist in some quantities in Australia, perhaps we could impose on the good graces of our Aussie members to help again. On The Battery Front: Nothing has yet been received from Bren Tronics in regard to a quantity purchase of BC-611 batteries. But this may be best, as it has been reported that a previous batch of these marketed by a Texas dealer(at $90.00 a pop) had to be hammered into the radio, then hammered back out. We don't want this repeated. Not only that, but you can buy a lot of 9 volt transistor radio batteries for $90.00! The following has been received from Bren-Tronics: BA-38 batteries qt 25=$34.33ea carbon zinc qt 50=$32.61ea qt 100=$30.98ea Or we would need pay $34.33ea plus postage cost on an order of 25 batteries. Are we interested?? To compare, the 11 or 12, 9volt transister radio batteries needed to home brew this battery would cost $20.00 for Alkaline batteries. The nicad batteries that have been offered up have a confirmed price of 4packs/$15.00, plus $3.00 priority mail postage on a prepaid order. For more info on these see the Group Post for JAN.29 and JAN.31. You an contact Ike for further directions at . No word yet on the Lithium PRC-25/77 batteries. Juno Blocks, Several times in the past we have noticed Blocks put on email traffic originating from Juno addresses by your servers. This because of Juno's less than desirable marketing techniques. If for some reason you do not receive a Group Post for several days, let me know, if they have been going out, and you haven't received them, there's a good chance your server has put a block on Juno traffic. In which case you will need to contact them. Get your want's & trades in order, and submitted by tonight for their Sunday morning post. Dennis **************************** SURVIVING EQUIPMENT, AND INFLUENCES ON IT; by Brian Scace Dennis & Bill: I'd like to make a couple of observations which may or may not temper the debate a bit. Where do these radios really go before we see them? You can bet that if a peice of military gear is solid, useful, and servicable, you probably are a lot lower on the food chain than you would like to think. The following will happen to it under normal circumstances. First, the item is offered up within the Government for inter-agency transfer. If use within the government is not found, then it is offered to state and local government agencies. After that, it is offered for sale. At this point, let's talk military hardware. The good stuff that may be obsolete to us is available for other allied nations. The quantity must be worth it as well as the amount of logistical support for the item. Hence, SCR-300s might go to the Koreans along with (and this is important) the stuff to keep them in repair, but a less successful, less numerous, and less supported "equivalant" will not. The refuse is then offered for sale to arms dealers and surplus people. We end up with the few, the weird, the P.O.S. like MABS along with an understandably skewed sense of significance based on"survivability" to us at the bottom of the pond. It would be helpful for the historian to remember that HAMs are insignificant consumers of surplus radio gear compared to the armed forces of the world. As far as "the government never throwing anything out" nothing could be further from reality. We could not hope to absorb all the radio and electronic gear that has been scrapped in the last 50 years had it been made available to us. Realize that hundreds of thousands of tons of military hardware, both used in the Pacifac and unused stockpiles for the invasion of Japan, were bulldozed into the sea, buried, or burned after the war. It was not economically sound to bring it all back for collectors 30 years later. Naval ships regularly go to the breaker with ship's stores still aboard. Aircraft are scrapped with the avionics. Compare the numbers of production of a useful item that enjoyed widespread acceptance, like our SCR-300, with the estimated number of examples in collections and two things become apparant. One is the insignificance of the collector market in the overall scheme of things military (lucky for us or this junk would be worthless!). The other is the widespread fate of the vast majority of this hardware. Where is it? You're driving it or drinking out of it. Remember also that, if it was good it got used up. If it was a failure for whatever reason, it lanquished unused until disposed of, like our beloved MAB. The failures have a better chance of falling into our hands than the successes! Don't let the number of survivors dictate the significance of an item until you have considered this. Look at production figures, photos, after-action reports, narratives, and the LACK of survivors ratioed against the number made as a truer picture of success of military hardware. Brian ------------------------------------------ I agree totally with most of the points you rase. One that I don't is the fate of surplus equipment on the domestic front. And it was these that affect the availability today. While what you've said is true of equipment that is on the other side of the would, it is not of that found in this country. Also I have watched several warships being towed off to meet their fate at the hands of Shick. In every case, all their electronics and weapons were first removed. Most of the other points, I think I tried to express myself, but you have done a little better job of it. Dennis **************************** MEMBERS WRITE; Hey Dennis, that series on the Pogo Stick was really good. The first time I ever saw (or even heard of) one was at last year's Military Radio Collector's Group meeting in San Luis Obispo, CA. Most of what I know about my radios (mostly 50's FM ground-pounder stuff) is what I read in the repair manuals, so it's nice to learn more about the history of something for a change. Mark J. Blair Thanks alot for the sentiment. I need it! The history of this equipment is of the utmost importance, otherwise why have it? Because it's green? Nothing wrong with 50's ground pounder stuff. Everybodies got to start some place, and thats where I started.(The Navy kept catching me on the other stuff). I did not start out with an express interest in WW-II or any other specific type of equipment, other than what I could actually use. Now look at me, a total lost cause! Dennis ----------------------------------------- Dennis, I'm also working on a home page. I bought a scanner yesterday, so I should be able to post lots of pix of interesting Aussie radios. I'll keep you informed 73s Steve Hill VK4CZT If enough of you get Web Pages up and running, using material from this group. Then maybe I'll not need to get mine up. Dennis **************************** HUMOR; THE 1997 DARWIN AWARD COMPETITION These awards are given each year to bestow upon (the remains of) that individual, who through single-minded self-sacrifice, has done the most to remove undesirable elements from the human gene pool. Note there was great improvement in the areas of teamwork and cooperation among the candidates in 1997-- it's no longer an individual sport. Here are (drum roll) the 1997 runners-up and winners: 5th Runner-up: A San Anselmo, California man died when he hit a lift tower at the Mammoth Mountain ski area while riding down the slope on a foam pad. Twenty-two-year old David Hubal was pronounced dead at Centinela Mammoth Hospital. The accident occurred about 3 a.m., The Mono County Sheriff's Department said. Hubal and his friends apparently had hiked up a ski run called Stump Alley and undid some yellow foam protectors from lift towers, said Lt. Mike Donnelly of the Mammoth lakes Police Department. The pads are used to protect skiers who might hit towers. The group apparently used the pads to slide down the ski slope and Hubal crashed into a tower. It has since been investigated and determined the tower he hit was the one with its pad removed. 4th Runner-up: Robert Puelo, 32, was apparently being disorderly in a St.. Louis market. When the clerk threatened to call the police. Puelo grabbed a hot dog, shoved it into his mouth. and walked out without paying. Police found him unconscious in front of the store paramedics removed the six-inch wiener from his throat where it had choked him to death. 3rd Runner-up: To poacher Marino Malerba of Spain, who shot a stag standing above him on an overhanging rock and was killed instantly when it fell on him. 2nd Runner-up: Man loses face at party. A man at a West Virginia party (probably related to the man in Arkansas who used the 22 bullet to replace the fuse in his pick-up truck) popped a blasting cap into his mouth and bit down, triggering an explosion that blew off his lips, teeth, and tongue. Jerry Stromyer, 24, of Kincaid, bit the blasting cap as a prank during the party late Tuesday night, said Cpl. M.D. Payne. "Another man had it in an aquarium hooked to a battery and was trying to explode it", said Payne. "It wouldn't go off and this guy said 'I'll show you how to set it off.' He put it into his mouth and bit down. It blew all his teeth out and his lips and tongue off," Payne said. Stromyer was listed in guarded condition Wednesday with extensive facial injuries, according to a spokesperson at Charleston Area Medical Division. "I just can't imagine anyone doing something like that." Payne said. 1st Runner-up: Doctors at Portland University Hospital said an Oregon man shot through the skull by a hunting arrow is lucky to be alive and will be released soon from the hospital. Tony Roberts, 25, lost his right eye last weekend during an initiation into a mans rafting club, Mountain Men Anonymous (probably known now as Stupid Mountain Men Anonymous) in Grants Pass, Oregon. A friend tried to shoot a beer can off his head, but the arrow entered Robert's right eye. Doctors said that had the arrow gone 1 millimeter to the left, a major blood vessel would have been cut and Roberts would have died instantly. Neurosurgeon Johnny Delashaw at the University Hospital in Portland said the arrow went through 8 to 10 inches of brain with the tip protruding at the rear of his skull, yet somehow managed to miss all major blood vessels. Delashaw also said had Roberts tried to pull the arrow out on his own he surely would have killed himself. Roberts admitted afterwards he and his friends had been drinking that afternoon. Said Roberts, "I feel so dumb about this". No charges have been filed, but the Josephine County district attorney's office said the initiation stunt is under investigation. --------- Last year's winner, you will remember, was the fellow who was killed when he attached a JATO (Jet Assisted Take Off) unit to his Chevy Impala and shot himself and his car into a desert cliff at 300 M.P.H. Now this year's winners: --------- (The late) John Pernicky and his friend, (the late) Sal Hawkins, of the great state of Washington, decided to attend a local Metallica concert at the Gorge, Washington amphitheater. Having no tickets (but having had 18 beers between them), they thought it would be easy to "hop" over the nine-foot fence and sneak into the show. They pulled their pick-up truck over to the fence and the plan was for Mr. Pernicky (who was 100-pounds heavier than Mr. Hawkins) to hop the fence and then assist his friend over. Unfortunately for Mr. Pernicky, there was a 30-foot drop on the other side of the fence. Having heaved himself over, he found himself crashing through a tree. His fall was abruptly broken (along with his arm) by a large branch that snagged him by his shorts. Dangling from the tree with a broken arm, he looked down and saw some bushes below him. (Possibly) figuring the bushes would break his fall, he removed his pocketknife and proceeded to cut away his shorts to free himself from the tree. Finally free, Mr. Pernicky crashed into holly bushes. The sharp leaf spines leaves scratched his entire body and now without the protection of his shorts, a holly branch invaded his rectal cavity. To make matters worse, on landing, his pocketknife penetrated 3 inches into his thigh. Mr. Hawkins, on seeing his friend in considerable pain and agony, decided to throw him a rope and pull him to safety by tying the rope to the pickup truck and slowly driving away. However, in his drunken haste/state, he put the truck into reverse and crashed through the fence, landing on his friend and killing him. Police arrived to find the driver thrown 100 feet from the wreck and dead from massive internal injuries. Upon moving the truck, they found Mr. Pernicky under it, half-naked and covered with scratches, a holly stick in his rectum, a knife in his thigh, and his shorts dangling from a tree branch 25-feet in the air. Never argue with a fool - people might not know the difference. **************************** (The preceding was a product of the"Military Collector Group Post", an international email magazine dedicated to the preservation of history and the equipment that made it. Unlimited circulation of this material is authorized so long as the proper credits to the original authors, and publisher are included. For more information conserning this group contact Dennis Starks at, military-radio-guy@juno.com)