MILITARY COLLECTOR GROUP POST, May 12/98 INDEX: PRC-6 GROUP PROJECT; MARCH/APRIL TECHNICAL INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN; Part II, By William L. Howard DAVE STINSON'S WANT'S/TRADE'S/MANUALS/BOOKS; ON THE COMMERCIAL FRONT; HUMOR; *********************************************** PRC-6 GROUP PROJECT STATUS; My Address is:(this is not a UPS shipping address!) Dennis Starks P.O. Box 95 Cross Timbers Mo. 65634 (USA) David Davidson has graciously donated approx 50 PRC-6 xtals to our cause. This should significantly help provide radios with xtals, and or matched freq pairs. If anybody has a large role of buble wrap that they could send me, this would greatly simplify my packing/shipping of these 50 some odd sets. As I live 65 miles from the nearest McDonalds, and I don't use the stuff in my daily business shipping, I don't have access to any, or a place to buy it. Don't want any Monkey Shit! Don't like the stuff. Below is the final count, and the list of folks who have contacted Ralph for manuals. If you've not contacted Ralph for manuals yet, and think you'll need them, do so at . PRC-6($20.00) / Batteries($22.50) Steve Hill 3ea / 3ea Lee Orsborn 1ea / Dave Sundheimer 1ea / Ed Guzick 2ea / Todd Huss 4ea / 8ea William Smith 2ea / 2ea Bob McCord 1ea / 1ea Paul Monroe 2ea / Brian Scace / 4ea Jim Wood 2ea / 2ea John Kidd 4ea / Pete Williams 2ea / Steve Bartkowski / 1ea Bruce Haffner 1ea / 1ea Dave Prince 2ea / Jay Coward / 3ea Kevin Hough 1ea / 2ea David Ward 2ea / Mike Cowart 1ea / 1ea Ralph Hogan 2ea / 2ea Bob Simpson 1ea / Mikhael Brown 1ea / Hal Blaisdell 2ea / 2ea Sheldon Wheaton 2ea / David Ragsdale 2ea / Chris Hasse 2ea / 2ea George Humphrey 2ea / 2ea Jim Hopper 4ea / 4ea Me 1ea / 1ea --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Manuals via Ralph Hogan at E. Guzick G. Humphrey H. Blaisdell B. Strangfeld (different manual) M. Cowart D. Prince J. Wood L. Orsborn *********************************************** MARCH/APRIL TECHNICAL INTELLIGENCE BULLETIN; Part II, By William L. Howard Vol. 3 No. 2 Mar-Apr 1998 A non-profit publication about the veterans Technical Intelligence in war and peace the current operations of the National Ground Intelligence Center, the Technical Intelligence Unit at Aberdeen Proving Ground and news items of interest to the technical intelligence community Scientists Try Miniaturization By DINA KRAFT Associated Press Writer HAIFA, Israel (AP) -- One day, Israeli physicist Uri Sivan hopes to meet a colleague's 40-year-old challenge to store all the texts of the Library of Congress -- 17 million books along 500 miles of shelves -- on a space the size of a speck of dust. Sivan says while that day is still far off, he and two fellow researchers have made progress by mixing biology and electronics -- for the first time letting DNA molecules build electronic circuits. ``We are using the same machinery used in biology. We are taking advantage of 4.5 billion years of evolution and letting the DNA do most of the work,'' Sivan said as he fiddled with the espresso machine in his office at the Technion, one of Israel's premier research institutes located in the hills above Haifa Bay. In a first step, the research team -- Sivan, chemist Yoav Eichen and biophysicist Erez Braun -- has produced a conductive wire that is one-thousandth the width of a hair, or less than half the size of wires in use today. The Technion team hopes to build a wire that is 250 times smaller than the existing ones. The implications are as far reaching as the proportions are microscopic. A microchip assembled with DNA could create faster, cheaper and more complex computers and electronic products. A computer built with DNA-made microchips could store 100,000 times as much information as a current model. The process of building a microchip with DNA begins the same way an ordinary chip is built. However, single strands of DNA molecules are attached to the gold electrodes that are traditionally used as connectors. In the lab, Braun played a video of the experiment taken through a microscope. The footage showed the molecules of the DNA strand quickly recognizing each other and attaching to the two electrodes to create a bridge. To make the bridge conduct electricity, a thin layer of silver was added onto the structure, resulting in a tiny metal wire. The Technion team's work was published in the Feb. 19 issue of the science journal Nature and their conceptual breakthrough in the field of nanoelectronics has won praise from U.S. colleagues. ``This will likely be viewed as the paper that set us off down the road,'' said Daniel Colbert of Rice University's Center for Nanoscale Science and Technology in Texas. The idea to harness the self-assembling abilities of tiny DNA molecules to create electronic circuits was the result of ongoing conversations between the three Technion colleagues. The team said the research is still in its infancy, and they have far to go before meeting a 1958 challenge by a colleague, Nobel Laureate Richard Feynman, to store the Library of Congress on a speck of dust. ``We have shown that DNA molecules can be effectively used as organizers for the simplest electronic component, a conducting wire,'' said Eichen. ``The next step is a self-assembled transistor 100 times smaller than those used in present microchips,'' he added. WASHINGTON (AP) - A fired CIA covert operative was charged with tipping off two foreign governments that the United States had broken their code systems. Douglas Fred Groat also was charged with trying to extort $500,000 from the CIA in return for not disclosing its secrets. Groat worked for the CIA from May 1980 through October 1996 but spent the last three of those years on administrative leave. The grand jury charged that he gave secrets about U.S. code-breaking to two foreign governments, which were not named, in March and April of 1997. Groat entered a not guilty plea to all five counts against him. Two of the counts carry a maximum penalty of death. Sent by Jim Turner,519th MI BN Association Spoke to Lt. Fozman by phone after she assumed command of HHD of the 902nd. They are sending her to Korean for a few weeks. No word on Captain Dillon but assume she finally got to Bosnia. Satellite Launched for Space Study VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. (AP) -- A NASA satellite was sent into orbit to study solar events that may endanger astronauts and spacecraft. The $39 million Transition Region and Coronal Explorer satellite -- known as Trace -- was boosted on a Pegasus XL rocket dropped from a jet flying at 39,000 feet over the Pacific Ocean on Wednesday, National Aeronautics and Space Administration spokesman Jim Sahli said. The satellite will observe the sun for a year. Its goal: to study the connection between the sun's magnetic fields and the heating of its corona. Scientists want to know more about solar events that have the potential to threaten astronauts and disrupt use of orbiting satellites that have such critical functions as communications, navigation, weather forecasting and national security. Periods of intense solar activity -- massive flarings and huge eruptions -- will occur in the coming months of the sun's cycle. The big events are interspersed with periods of relative quiet. Trace is intended to study the complete range of solar conditions. Scientists Working On Robot Bugs By VICKI BROWN Associated Press Writer NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Two Vanderbilt University professors are developing robot insects that someday could help soldiers scout enemy positions or aid scientists exploring other planets. The two mechanical engineering professors won a $904,000 Pentagon contract to build the bugs. Ephrahim Garcia and Michael Golfarb envision equipping the tiny machines with sensors or a camera to relay information. ``For all our intelligence-gathering ability, air surveillance and satellite photos, we still can't see over the next hill. Soldiers are sort of blind beyond their line of site,'' Garcia said. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which developed the technology that created the Internet, awarded the professors a three-year contract. They hope to build a prototype by June. ``They are basically going to be small, mostly metallic bugs, with four to six legs. They'll be a couple of inches long, about the size of a large beetle,'' Goldfarb said. The crawlers will be made of titanium or steel and battery-operated. The electronics and mechanics must be efficient if the bugs are to be useful, because they will have limited battery power, Garcia said. The professors plan to use piezoelectric ceramics to get the maximum energy from a battery. A thin, ceramic-coated metal plate will be on top of the bug's skeleton. Voltage from the battery will be applied to that plate, which bends when electricity is supplied and snaps back to original form when the voltage stops. The motion of the plate will make the bug's legs move. The technology is the same as that which makes a pager vibrate. ``We can't really control the speed, but it takes very little energy,'' Goldfarb said. Bill Warren, DARPA program manager in the defense sciences office, said that approach is one reason the agency funded the Vanderbilt research. ``It's sort of like you charge it up and let it go,'' Warren said, describing it as ``a really novel'' system because it uses so little power. Just attaching a battery would not work because the energy would be drained by the time the bug went 100 yards, Garcia said. One big hurdle for the professors is that the ceramic plate restricts motion. ``We need to be pretty smart about how we get it to move so the skeleton has a fairly large stride. If the stride is a quarter of a millimeter, we won't get far,'' Goldfarb said. One to 2 millimeters would be good; more than 2 would be great, the professors said. One millimeter is .04 inch. ``If it goes 50 feet in the sand and dies, we've learned something, but it might not be practical,'' Goldfarb said. One advantage of the crawlers should be their price tag. ``The cost will be in the design, not the manufacture,'' Goldfarb said. Building a prototype will cost about $100, but if the bugs were mass-produced, the cost could be as low as $10, depending on the type of sensor or camera used, the professors said. Ensuring that the bugs are cheap is important, because, ``We're not counting on them returning,'' Goldfarb said. That means thousands could be sent out to gather information, which increases the chances of getting usable data. ``For instance, you have one Mars Rover and if that machine goes down, the mission fails,'' Garcia explained. ``What if we were to land 10,000 robotic insects on the planet and send them out in every direction? Each insect would have only a minimal amount of power and probably only one sensor, but we've sort of distributed the risk. If we lost one, it failed, ran out of power or got trapped, the mission wouldn't be in jeopardy at all.'' Obit notice:Eberhard Rees, 89, a space pioneer and member of Wernher von Braun's German rocket team that helped put Americans on the moon died in DeLand, florida on Thursday 2 April 1998. He was one of the 120 members of the von Braun team who came to the United States in 1945 to help launch the United States space program. Mr. Rees was regarded as the principle deputy to von Braun. As deputy director of development operations for the Army Ballistic Missile Agency from 1956 to 1960, he was part of the team that launched the country's first satellite, Explorer 1 on Jan 31, 1948. In 1970, he succeeded von Braun as chief of U.S. rocketry efforts. He succeeded von Braun as director of NASA's George Marshall Space Center at Huntsville, Ala in 1970 and retired in 1973. The April issue of Popular Mechanics has on the cover GREATEST SECRETS OF THE COLD WAR DECLASSIFIED. Most interesting item to me was that the Defense Department's 1980 series on SOVIET MILITARY POWER listed all the new Soviet weapons, many of which it turns out did not really exist. The much feared T 80 tank never existed. It appears analysts mistook an outmoded T 72 retrofitted with armored fabric side skirts for a new weapon. My question is:" what constitutes a new weapon system?" An improvement to an older model is a new weapon. If not, then the M 16 is just an up-grade to the Brown Bess Musket of the Revolutionary War! Yeah, really! Anyway this is something that can only be determined by having a viable technical intelligence capability in peace time, ready to deploy on short notice. Obit Notice: Manuel Pinero Losada, 63 a legendary figure in the Cuban intelligence service known as "Red Beard" died in a car crash on March 12th. He was a veteran of Fidel Castro's guerilla war in Eastern Cuba that toppled Fulgencio Batista in the 1959 Cuban Revolution. After the revolution, he headed the the new governments security and intelligence section and later oversaw efforts to spread socialism to other nations. Remember the movie about spying in Cuba on the eve of the Missile Crisis. Think he was the "Red Bearded guy!" Coming up in the next issue of National Defense: 1998 Editorial Calendar and Bonus Distributions May/June Test and Evaluation - Government and industry leaders in the weapon systems testing field are pursuing new strategies to enhance cost-savings and system performance. The package will cover development at the Test and Evaluation Symposium in San Diego, California. Security Technology - An array of new technologies developed for the military and for commercial customers are being incorporated into the Defense Departmentís budgets to meet its growing security needs. A sampling of these technologies will be the subject of this report. Bonus Distributions:•Small Arms, Columbus, GA •Security Technology, Williamsburg, VA •Armaments for the Army of the Future, McAfee, NJ •Global Demilitarization, Coeur díAlene, ID •Bomb & Warhead, Eglin AFB, FL •Defense Modeling & Simulation Office (DMSO), Vienna, VA •Worldwide Chemical, Ft. McClellan, AL •Enviro-Expo, Boston, MA •Strike, Land Attack & Air Defense Meeting, TBD •Navy Surface Warfare Training Systems, Washington, DC Pakistan tests new missile Pakistan successfully tested a medium range missile on 6 April that is capable of reaching deep within the borders 0f India. It was tested at the Kahuta nuclear research laboratory. the missile has a range of 900 miles and is thought to be capable of carrying a nuclear warhead. Indian defense minister, Georges Fernandes charged that China helped Pakistan build the new missile. Pakistan denies this. THE WILLIAM L. HOWARD ORDNANCE TECHNICAL INTELLIGENCE MUSEUM e-mail wlhoward@gte.net Telephone AC 813 585-7756 Back issues of this publication are available from the author. *********************************************** DAVE STINSON'S WANT'S/TRADE'S/MANUALS/BOOKS; This is my latest list of manuals and books for sale or trade and my "wanted" list. All prices plus postage from 78728. I'm always looking for military manuals or pamplets concerning radio communications dated 1945 or earlier, especially if they are also aircraft related. Please send your list of wants/trades as I have many types already. Thanks for looking! 73 DE Dave Stinson AB5S arc5@ix.netcom.com --------------------------------------------- Wanted- Will buy or trade for: "The Radio Manual" by Sterling, 2nd edition only in vg-excellent condition only. "The Principles Underlying Radio Communication," Signal Corps U.S.A., 1st edition only. Original AN/ARC-5 manuals (not SCR-274N). Original RAT or RAV manuals. Fair Radio Catalogs 1970 or earlier. Heathkit catalogs 1980 or earlier. ARRL Handbooks 1927, 1987, 1997. RCA Transmitting Tube Manuals other then TT-3. RCA Receiving Tube Manuals Volumes: RC-1 to RC-13, RC-16, RC-18, RC-21, RC-23, RC-24, RC-26 to RC-29. Any wireless books or Signal Corps manuals printed prior to 1925. Manuals (copies OK) for RCA light aircraft equipment AVR-100 to AVR-105, AVT-15, AVT-111. Any Signal Corps Radio Communication "pamplets" published in the 1910s, 1920s or 1930s. Drake's Radio Cyclopedia, 1st edition only. -------------------------------------------- Free to good home (you pay postage): Ameco Code and Theory course, 1963. Four Sams Photofacts for Hallicrafters televisions. --------------------------------------------- Military: TM 11-866 Hammarlund Super Pro Receivers BC-779, -794, -1004, R-129, Powers Supplies RA-74, RA-84, RA-94, Radio Sets SCR-244, -704, AN/FRR-4 Original loose-leaf in USAF binder, $20 TM 11-242 Radio Set SCR-300 (BC-1000) Tech Manual and TM 11-315 Maintenance Kits ME-40 and ME-53, used with SCR-300, dated 1943, sold as a set only $20 TM 11-6625-316-35 maintenance for TV-2 Tube Tester, loose leaf, $10. Instruction Book w/diagrams for AN/GRR-5, printed by Emerson. $10 TM 11-295 Radio Receiving Set AN/GRR-5. $10 TM 11-600 Radio Sets SCR-508, -528, VRC-5 $5 NAVSHIPS 900,324 Instruction book for Navy RBS, RBS-1, RBS-2. $10 NAVSHIPS 900,527-IB Instruction book for Navy RDO. $5 TM 11-290 Receiver/Transmiter RT-70/GRC. $10 TM 11-826 Radio Transmitters BC-620 E through I, T-213/GRC-26 and antenna tuner BC-939. $12 Instruction book for Electron Tube Test Set TV-6/U. $5 TM 11-300 Frequency Meter Sets SCR-211 (BC-221). $10 RCA Light Aircraft Sets AVT-112/AVR-20 copy. $3 TM 11-872A Diversity Receiving Equipment AN/FRR-3A $5 TM 11-5820-765-12 Power Supply PP-4763/GRC $1 TM 11-2604 Test Set I-199 $1 Preliminary Instructions for BC-312 & BC-342 (Cover copied) $8 Instruction Book for type TM0 Transmitter $5 AN 08-30ARN5-2 Operating Instructions for AN/ARN-5 $5 AN 08-30APS13-2 Operating Instructions for AN/APS-13 $5 TM 11-881 Hallicrafters S-37 (War Department Service) $15 Instruct. Book for Model LW Radar Test Equipment (Western Electric) $5 Instruction Book for AN/ARC-1 (copy) $5 TM 11-455 Radio Fundimentals 1944 $10 NAVSHIPS 900,017 Radar System Fundamentals $10 Instruction Book for AN/VRC-19 by Motorola $5 Instruction Book for R-394/U by Motorola $5 AN 08-10-239 Operating Instructions AN/ARR-2 (copy) $3 Navy Model ZB-3 Aircraft Homing Instr. Book, (copy) $5 TO 12R2-2ARC2-1 Oper. Inst. for AN/ARC-2 (copy) $5 --------------------------------------------------- Ham Radio: Beam Antenna Handbook by William Orr 1955 $10 VHF Handbook by William Orr 1956 $10 Radio Amateur's Mobile Handbook by William Orr 1953 $5 Gonset 3158 VHF Receiver, Sams Photofact $3 Hallicrafters S-77A, Run 4. Taped spine, rough back. $8 Hallicrafters Super Skyrider S-16, SX-16 alignment, original $10 Hallicrafters Sky Challenger II S-18, SX-18 alignment, original $10 Hallicrafters Sky Buddy S-19R Op, Maintenance, original $10 Hallicrafters SX-101A good shape $12 Hallicrafters SX-42 Sams Photofact $3 Hallicrafters S-94 Sams Photofact $3 Hallicrafters 8R40 Sams Photofact $3 Heathkit GW-22 CB Tranceiver manual. $8 Index to Surplus- 1945-1966, A Bibliography of Surplus Articles by 73 Publishing $5 ARRL Cumulative Index of QST 1950-1962 $1 Specialized Communications for the Radio Amateur. $5 The Radio Amatuer's License Manual 32nd Ed. 1954 $5 The Radio Amatuer's License Manual 50nd Ed. 1963 $5 The Radio Amatuer's License Manual 51st Ed. 1963 $5 The Radio Amatuer's License Manual 75th Ed. 1976 $5 Learning the Radio Telegraph Code 5th Ed. 1950 $5 Learning The Radio Telegraph Code 8th Ed. 1957 $5 How to Become a Radio Amateur 29th Ed. 1974 $5 Hints and Kinks 5th Edition- cover a little rough $8 Understanding Amateur Radio 2nd Ed. 1971 $5 The Radio Amateur's Operating Manual 3rd ed. 1972 $5 Amateur Radio Station Log 15th Ed. 1957 Unused. $8 The Mobile Manual for Radio Amateurs 1st Edition $5 1973 Radio Amateur's Handbook $8 1974 Radio Amateur's Handbook $8 1977 Radio Amateur's Handbook $8 1979 Radio Amateur's Handbook $8 General Radio and Electronics: Mobile Radio Handbook 1st ed. (land mobile, 1950) $5 1001 Uses for the Simpson Model 260 VOM. $5 Operator's Manual for Simpson Model 260 VOM $5 The Recording and Reproduction of Sound by Oliver Read $5 Audels Radioman's Guide $10 Broadcast Operator's Handbook by Ennes (Rider) 1947 $15 Citizens Band Radio Service Manual. Tab Books 1971 $5 RCA Sine/Square Wave Audio Generator type WA-44C $5 Security Electronics by John Cunningham $3 Book 1- Digital Techniques by Heathkit/Zenith Educational $3 Motorola Master Selection Guide and Catalog 1975 $2 *********************************************** ON THE COMMERCIAL FRONT; The Louisiana Museum of Military History, due to financial realities will be will be moving to smaller quarters. We have been asked to help liquidate some of the Commo gear. Below is the first list of equipment that's been made available. If you have an interest in any item contact Joe below via email and he'll pass along any needed info. AM-1780 untested but good condition $ 25 AM-2060 with cable $ 95 ART-13 untested but good condition $ 150 AS-2851 30-80 log periodic complete $ 125 BB-451 NOS with electrolyte kit $ 185 BB-451 used $ 100 BC-611 details later BC-639 untested but good condition $ 35 CPRC-26 with most accessories $ 70 CU-2267/GR Five unit multicoupler - with two spare F-1482 $ 125 CY-6121/PRC-74 Wet cell battery box $ 25 DY-105 untested but looks good $ 45 DY-105 no dynamotor $ 25 GRA-71 almost complete $ 125 GRC / VRC lots of cables ASK GRC-106A RT and AM- with cables, base mount and handset - working $ 650 GRC-109 details later GRR-5 ASK MD-522 with cables $ 100 PPS-4 complete except for optical sight $ 300 PRC-10 with accessories $ 100 PRC-25 with accessories $ 300 PRC-41 with antenna and PP-3700 AC power supply - working $ 175 PRC-68 with handset, antenna and battery - working but a little rough $200 PRC-68 with handset, antenna and battery - working, good condition $ 235 PRC-77 with accessories $ 350 PRC-90 with battery - working $ 100 PRC-90 with battery - no 282.8 transmit $ 50 PRR-9/PRT-4A working w/manual copy $ 50 R-392 good condition with power cable $ 200 R-442 working, good condition $ 225 RT-524A unchecked $ 300 RT-524A working $ 500 RT-68 no meter $ 40 RT-858/PPS-6 RT only Make offer Russian 62R1 VHF cargo pocket transceiver with mike and dipole wire antenna - ASK Make offer Russian R-105 no accessories $ 100 Russian R-123M with power supply and control box $ 200 TRC-77 untested but good condition $ 75 TS-323 good condition $ 35 TT-722/TG untested $ 50 ITEMS NOT FOR EXPORT All reasonable offers will be considered All items plus shipping Payment to: Glen Thibodeaux c/o Louisiana Museum of Military History P. O. Box 92110 Lafayette, LA 70509 If folks would just contact me directly, I will take care of getting things to Glen. Joseph W Pinner EMail: kc5ijd@sprintmail.com Looking for PRC-64 accessories, G-43 or G-58 generator and M-1 Carbines / accessories. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- PRC-70 SELECTOR ASSEMBLY, UNUSED, FOREST GREEN. NSN 5820-01-092-5904, ALSO CALLED THE A1 MODULE. THIS IS PART OF THE FRONT PANEL, WITH 6 FREQUENCY KNOBS AND READOUTS, CONTROLS FOR POWER, MODE, VOLUME AND SQUELCH. INCLUDES THE PRINTED CURCUIT BOARD WITH MICROPROCESSER. $60 EA. PLUS SHIPPING STEVE HANEY HANEY ELECTRONIC CO tc0654@mesh.net ed) Steve has a list of manuals available on request via email. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I was just at a yard sale and this man had a WW-1 field land line in a leather box or bag and it had a small key in the bottom of it and Stromberg on it with a small telegraph key in the bottom of it, also he had a WW-2 grean metal box that was a wire line with a key in the bottom of it and thay both had head sets. If you would like his number or something let me know he wanted 150.00 for one and 90.00 for the other one. I got a 1919 Vibroplex for 25.00 ejohnson@knights.farmington.k12.mo.us *********************************************** HUMOR; THE DARWIN AWARDS are given every year to bestow upon (the remains of) those individuals, who through single-minded self-sacrifice, have done the most to remove undesirable elements from the human gene pool. 1997 DARWIN NOMINEES: ----------------------------------- (#1) Los Angeles, CA. Ani Saduki, 33, and his brother decided to remove a bees nest from a shed on their property with the aid of a "pineapple." A pineapple is an illegal firecracker which is the explosive equivalent of one-half stick of dynamite. They ignited the fuse and retreated to watch from inside their home, behind a window some 10 feet away from the hive/shed. The concussion of the explosion shattered the window inwards, seriously lacerating Ani. Deciding Mr. Saduki need stitches,the brothers headed out to go to a nearby hospital. While walking towards their car, Ian was stung three times by the surviving bees. Unbeknownst to either brother, Ani was allergic to bee venom, and died of suffocation enroute to the hospital. (#2) A driver, who crashed into the side of a 3000 ton wheat train and was dragged in his car more than a kilometer before being slammed into a pylon at the edge of a cliff, fell to his death as he walked for help. The Queensland, Australia man, 63, and his female companion, 64, were driving along the Newell Highway near Moree, in Northwestern New South Wales, on Wednesday night, police said. Their car crashed into the side of a fully laden, 600 meter long train at a level crossing. (I guess that would be harder to miss than the side of a barn!) The vehicle became wedged between the second last and last carriages and was dragged sideways beside the track as the train continued towards Moree, a police spokeswoman said. After being carried more than a kilometer and a half they approached an unfenced bridge with a 10 meter drop, the spokeswoman said. Moments before they reached the precipice, the car was struck by a pylon, dislodged from the train and spun several times. When it came to rest, the pair managed to free themselves from the wreck (I wonder if it was a Volvo?) with minor bruising and the man set off along the railway line for help. But he slipped on the bridge and fell to his death, the spokeswoman said. The woman was eventually able to raise the alarm and was recovering in Moree hospital with chest injuries. (#3) Derrick L. Richards, 28, was charged in April in Minneapolis with third-degree murder in the death of his beloved cousin, Kenneth E. Richards. According to police, Derrick suggested a game of Russian roulette and put a semiautomatic pistol (instead of the more traditional revolver) to Ken's head and fired. (#4) Phillipsburg, NJ. An unidentified 29 year old male choked to death on a sequined pastie he had orally removed from an exotic dancer at a local establishment. "I didn't think he was going to eat it," the dancer identified only as "Ginger" said, adding "He was really drunk." (#5) In February, according to police in Windsor, Ont., Daniel Kolta, 27, and Randy Taylor, 33, died in a head-on collision, thus earning a tie in the game of chicken they were playing with their snowmobiles. 1997 DARWIN AWARD HONORABLE MENTIONS (I.E. Non-fatalities) Gulf Breeze, Florida, three unidentified teenage males were using a home video camera to film an action/adventure "movie" one of the boys had written. In a scene that called for one character to be ignited by fire, the "special effects coordinator," age 15, prepared the "stunt" youth by dousing lighter fluid onto his clothes. The intentional fire, which proved unexpectedly difficult to extinguish, left the young man with third degree burns on his left arm, torso, and both legs. It was all captured on film. In Bradford, PA, J. Cruwe, 28, caught a small snake in his yard. As a joke he placed the snake in a container which he handed to his wife. She opened the container and, startled to see the snake, dropped it. The excited and, as it turns out, poisonous, snake immediately bit Mr. Cruwe on the shin. Mr Cruwe survived the wound and recovered after a short visit to the local emergency room. In rural Carbon County, PA, a group of men were drinking beer and discharging firearms from the rear deck of a home owned Irving Michaels, age 27. The men were firing at a raccoon that was wandering by, but the beer apparently impaired their aim and, despite of the estimated 35 shots the group fired, the animal escaped into a 3 foot diameter drainage pipe some 100 feet away from Mr. Michaels' deck. Determined to terminate the animal, Mr. Michaels retrieved a can of gasoline and poured some down the pipe, intending to smoke the animal out. After several unsuccessful attempts to ignite the fuel, Michaels emptied the entire 5 gallon fuel can down the pipe and tried to ignite it again, to no avail. Not one to admit defeat by wildlife, the determined Mr. Michaels proceeded to slide feet-first approximately 15 feet down the sloping pipe to toss the match. The subsequent rapidly expanding fireball propelled Mr. Michaels back the way he had come, though at a much higher rate of speed. He exited the angled pipe "like a Polaris missile leaves a submarine," according to witness Joseph McFadden, 31. Mr. Michaels was launched directly over his own home, right over the heads of his astonished friends, onto his front lawn. In all, he traveled over 200 feet through the air. "There was a Doppler Effect to his scream as he flew over us," McFadden reported, "Followed by a loud thud." Amazingly, he suffered only minor njuries. "It was actually pretty cool," Michaels said, "Like when they shoot someone out of a cannon at the circus. I'd do it again if I was sure I wouldn't get hurt." *********************************************** (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) ***********************************************