From: military-radio-guy Full-Name: Dennis R Starks To: military radio collectors#3 Fcc: Sent Date: Thu, 15 Apr 1999 02:45:07 Subject: MILITARY COLLECTOR GROUP POST, Apr.15/99 Message-ID: <19990415.024402.11311.2.military-radio-guy@juno.com> X-Status: Sent X-Mailer: Juno 1.49 MILITARY COLLECTOR GROUP POST, Apr.15/99 Index: ANNOUNCEMENTS; WASHINGTON DC MUSEUMS; WWII JEEPS IN COLUMBIA QUAKE ZONE; MEMBERS WRITE; Expanding/Crumbling Metal Alloys, Zvezda 54, HUMOR; *********************************************** WASHINGTON DC MUSEUMS; I thought I'd tell everyone about my trip to Washington DC and museums... I did get to visit the following museums: Marine Corp Air-Ground Museum at Quantico... great museum well laid out with both large displays and photographs about 30 miles south of DC. One building dedicated to the early years (with great information on the "banana wars") including a Thomas-Morse Scout, Boeing FB-5, Curtis F6C-4 Hawk, 1915 King Armored car, M1917 Renault, a Liberty Truck, M1917 Artillery tractor and a Roebling Alligator, a Gatling, 37 mm revolving Hotchkiss, Benet-Mercie and a 1895 Colt-Browning Machine Gun and French 75 One building on WWII with M3A1 scout, M3A1 and M3A5 Stuarts, M4 Sherman,75mm Pack Howitzer, PBJ-1 Mitchell, Grumman built F4F-4 and F6F-3, SBD-5 Dauntless, TBM-3 Avenger, FG1-D and a OkAa Baka along with 30 cal and 50 cal AA weapons plus a LVT-1 and LVT-3 and a staff car ta boot.... One building for Korea with a Grumman F9F Panther, Bell HTL and a Mig 15, a Persing M26 and more than I can remember. Overall a first class museum. Navy Yard.... The Marine Museum with a large display of clothing and weapons for the entire history of the Marine Corp with a wing dedicated to WWII (and the plus of many Tom Lea paintings hanging on the walls) The Navy Museum at the Yard which has an outstanding collection of ships weapons, clothing, and educational displays both inside and out. There were a large number of ships models inside showing the developement of design and function. Outside were a large number of weapons (including a 14-inch rail gun) and ships (the Destroyer USS Barry and a Vietnam-era patol craft). Interestingly enough off to the side was a quad 1.1 inch AA mount that I examined and if anyone can explain how that top feeding mechanism worked I'd appreciate it. Also a "must see" and fairly easy to get at from the Metro (subway). I would advise that one has to walk through 8 blocks of what appears to be a "rough" neigborhood. Also the Marine Barracks are just outside the gate where the Marine drill team does demonstrations every Friday during the summer. At the Museum of American History on the Mall there was a wing dedicated to the 100th and 442nd RCT composed of Neisi troops. A very thought provoking presentation. Overall some very good museums for anyone visiting the US capitol. Ron Babuka Cornell University Senior Programmer/Analyst 120 Maple Avenue, Suite 132 (607) 255-7694 Ithaca, New York 14850 *********************************************** WWII JEEPS IN COLUMBIA QUAKE ZONE; .c The Associated Press By JARED KOTLER CALARCA, Colombia (AP) -- Parked curbside under a mound of furniture and clothes pulled from his quake-wracked home is Jorge Mosquera's most prized possession: a red jeep built when Harry Truman was president of the United States. Mosquera's pride and joy -- a 1951 Willys with a white vinyl top and sheepskin-covered stick shift -- belongs to an astounding fleet of U.S.-built jeeps that still ramble over Colombia's treacherous back roads nearly a half century after rolling off the factory floor. The vintage jeep, the granddaddy of today's popular sport utility vehicles, is a collector's item in the United States, where Willys clubs exist around the country. But throughout Colombia's western coffee region, which was ravaged by a powerful earthquake Jan. 25, the boxy, plodding Willys is a mainstay of rural transportation for humble farmers and taxi drivers. It is no surprise to see the workhorse jeeps pitching in during the quake relief effort: ferrying aid workers, food and medicine to remote areas and helping haul salvage from cracked or flattened homes and businesses. Aging Willys were hard at work on a recent afternoon in Calarca, where the quake killed more 110 people and destroyed 3,000 homes. Their owners had nothing but praise. ``It's the best car ever made,'' gushes Jair Osorio, who stacked mattresses, bed frames and sacks of pots and pans atop a mint-green '59 Willys with fog lights and a thick, black grill guard. ``I've gotten it up to 3,000 pounds of coffee. I've transported 23 people in this car,'' Osorio adds. Mosquera, the jeep taxi driver, reverently calls the Willys ``the tool of the people.'' Taking a break from unloading a lifetime's belongings at a relative's house that survived the quake, he says, ``It's what puts food on the table.'' It doesn't matter a bit that his Willys goes only 30 miles an hour when floored, Mosquera says. ``These cars are more about force than velocity,'' he says. ``They can take you anywhere.'' Named after automotive pioneer John North Willys, whose Toledo, Ohio-based company produced about half the 700,000 jeeps used by the U.S. military during World War II, the Willys first arrived in developing countries during the 1950s. In search of new markets after the war, Willys Overland Co. marketed the civilian version of its legendary military jeeps as a cheap, rugged farm vehicle. The modified civilian jeeps -- or CJs -- were snatched up in Colombia and dozens of other countries. Several decades later, an impressive number are still running. ``There are hundreds of thousands of them out there,'' says Jay Margolies, a U.S.-based dealer of original Willys parts who sells to clients in 19 countries around the world, including Mexico, South Africa, Israel, Hong Kong and Norway. Business ``is growing so fast we can hardly keep up with it,'' Margolies says. The last Willys was produced in 1963, when Kaiser bought Willys Overland and began calling the vehicles simply Jeeps. The Jeep trademark switched hands twice more, and the vehicle has evolved into the popular Jeep Cherokee produced by Daimler-Chrysler. Colombia imported its first big shipment of 6,000 Willys vehicles in 1954, and the jeeps caught on. An estimated 32,000 are still on the road -- kept in motion by clever mechanics and machine shops that have cloned every part imaginable. Willys are visible around the country, but most ended up in the bustling, populous coffee region, where Colombia's most important export crop is grown. Many Colombians have a cult-like devotion to the sturdy vehicles. Willys fever reaches raucous heights during annual festivals that draw enthusiasts from around the country. The events' main attraction is the ``jeepado'' at which crowds scream in delight as drivers compete to pilot the most overloaded jeep the farthest -- while doing a wheelie. Coffee, bananas -- and people -- are among the preferred cargo. ``I've won lots of times,'' brags Luis Alberto Sierra, standing by his firetruck-red '54 model that he uses as a taxi. He says he once won by distributing 30 people over his jeep's hood, roof,fenders, seats and tail runner. Sierra says his latest conquest -- a half-block wheelie while loaded down with 18 sacks of oranges -- netted him a $500 prize. In the earthquake's aftermath, however, he has been lending his old Willys to a nobler cause: ferrying the injured to hospitals and trucking water, food and plastic roofing to distant communities. ``I haven't been charging much,'' he says. ``We've all got to help out.'' ed) Kaiser bought out Willy's Overland in 1953 vice 1963. *********************************************** MEMBERS WRITE; Expanding/Crumbling Metal Alloys, Hi Dennis, The recent discussion on German equipment, touched on crumbling alloy castings. I have seen 2 examples of this in Australian WW2 equipment. Dynamotors have a cast alloy ends to hold the bearings, I have seen one or two where the alloy has expanded and begun to crumble, the dyno is of course useless. And its only been 50 years! The other example I have, is a series of cast alloy connectors, of English design, but I suspect made in Oz. These are for the USA made SCR522. The connector body expands and cracks, and the locking ring binds so that it is usually impossible to dissassemble the connector without breaking it. I have some of these that are brand new, made in 1940. They are difficult to take apart, but once in bits, I have worked the high points with a file, and reduced them so that they will screw back together. I have seen examples of exactly the same parts, that are perfect. So is it the batch of alloy, or the storage conditions? Regards Ray VK2ILV ----------------------------------------------------------------- Zvezda 54, Hi Dennis i see where torchboots is aking about the Zvezda 54 radios. They offered them to me, too, by e-mail, wonder where they got their mailing list? They sent some pictures which were hard to read so we requested them to re-send those. The Zvezda radios are broadcast table-top receivers, complete with lighted dial, cloth speaker grille etc. Big, clunky, age extimated form the pictures to be 1930's through 1940's. Not military gear. They wanted exhorbitant prices 500 bucks or something like that. regards, Peter Berg <"Peter Berg"@rc-direct.com> *********************************************** HUMOR; POLITICIANS A bus of politicians is driving by a farm where a man lives alone. The bus driver, caught up in the beautiful scenery, loses control and crashes into the ditch. The man comes out and finding the politicians, buries them. The next day, the police are at the farm questioning the man. "So you buried all the politicians?" asked the police officer. "Were they all dead?" The man answered, "Some said they weren't, but you know how politicians lie." ----------------------------------------------------------------- BEST NEWSPAPER HEADLINES OF 1998 1. Include Your Children When Baking Cookies 2. Something Went Wrong in Jet Crash, Experts Say 3. Police Begin Campaign to Run Down Jaywalkers 4. Drunks Get Nine Months in Violin Case 5. Iraqi Head Seeks Arms 6. Is There a Ring of Debris around Uranus? 7. Prostitutes Appeal to Pope 8. Panda Mating Fails; Veterinarian Takes Over 9. British Left Waffles on Falkland Islands 10. Teacher Strikes Idle Kids 11. Clinton Wins Budget; More Lies Ahead 12. Plane Too Close to Ground, Crash Probe Told 13. Miners Refuse to Work After Death 14. Juvenile Court to Try Shooting Defendant 15. Stolen Painting Found by Tree 16. Two Sisters Reunited after 18 Years in Checkout Counter 17. War Dims Hope for Peace 18. If Strike Isn't Settled Quickly, It May Last a While 19. Couple Slain; Police Suspect Homicide 20. Man Struck by Lightning Faces Battery Charge 21. New Study of Obesity Looks for Larger Test Group 22. Astronaut Takes Blame for Gas in Space 23. Kids Make Nutritious Snacks 24. Local High School Dropouts Cut in Half 25. Typhoon Rips through Cemetery; Hundreds Dead ----------------------------------------------------------------- A husband and his wife driving in the country. The wife says, "Sweetheart, let's do the same thing we did here forty years ago!" The husband stops the car. His wife backs against the fence, and he immediately jumps her like a bass on a junebug. They make love like never before. She was SCREAMING and GYRATING and SHAKING uncontrollably; and when it was over, much to her husband's surprise, she FAINTED! After he revived her and got her back into the car, the husband, quite astounded says: "Darlin', you sure never moved like that forty years ago-or ANYTIME SINCE that I can remember." The women, gasping for breath, finally able to speak, says: " FORTY YEARS AGO THAT DARN FENCE WASN'T ELECTRIFIED!" ----------------------------------------------------------------- A young doctor had moved into town and was setting up a new practice, He had a new sign painted and hung it in front of his office, proclaiming his specialties: 'HOMOSEXUALS * HEMORRHOIDS." The town fathers were upset with the sign and asked him please to change it. The doctor was eager to please, so he put up a new sign: "QUEERS & REARS" The town fathers were really fuming about that one, so they demanded that the doctor come up with a decent sign that would not offend the townspeople. So the doctor came up with an acceptable sign: "ODDS & ENDS" ----------------------------------------------------------------- ACTUAL EXCERPTS FROM LETTERS SENT TO LANDLORDS . . . 1. The toilet is blocked and we cannot bathe the children until it is cleared. 2. I want some repairs done to my stove as it has backfired and burnt my knob off. 3. This is to let you know that there is a smell coming from the man next door. 4. The toilet seat is cracked: where do I stand? 5. I am writing on behalf of my sink, which is running away from the wall. 6. I request your permission to remove my drawers in the kitchen. 7. Our lavatory seat is broken in half and is now in three pieces. 8. The person next door has a large erection in his back garden, which is unsightly and dangerous. 9. Will you please send someone to mend our cracked sidewalk. Yesterday my wife tripped on it and is now pregnant. 10. Our kitchen floor is very damp, we have two children and would like a third, so will you please send someone to do something about it. 11. Will you please send a man to look at my water, it is a funny color and not fit to drink. 12. Would you please send a man to repair my downspout. I am an old page pensioner and need it straight away. 13. Could you please send someone to fix our bath tap. My wife got her toe stuck in it and it is very uncomfortable for us. 14. I want to complain about the farmer across the road. Every morning at 5:30 his cock wakes me up, and it is getting too much. 15. When the workmen were here they put their tools in my wife's new drawers and made a mess. Please send men with clean tools to finish the job and keep my wife happy. ----------------------------------------------------------------- The first grade teacher was starting a new lesson on multi- syllable words. She thought it would be a good idea to ask a few of the children examples of words with more than one syllable. "Jane, do you know any multi-syllable words?" After some thought Jane proudly replied with "Monday." "Great Jane. That has two syllables, Mon......day. Does anyone know another word." "I do! I do!" replied Johnny. Knowing Johnny's more mature sense of humor she picks Mike instead. "OK Mike, what is your word." "Saturday." says Mike. "Great, that has three syllables." Not wanting to be outdone, Johnny says "I know a four syllable word. Pick me! Pick me!" Not thinking he can do any harm with a word that large the teacher reluctantly says, "O.K. Johnny what is your four syllable word?" Johnny proudly says, "Mas...tur...ba...tion." Shocked, the teacher, trying to retain her composure says, "Wow, Johnny. Four syllables! That's certainly is a mouthful." "No Ma'am, your thinking of 'blowjob', and that's only two syllables." *********************************************** (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 or this group are included. For more information conserning this group contact Dennis Starks at, military-radio-guy@juno.com) ***********************************************