WWII P-47 Thunderbolt story

67Dart273 said
I used to, don't anymore and I've forgotten a lot. I think what got me interested, initially, was two things.......amateur radio.......in about 62 when I was still in Jr Hi school. Back then there were still "surplus" outfits selling (the tail end) of WWII surplus electronics equipment. Another thing was, that my Gramps had bought (got lied to) a surplus top training turret called a "Crocker Wheeler" used in the training twin Beech 18. These turrets were also mounted on stands and on the rear of trucks for training. They were mounted both with 12ga shotguns (skeet) and with one machine gun. Us "kids" "shot down" hundreds of enemy aircraft in the back of Gramp's barn. Later Dad mounted it outdoors on the old well head, and the grandkids had their turns. He sold it to one of the warbird outfits when they came through Spokane with Fifi B-29 and one of the B-24's. I have no idea where it got to

Crocker Wheeler turret--for all I know this used to be my Gramps

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Some of the military radio junk I've owned or operated or junked or repaired "in my youth"

(NOTE: These are all photos I stole off the net. I don't have any of this, anymore, except for one or two of the little "command" receivers

BC-342/348 HF receiver. In the 50's / early 60's for their price they were not a bad receiver

So called "Command" sets. These were low power. Top two are transmitters, bottom receivers. They came in different frequency ranges, all the way from below the broadcast band (250 or so khz) on up into the HF region

AN/ARC-2 HF transmitter-receiver, the one I infamously damn near killed myself with (1200VDC)

TCS-12 set, HF. The unit to the right is the power supply, "dynamotors." These were DC powered motors which ran off 12 or 24VDC and had a generator wound on the same armature as the motor. This generated the desired HV operating potentials, typically 250V or so for the receiver, and ?? 800 for the transmitter