Yank Radio Gear in Spitfires?

I wouldn’t place too much importance on the build date for determining its final radio fit – within the high-vibration, high -G environment of a fighter sets would be routinely removed for maintenance and re-tuning and a ‘ready -to -go’ set substituted in their place. Official modifications would also be carried out from time to time and, on occasion, sets would be replaced with newer kit. Many of the units that made up an installation were interchangable between US and UK equipment and it is not uncommon to see units fitted with US and UK plates.

Robs

Thanks for all the comments, Oldspitty, the types you mention in your post are all US built types so I would expect them to have US Radio equipment even if they served with the RAF or RAAF, they would fall under “Lend Lease”.

When we excavated an American P-38 that served in the 8th AAF all the radio gear we found had Air Ministry plates on it. My question is did it work the other way round? Did British types have US Marked Radio equipment?

The Spit concerned was built in 1941 before the Americans entered the war although they were already supplying us with Lend Lease equipment it finally crashed in December 1943, is it likely that it had US manufactured radio equipment. Sorry to bang on about it but I am about to label the item and I really don’t want to get it wrong.

Cheers

Sorry for the long winded response, Not at all.!!

I do listen down on 11.175 usb, USAF frequency & 11.479 RAF,

Plus 5.6800 is maritime band can be interesting when the helicopters are out playing.

Plenty to listen to there is many more HF frequencys & VHF of course this rig is widebanded rx & tx for the HF & VHF 222mhz band plus 131mhz rx only.

I thought they had in the war AM for voice as my old mate listen in on his fathers homebrew receiver with a long wire in the garden.:D

The TR-1143 gave 4 fixed (crystal controlled) AM channels in the range 100-124 mhz, which largely overlaps the current civil aeronautical band and the top of FM broadcasting. US built sets extended this range to 154 Mhz. Power out was around 10 watts.

The TR9 and later TR1196 HF sets gave four crystal controlled frequencies in the range 4.3 – 6.7 Mhz, AM and MCW (modulated morse). These transmissions could concievably have been received by anyone with a decent civilian radio set that included the shortwave bands (as many did in the 1930’s). I personally have used on old broadcast receiver to listen to vintage military equipment in use on the 80 meter HF band in the past.
Morse on HF was the preffered long distance communication method, but its use had to be minimised to avoid betraying an aircrafts presence. HF was widely used during the war by all branches of the military and is still in use by many government and naval stations around the world.

Some bomber sets were capable of operation into the MF and LW parts of the spectrum (e.g. the famous T1154/R1155, 500 – 200 Khz amongst other frequencies). This band contained maritime morse communications at 500 khz and a series of navigational beacons. I have a mint condition US BC-453-B receiver here with an acceptance date of Dec 28th 1943. This was part of the standard fit in most US aircraft as a navigation receiver, covering 190 – 560 khz. Fortunately it still has Radio 4 to listen to in that band, as well as the nearby NDB beacons at St Mawgan, Plymouth and Exeter – precisely the same signals using the same navigation techniques that brought many a crew safely home.

Sorry for the long winded response,

Robs

Those VHF sets was the mode in AM or SSB? & Frequency?

And the HF sets what was the frequency in the 0-30mhz band?

I know during the war a old friend was a young boy of about 10 and his father was a radio ham as i am today, the radio gear he still had some and this young boy used to listen to the air battle in the sky above.

Don’t forget british industry was hard pressed to supply all the equipment suddenly required, particularly as we changed over from HF (e.g. the TR9) to VHF air-ground radio communications. A british designed set (the TR-1143) was sent to America for them to copy and produce in the vast numbers needed for the allied fighter effort (the SCR-522/542). This was done with other sets too, for example the RAF lifeboat set T1333 (I have one here) was adapted by the US into the ubiquitous ‘Gibson Girl’. These sets had probably the longest usage of any designed during the war, with the AN/CRT-3 examples given an additional HF channel and carried by aircraft and vessels into the late 1980’s.

Robs

Don,t think it,s a mystery.When the USA entered the war I think they standardised the radio gear.The same radios were used in P40,s etc here in Australia.Have seen them used in P47,s as well.