Yellow Radios

Tucson, Arizona has a nice aerospace museum. While visiting, I saw this vibrant, yellow military emergency radio designed to be used by downed pilots. It was designed for Morse code operation, and had a big button labeled "KEY".


There was also a kite antenna on display. The kite was intended to support the emergency radio's antenna while the downed pilot floated in a life-raft.


Imagine bobbing around in the open sea after having been shot down... cranking the hand generator and keying - dididit dahdahdah dididit - hoping that your buddies would hear and be able to rescue you!

Reminds me of a good book: "FLYBOYS", written by James Bradley. The story of six
WW2 carrier pilots downed in the Pacific. Unbelievable stories. Anyway, these are my yellow radios. They may be more likely to send or receive a dahdahdididit dididitdahdah (73 which means "BEST REGARDS") than an S0S.









dahdit dahdahdit dahdahdahdahdit dahdidit (NG9D)