What is it? Set 270

[Michael Koblic]

What makes you say that?

[DoN. Nichols]

[ ... ]

I would agree.

Looking at that particular bug -- single frequency receivers would have a problem. Note that the open-air coil (inductor) is squished from its original shape. This would not keep it from working, but it *would* shift the frequency. And it is so easy to unintentionally squish it a bit more just handling to to its point of operation. After all -- you don't walk past the front desk of the embassy (or whatever) with it in the open resting in your palm. It goes into a pocket until you are where you need to install it.

I also don't see a source of power in the photo -- though coin cells might be hidden on the underside or otherwise behind other components. I know that pressure transducer style microphones can be small enough to be included in the components on the board.

:-)

I was impressed enough by the R-390A (if I remember it correctly), which went from audio up to 40 MHz. Amazing mechanicals inside, and tons of tubes. I remember being part of a communications experiment which had us on an Air Force base in Arizona with three of these operating in a duce-and-a-half -- generating a lot of unneeded heat in mid-summer. :-)

Enjoy, DoN.

[humunculus]

Because the written languages are different, and I live in Hong Kong. I could still be wrong, but I asked a friend who teaches Mandarin what the writing said, and he interpreted it for me and did not say 'by the way, its in Japanese, not Mandarin'.

--riverman

[David G. Nagel]

Both countries use the same character in their writing.

[humunculus]

Not entirely so. 'Kanji' is the form of Japanese writing that uses Chinese characters, but the vast majority of writing in Japanese uses only a very few Kanji forms, mostly limited to proper nouns, and mixes in the other forms of japanese writing. The other Japanese characters are considerably simpler and use fewer strokes, and are quickly identifyable as Japanese.

Its not impossible that this item is Japanese, with just two Kanji characters describing its name, but I think that would be quite unusual. For example, here is a WW2 Japanese sniper rifle with some Japanese writing on it

can see that this is not in Kanji: they are not Chinese characters.

--riverman

[humunculus]

I'm going to reply to my own post here. I could be wrong about the writing; not because japanese writing uses the same characters as chinese (it doesn't), but its possible that limited writing on military items could be entirely in Kanji. The rifle, for example, says '97 style' in both Mandarin and Japanese.

However, for the most part, Japanese writing makes limited use of Kanji, so this item could very easily be Chinese instead. But its not absolute.

--riverman

[humunculus]

:

OK, I'm going to stop digging my own grave here and admit I am likely wrong about the writing entirely. I didn't realize that the sniper rifle is a well-known Japanese arm called 'Type 97', and was made in Nagoya Japan. The form (using Kanji characters, ending with the character for 'style' and identifying the firearm by using a stamp in this format) is certainly Japanese in nature. The unknown pistol-grip thingy has the same format....'something' style--B. I think its Japanese, and from the same era as the Type 97 sniper rifle.

Walking away now...

--riverman

[Spehro Pefhany]

The two characters mean, respectively, "Peace" and "Left" individually, and in Mandarin are pronouced "an1 zuo3".

They are often used to phonetically (in Mandarin) translate "Enzo", if that might help. ("Anderson" is different).

Best regards, Spehro Pefhany

[humunculus]

e:

Unless your picture is a mirror image of mine, the second character isn't zuo3, its shi4, which means 'style' or 'type'. On zuo3, the vertical stroke is on the left, not the right.

I agree that the first character is an1.

-riverman

[David G. Nagel]

And now we know why Chinese and Japanese languages are so hard to learn to read and write.

[Michael Koblic]

Not so. There is a Japanese interpretation of both. The first character is "cheap" (onyomi=an, kunyomi=yasu[i]). It can be combined with many other kanji to form words that have nothing to do with "cheap". E.g. anzen (safety), anshin (peace of mind), fuan (unease). In fact I thought the character on the piece somewhat signified safety but I do not see the other kanji for "zen" which is almost invariably present in this context.

The second character *looks* like "left" but it is a mirror image of kanji for "left". Well, not quite, there is an additional stroke which I cannot see in the picture, but it is usually very tiny. This makes this a kanji for "model", "ceremony", "form" and in some context "style".

I have looked as hard as I could (those who use Japanese dictionaries will know that this is not a simple process :-) but could not find the two characters together in any context.

The kanji characters are in majority identical in their structure and meaning to the Chinese. Not always. In Japanese, however, the words can also be written independently in two alphabets using syllables: Hiragana for native words and katakana usually for foreign words (Hence "Makudonarudo" for McDonald's). The hiragana is used to modify kanji to express grammatical forms, particularly in case of verbs.

[Patrick Hamlyn]

Seems simple enough to me. This is the Japanese equivalent of the 'Peacemaker' :>

[humunculus]

e:

No different than minding your p's and q's....just in a different language. :-)

--riverman

[Leon Fisk]

Some food for thought...

From what I could find mucking about, England/Britain supplied many of the early Warships for Japan (~1900). This would have been around the time of the Dreadnoughts.

"...At this time the British were trying hard to build up Japan as a counterbalance to Russian power in the Far East

-- Britain's first overseas alliance was the Anglo-Japanese Pact of 1902. British shipyards continued building warships for the Japanese through WWI, and sharing techniques with Japanese shipyards as well. Meanwhile the Japanese were assiduously amassing the technical expertise and yard facilities to build for themselves. By 1904 Togo's fleet included 5 modern battleships and 8 armored cruisers, totaling about 60 vessels; two even more powerful pre-dreadnoughts were building in Britain, but were not completed in time for the war." From:

may help explain the odd combination of numbering and Kanji characters on the pistol grip thingy.

This old book makes mention of "Firing Keys".

about half-way down page 79:

"...the firing key is in the shape of a pistol grip. The operation is simple; pressure on the trigger establishes the electrical connection by bringing a spring in contact with a contact nut. The two electric wires project out from the muzzle or forward part of the grip. This system contemplates having the pointer keep one hand on the elevating wheel to point and the other on the pistol grip during firing."

This web page (slow to load, several images from manuals make up the page):

some discussion, schematics and diagrams concerning fire control mechanisms for large navy type guns.

I suspect it was a war souvenir and most likely others do too :)

Sure would like to hear/know the whole story behind it...

[Matthew Russotto]

[...]

And also a triangular-shaped device which is possibly a LPDA used for the UHF or microwave bands.

[Scott Lurndal]

Now there was a big heavy beast of a radio. Collins, IIRC. Still desirable for shortwave listeners. The ICOM R-1 handheld is/was much smaller and 3 decades newer.

scott