[Milsurplus] TBY-8 batteries

[Hue Miller]

A topic scintillating with interesting ideas and opinions.
I particularly appreciated Roger B.'s comments on the actual 
magnitudes of threat.

I don't have a counter handy at present, but i recall being 
particularly appalled when i counted the TBX-8 some years
back. Steve Bartkowski told me that the Japanese little
one tube talkie, 94-6 Type, outdoes the USA products,
however, in this regard.  I had been gradually transitioning
out of the -8 versions of TBX and TBY toward the earlier
ones, but especially in the case of the TBX, that is getting
hard to do, as the later model is more attractive in some
ways, for one thing, having the vibrator power supply.  I am
constantly rethinking that decision.  Yes, being an afficionado
( i have come to dislike that term "collector", which seems to
often to veer off into some kind of disorder ) seems to involve
continual fussing about such minutiae.
Now as the the battery: i'd thought about the same thing: using
a very fine tooth saw and as artfully as possible, lifting to top.
Possibly fortunately, due to several changes of city in the last
few years, i have not gotten near to  attempting anything like this.
Probably as the bag covers the battery anyway, it might be best
simply to build a supply from scratch to the same size, and 
retain the battery for a static display item outside the TBY carry
unit. One reason i had disliked the idea of even trying to use the
original battery, even if it were solid and usable, is the weight:
certainly the battery weight + the radio weight would give you a 
more realistic idea of what it was like to haul this radio around a
combat scene, but i am not really convinced that the TBY carry
bag is so well designed for long-term use. I mean i suspect the
design of how the carry straps attach to the bag, is not  the best way
to do things. I think Eddie Bauer would have sent it back for 
redesign. I noticed some thinning of the connective threads on
some TBY bags i have owned, which of course got me to worrying
and fussing. 
Truth to tell, i was thinking that plugin replacements for the glass
amplifying devices might be a way to go. The input power to the
transmitter might go to a modest fraction of the original power, but
at least you would be done with getting various crazy voltages 
together. And it would be ready for the generations after ours.
Maybe. It might not sound original and  possibly would have much
less of an authentic time-travel vibe.
One idea i like, mentioned by Ken Lakin: a 3rd overtone xtal, for
10meters, say, and tack-soldered from grid to grid of the oscillator,
so you could talk to the later gear. -Hue Miller