[Milsurplus] Re the Gibson Girl

[Hubert Miller]

Years back i came across in a 1940s or 1950s 'Radio News' magazine some photo caption or brief
remark an item about a "Gibson Girl Club". Supposedly this was some kind of play certificate given
to anyone who saved their group's lives by actually using the thing. 
I was not able, naturally, to learn any more about this "club". But i would like to.

If you don’t mind too much - i would very much like to see any link to mention of successful use 
of lifeboat radio, any reference, any lead.   To kargo_cult at msn dot com. 

Years back, in fact about 5 decades ago, i was reading some book about US Navy operations in the
Pacific War. Non fiction. It had this account of USN people in a lifeboat who supposedly heard on 
their lifeboat radio a USN warship communicating with others or base. I wondered for years what
kind of radio this was: TBX or one of those large RMCA things. But - TBX's were not lifeboat radios,
altho the manual has photo of one setup in small boat; and the RMCA thing only AFAIK only tuned
the 600 meter wave. I kind of realized today, that account might not be 100% factually true.  Plus,
the USN HF ship comms were certainly encoded, so the lifeboat guys would get nothing from 
overhearing it. The account does not, if i recall, mention that their own transmission saved them or
was it some other factor.

Lifeboat radios from the 1950s to 1980s are not hard to find today, altho most sellers seem to 
believe they have an incredible rarity. I suppose none or close to none were actually ever used,
except for emergency preparation exercises. These usually cover 500 and 8364 kHz and sometimes
also voice on 2182. I have a couple of these and my thinking was to use on 40 meters, an easy
conversion, with about 10 - 15 watts out. They can be pretty heavy, tho. I am still looking for the
manual for a couple later production RMCA ones. l found that with one of the later Scandanavian
transistor ones i could actually key and crank at the same time, altho probably that wouldn't be
real good CW. I thought it might be fun to check in with that maritime  re-creation station in CA
USA. 
-Hue Miller