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Comm. Wire roll with strap


pushingtheenvelope
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pushingtheenvelope

I picked up this roll off communication wire for a field phone at a flea market today. This is my first roll in my collection so I don't know much about it. It is manufactured by F&H MFG. and is marked DR-8-A. On the handle it is marked RL-89-B. The strap is marked ST-35. I would apperciate some information on this.

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Your reel is a DR-8-A like you stated, yours is the darker OD making it pre 80's. I don't know exactly when they changed over from the darker OD to the newer green CARC. The handle has a cotter pin in one end of the axle that you can take out and remove it from the reel. The ST marking on the strap shows that it is used for communications, which this is what it is used for, holding the reel crank while you spool out the wire or wind it up. Your reel is a 1/4 mile reel, they do make a one mile reel, it's about two feet in diameter and sits in a cradle that you mount on the back of a truck to operate. These reels are used in squad to company level field phones predominately. TA-1's, TA-312's and company switch boards.

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pushingtheenvelope

Thanks for the information. I should have done some research before I purchased it. I bought it thinking that it was WWII period so I hope I didn't loose too much. How much are these going for, are they desired by collectors?

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Check the thread on the straps, is the thread nylon? If so, it is probably vietnam vintage. If not, probably somewhere around KW or twixin the wars.

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Lucky 7th Armored

Small world... hahaha i had a feeling i might see this on here.. I'm pretty sure I talked to you for about 5 seconds today at the fleamarket. By the guy selling the beat up musette bag and the other bag, was that not you? I was the one wearing the flyers hat.

 

Haydn

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  • 11 months later...

I picked up a DR8-A today, in like new condition, dark, dark green. I thought that I wanted WWII, but mine

is going to get handled a lot, and if the DR-8's are WWII era, it'd be a shame to break one. I'm going to set up

a pair of E8 phones at car shows, and let kids talk to Dad on a real WWII phone. The A model is probably the right one.

Did I overpay? I paid $30 for a like new DR8A. Seemed okay to me.

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You have CE-11 reel equipment, you also need two TS-9 sound powered telephone hand sets with the ST-33 straps to complete the set. These units were in use during the war and were as popular as the radio sets like the SCR 611 and SCR 300, an important piece of wire comunication kit. The reel alone can be used with the E88 phones but the correct phones with this is the TS-9's.

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Think you mean the TS-10 Sound Powered Phone. The TP-9 was a powered phone that also worked on field wire, had about 3 times the range of the EE-8 models since it has an amplifier built into it. I got one, you need like 3 22 volt batteries and 2 D Cells to run it.

But for regular Infantry type communication, up to at least Battalion level-TS-10s and EE-8s are the proper phones.

The TS-10 is really a pretty good phone once you get guys to listen for it, with no ringer you have to whistle or yell into the handset to get the other guy's attention. But the things are almost bullet proof. You can see in one "Battleground" when SSG Kinnie is calling for artillery fire on the crossroads. He picks up a handset, doesn't crank anything, whistles into it(spits out a big wad of chew) and then says something like "Give me the Artillery".

We have a couple sets of TS-10s that we use and we "hot loop" them at events. As long as there is a phone attached to each end of the wire, you can add as many in between as you want by pushing the pins in the wire clips through the insulation on the field wire. Never have to cut the reel of wire. You can do the same with EE-8s, but you have to cut one strand-does not matter which- and attach it to the binding posts. The drawback of this set up is that if you take any phone out of the system and don't twist the wire back togther (or splice it as commo guys say) the whole system goes dead.

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Oh sorry forgot-the Reeling Machine is an RL-39, in your case "B". The only change between the WWII ones and the post war, actually the ones in the 80s and up, is that the handle is wood on the earlier ones and plastic on the later ones. All the ones I had in my Infantry Platoon in the late 90s had wood handles. The idea of not using a WWII one is great, if you get one with the plastic handle, just repaint it a WWII OD and wrap the plastic handle with either electrical tape or friction tape. Couple days in the rain and mud and you will not even be able to tell. The difference between the DR-8 and DR-8-A is simply the number of holes on the side of the reel opposit the wire binding posts; the DR-8 had only one set of holes, the DR-8-A has I think 6, would have to go run out and count them. There may be some other subtile differences-the color of the plate holding the binding posts or the "metalurgy" of the whole thing. But, it has maintained the same size and design all along.

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Very early morning post, yes you are right, TS-10 handset and EE-8 ringer phone. Just wondering if you can use the two together even though the ringer will not do anything but if the ringer was activated would it do any harm to the sound powered ear pieces ie blow them. Apart from that a great bit of kit to play with giving the public a piece of history to experiance. The TS-10 hand sets (4) i have are all mint and marked with 44 and 45 MFP dates which i bought for £7 each at a show. Seens to be plenty about especialy from Europe as the Dutch guy i bought them from had a box full.

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1SG_1st_Cav

We used these in the Field Artillery at least while I was in from 1960 to 1980. Each Gun Section had one and it was used to lay wire from each gun section to the XO Post. We also had another set to lay wire from the Btry FDC to the XO Post, and another to go to the Btry Commo Section Switchboard. A the Bn level, we used those to run wire from our Bn FDC to the Bn Switchboard. Also, when we executed a Bn Jump FDC mission. I moved forward with a small contingent from the Bn Operations Section with my Map Board, a Range Deflection Protractor with Tabular Firing Tables on it. And I carried a TA-312 Telephone, a headset, and a DR-8 to run wire to the Bn wire head. We also had a 3/4 Ton Truck with a radio remoted to wherever I was set up, usually under a tree or a poncho strung for shelter/shade. This was back in the early to mid 1960's in Germany. My job was to establish commo, and control the fire of whichever Firing Battery remained in place while the Bn FDC moved to my location and the other two Firing Batteries moved to their next location, set up, and established commo.

 

Those DR-8 reels were just the right size for what we needed to do. Danny

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