Where Have All The Receivers Gone??

[SoCalvin]

Just thought I'd throw this out there and see what any ones thoughts are on the subject -- Why is it that the vast majority of USAAF flight helmets for sale/auction almost always have the receivers missing? You would think that an approximately equal amount of each would've been made but now it seems substantially fewer sets of receivers are available. They weren't more perishable than the helmets so what the hell happened to them all?  A decent set of ANB-H-1's appear to be going for $150+ which seems whack. Just sayin'.

[phantomfixer]

First thought the receivers are being stripped for resale, seems like a lot of work…

 

Second thought and most likely, the vast amount of surplus helmets never had the receivers…they were installed at the field level … those helmets were used and discarded, while the vast amount of stored helmets were eventually surplused, sans the receivers…

[SoCalvin]

Guess your are likely correct that there were just a lot more helmets manufactured than there were receivers. Just seems it would not have been skewed that drastically from one to the other 🤔 Obviously buy any and all receivers you can find 'reasonably' priced - lol

[Mikeym_us]

On 10/14/2025 at 3:30 PM, SoCalvin said:

Guess your are likely correct that there were just a lot more helmets manufactured than there were receivers. Just seems it would not have been skewed that drastically from one to the other 🤔 Obviously buy any and all receivers you can find 'reasonably' priced - lol

Actually you would find those receivers on later helmets during the Korean War up to Vietnam before being replaced by the Cast receivers. The early HGU-2 and the APH-5 helmets still used the WWII snap on mask receivers.

[AMT500E]

 

"Obviously buy any and all receivers you can find 'reasonably' priced - lol"

 

through all the years of collectors looking for ANB-H-1's, it's probably safe to assume that the supply

of both used and unused pieces have been grabbed up to the extent that they have become 

practically non existent. Same with the associated harness's.

 

I think the headsets from that period used the same speaker/receiver and reasonably priced.

Maybe, could be used in the flight helmets as well.

 

 

[amateuraero]

For the ANB-H-1 receivers, try:  flighthelmet.com ; garciaaviation.com ; b-17airdepot.com ; whatpriceglory.com  for replica earphone cables.