Story I found on the web about the Net on 3.885KC durning the Dayton Hamvention.
After hearing the first check in's to the net I was very pleased, my BC-611 restoration effort had been worth it and I was going to be able to participate in the military radio amateur event of the year, history in the making. Net control was assumed by Jim Karlow, KA8TUR on his BC 1306 powered by a DY-88. Slowly the troops checked in, was it my imagination or could I sometimes hear the leaf switch on the BC-611s clanking as they were was activated, slowly, all most methodically each check in took place. Some of the signals were very weak, I moved around to find just the right place for reception and was surprised, location does make a difference on 3885 using a BC-611 with its base loaded antenna. Did the squad radio man move around on the beach in order to communicate to the ship? Net control advised that we would all get to describe what we were using and our home locations etc. I carefully listened to hear the equipment list, the BC-611's finally emerging that were out there, where had they been hiding? A MAB and a DAV were heard. The only way to describe the moment was fantastic. It was a lot of effort by a lot of folks to restore those fifty year old walkie talkies and the other pack sets. Then all of a sudden the net was over, eerie-again as 3885 went silent, eerie-because the "Walkie Talkie" had again surfaced in mass, eerie-thinking of the history and the beach heads and fox holes that the radios had been used in, eerie-when thinking of that combat radio man that didn't have a BA-37 battery and thought to use a 50-CAL casing and a regular flashlight battery(BA-30) in his BC-611 eerie-thinking of the WW II design teams working day and night to make all this happen, eerie, because I am playing with a radio that is now history. eerie- because now there is only a slight hiss in the ear piece, because 3885 was now totally silent.
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