KW - 9
Maurice Cammack recalls his experiences with the KW-9. "We communicated
securely with KW-9's using AN/GRC-46 RTTY vans, homemade MSC-29s (using
TT-76s, TT-4s, TCC-14's all mounted on wooden benches and racks) and in
the Base CommCen at Camp Page. We also had two homemade rigs, mounted on
3/4 ton trucks for NAICP response communications.
Without exception, we were lucky to get 3 or 4 messages out before
losing sync and having to reconnect. The 8th Army support element
for our crypto was run by CWO Freshwater. Mr. Freshwater issued us extra
baskets and rotors when we were in the field. I put one guy on,
full-time, just cleaning, and setting up spare baskets so that we could
swap out anytime that sync was lost.
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These CE91798 diodes were part of the TSEC/KW-9
translators. Mounted on the bottom of the KW-9 rotor stepping
unit, there were two translator blocks with hexagonal shaped
holes (like honey combs) filled with dozens of these diodes.
(Photo and copy courtesy George Mace) |