"Jon Teske" wrote in message
...
On 8 Jan 2007 11:32:47 -0800, "John S." wrote:


Caveat Lector wrote:
Whether legend, myth, or fact, here is the best guess of the origin of
BA

THREE VERSIONS -- Opinions From The Internet.

Version I -- During World War II, Military Radio Techs used the term
BoatAnchor as they struggled with the huge, heavy, electronic
equipments of
the day -- full of transformers, tubes etc. Also the US Navy frequently
marked electronic gear with an anchor. After the war -- tons of the
equipment appeared on the surplus market and was dubbed BoatAnchors due
to
the reasons above - one or both.

Version II -- After WWII a national magazine editor answered a query "As
what to do with an outdated heavy, large, surplus electronic
instrument?"
and answered "Tie a line to it and use it as a BoatAnchor"

Version III A letter to the editor appeared on page 16 of the October
1956
issue of CQ and was as follows: Gentlemen: I recently acquired a "Signal
Corps Wireless Set. No. 19 MK II Transceiver." Are there schematics or
conversion data for this rig? Any info will be appreciated.

The editor replied: The only conversion we seem to have on the files
here at
CQ calls for 100 feet of 1" Manila line, one end of which is to be tied
securely around the MK II Transceiver.

This then converts the unit into a fine anchor for a small boat. If any
readers have better conversions we will be glad to hear about them. Ed.

Happy New Year -- CL

I'm sure that II and III could be verified as having been written after
reading microfillm copies of old magazines. I doubt that anyone could
come up with the origin of the term Boatanchor however. Who was the
first guy in supply to have uttered that or more coloful descriptives
as they hoisted them onto 6x6 trucks some place in the pacific.

I remember reading Version III when it came out (I was a newly
licensed kid of 14.) I think that was during the era when Wayne Green
W2NSD (later founder of "73" magazine) was the CQ editor and it is
indicative of his humor. I remember that he had also done a couple of
photos in this or a subsequent issue on the actual conversion process
outlined in the article.

As to whether this is the actual origin of the term, I would have no
idea and like the origin of the word "ham" to describe radio
afficionados of the licensed variety, the origin is probably
unprovable. Version III was at least the first time I heard the term.
During my government career which had a lot to do with radio and
radios, I remember cribbing this definition when I was asked what to
do with a bunch of excess radio equipment. I was in Guantanamo and we
had replaced a bunch of obsolete equipment. The fellows at the
facility I was upgrading asked what they should do with the old
equipment (a bunch of demodulators.) The regulations stated that they
were to box the stuff up and send it to a Navy depot. I wanted to
avoid that at all cost since every time I wanted to upgrade Navy
facilities with state of the art demods, I would get messages from the
"Big" Navy that they wouldn't fund the upgrades because they had over
200 of these old beasts in depots. While the "old beast" would sorta
do the job, it wasn't really a demod, but rather a tunable low
frequency voltmeter of 1940's vintage (this was in the early 80's) and
one was required for each channel, so a 24 channel system required
about 8 tall racks for installation vice a single small box for the
modern equivalent. I told the Commanding Officer I could suggest two
solutions...one was the "boatanchor", quite literally for the sailing
club to use a mooring anchors. I then asked the CO when was the last
time he had an emergency destruction drill. He could not recall ever
having one, so we took these old kluges out to the gunnery range,
stacked them up and put Thermite charges on the top of each stack and
reduced them to molten metal and glass. In our report to the "Big
Navy" we simply notated that the units were transferred to "a training
function" and would not be returned to depot.

W3JT

Oh wow great story "training function" no less
Thanks for adding to the lore.
CL