What I've Learned from Vintage Military Surplus Gear

How to build complicated equipment you can operate while being shot at

By Vin Marshall Posted 11.02.2009 at 4:59 pm 7 Comments

AN-GRR-5 Radio The somewhat famous Korean-War-era AN-GRR-5 shortwave radio receiver. Mine came to me without the case and the power supply / speaker unit. Luckily, it also came to me with a replacement for that unit that someone had built somewhere along the line. I'm always looking to complete the radio set if someone happens to come across one. In its full configuration, this was a radio that could be operated off of almost any power source available and with any improvised antenna. The controls are so solid that they convey a feeling of total indestructibility. I am also all but convinced that in its original case, it could be used a truck jack stand in a pinch. Vin Marshall

View Photo Gallery

Military surplus equipment is more than just cheap, weird and green. For me, it's a design study in what happens when usability and ruggedness are given priority and production cost is forgotten. Check out the photo gallery for two of the coolest pieces in my collection—the AN-GRR-5 shortwave radio and the TA-1042 digital field telephones—and read on for more on military gear and my favorite sources.

Thinking about how equipment gets used by the military, the need for good design should be obvious. People who are not necessarily guaranteed to have any particular higher education are going to have to operate some fairly complicated equipment, possibly while in the dark, possibly while in the rain, and possibly while being shot at. And it's entirely possible that said equipment was just parachuted out of a plane or used as a jack stand (I'm convinced that an AN-GRR-5 radio in it's original case could stand up as one).

Leaving aside the cost issues, I like to look at these pieces of equipment as a design study: How to build something that will be easy to operate and will continue working in almost any conditions. Doesn't that sound like a reasonable set of design goals for any type of equipment? While cost is certainly a very real factor, I view military design as a call to action for lazy or just plain bad designers using it as an excuse across the board.

As for where to find the gear, try local surplus stores (these can be a hit or miss affair), hamfests (if it is radio-related equipment), or ebay, which is where I picked up the phones and the shortwave in the photo gallery. When you want say, 10 pallets of surplus, check out GovLiquidation.

Share your favorite military surplus equipment and the best places to shop for it in the comments and on the PopSci Flickr pool.

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7 Comments

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Kyo003

11/02/09 at 10:27 pm

The TA-1042 is still in use with the Marines, at least they where as of 2005 when I was last active. Fucking great phones, if it's broken it's either the connections or you can see it.

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Kyo003

11/02/09 at 10:29 pm

By the way, if you'll notice there's one pin different in the connectors for the radio and the phone. Troubleshooting 101.

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rpenri

11/03/09 at 7:49 am

"The TA-1042 is still in use with the Marines, at least they where as of 2005 when I was last active,"

Lol...the Marines still use 50+ year old technology. I guess whoever is in charge of appropriations died a long time ago and no one ever bothered to update their gear.

In the Air Force, we use small communications devices on our chests that are shaped like arrows that we tap on or off. We don't even need to change radio channels or anything. We just call out our name and then the recipient of the communique and the computer does the rest.

PS...we also don't use LAVs or other land based vehicle to get around. We transport directly to the spot on the grid using advanced molecular construction/deconstruction technology.

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Azorus

11/03/09 at 7:59 am

Nice grab. makes me wish i had one.

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TechnoFreakFace

11/09/09 at 6:05 pm

yep...surplus stuff is great...have a store 10 miles from the house

i'd love to visit it more often, but after I buy everything I need...none of it needs replacement for the next 20 years...

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MarcusM

11/11/09 at 3:57 am

When civilian gear dies, it's basically an inconvenience and a hassle. When military gear dies, people could die too. That's why they are built that way. The military has some of the coolest stuff too; just check out the helmet mounted displays used by Apache helicopter pilots and fast jet jocks.

A study of Soviet military gear would be interesting too, such as their field telephones.

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vinmarshall

11/11/09 at 11:46 am

@MarcusM That's a great suggestion. I am totally down to do a study on Soviet military gear. I can't believe I didn't think of that already, actually. Any pointers on where to buy other than hunting for it on ebay?