Hy there,
After finishing up my M8 HMC from Tamiya I just can’t find the length of antenna anywhere.
Who has the answer for me?
Thanks in forward
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It’s entirely dependent on the type of radio(s) installed in the vehicle.
Modelling US WWII and Korean War Tank Antennas
Most likely an SCR-508 (or variant thereof) and, possibly towards the end of the war, an AN/VRC-3.
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I came up with the SCR 210/510, with your SCR-508 it would be 9 foot,
that’s fine by me, that would be 7,84 cm in 1/35. Thanks!
And what a nice paper about antennas! Great help!
The detailed technical instructions for installation of the radios in the M8 HMC are contained in this manual:
Technical Manual TM 11-2727 Radio Installation in 75mm HMC M8
Since the M8 75mm HMC was a self-propelled howitzer and not a tank, it would have been equipped with the SCR-510 radio set which was a standard artillery set (also used in the US tank destroyers like the M10, M36 and M18).
(I should have realized this earlier. I had assumed that since the M8 HMC was used in units also equipped with the M5 light tank that they would have had the same radios. The M8 HMC was considered an artillery AFV and not an armor branch vehicle… sigh…)
There were two different antenna mast base types used with the SCR-509, 510, 609 and 610, each with its own different type of antenna mast. The mast base MP-48 would have used three mast sections MS-51. MS-52 and MS-53. The mast base AB-15 would have used three mast sections MS-116, MS-117 and MS-118.
You are correct that each of these mast (antenna) types would have been about 9’ long.
However, earlier in the war before the use of shielded coaxial cable between the radio set and the mast base (and only with the MP-48 type base), a heavy insulated copper lead W-128 would have been used. In this case, only two mast sections, MS-51 and MS-52 would have been used making the mast (antenna) only about 6’ long. The difference in length was because the W-128 wire was, itself, a radiating element and its length was included in the overall antenna length measurement.
You can find all of the details about the radio set, SCR-510, in this manual:
TM 11-615 Radio Sets SCR-509 and SCR-510
To add a bit more complexity, there were also radio sets SCR-609 and 610 which were nearly identical and also used alongside the SCR-509 and 510 (all four sets could be netted together depending on the frequency crystals installed in them - each set had two possible frequencies pre-set in it through the use of these crystals).
The installation instructions for the SCR-609 / 610 sets are the same as for the SCR-509 / 510 sets.
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Very enlightening, again!
Thanks!