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Radio Direction Finder.Gun style. Magnetic Wave Detector. SpiralCone Antenna http://bit.ly/S4Yhng Not too big a leap from this device to the vibrating girdle VOR detector. The label (see photo number 8) looks suspiciously like the cut and paste DBC letters sent to newspapers. Quantico had best be looking into this right away. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Jo wrote Jo, How do you know it was a packet of money? If Duane wanted to dispose of unusable or incriminating currency, why trek to the NW and risk observation and possible arrest? He had a lot of experience in getting caught and I assume he'd learn something from that. I just don't buy the "plant portions of the loot to make it look like Cooper died" stories. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Yes, my typo, COG was supposed to be SOG Note the highlighted text below: I am just guessing, but I think the homing device may have been a simple transmitter that operated on or near the AM broadcast band. Ordinary transistor radios with ferrite bar internal antennas make pretty good DFs, but they have 180 degree bearing ambiguity. The ambiguity can be resolved by noting if the strength of the received signal increases or decreases as you walk the bearing. One account of MAC SOG gear talked about Sony radios, so maybe this is what was used to gather after landing. Again, just a guess. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Mr. Shutter wrote Ahh, the revered D 104 ic, I know it well. http://www.qsl.net/wa2mzf/d104.html If you have the black Night Eagle limited edition D 104 they fetch a BIG price these days. If Marla's uncle was DBC then the walkie talkies used would be super collectable. By her description, they were probably Midland brand. Wonder what happened to them? There must be MILLIONS of old CBs in attics and garages, gathering dust. I see them at garage sales once in a while, priced as low as a dollar. I do have one authentic Cooper relic, a genuine Tena Bar twenty. I don't want to diminish its status by displaying an alleged DBC CB walkie talkie type next to it, not just yet. I've been doing some research trying to find the gear used by the MAC COG jumpers to find each other on the ground at night in the N Viet Nam jungle. I've found quite a bit of info on gear used to find downed pilots, and even have a working example of a hand held 243.0 MHz DF, but the special ops jumpers used something else, allegedly some low freq transistor radios and beacons. The N Viet military were always listening on 243.0 MHz hoping to capture downed US pilots before they could be rescued. 243.0 MHz is the freq used by bailout beacons. Its an international military aircraft distress freq. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Good for you to have the guts to tell your story here, most wouldnt. If in doubt, dont jump, ever. Its not bad advice. Riding the plane down might get you ridiculed, but thats not such a big deal. Lets say you were climbing to jump altitude and you couldnt remember if you cocked your pilot chute, or armed your AAD or ... best bet is to just spend the $20 for a round trip plane ride. As for being scared to exit, it will start to attenuate around 30 jumps or so. I was really scared on my first freefall jumps. They didnt have AFF or tandems back then. You just exited alone and hoped you could stay stable. Eventually you learned. Now 43 years later, exiting isnt scary, but my heart rate still acclerates after I toss my pilot chute and am waiting for my canopy to open. This sport never loses its thrill because no matter how long you've been doing it, there is always some aspect that gives you a big shot of adrenaline. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Jo wrote Jo, For the n'th time, the answer is NO. Radio reception inside a metal fuselage is really compromised, which is why airliners have ALL their communication and navigation antennas mounted on the exterior. I was a year away from my EE degree in 71 and was as you put it "communication savvy." Even if I could place radio beacons in known locations, and hope to get a fix on them with a small radio direction finder, it wouldnt work from inside the plane. You keep coming back to this and I keep telling you it wouldnt work. Will you keep asking until you find someone who agrees with you that: "There has to be something REALLY simple no one has thought of that could have been used by a communications savy individual in 1971."? The answer from this radio nut is NO. Nobody would like a radio angle to DBCs exit navigation more than I would, but it just isnt in the cards. Can you accept that or not? My word isnt gospel but I am pretty well informed about radio stuff. Snowmman is even better, but he isnt here. Georger knows a lot about radio, but he wisely keeps his addictions separated. I don't know how DBC decided where to exit, or if he had any idea where he was, but I can tell you for sure that radio played no role in his exit decision. No transponders, no vibrating VOR detecting girdles, no homing beacons, no DFs, nada. Just one guy making an incredibly risky decision without a lot of information 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Mr Shutter wrote Back in the 60s and early 70s the FCC maximum CB power for AM was 5 watts of input to the final amplifier stage. Later, as I recall, it was changed to 4 watts of output power. Output power is a lot easier for the FCC to measure. In 1971 there were dozens of 5 watt CB walkie talkies to choose from. 10-4? 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Mr Shutter wrote: Well to begin with, THIS is my favorite Citizens Band activity these days: http://www.yelp.com/biz/citizens-band-san-francisco CB and 10 meter bands are not all that different propagation wise because they are nearly adjacent on the spectrum. The upper end of CB is channel 40 which is 27.405 MHz. The lower end of the 11M band is 27.000 MHZ, only 595 KHz difference, which is roughly the spectrum difference beetween Ch 1 and CH 40 on the CB. Do you think CH 1 and Ch 40 on CB are very different propagation wise? With 5 watt CB walkie talkies, which were widely avaiable in 1971, someone on a peak of 5000 ft could have had a line of sight talking radius of one hundred miles. That covers a lot of territory. http://www.calculatoredge.com/electronics/lineofsight.htm I never tried for 100 miles with CB Walkie Talkies but I could REGULARLY get 10 miles between a pair of 100 milliwatt (0.1 watt) Lafayette brand superhet CB walkie talkies when one was on an estimated 1000 ft mountaintop and the other was line of sight by the shore of SF Bay. Look at how far people have talked on FRS walkie talkies: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PMR446 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

I didn't miss it. I allegedly suffer from the malady. Soon to be added to DSM... Something about grandiose ideation, delusional beliefs and obsession rolled in for good measure. Would Prozac help? What does you doctor say? I just re-read parts of Sheridan Petersons novel, The Idiots Frightful Laughter. I'd LOVE to have Bruce interview Pete about certain themes and events. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Jo I don't think you could use CB radio to communicate an exit point. Too many variables and CB radios wouldn't work well inside a jet fuselage. Forget any automatic beacon device to signal an exit point as impaired reception inside an aluminum fuselage would preclude its effective use. I do, however, think that an accomplice located on a high peak within 15 miles of the LZ could communicate with DBC post parachute landing. It's just a hypothesis. Zero evidence that radio was used. Well, at least no evidence that I find credible. Marla says CB walkie talkies were used. Someone needs to do some more radio research with her, at night, in the woods. I nominate Farflung. I don't think DBCs hypothetical radio comms would sound especially suspicious before people knew about the skyjack. He and his accomplice could make it sound like hunters or campers arranging a rendezvous. A trick I used with a childhood friend to prevent CB eavesdropping was for one of us to switch crystals to do cross band comms. Only one side of our conversation could be heard on one channel. Why my obsession with radio? Dunno. It's always intrigued me. What else can go through walls at the speed of light and remain silent unless detected and demodulated by a receiver? 73-88 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Jo wrote Many of us care Jo, just few agree with your conclusions. The dredge image comparison software was a joke, sort of a spoof on the face match software. Stinging from my slap down by Farflung I opened my UC Berkeley Alumni magazine and there on page 61 it said on a banner: FARFLUNG get lost. Turned out that Farflung is a travel authors pen name and his monthly column is entitled "get lost". Farflung often repeats his forum mantra too, but its worded so cleverly and differently each time that I can't possibly complain. That man should write for the New Yorker or some other popular journal of similar intellectual pedigree. He is so funny sometimes that I actually laugh out loud. The rains have started so ill probably postpone my CB radio jump experiment until spring. Can't get that custom jumpsuit and new canopy all muddy. No no no. Maybe I'll invite Blevins to monitor my channel with his old Midland Walkie Talkie. Believe it or not I communicated about 900 miles on a one watt walkie talkie on the 10 meter ham band which is right next to the Citizens Band. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

I obtained some proprietary dredging spoils image comparison software and scanned my Cooper twenty. The software has confirmed that the Tena Bar money marks match the marks on spoils discharged by a particular Army Corps of Engineers dredge that was working a Columbia River section near Tena Bar not long before the money was found. Dredges, like guns, leave unique marks on the items discharged through their pumps and pipes. Makes sense. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

farflung wrote How did you get my home address Farflung? 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Can we take a break and talk about something DBC related instead of trading insults? How about dredging? Snowmman went really deep on this topic and so did Georger. How about investigating whether the story about a debris field of currency shards around Tena Bar is fact or fiction? How about figuring out where the Amboy chute came from. It was allegedly partially buried. I'd love to see if the attachment hardware on the lower portion of the risers if it was recovered. That would tell me a lot about what the chute might have been used for. If cuts were made to extract the canopy then some portion of the lines and risers are still buried and an excavation could be done. Was there a harness that remained in the ground? I can find name calling and insults anywhere on the Internet. This used to be one of the few places where substantive DBC conversations took place. Now its just another net cesspool. Can we go back to substantive DBC dialogue once in a while? Non stop flaming gets pretty tiresome. I wish Quade would look at inequalities in his ban decisions. People who have done worse than Snow, even after warnings and bans, are back on the forum. It must have been Snow telling Q to fk himself, which is admitedly rude and asking for trouble, but it doesnt, in my opinion, deserve an irrevocable permaban. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Blevins wrote I think if Orange 1 asked him to return, he might. They had some good synergies around SE Asia topics. Speaking of O, tell us O if you are still reading even if not posting. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

I too worry about Sluggo. My emails have gone unanswered. Snowmman is doing fine. He is currently applying his considerable intellect to a cutting edge tech project. I don't even know if he'd return here if allowed, but I'd sure like to find out. A keystroke and some forgiveness is all it would take Quade. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

As we get further off topic and infighting becomes the central theme instead of a sideshow, the need for Snowmman's return, and Sluggo's too, becomes crucial. Quade, enough time has passed. The septic pool needs a shot of chlorine. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Farflung wrote: Were he still alive Duane might have been awakened by a phone call from Stockholm and his money worries would have been over. Somewhere there is a schematic of Duane's invention, which would be more far more important than a hot Cooper $20 and the ransom note. Jo wrote that Duane had no ememies. Excuse me Jo. Are you forgetting about his 26 arrests? There were likely a few enemies on the other side of his crimes. I'd also like to see some proof that Duane left money in his victims purses to get them through a day. It would be quite remarkable were that proven to be true. I represented a lot of accused robbers and thieves. Their family members at sentencing hearings would talk about how basically good and kind they were, but not one of those accused ever left money on the table so to speak. I'll bet Duane didn't either. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Jo wrote Again Jo, nobody is asking you to reveal the source, just the supposed contents of these files you believe are so crucial. Sometimes you dont realize how empty your posts are. You want people to help you obtain some secret files from a secret person for a purpose that is also secret. If you said more, you claim that the FBI would swoop in and suppress or destroy those crucial records. Yawn.. Wake me up when you have some substantive evidence. For someone who claims they have little time left, you sure take the long road. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Not asking for names Jo, just details about what the records you seek purport to prove. Your selective partial disclosures and teases are counterproductive. They discourage people who might otherwise be inclined to help you with your investigation. 377 I am being selective because it is confidential and if I mentioned the source - then I would NEVER have access to these vital records and ledgers. Someone on my behalf has tried to obtain the "records" but the person who is in possession of these records for some reason has not made any arrangements for our access. What the other party does NOT understand is that without my access - any information that might help is of NO Value - if one does NOT know what they are looking for. I don't need inpertintent info - but, there are targets withing these "records" that I do need access to. If you want to know more - then pick up the phone and make a phone call - I do not have CALLER ID! Sorry Jo, show your cards face up on this forum or count me out. Not interested in phone calls about confidential files, secrets, records etc. If you want this case solved, put ALL your evidence on the table. If you seek only to prove that Duane was DBC, then play the game any way you wish. You wonder why the FBI shows no interest in helping you. The rest of us dont wonder. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Speaking of trust, some jumpers used to carry what were called tertiary canopies, a second reserve. Never seen one. I wonder if a tertiary ever saved a jumper's life? If I had a tertiary it would be a round canopy for sure. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

I met Bob at a WFFC in Rantoul. I kick myself for not asking him to sign my logbook. Prior to Felix's balloon jump I'll bet the Johnny Carson jump that Bob set up had the largest TV audience. It did a LOT to popularize skydiving. It appeared to go flawlessly and the filming was really well done. Carson was a brave guy and a decent flyer. Celebrity jumpers don't always do so well. Look at the videos of Richard Branson's (Virgin Airlines owner) jump to see how badly some go. I'd love to see Bob appear on Jay Leno's Tonight show (or Conin's or Jimmy's) and be interviewed about the Carson jump. Then, he talks the host into making an AAF. Next show presents the video. Now is the time to do it, while the audience is still on a Felix high. The bump in viewership would be huge. Everyone would tune in to see Jay Leno in freefall. It would be full circle for Bob Sinclair. Just a thought. 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

I disagree Georger. Unless Cooper could jump, he was certain to be captured. I believe he knew he could jump the 727. I was a skydiver and an aviation buff in 71. Jumping unusual planes was an interest. It never occurred to me that a 727 was jumpable. I'd have expected door interlocks to prevent inadvertent depressurization, perhaps controlled by squat switches in the landing gear oleos so that a pressurized 727 on the ground could quickly deploy the stairs if needed in an emergency. I'd also have expected a rather severe pitch down moment from an air stair deployed into the airstream during flight, perhaps beyond the ability of elevator trim to allow for yoke neutral level flight. Sure, ignorant idiots jumped from jets and landed safely, but Cooper left clues that distinguished him from these lucky Whuffos. He gave specifics: flap settings, pressurization command, landing gear configuration, altitude limit. All designed for slow flight and plenty of ambient oxygen in the depressurized cabin. I think Cooper knew that 727s were jumpable. The number of people who had that knowledge in 1971 was small. The pilots and FE didn't know. NWA flight ops didn't know. Boeing did know and it wasn't an educated guess. It was based on knowledge from extensive flight tests allegedly financed by the US govt who wanted the ability to use the 727 for covert airdrops. I think Sheridan Peterson may have known this from his work at Boeing in tech documentation. Ted Braden may have known it from having be in special ops in Viet Nam. I bet the list of people with this knowledge who also had the skills to make the jump is small. Could Cooper have been an ignorant lucky Whuffo? Yes. Do I think he was? Nope. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Jo wrote Not asking for names Jo, just details about what the records you seek purport to prove. Your selective partial disclosures and teases are counterproductive. They discourage people who might otherwise be inclined to help you with your investigation. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.

Jo wrote Jo, All those alleged 727 design documents would not have answered the basic questions about whether the plane was jumpable. The answer isn't found in system diagrams or schematics. 377 2018 marks half a century as a skydiver. Trained by the late Perry Stevens D-51 in 1968.