Artifact 2-3-V-1 is a pair of cables with connectors recovered on February 4, 1996. (Photo attached.) They were found in the tumbled-down remains of the island's Carpenter Shop (see annotated 1953 aerial photo attached). Research subsequent to their recovery (1998) found that:
“The connectors are definitely of American design: however, that does not rule out their presence in British or Australian manufactured equipment. The connectors are of a type which is not widely used in World War II-vintage equipment. having largely been superseded by “UHF” type of coaxial connectors about the time of the war.
The cable itself is not a type of coaxial cable used for carrying radio-frequency power (i.e. for transmitting), or for carrying wide-band pulse information (except in a test setup, with short lengths of cable involved).
It appears to be of a pre-war design. This type of cable was employed as lead-in wire to connect a radio receiver to an antenna — in fact, it was manufactured as “automobile radio antenna cable.” Since the cable is a type which is easily flexible, it could well have come from a test setup. It could also have been used with any number of other devices. This type cable, and connector, were also found in aircraft radio applications in the 1930s and 1940s.”
Recently, with the help of Ron Badger (not yet a Forum subscriber) who collects and restores WWII-vintage aircraft radios and direction finders, we have learned that:
The connectors are a type known as a Jones #101. There may also be a military designation.
They were used on some Bendix WWII aircraft direction finders for antenna inputs but the coax cable construction predates the type of cable used on the 1943 Bendix MN-26 direction finder. Earhart's Bendix MN-5 loop did not use this kind of connector.
The Jones #101 connectors may also have been used on other radios and devices. We don't know if they were used exclusively in aviation applications.
Possible origins for 2-3-V-1 (as far as we know at this time):
• Earhart's Western Electric 20B receiver which had two antenna inputs - one for the two low frequency bands and one for the two high frequency bands.
• A receiver/direction finder on some WWII aircraft, probably early WWII. We need more research on when the coax cable construction changed.
• A radio associated with the nearby island radio shack.
• A radio associated with the U.S. coast Guard LORAN station.
FWIW, the artifacts we think may be heat shields from the Electra were found within a few meters of where 2-3-V-1 was found. None of the other artifacts known to be from aircraft were found in this part of the village.
The easiest way to eliminate 2-3-V-1 as possibly being from NR16020 may be to find a patent for the Jones #101 connector. If those connectors were not around in 1936/37 they couldn't be on Earhart's radios.
