[Findm-Keepm]

The wires in your unit were probably ...upgrades made by NARF Alameda as part of a Vietnam-era push to use more of the "still useable, but antiquated" test and measurement equipment. There was an acronym for the program, but I can't recall it off the top of my head, but something like REFIT or REMIT. Vietnam war spending was eating into the DoD budget (sound familiar?) and Uncle Sam "reworked" a lot of test equipment to save acquisition costs. Even when they had to buy stuff, it was only DoD-modded civilian stuff to save on the design cycle. (TV-7's for example - proven design, just upgrades, hence the /A, D/U, etc.) The military cardamatic tube test sets were Hickok and RCA designs, only ruggedized and with 60-400 cycle, hermetically sealed power transformers.

Demil stuff went wa-a-y beyond cutting wires. Axes and sledges are the only two electronic demil tools I've ever seen. Chainsaws for aircraft fuselage use, and stuff that goes boom for rolling stock (tanks, etc).

Having worked on several of those tube testers in the Navy (we're talking my USS Forrestal cal lab days), it seems almost all of them had the NARF Alameda decal on the inside. It would've been a square decal, about an inch or so square with a round logo and NARF Alameda printed on it. They, and Redstone Arsenal reworked most of the GPETE (Gen Purpose Electronic Test Equipment) for the DoD. While most of the stuff was improved, some test sets got the Kapton-insulated wiring, which degrades under exposure to heat and hydraulic fluid. One fuel quantity test I worked on (after being reworked by Alameda) had to have several hundred wires replaced - no easy task when the new wire was PTFE coated, stiff, and hard as heck to strip.

Ah, those were the good days - when we were fighting a known, understood bunch of commies - and test equipment had a 30 year support cycle. Try buying multiple piece-parts for a 90's-era Tek or HP scope...

Cheers,