This airman doesn’t look particularly happy about being forced down in the middle of nowhere, but there’s a glimmer of hope in the form of the AN/CRN-16 radio beacon that he’s feverishly cranking.  The set weighed in at only 2-1/2 pounds, a marked contrast to the famous “Gibson Girl” AN/CRT-3 from World War II.  The CRT-3 had a range of over a thousand miles thanks to its 500 kHz signal and large antenna, but it was bulky, and there was always a possibility of it being lost at sea while trying to transfer it to a lifeboat.  The new model operated on 140.58 MHz, which only covered line of sight.  But a plane at 2000 feet would be able to pick up the signal 50 miles away.  The main advantage of the VHF signal was the short antenna.

As with the original Gibson Girl, the hand crank served two purposes. First, it ran a generator to power the set. It also generated the Morse code message.  The picture appeared on the cover of the August 1949 issue of Popular Mechanics.