T-34 Radio

"Minutes of the Meeting of the Military Commission on March 3rd, 1940, on the trials of the A-34 tank

...

It was established that:

1. The position of the radio in the turret does not allow for proper work due to it being inconvenient to use the radio. The position of the radio does not permit the radio operator to do his job and overloads the commander, distracting him from his job. The location of the radio in the turret does not satisfactorily resolve the issue of radio communication.
2. The 71TK-3 radio installed in the tank is bulky and takes up a lot of space. The 71TK-3 radio is complex to produce and difficult to use (takes two hands to operate, individual receiver and transmitter units, lack of a duplex). The commission considers it necessary to ask the ABTU and Communications Directorate to ask the industry to produce a special tank radio that would satisfy requirements (compactness, simplicity of use, reliability when working at long range).
3. In order to better solve the issue of tank communication, the commission deems it necessary to ask the factory to develop a variant of installing the 71TK-3 radio in A-34 and A-32 tanks in the front. Produce the reworked radio installation variant no later than May 1st, 1940."

RGVA 31811-2-1181 p.56