[ARC5] Re: [Milsurplus] Re: ARC-5 Tuning Splines & Right Angle Connectors

[Tino Zottola]

Hello Todd,

Your speculation makes perfect sense. If I was inside
a B17 or B24 about to be scrapped 40 years ago, I
would have carted off the radio equipment and control
boxes and would NOT have bothered with mounts that
needed to be drilled out or cable assemblies that
needed to be cut off. It makes sense that the
salvagers would have gone after the high value items
and left the apparently low value stuff for the
melting pot.

Then the irony is that the stuff that survived, would
have mostly probably would up in the hands of eager
hams with their hacksaws, cutters and soldering irons
ready to chop it up or modify it beyond recognition.

It is scary to read old surplus conversion books. 
- "The BC375E is useless in its current state, but
makes a nice source of transmitter parts". Then my
book proceeds in horrific detail for 3 pages on how to
disassemble the unit.
- "To modify ARC-5 receiver, toss out the dynamotor
... and drill two holes in the front panel for the
gain control and headphone jack ...."

To assemble one entire ARC-5 tranmitter and one entire
ARC-5 receiver, I had get about 4 scrap units to do a
passible restoration per final unit.

I am very surprised any specimans from WW2 that
resemble their original state even still exist.

73s,73s

Tino VE2GCE


--- Todd Bigelow - PS <tbigelow@pop.state.vt.us>
wrote:
> My speculation on this is that the shockmounts often
> ended up left
> riveted or bolted to the aircraft and went off to
> the smelter, whereas
> the racks just snapped off easily. Perhaps
> connectors and wiring
> harnesses to a lesser extent met the same fate. Add
> to this that many of
> the surplus dealers apparently advertised the radios
> alone to the ham
> market and you start to get the picture. Radios seem
> most plentiful,
> followed by accessories like control boxes and
> racks(certain ones more
> plentiful than others), then connectors, and finally
> shockmounts.
> Splines and the right angle adapters seem to show up
> at least as
> regularly as the connectors, maybe moreso.
> 
>  Sure makes assembling a complete set up a real
> adventure in patience
> and resourcefulness. I'm working on an ARC 5 and
> ARA/ATA station
> simultaneously. It's the only way I could deal with
> the frustration of
> finding an item I needed, but for a different line
> of radios. Okay - so
> it's also a good reason to have more radios...
> 
> 73 de Todd/'Boomer'  KA1KAQ
> 
> Tino Zottola wrote:
> 
> > Hello Todd, Mike and others
> >
> > Thanks for the clarification on this.
> >
> > I am currently putting together a 40m /80m ham
> station
> > exclusively from ARC-5 components. I noticed that
> Fair
> > Radio was selling MC-136 and MC-124 parts for a
> good
> > price and I was hoping this parts interchangeable
> with
> > the ARC-5 series. I guess I will try to go the
> ebay
> > route.
> >
> > It is strange how the ARC-5 RXs, TXs, control
> boxes go
> > for reasonable prices on ebay. But the connectors,
> > racks, dynamotors, etc. fetch hefty prices. I
> guess
> > this is supply and demand.
> >
> > 73s,73s
> >
> > Tino VE2GCE
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Milsurplus mailing list
> Milsurplus@mailman.qth.net
> http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/milsurplus


__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Send FREE Valentine eCards with Yahoo! Greetings!
http://greetings.yahoo.com