[ARC5] Re: ARC-5 production data

[David Stinson]

The Command Set crystals were produced both for a "standard"
freq for each transmitter model and
for specific operational channels.
I have crystals for the "civilian" airways freqs of 3105
and 6210 KC and also the Army Airways primary,
which I forget at the moment- 44xx something.

As for the production numbers of "common" models-
the only person who might have any reliable information
would be Gordon White, and to whom (among others- Thanks, Wally),
I am indebted for a large percentage of the data I have.
We have some good info on the earlier and rarer sets:

RAT:   50 sets of two receivers each
        (Less than ten survivors are known).

RAT-1: 50 sets of two receivers each.
        (Less than ten survivors are known).

RAV: 46 sets of eight receivers each
      (three receivers are known to be in private hands).

GT/RBD:  Later re-nomened "ATA/ARA,"
   at least 20 sets are documented delivered to the Navy
   in April of 1941.  None are known to have survived.

A.R.C. produced SCR-274N: About 2500 sets.
   Of an initial order (1470-NY-41) of 8000,
   later expanded to 28,142 sets.
   In May of 1941, Western Electric subcontracted to A.R.C.
   to produce the rest under a different order (1509-NY-41),
   using many of the A.R.C. sets as production standards.
   A.R.C. went on to concentrate on Navy work.
   Both 1470-NY-41 and 1509-NY-41 are uncommon, because
   most production went straight into early service,
   leaving few to trickle-down to us.

WECo Signal VHF SCR-274N: about 1000 sets.

A.R.C. AN/ARC-5 Tunable VHF sets:
   50 sets of two transmitters and two receivers.
   The number in private hands is not known, but
   estimated at less than ten of each componant.

I have read estimates that total production of MHF receivers
was on the order of 140,000 and, of LF receivers, 400,000+,
but I have no firm figures.

Trying to get good figures for some of these sets
is like sticking your hand in a bucket of eels;
there are several companies working on versions or componants
of sets, some nomenclatured the same as another,
some building competing pieces or sub-contracted pieces,
parts of "SCR-274N" going in for pre-production evaluation
seemingly a month after some are already in production,
etc., and all in the same time frame.
It's a big, tangly, writhing mess.
I don't think it can be straighted-out
unless and until someone spends years of their retirement
digging in the archives.
In the mean time, we'll make do with what we can find.

Several contracts were cut short in 1945 as
the end of the war approached and VHF began
to come into general use (which didn't happen
in the Navy until war's end, by the way).
While HF AN/ARC-5 use continued for many years,
there doesn't appear to have been any MHF transmitter
production after 1945 (there was an attempt to sell
the ARC-5 to the commercial market in 1946-47, but
it's likely these were contract left-overs, rather
than new runs; A.R.C. was too frugal for that).

Regards,
David S. AB5S