FW: [ARC5] ARN-30 VHF navigation receiver

[Taigh Ramey]

I have an ARN-30 in my Beech RC-45J that has always been there and it still
works too...for the most part...the localizer works but the VOR needs help. 

I have posted three shots of the radios and the control heads in the Beech
RC-45J on my web site at:

http://www.twinbeech.com/images/RC-45J/radios/DSC02177.JPg

http://www.twinbeech.com/images/RC-45J/radios/DSC02182.JPG

http://www.twinbeech.com/images/RC-45J/radios/DSC02183.JPG


The ARN-30 has the flex shaft tuning control to the head in the cockpit, the
grey box on the right side of one of the DSC02182 image.

The ARC-5 works too although it looks scrappy, but it is the original and
un-restored gear that was in this Beech when I got her. This Beech was
retired from the Navy in 1972 and I have tried to keep her as original as
possible inside and out. Keeping the original radio gear in the Beech at all
times worth while when I run into a Navy radio specialist at an air show who
looks inside and comments about the smell of the old radios which he hasn't
thought about in 30+ years. 

I love the stories about grappling an ARC-27 (77 pounds of hermetically
sealed history) in and out of the rack in the Beech and the modifications to
the rack to get at the connectors. This is why all of the old radios are in
my Beech. Sure it adds about 1000 pounds to the aircraft but it is just as
important to me that the radio guys get to re live their memories as the
pilots. More so actually because the mechanics, air crew and ground crew
never seem to get any credit. To me it is an insult to the rest of the air
and ground crew members if their military gear isn't installed. It never
ceases to amaze me when I hear the argument that "that junk weighs too
much". I heard this from a B-25 owner one day. I wonder if he could feel the
difference flying his B-25 with or without the radios installed. I have
flown our B-25 loaded with several tons of gear and bags heading off to
Oshkosh and I am hard pressed to tell the difference when two 1700 horse
power Curtis Wrights are doing their best to impair my hearing. Our B-25,
like many others today, has a basic empty weight of 18,200 pounds. The all
up combat weight in a B-25J was 36,000 pounds. How can you feel, or even
calculate, the difference that a thousand pounds of radios might make? 

The other one that sends me off is that they might put the radios in but
they will gut them out to save weight. This might have been an issue in the
Goodyear Inflatoplane, but is the few pounds of weight savings really going
to make a difference? I don't think so and I am trying to convince others of
this as well. And yes, I know that the Goodyear Infaltoplane didn't carry
radios!

On the good side many Warbird owners and restorers are coming around slowly.
I have been fortunate to be able to judge Warbird's at EAA's Oshkosh
convention for a few years now and all of the head banging is finally paying
off. Authenticity is on the rise and has played a role in one aircraft
winning out over another. Last year a P-51D Mustang with guns, ammo and
paper drop tanks beat out a beautifully restored P-51D with a second seat
and luggage bays in the wings. The owner of the winning Mustang wanted to
know what would make his restoration better and I said that he should put
all of the radio gear back in as the next step. Many other aircraft are
showing up with more of the original radio gear and it will not be too long
before one aircraft wins because his radios work and the other guys do not. 

Things are changing, too slowly, but they are changing. Some owners are
finally realizing that these aircraft are living pieces of history and are
beginning to treat them as such as opposed to it just being a way to display
and elevate their personal egos by modifying them to their own tastes. If
you want a stack of modern radios from the floor to the ceiling and have the
latest gadgets in the panel go out and get a Lear jet or some other modern
pile of junk and have at it, but take care of the aircraft from our
countries military heritage and treat them with the respect that they
deserve.

I will get off my soap box now and go and take a nitro glycerin pill.

Thanks,
Taigh
 
Taigh Ramey
Proprietor, Vintage Aircraft
7432 C.E.Dixon Street
Stockton, California 95206
(209) 982-0273
www.twinbeech.com
KEEP 'EM FLYING...FOR HISTORY!
 

-----Original Message-----
From: arc5-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:arc5-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On
Behalf Of Ray Robinson
Sent: Thursday, April 28, 2005 8:17 PM
To: arc5 at mailman.qth.net
Cc: robinson at shlrc.mq.edu.au
Subject: [ARC5] ARN-30 VHF navigation receiver


Hi gang,

Was there an early version of the ARN-30 that uses analog tuning?

A note in the A.R.C. catalog of 1960
for the Type 15F (ARN-30) says 
" MODERNIZE YOUR OMNI EQUIPMENT
....replacement of the existing tunable receiver and its control unit
and the fabrication of a 14 conductor cable assembly ....
...the cable assembly may be snaked through the casing of the 
existing mechanical linkage, which is no longer required."

I only have the ARN-30D with the digital tuning.
Does anyone have a manual for an analog version?

73 
Ray vk2ilv
_______________________________________________
ARC5 mailing list
ARC5 at mailman.qth.net
http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/arc5