FW: [ARC5] ARN-30 VHF navigation receiver

Sat Apr 30 22:58:14 EDT 2005

Thanks for the kind words. It is the comments like these, and the ones from
the folks at air shows, that makes the effort worth while.

Some times, when I am flying home after an air show at night, I will unplug
my headset from the VHF set and plug into the original interphone and crank
up the ARC-5, ARN-30 and the ARN-7. I get a kick out of tuning in overseas
stations and hearing them fade in and out. The ARN-30 not only picks up the
VOR and localizer frequencies but it tunes in the VHF air band and the end
of FM as well. 

When you are sitting there in the dark cockpit with the red glow of the
instrument lights and the flashing nav lights outside reflecting on the
cowling and prop arcs and the soothing rumble of two Pratt and Whitney's,
you can easily slip back in time to what our fathers and grandfather's were
experiencing. I can't imagine what it was like though to be in hard
instrument weather conditions using the same radios to hear the fade of a AN
radio range to home into a station for an instrument approach. The work load
must have been something else.

I truly feel honored to be able to experience this and to be able to share
this with others. 

Someday I would like to put the BC-375, BC-348 and the SCR-274N back into
the B-25 and get it up and running. Then I would like to go up some night
with the trailing wire antenna out and do just what they did recently at the
8th Air Force Museum, except we would be broadcasting from the B-25 at
altitude. It is very expensive to run the B-25 but maybe we could find
sponsors or donors willing to go up and help defray the cost. What a kick
that would be especially if we could get a WWII radio operator at the key to
do just what he did 60 years ago.

Thanks again for the kind words,
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: jlafoy at comcast.net [mailto:jlafoy at comcast.net] 
Sent: Saturday, April 30, 2005 6:15 PM
To: Taigh Ramey
Subject: Re: FW: [ARC5] ARN-30 VHF navigation receiver

Taigh,

Thanks for a wonderful piece of literature.

This is one of the best pieces I have read in a long time.  I don't fly but
I imagine that I am flying one of those old bombers every time I fire up my
BC-453.  I lost an uncle who was killed by flack over Italy in WW II.  When
I use my old radios it reminds me to thank the greatest generation ever for
the freedom that I enjoy today.  You are absolutely right, they do have a
vintage smell about them.   How can you get your Beechcraft on Good Morning
America?  BTW, I grew up in Wichita, Kansas so Beechcraft is a familiar
name.  My father was an electronics instructor in WW II and died doing what
he loved to do: landing airplanes (CAA and FAA 30 years).  How could it have
been any other way that I became an engineer and a ham radio operator?

I have Navy RBB and RBC receivers from WW II battleship and I am leaving
them untouched and they still work perfectly.   They were designed so that
German U boats could not hear their local oscillators.  They were designed
to stay on frequency when the big guns went off and the ship rocked from
side to side.  Their cost per receiver in 1942 was 3,000.000.  They are the
most valuable radios that I own (more so than  even my two R390s).   

I have been to the experimental fly in Wisconsin just one time and really
liked it.  Your photos are terrific.  I have come to the conclusion that I
will not polish up or "restore" the front panels of any of my WW II gear
(including my 3 Hammarlund SP-200s).  I want some historical wear on them
(battle patina).  It's part of the fun of using them.

Glad to hear about the rise of aircraft authenticity.  I just assumed that
fly boys gutted out the old radios.   Good to see that some are beginning to
see the historical value of the radios.

Write more!  You must be flooded by responses to your article.

John Zimmerman
Olathe, Kansas

> 
> 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
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