[ARC5] Re: [Milsurplus] War Assets Administration..West Coast sales sheets

[David Stinson]

-----Original Message-----
>From: Gordon White <gewhite at crosslink.net>

>The REALLY rare Command Receiver was the 9-13.5 mc RAV, of which there 
>was only one run built....

That is indeed the "holy grail" of Command Set collecting.
The only RAVs of any kind known to be in private hands-
three or four, IIRC- belong to Gordon and one other list member.
Rumor has it that the RAV sets were sent to the Med
for installation in patrol aircraft and went to "Davey Jones" 
when new gear arrived, but that's anecdotal.

I count only those sets in private hands as "collectable," 
and my list of  "rare," so-called  "ARC5"  radios would include, in order:

1.  9-13.5 RAV receiver (the only reason I don't class
                                    this under "extinct" is Gordon saw one
                                    "in the wild," so I have hope ).

2.  ARA / ATA sets modified by A.R.C. for crystal control
    (one receiver known to exist in Missouri).

3.  Any other model of RAV radio (3 to 4 known, 
     each of a different model).

4.  8th-Air Force blind-landing modified BC-455
    (Four of these known- one in California, one in Canada and
    two in the U.K.  If more examples surface, they may go  
    down from "rare" to "scarce" ).

5.  Any model of RAT or RAT-1  receiver
    (several each of the four models known, 
      but less than ten per model).

I have two classifications higher than "Rare:"

"Unique":  Prototypes, "M" (Morge)-marked A.R.C. gear,
and other items that are demonstrably "one of a kind."
The R-20, R-21 and R-22 prototype AN/ARC-5 sets would fit here.

"Extinct": No examples are known to have survived.