[ARC5] More information sought to fill in the blanks

[David Stinson]

It's too bad the Type 12 doesn't get more attention.
It's an exceptional set, and inexpensive.

You can find a lot of information from old ads in flying magazines.
For instance- right now on ebay there are A.R.C. ads for 
Type 11 and for Type 21- a navigation set.
I have the receiver, antenna and control box, but not handy.
The current photos are too small to get much detail, but that's 
not always the case and you can at least get an idea
that it existed and what it did.  
Once a week or so, search "Aircraft Radio Corp*" 
(with the quotes) and include descriptions.  
You'll find all kinds of tidbits.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Michael Tauson" <kongomt at gmail.com>

> Type 12: 
> Was this a specific set or was it only used as a generic descriptor?
I have original instruction manual, maint. manual, operation manual
and part list manual for the type-12 sets.
According to those:

  "ARC type-12 is the designation assigned to a group of
    radio components which may be employed to form a
    variety of communication and navigation systems for 
    use in aircraft."

It is, therefore, and "umbrella" designation for this line
of post-WWII equipment.

>Type 17: LF Omni's last dying breath but no reference found except a
>brief comment in an article.

Type 17 may have begun as a navigation set, but
it was never produced as one.  Often, a project will be abandoned
and its nomenclature will be "inherited" by a following project.
I have an original, commercial ARC Type-17 Instruction manual, 
dated June 26, 1947:

  " The Type 17 VHF Aircraft Communication System
  is a complete voice amplitude-modulated transmitting
  and receiving set, for use on aircraft."

It consists of an R-15 receiver with M-12A mount and
D-10 dynamotor, T-11 transmitter with M-11A mount, 
C-15 control box with M-17 mount and A-12 antenna.
Options included using C-17 control box and M-18 mount
for receive-only installations and connection for two or
three additonal transmitters.
The set came in 14- and 28-VDC versions.

> Type 18: No reference found.
Somewhere around here, I have an ad that references
the Type 18 as a set similar to the Type 17 and intended
for light helocopters (like med-evacs) during the Korean conflict.
It appears to have been a militarized version of the 
Type 17.  But that's from memory as I can't find the
document at the moment, so praecaveo memoria.

> In one of his articles, Gordon White discussed 
> the NRL's modifications to a small number of ARA/ATA 
> sets to crystal control to improve the stability. 
Never seen one.  Several years ago,
I heard of one of the receivers and one of the transmitters 
being in the estate of a Missouri pack-rat who had 
two or three aircraft hangers full of equipment he was 
"going to get around to one day" (sound familiar?). 
I was trying to negotiate with the estate for the NRL sets, 
and would have paid handsomely for them,
but was told they had decided to go with some local 
"estate sale" outfit.  I heard the stuff was sold for a pittance
 and dispersed into the gathering darkness.  No doubt, the 
sets are buried in the stuffed garage of some guy who's going to
"get around to them some day" or, worse: "make my 
Novice station with them.  Where's my wire cutters?"

Do you have the military Type-12 
"Handbook of Operating Instructions,"
AN 16-45-121, 10 january 1952 revised, 
with the table of aircraft types and Type-12
equipment mixes for them?

Concerning the AN/ARC-60:  I have the 
ARC commercial manual suppliment that covers the
UHF equipment, dated Feb. 1955.  It designates
the sets under the "umbrella" of "Type-12."

73 Dave S.