[ARC5] arc-5 BCB RX seen

[Mike Morrow]

I wrote:

> No doubt somewhere an ABK IFF is installed, but I wonder at the
> lack of VHF homing and communications gear.  By 1944, I'd have
> thought an AN/ARR-2 and a SCR-522 or AN/ARC-4 would have been
> installed.

Mike wrote:

> I added some more photos, especially including the ARC-5 VHF set
> to prove that we were totally on VHF by July 1944.  The HF stuff 
> was probably just dummy equipment to confuse the enemy if they 
> were shot down.   :-)

If the transmitter had been a GO or GP and the receiver a RU, I think that "dummy" would be the correct appraisal.  Gotta' hate all those transmitter abominations that Westinghouse made for the USN!

> The control box for the ARR-2 is forward
> of the C-26 between the pilot and copilot.  Same link - 
> http://aafradio.org/sidebar/PB4Y2_Line_Maintenance_Manual.html

I wasn't sure that the VHF AN/ARC-5 was being deployed by mid-1944, but there's the proof!  That is a great set of photos of the VHF homing and communications gear, though I didn't see the C-30/ARC-5 and C-42/ARC-5 control boxes for the VHF command set in the cockpit area.

I notice that the ATC is using early-style mounting rails.  Is that the interphone amplifier above the ATC, inboard the LM?  And what is that box with the handle on it below the RAX-1?  It doesn't look exactly like an ATB meter box, which was my first guess.  The ATB and ATC dynamotors must be in an adjacent compartment.

Mike / KK5F