[ARC5] [Milsurplus] US Military Aircraft Radios - Opinions

[David Stinson]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jack Antonio" <scr287 at sbcglobal.net>
Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] [ARC5] US Military Aircraft Radios - Opinions


> Calling the AN/ARC-4 a piece of junk is a little harsh,
> the set's only real sin is that it was a little ahead
> of its time....

I agree. 
It was an "evolutionary step" in the march to VHF.

>...The designation is a little out of place,
> in that the set was really a civilian pre-war set, called the
> WE-233A. The Navy started purchasing and using the set
> under that designation (I have one with a Navy acceptance
> anchor on the front), it received the AN/ARC-4 designation later.

I have a commercial control box for this set.  Photos on request.
It has a "Navy anchor" acceptance stamp above the commercial
nomenclature.  It is different from the later ARC-4 control box.
It is derived from the SCR-274N control box, and uses 
the A.R.C.-designed SCR-274N control box connector.
This would mean the WE-233A had to have been on the 
drawing board about the same time as SCR-274N 
(engineering/ prototyping late '39 to '40, production in '40-41 or so), 
and would have been available for commercial use only during
a small window of time, before it was "drafted" 
early in the war.  This box also includes an intercom / radio switch 
not included on the later box.

I think the SCR-522 became the "Cro-Magnon" VHF set in 
the ETO because of the big push to both supply and be
compatible with the Brits.  The WE-233A wasn't "ready 
for prime time", but the SCR-522 
was even more crude and troublesome.

As an aside: I don't personally count the AN/ARC-3 as 
a major contributor to WWII, since it did not see wide
use until after the war.  Most USAAF aircraft equiped with VHF
finished the war with the SCR-522.  
IMHO, it's a cool set, but it's more a vet of Korea than WWII.
It was designed as a fix for the problems of the drifty, 
hard-to-tune 522,
and to get around the problem of the rushed, 
half-baked training of "Radio Mechanics,"
with the resulting mish-mash of mistuned 522s.

Aside 2:  According to the documentation I have,
most of the Navy aircraft that were equipped with
VHF used the AN/ARC-5 MF/HF/VHF/ARR-2 combo.
Many were using ARC-1 (especially heavy aircraft),
but that was not general.  The ARC-1 is a complex,
expensive and hard to mass-produce set, so there
were to few of them available for universal installation,
which is why AN/ARC-5 bits and pieces
are easier to find than those for ARC-1.

73 Dave S.