[ARC5] 274N's in 1942

[Mike Morrow]

Wayne wrote:

> At least one of the F4F's they hauled out of the great lakes in the 90's apparently
> had a 283, based on the tubes they showed that came out of the radio. A friend
> of mine bought a surplus F4F after the war and based on his description of the radio
> in it having a changeable coil set I assume that it was a 283 also. 

I doubt it.  The USN didn't use the SCR-Ax-283.  I suspect it was a late version of the RU/GF
set.  Though visually similar, the middle and late models of the RU/GF were internally VERY
different radio sets than even the last models of the SCR-Ax-283.  There were no VT-25 or
VT-52 tubes to be found in these GF sets, and these RU sets had a CW beat oscillator that
the SCR-Ax-283 sets lack.

I'm sort of fond of the RU-16/GF-11 design, especially in comparison to the Signal Corps
equivalent SCR-AS-183.  It looks nicer in black crackle, and the design is more advanced
and versatile.  A bonus is that none of the tubes in the RU-16/GF-11 are worshipful relics
for audiophools the way the VT-25 and -52 have become.

Mike / KK5F