[ARC5] RAT receiver racks

[Michael Tauson]

On Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 6:17 PM, Taigh Ramey <taigh at twinbeech.com> wrote:
> I met a Gentleman today who said he has three RAT receiver racks Navy Dept.
> Bureau of Engineering contract NOs-67258 date 24 June 1939 release date
> stamp Nov 1940.

All of you know that I'm researching a book on A.R.C. and have been
digging into areas others seem to have missed.  It has been mentally
challenging but rewarding in unexpected ways.  Among them was the
seeming coincidence of A.R.C.'s upgrade of the Model B to the Model D
and the corporate restructuring that were so close to the time of the
1934 Airmail Disaster.  The fact that I don't believe in coincidences
paid off and I've uncovered material that you'll just have to wait
for.

However, the current discussion covers another system, the Type K.
So, continuing in thread ...

The RAT & RAV systems were ... well, let's say it this way, there's a
reason why there were only a few made.  Here's the straight skinny.

The upper management at A.R.C. often invited military brass to a
hunting lodge (owned by Drake, I think, or maybe it was Hull - my
notes aren't handy at the moment and that's not a critical element
anyway) for a weekend of "entertainment" which not infrequently
consisted of getting them roaring drunk then pitching equipment.  The
Type K system, designed as a response to declining civilian and
military faith in the Model D equipment even though it was a vast
upgrade to the Model B radios, was going absolutely nowhere in the
civilian world despite having a more modern superhet receiver design.
TRF receivers and anything associated with them were already losing
ground industry wide to superhets which meant that, had WW II not
broken out, the Model D line would have died out completely and A.R.C.
with it.  In short, they were going to lose their shirts if there
weren't something in the way of contracts to keep them afloat.
(Sounds like the late 1940s & the 1950s, doesn't it.)

So anyway, the Navy had money the Army didn't have and wound up buying
a few of the new receivers to handle some irritating little ELINT
problems that GE's RAX, also a 1940 product, could manage just as
easily so A.R.C. had some operating funds.  This doesn't mean the
equipment was any good, it just meant the admirals present at the
lodge were so blind drunk they had no idea what they were signing.
What holds for drunken sailors goes double or triple for drunken
Admirals - something to keep in mind next time you want to sell a real
dog to the Navy.

But A.R.C. wasn't done quite yet; they had transmitters on shelves
gathering dust to go with the receivers and they needed to do
something to make sure they didn't go belly up.  They saw things were
heating up in international politics and knew that FDR wanted a 50,000
airplane air force.  They also knew that the Navy had money and didn't
have such a massive requirement for equipment.  So they did a very
shrewd thing; they played the Army & the Navy off against each other
knowing that it didn't matter who got the first order, the other would
follow rather quickly.  The equipment wasn't much better than the RAT
& RAV (if it was better at all), but the political situation had
gotten to the point that they stood to make a ton of money as well as
toss contracts to companies who'd go along with the scheme.

The Navy bit first (Remember what I said about drunken Admirals?) with
the ARA/ATA system.  Hap Arnold was furious, as any good Army officer
should be, and finally got Congress off their collective keester to
get the same radios for his airplanes.  He didn't care how well they
worked; he just didn't want the Navy to have newer toys than he did.
Anyway, this resulted in the SCR-274-N system which A.R.C. handed off
to WE to manage while they and Stromberg-Carlson took care of the
Navy.  (Colonial also did some work for WE which just helped spread
the wealth even more.)

It's important to note, though, that the GF/RU - the Navy's version of
the Model D system - was still in production as late as 1943 (as may
have been the AAF's SCR-A*-183/-283 systems) which suggests that the
Type K was actually a bill of good foisted off on the military to save
A.R.C.'s butt.

Anyway, getting back to the RAT equipment, it and the RAV are the
worst of the lot for Type K equipment as is obvious by the short
production run, and are maybe worth scrap value.  If you want to hack
old "command" equipment, those are the ones to use since they have
little if any other value.

Now ... David & Gordon, put down the shotguns.  And you've probably
guessed I haven't had my meds yet today.  :-)

BEst regards,

Michael WH7HG ... who is looking for somewhere substantial to hide.  :-D
-- 
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Hiki Nô!