[ARC5] SCR-183 / SCR-283 Info

[Kludge]

First off, with your wealth of information, why aren't you writing this book
instead of me?  Unless I can get off this ruddy rock (like that's going to
happen!), I've got nothing and am totally dependent on you, Mike Hanz,
Gordon White and others for what I can learn.

-----Original Message-----
From: arc5-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:arc5-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On
Behalf Of arc5 at ix.netcom.com
> The SCR-183 (12 volt, BC-230 transmitter) and
> SCR-283  (28 volt, BC-430 transmitter) don't get nearly the
> respect and interest they deserve.   

Add the GF/RU series to this.  

> They got some bad press because they got deployed 
> inappropriately in some high-profile cases.

Airmail Disaster of 1934 comes to mind.  :-)

> The Army copied the 1932 design nut-for-bolt under 
> Order Number SC. 132311, June 1932
> and designated it SCR-AA-183.  
> That's right, folks: SCR-274N was not 
> the first time the Signal Corps copied 
> a design A.R.C. had done for the Navy. 

Ah, but was the GF an Army project the Navy actually had money to buy like
they did the ARA/ATA et al?  The SCR-274-N came into existence only after WE
and Bendix failed to produce useable equipment and the AAC was under
pressure to build up to a 50,000 plane force.  They needed something and
they needed it *now* so wound up buying what was initially theirs anyway.

> The Army, having far less money to throw around
> (they don't call it "spending like a drunken sailor"
> for nothing),  incorporated the mostly mechanical
> improvements between GF and GF-1, 
> built some false-starts like transmitter BC-AA-200,

And BC-A*-199 and -219 receivers although the changes there weren't as
great.

> but eventually nudged the design to June 1935's SCR-AE-183
> and the set stayed basically the same until the last production runs
> (-AR and -AS) in the first year of the war.

Weren't there follow on replacement orders in 1943?

Things get very muddy between -AA and -AF.
A.R.C. made the 1932 -AA, based on the GF,
then handed it off to Western Electric and Graybar
in 1934, which then became the -AB.  WECo built 
the -AD in June of 1934 and the -AF in July of 1935, 
and all were basically the 1932 design from the old GF, 
bad coil tap contacts and all.

What about the AC?  And didn't the AF have exclusion pins so that no other
coil sets could be used?

Yeah, I know.  Too many questions ... 

Best regards,
 
Michael, WH7HG BL01xh
http://www.nationalmssociety.org/chapters/NTH/index.aspx 
http://wh7hg.blogspot.com/ 
http://kludges-other-blog.blogspot.com 
Hiki Nô!