[ARC5] Airplane radios in jeeps

[Mike Hanz]

J. Forster wrote:
>>> Yes, it does look more like an MN-26, although I thought the control
>>> boxes
>>> were squarer for the 26 than the RA-10.
>>>       
>> That's definitely a MN-26 control box on the right.  I don't know what
>> the box is to the left.
>>
>> The unit above the MN-26...I've seen somewhere before.  Didn't Canada have
>> some aircraft transmitters (AT-??) that look like what's pictured?
>>     
> I think they were TA-xx to go with the RA-10s. All by Bendix, but I don't
> know the Tx line.
>   

That is as good an assumption as any.  As I mentioned in my post this 
morning on the subject, it is a TA-6-A or -B, probably a TA-6-B because 
the MN-26 was a 28v device and it was clearly a Tx/Rx system.  I placed 
a scan of the front panel of the TA-6* for those interested at 
http://aafradio.org/docs/Bendix_TA-6.jpg

>>> I didn't know the MN-26 was much of a communication receiver, being
>>> primarily a Radio Compass though.
>>>       
>> Two versions of the MN-26 had a communications band in place of the third
>> RDF band.
>> MN-26LB - Band 3 is 2.9 to 6.0 MHz. The AN/ARN-11 was a MN-26LB.
>> MN-26Y  - Band 3 is 3.7 to 7.0 MHz (IIRC.  I'm going from memory.)
>>     
> I was not referring to the frequency range, but more to AGC. A DF set has
> different AGC requirements (no AGC) than a communication receiver. I don't
> remember if the MN-26 has an AGC or not and I can't access mine at the
> moment.
>   

It does...perhaps because of the -Y, -M, and -LB dual use functionality 
with a communications band as well as the DF bands, as Mike's insightful 
post reflected, but all of the control heads have REC.ANT or REC.LOOP 
switch positions, which IIRC enable AVC that is disabled in the COMP. 
position.  It works as well as any of the WWII receivers in that band, 
considering the traditional lack of selectivity.

> One of the two meters MIGHT be an "S" meter for the MN-26, an IN-??, with
> the right hand zero.

I don't think so, John.  They both have left hand zeros, and the left 
hand meter enlargement shows the characteristic MT-33* (I-71-A) 
configuration consistent with what I wrote this morning about their 
function in a TA-6 system, not the MR-57B that was an option for the MN-26.

73,
Mike