[ARC5] ARC-18 / -28 (Was "Radio Comm...)

[Mike Morrow]

Dave wrote:

>One has to wonder how they got this repeater lash-up 
>to work reliably over time.  Sorry Collins fans...

Is the AN/ARC-1 a Collins design?  I know that the auto-tune
is a Collins design and is often Collins-made, and the whole
radio is certainly "Collins-ish".  But without knowing any
better I thought the radio design was by some other manufacturer.
RT-18/ARC-1 units I've seen are, IIRC, Westinghouse made.
(I can't get to the one I have right now.)

> Moving one of those auto-tune units even a fraction of a
> degree can change receiver sensitivity by an order of
> magnitude- it's that bad.

And all those little cover-mounted adjustment wrenches seem
to have vanished to another dimension in time and space.

> The ARC-3 is worlds better and more rugged.

I think that, when working right, the AN/ARC-3 is an excellent
design.  The simple "plug in crystal and the set will autotune"
must have saved thousands of hours of radio technician time
when channel frequencies had to be changed out.  The AN/ARC-3
auto-tune was a real auto-tune, not just an "auto return to
technician settings" such as the AN/ARC-1, -2, -5(VHF), -12,
and AN/ART-13 used.  Ther AN/ARC-3 remained in service for a
couple of dacades after introduction, also in AN/ARC-36 and
AN/ARC-49 variations.

> Looks like the Army finally got one over on the swabbies.

Even though I was once an officer in the Regular Navy, I don't
have a lot of admiration for most WWII USN radio projects.  Some
were great, like the ATC, ARA/ATA, ZB/YE, even maybe the AN/ARC-2.
Even the GF/RU was, in its day, a great set.  But the elegant and
improved MF/HF AN/ARC-5 was really obsolete by the time it hit the
fleet, and the USN never did develope a decent one-unit liaison
receiver during WWII that matched the capabilities of their ATC.
The RAX-1 was good, but it was considerably larger and heavier
than the USAAF's simple, effective, less-costly BC-348 sets.
The USAAF's AN/ARC-8 made far more mature use of the AN/ART-13.
Their AN/ARC-3 was arguably the best VHF command set of WWII/Korea
and the early cold war years.  The USN radio direction finders
were archaic compared to the SCR-269, which was an ADF.  Even
the USN used the SCR-269 rather than antiques like the DZ-series.
Then, there's the USN's hard-to-use ZA and AN/ARN-9 Air-Track ILS,
compared to the USAAF's grossly superior SCS-51 (RC-103-A and
AN/ARN-5) whose technology is still in use today.  As a former
Navy man, I'd say most USN WWII aircraft radio technology was years
behind state-of-art and often just plain stank. 

My favorite WWII aircraft radio sets are the USAAF's AN/ARC-3,
AN/ARC-8, and SCR-269-G, plus the USN's AN/ARR-2.

Mike / KK5F