[ARC5] What's a Type 185?

[Sandy]

>From the threads that have appeared, I was "wondering: about"......was this 
the birth of the Motorola Airboy and Airboy Sr.?  I had one of the Airboy 
Seniors once and fooled with it a bit in a friend's Piper J-3, devoid of any 
electrical system with it's Continental A-65 engine!  3105 khz and a short 
wire antenna wasn't conducive for long haul communications!  You were lucky 
to get in the right spot near the ends of the runways to be able to talk to 
the tower, who was always VERY strong on 382 khz.  Flying the old MSY Adcock 
range on 338 was a hoot with it and you wondered if you would ever need to 
do so in a serious sense when visibility was near zero!

You were REALLY lucky if you could raise the tower in the pattern!  The 
donut gun lights were easier to use and one needed to keep one's head out of 
his backside in the pattern anyway!

73,

Sandy W5TVW

-----Original Message----- 
From: Mike Morrow
Sent: Tuesday, December 20, 2011 2:18 AM
To: arc5 at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [ARC5] What's a Type 185?

> Reference ebay item:  280791538833
>
> A Bureau of Aeronautics item - but battery powered?

Or better, http://www.ebay.com/itm/280791538833

My Type 185 Receiver with Type 186 Battery Box is on a later contract,
NO(as)-2876, serial number 33.  The auction item is NO(as)-185,
serial 501.  Mine was new, never used condition, with the initial
set of dry batteries in the box that have not physically deteriorated
after 67 years.  The paper inspection tag on mine is dated 12-13-44.

There are a lot of mechanical similarities to the earlier Type B-3
beacon band receiver made by Radio Frequency Labs in Boonton, a
predecessor to Aircraft Radio Corporation.  I don't know how
Boonton Radio Company, the maker of the Type 185/186, fits in with
RFL and ARC.  The Type B-3 is of very high quality construction.

This set is a sort of super high quality, very expensive, rather
large and heavy USN version of the popular civilian post-war Motorola
Airboy and the several other commercial portable battery-powered beacon
band receivers that were available to private pilots willing to cough
up $30 (about $300 today) or more!  The single most important piece
of aircraft radio gear for years after WWII was a beacon band receiver.

I seem to recall that the manual for my set specifically mentioned use
in the N3N-3 biplane primary trainer.

Mike / KK5F
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