[ARC5] Basic Question on Use of Command Sets

[Bob Macklin]

FWIW:

I was in the USAF in the 50's. The cargo aircraft in use during that period 
were the C-54, C-118, C-124, and C-119. All of these aircraft had ARC-8 
systems installed but they did not carry a radio operator except on long 
over water flights.

I don't know if the C-123 had an ARC-8 installed. I only flew in one once 
and I really did not enjoy that flight!

Bob Macklin
K5MYJ
Seattle, Wa.
"Real Radios Glow In The Dark"
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "David Stinson" <arc5 at ix.netcom.com>
To: <arc5 at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Friday, January 07, 2011 7:00 PM
Subject: Re: [ARC5] Basic Question on Use of Command Sets


>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Robert Eleazer" <releazer at earthlink.net>
> To: <arc5 at mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: Friday, January 07, 2011 7:41 PM
> Subject: [ARC5] Basic Question on Use of Command Sets
>
>
>> Relative to the ongoing discussion of audio output capabilities of ARC-5
>> sets,
>>prior to WWII was there any need for such sets to be used in anything
>> but fighters and perhaps 2 seat trainers?
>
> Large aircraft with multi-person crews have been in service
> since the beginning.  The idea of splitting the radio systems to
> accommodate the differing communications missions evolved
> slowly through the 1920s SCR-132/-134 era.
> It became firmly established in 1932-34 with the introduction
> of the SCR-183 (Army) and GF* (Navy) "Command Sets,"
> which gave the pilot his own channels to talk to ground
> controllers and other aircraft, and SCR-187 (Army) and
> "G"-series (GO, GP) "Liaison Sets," which were the
> territory of the Radio Operator with his long-range
> and frequency-guarding missions.  While the first SCR-274Ns
> were produced on 1941 orders, the first Acceptance Tests
> dates on ATA/ARA (from which SCR-274N was derived)
> were from Feb. 1942.  274N would therefore have come
> into Army inventory sometime in the second half of 1942.
>
> Large Army aircraft in service before that date
> would have been equipped with SCR-183 / -283
> for the "Command" mission.  General Doolittle's "thanks"
> letter to Western Electric radio workers in the Kearny, NJ
> plant is conclusive evidence that the raid aircraft were
> outfitted with SCR-283 (the raid was in April of 1942).
> If they had been using SCR-287, he'd have written
> General Electric's workers and W.E. didn't start building
> SCR-274N until after this date.
>
> There would certainly have been exceptions to
> the "two system" standard,
> such as a transport aircraft that repeatedly flew
> a fixed overland route and had no need for more than
> a single set.  But be it 1933 or 1943,
> attempting to do the pilot's comm and radio op's comm
> on a large ship with a single set would have been a big mess.
>
> 73 DE Dave AB5S
>
> *  In the early Navy "Command Set" deployment,
>   "GF" designated the full receiver/transmitter set.
>    "RU" was the designation for a receive-only set.
>   "GF/RU" came into use as a designation later when the Navy
>   settled (for a short while) on using "Gx" to designate
>   aircraft transmitters like GO, GP etc.
>
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