[ARC5] Jewel !! ebay BCB Receiver

[Mike Morrow]

>> E-Bay # 220806079785

> Fairly rare to see an unmodified BC band RX these days.

This is a CCT-46145/ARA receiver.  In a sense it is NOT unmodified.
It should have the CCT-62036 power adapter that ALWAYS came as
an integral part of the receiver, used to supply the ZB-* homing
adapter that gave the BCB receiver its only reason for existence.
Someone has substituted a common remote control adapter in its
place.  I'd be suspicious that less apparent changes may also be
present.  At least the receiver should be restorable, although
the proper CCT-62036 might take a long time finding.

I'm putting together an 3-receiver, 2-transmitter ARA/ATA plus ZB set.
I have the equivalent already in the SCR-274-N plus AN/ARR-1 and the
AN/ARC-5 plus AN/ARR-2 systems.  The process is slow with the ARA/ATA
but that's part of the fun.  I've had little difficulty finding unmodified
ZB-* and most ARA components in very good original condition, but similar
condition ATA transmitters are more difficult to get than I predicted.

I wish I had more details of the ARA/ATA installations aboard carrier
aircraft in the early 1940s.  It is likely that the BCB receiver plus
homing adapter was part of almost every installation.  A beacon band
receiver would have little value in the middle of the ocean for return
to a carrier.  The same thing was seen in later AN/ARC-5 installations,
in which the R-4/ARR-2 homing receiver is in the rack instead of an
R-23/ARC-5 beacon band unit.  That was a step ahead of a R-24/ARC-5 BCB
unit plus R-1/ARR-1 (JAN ZB set).  The all-in-one-box R-4 made the
R-24 plus R-1 combo obsolete from the start.

While receivers like this auction's CCT-46145 may have seen a lot of
service use, I suspect the percentage of R-24 receivers that saw ANY
service use is vanishingly small.  The situation seems similar for the
BC-946-B BCB unit in the SCR-274-N set...almost no service use.  The
few aircraft USAAF manuals I've seen that describe the use of the
AN/ARR-1 homing adapter state that the AN/ARN-7 ADF receiver processed
the homing adapter's BCB output.  I've never found any reference to
USAAF use of the R-4/ARR-2.  I love to know about any others have found.

Mike / KK5F