[ARC5] A.R.C. Type 21 (AN/ARN-59)

[Sandy]

Many years ago I was in the Air National Guard.  First as a weekend troop, 
then later as a Tech sergeant worked for them "permanent Party" for a few 
years.  Aircraft ranged from the old Douglas B-26 to the North American 
F-86D/L and lastly Convair F-102A's.  Everything was vacuum tubes in those 
days.

With the B-26's there was the ARC-3 VHF setup.  Some of the older aircraft 
and our C-47A Gooney Bird had the older SCR-522 4 channel VHF.  If you 
worked 2 meters back in the 50's you remember the SCR-522's converted to the 
ham bands!  Next came the F-86D's and the T-33A's.  Both used the Collins 
built ARC-27 UHF transceiver.  ADF sets ranged from the SCR-269G to the 
ARN-6 and ARN-7's.  The F-102A's were much more "modern"!  UHF sets were the 
ARC-34 made by RCA, full of 8 pin subminiature tubes and "pencil" triodes in 
the transmitter with tiny radiators on them.  The F-102A had the ARN-?? 
(forget what number!) TACAN system in them instead of VOR receivers.  My job 
by that time was on the APX-6 IFF system converted to work with a 
KY-95/APX-25 "coder" unit which had selectable reply codes from the cockpit 
for modes 1 and 3 and a preprogrammed number for mode 2.  There was a 
"Secret" list compiled for that code  group that contained the numbers setup 
on the ground by service personnel.  All the aircraft had different settings 
that the GCI radar stations had to identify the birds by the replies the IFF 
gave.

How primitive that must sound now!  I would sometimes "pinch hit" in the 
radar shop who kept the MG-10 radar fire control system going.  At other 
times, I loaded rockets and missiles on the alert aircraft with the rest of 
the "grunts".  I only weighed 155 pounds then was 6'3" tall, so I was 
skinny!

73,

Sandy W5TVW

-----Original Message----- 
From: Mike Morrow
Sent: Wednesday, April 25, 2012 3:20 PM
To: arc5 at mailman.qth.net ; MRCA at mailman.qth.net
Subject: [ARC5] A.R.C. Type 21 (AN/ARN-59)

Gordon wrote:

> What was really amazing was the later ARN-30 receiver, 180 channels,
> crystal controlled, in the same form as the AN/ARC-5 receivers, though
> internally they were not alike. A.R.C. put a great deal in a small
> package - before transistors.

Another amazingly compact vacuum-tube A.R.C. set (rather smaller than the
R-1021/ARN-30D mentioned above) is the Type 21 ADF set (R-30A), which
under the JAN system is the R-836/ARN, part of AN/ARN-59.

This small ADF set uses wire-in sub-miniature tubes, except (IIRC) one
transistor for the BFO.  It was adopted by the U.S. Army in 1957, but
components were still being made for it on contracts in the 1970s, such
as the PP-4328/ARN-59 transistor HV supply that replaced the DY-150/ARN
dynamotor.

BTW, there's a mildly interesting U.S. Army report of 1964 ADF testing at:
    http://www.dtic.mil/dtic/tr/fulltext/u2/a030812.pdf  .

The A.R.C. Type 210 VHF com set (360-channel) is also a pretty interesting
late 1950s design, especially the RT-11A transceiver unit.  Its design 
relies
heavily on vacuum tubes.

Mike / KK5F
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