[ARC5] RCA AR-60 AR-60-R Pre AR-88 Receiver Works, Amelia Earhart disappearance | eBay

[D. Platt]

On 10/7/2012 8:13 PM, Sandy wrote:
> Most of the historical stuff I've read and one ham I knew who was a White
> House aid/former Navy pilot for years did some extensive study of her flying
> habits and found that she really hated operating the radio gear.  I do
> remember also reading in a couple of the accounts Amelia wanting to take off
> all the trailing wire gear to save weight and also that it was an awful
> bother to use and she didn't like it at all.  Noonan objected, but Amelia
> won out on the argument.  What little experience I had personally with the
> C-47A aircraft and the ART-13/BC-348 combination with the fixed antenna from
> the Radio position feed thru to the vertical fin greatly hampered the signal
> that could be radiated by the transmitter.   Since the HF gear was never
> "practically" used by anyone in the unit was in "inflight" the trailing wire
> was removed before my enlistment in the unit.  I was the only radio operator
> who used the setup while I was in the Group.  Eventually the unit lost the
> C-47 to the "Puff the Magic Dragon" squadrons in Vietnam after I was
> discharged.  She wound up in Korean air force for a while and is now a
> monument near Taegu, S. Korea.  One old Master Sergeant that flew as an R/O
> on a Gooney Bird during the latter half of WW2 says the trailing wire made a
> "helluva difference" in the signal strength compared with the fixed wire.  I
> can only conclude it was her huge mistake to make and Noonan's misfortune
> not to have convinced her of doing otherwise.
>
> Other comments and writings of Amelia's reluctance to properly learn to
> handle the radio gear were made by a couple of writers who knew her.
>
> 73,
>
>
> Sandy W5TVW
>
>
Heh heh!  Its nice to fine some else who's been there and done that!  My 
last experience with actually operating an ART-13 and BC-348 was during 
a CAP encampment flight from Andrews to Wright-Patt in 1959.  It wasn't 
a C-47, per se, but a C-53 (C-47 with the "airline" type pax door).  The 
crew chief let two of us hams run the ARC-8 setup on 40 meters via the 
trailing wire.  As we got near W/P, he tried to reel the antenna in and 
it fouled. The "bulls-nut" hit the tail at some point in the round out 
and dented it.  We flew back to AAFB with the antenna sort of wound 
around and tied to the extension tube below the tail.  Anyway...............

Jeep - K3HVG