[ARC5] Bare Metal USN Sets

[Mike Hanz]

That's an excellent question, Mike.  I suppose one could make the 
argument that the Signal Corps drove the specs for the R-28 and T-23, 
while the ARR-2 specs were Navy in origin.  But, some unpainted aluminum 
shows up in other Navy equipment as well, like the station boxes for the 
RL-24 interphone system at http://aafradio.org/flightdeck/RL-24.jpg - 
and a couple of other pieces of equipment that I can't recall at the 
moment. To be fair, the RL-24 station boxes are heavily clear 
anodized...but then they are part of an assemblage that is largely black 
wrinkle.  The characteristics of other sets wander all over the place as 
well, with some Signal Corps sets using black wrinkle control boxes with 
bare aluminum equipment, as in the later 274N sets.  Very strange...

On 10/18/2012 8:48 PM, Mike Morrow wrote:

> Mike wrote:
>> Back in the day, scratches weren't something to worry about too much,
>> though it was frowned upon by the Navy Air arm with their concern about
>> salt spray damage on carrier aircraft equipment.
> But that concern didn't stop long use of the bare-metal WECO R-28/ARC-5
> and T-23 and T-126/ARC-5 VHF sets.  I guess that the bare finish was
> accepted as a simple fait accompli arising from the WECO SCR-274-N VHF
> predecessor. :-)
>
> It makes one wonder why the WECO AN/ARR-2 wasn't also produced in bare
> aluminum.
>
> 73,
> Mike / KK5F