[ARC5] "Junk" M y Foot (Was: PT boat....)

[Bill Cromwell]

On 06/29/2013 05:17 PM, David Stinson wrote:
> OK.... I've been biting my tongue.  And biting.  And biting.
> But I've had just about enough of people scoffing and calling the 
> early WWII radio equipment "junk."
> The engineers deserve more respect than that.
> I have this equipment and operate it as originally designed. GF/RU.   
> SCR-183. SCR-274N.  ATA/ARA.  AN/ARC-5.  ATB/ARB.  TCS. Australian 
> AR8/AT5.  Half a dozen others.
>
>   In the missions for which they were designed,
>  * which was NOT DXing on the ham bands, *
>   they were expertly engineered, superbly crafted   and performed with 
> excellence-   better than anything anyone else   in the entire world 
> had to offer at the time.
>
> They were never designed to be "ham" rigs and comparing them to such 
> is a stretch.
> But I'll tell you this- You take your pick of 1950
> and 1960s mid-range commercial "ham" gear-  Halliscappers, Hammer-on, 
> Greasekit, Swan, Johnson etc. and compare any of the above radios
> *run as they were designed*,
> watt-for-watt and frequency-for-frequency,
> by stability, audio quality, reliability and durability and these 
> early Mil rigs will run rings around the commericial "ham " stuff 
> available in 1950.
> I like my National receivers, but in their "stock" condition, I've got 
> to chase stations all over the dial.
> Put a *properly run* BC-348 or TCS on WWV
> and leave it for a day.  Come back and it will still be
> within a KC of where you left it.
> Put a book on the key of a stock DX-100 and walk away for a day- see 
> what's left in the smoking ruin.   I could key-down a BC-375 and walk 
> away for a week.
> And unlike the DX-100, the 375 will stay somewhere
> close to where I put it.
>
> "Junk" my foot!  Hmph!
>
> Dave S.
Gosh Dave,

Tell us how you *really* feel...

I don't have all the mil surplus toys you have. But I put my RAK on a 
nearby NDB at 359 kc (GYG) one night after it had been on several hours. 
A short while later I turned it off. Two days later I turned it back on 
and after a few seconds...there was GYG! It takes a few seconds for the 
tubes to warm up. My solid state fancy radios can match that. But they 
can't really beat it. The RAK isn't really ON until the heaters heat.

Playing with "Junk" is too cool. I wonder where the pretty radios with 
their proprietary parts will be in 70 years.

73,

Bill  KU8H