[ARC5] FW: C-47 radio "Island in the Sky"

[Sandy Blaize]

I don't now remember how I set the ART-13 to a desired frequency.  Probably 
with the BC-221 or zero beating a station I was trying to contact.  I don't 
remember any "Monitor-Normal" switch.  Our bird did not have an AN/ARC-8. 
The BC-348 was basically useless for getting on a specific frequency and it 
would allow you to set the BC-348 up and the transmitter as well.  It's been 
too many years ago.....over 50!

Also I wasn't intimately familiar with the ART-13.  My operating hours with 
it were probably less than 10-15 in an actual airplane.  Most flights I made 
with the "Goonie" were short enough that I didn't fire up the liaison radio 
at all due to lack of time.  The longest trip I took in the old bird was 
from New Orleans Lakefront airport to Las Vegas international.  I was 
fortunate enough to have been on a team that supported our F-102A aircraft 
at a missile meet in Florida.  The maintenance people who wanted to go could 
take the trip to the Air Force Association convention taking place after the 
meet in Las Vegas.  Most of us went there to see "Vegas", see the show at 
the hotel we stayed at (The bare breasted dancers doing a big show there) at 
the Sands, and gambling at the casinos for two days.  I also spent time 
looking at all the unusual aircraft at the airport one never sees up close. 
One being the BIG "GUPPY" cargo bird that had a gigantically huge fuselage 
they carried the big rockets in!  I remember it taking all day and a couple 
of stops for refueling to get there in the C-47!  I got bored coming back 
and it was night-time and I spent a few hours on the radio until the pilot 
made me shut down.  But that is another story!  Our Goonie had had the 
trailing wire antenna removed and the only thing was a fixed wire from just 
over the radio shack behind the radio bay on the co-pilots side that ran 
back to the vertical fin.  Not a very good antenna on 80 or 40 meters!

In my years in the squadron the radio was never used for any necessary 
communication to my knowledge.  That was the ONLY ART-13 I ever operated. 
Now the AN/GRC-26A was another story too.  Nearly every drill I had CW or 
RTTY traffic to send.  Mostly practice messages to an Air Force base in 
Michigan, whose location I can't remember.  The conditions on the 
frequencies they used were always stinko!

That's all the help I can give you!

73,
Sandy W5TVW

-----Original Message----- 
From: Mike Morrow
Sent: Wednesday, August 15, 2012 3:07 PM
To: arc5 at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [ARC5] FW: C-47 radio "Island in the Sky"

Sandy wrote:

> Somewhere in the radio operators cubbyhole a BC-221 was mounted
> to get the transmitter right on frequency, but I forget exactly
> where now.  We had only 2-3 guys in the squadron that were
> familiar with the ART-13/BC-348 combo and who knew how to operate
> it.  I was one of the lucky few.

Sandy, why did you need a BC-221 with the AN/ART-13, especially if
it were the most common USAF version, the T-47A/ART-13?  The internal
calibration unit (CFI), cal book, and vernier dial B of the T-47A
should easily have been all that was needed to get within 1 kHz of
any desired frequency with greater ease and accuracy than using a
BC-221. Then, using the MONITOR-NORM switch of the AN/ARC-8, the
BC-348-* could have been netted right to the T-47A.

The frequency meter became a bit of a white elephant after the
AN/ART-13* was available.  For the USN, when the AN/ARR-15 was
incorporated with the AN/ART-13 to make the AN/ARC-25, both
receiver and transmitter could be set independently of each
other to 1 kHz accuracy.

Mike / KK5F
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