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

[D. Platt]

Just curious when your C-47 activities were?  If it was during the 
tenure with the "Deuce", probably late 50's up to the mid-60's.  I was 
in 106's during that period.  The weapons meet you speak of was either 
William Tell or Operation Fairway.  Perhaps you'll recall which one it 
was.  Anyway, AM had been pretty much phased out of CONUS airways HF, 
although AFCS (nee AACS) could still handle that mode, of course.  
ART-13 type equipment had been de-listed by the FCC as a usable radio 
set on civil airways frequencies owing to frequency tolerance and 
stability issues.  Crystal control was the theme, at the time. That 
said, I know, as you do, that many Goonies still had the ARC-8 setup 
installed in that little space forward and to the right of the cabin 
entrance.   I used one on 75 meters during a CAP trip from ADW out to 
Wright-Patt in.. probably 1959.  I did do a flight and got some logable 
time from ADW round-robin with my AF instructor as he was getting 
checked-out in the C-47. That's what the Air Attache to Norway was 
assigned, at the time.  That was in probably 1975 and I recall there was 
no ART-13, nor BC-348 in that airframe.  It did have a LORAN set in the 
radio op position.  It was an original C-47, I'll add, and not a C-53.  
But your original question, how to set the frequency in that set-up with 
no BC-221, etc.  My recollection is that the ART-13 in those type 
aircraft were not set up or tuned, in the air, although I did during the 
aforementioned foray into the air.  Unlike in WWII, etc., the comm shop 
would do all that and the aircrew would simply use the pre-sets.  Maybe 
Breck can add to all this?

Jeep - K3HVG

On 3/17/2013 5:55 PM, Sandy Blaize wrote:
> 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