[ARC5] AN/ARC-3

[Mike Morrow]

Bob asked:

> Has anyone ever seen an ARC-3 on eBay?

They show up rather frequently, at least the R-77* and T-67*/ARC-3
portion.  And going prices are typically very low...a few months
ago I bought an almost NOS R-77B/ARC-3 with eight crystals for
$30 plus shipping...typical prices for a set not highly sought.

I admire the AN/ARC-3 design...it must have been a wonder for the
radio techs, since it self-tunes with minimum tech intervention.
In fact, it does that every time the channel is changed.

If it had the guard channel and ten channels of the AN/ARC-1, it
would have been almost perfect for the era, and much easier to
re-crystal than the AN/ARC-1.  OK, maybe it would have also been
better to require only one crystal per channel, and have everything
built in one box including dynamotor supply too, just like the
AN/ARC-1.

There was an external guard receiver that was developed for the
AN/ARC-3, and many R-77, all R-77A, and all R-77B/ARC-3 units
had the RF connector for it.  But I've never seen any technical
details, and it appears that it was dropped as a project.  Without
doubt the shift to UHF-AM for military comms reduced the value
of a guard channel for the AN/ARC-3, -36, and -49, even though
some of those units stayed in USAF service at least into the
late 1960s.

Mike / KK5F