[ARC5] US Pushbutton VHF-AM Control Boxes - Insight Again

[Scott Johnson]

If you guys are still figuring the Corsair had pushbuttons based upon Baa
Baa Blacksheep footage, keep in mind thay used tons of stock footage, and I
did see a shot hwere the guy used an SCR-522 control box to select a freq.
Sop take it with a grain of salt. 

Scott W7SVJ

-----Original Message-----
From: arc5-bounces at mailman.qth.net [mailto:arc5-bounces at mailman.qth.net] On
Behalf Of Mike Morrow
Sent: Sunday, March 31, 2013 11:01 AM
To: arc5 at mailman.qth.net
Subject: Re: [ARC5] US Pushbutton VHF-AM Control Boxes - Insight Again

Mike/W6MAB wrote:

> ...The Saufley Field Tape.  Four instructors intercepted four students 
> on their way to their aircraft and took their place, pretending to be 
> the students.  They then proceed to totally screw up in the air and 
> drive the instructor berserk.  You can hear the victimized instructor 
> yelling his head off over the radio.  It was all recorded on these two
> tapes:
>
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?hl=nl&gl=NL&v=Snq_CT_7rrk
> 
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k5LoTgDfYYg

Amusing!  Aviators made up 55 percent of the officers of the USN when I
served, and it always seemed that as a class of people they had a better
sense of humor than my nuclear navy peers.

> Upon reviewing the Saufley Tape (I hadn't done so in years) I hear 
> channels 5 and 8 mentioned.  I would say that definitely takes the VHF 
> transceivers being used out of the ARC-5 category and more like ARC-3.

These recordings **do** indicate a great detail with respect to the radio
sets being used:
(1) The AN/ARC-3 is NOT likely to be the radio set.
(2) The AN/ARC-1 is MOST likely to be the radio set (if a VHF
    set is being used).

The eight channels in the AN/ARC-3 are designated by **letter**, not
number...channels A though H.

The push-buttons on the C-118*/ARC-3 have plastic button faces that are
0.75-inch in diameter, each with a letter 0.33-inch in height.  The later
panel-type C-404*/A control for the AN/ARC-3 has an eight-position rotary
channel select switch with positions A though H.  The crystal positions in
the R-77* and T-67*/ARC-3 are marked A though H.  No channel *numbers*
anywhere, anytime.

I doubt that a number would be used to refer to a channel of the AN/ARC-3,
even one in USN service.

OTOH, the USN AN/ARC-1 has channel *numbers* for nine channels
(1 through 9) plus guard channel (GC).  I suspect that the aircraft in the
recordings above are using AN/ARC-1 sets because of the reference to channel
5 and channel 8, rather than channel E and channel H.  There would have been
plenty of AN/ARC-1 sets available by 1953, as the USN had progressed to
UHF-AM with the AN/ARC-12 and the new AN/ARC-27 and phased out the AN/ARC-1.
But the AN/ARC-1 never had a push-button control box.

I agree with Mike/KC4TOS that most of the C-30/ARC-5 control boxes should
have been long withdrawn, even in training aircraft.
The C-30A/ARC-5 was available before the end of WWII and it was a direct
replacement electrically and mechanically.  But still ...in a military
training aircraft one can never be sure.  The T-34B aircraft in which I took
aviation indoctrination training in 1972 were still using the A.R.C. Type 12
UHF-AM set (AN/ARC-60).
The TS-2A Tracker aircraft still had an AN/ARC-2 HF set, R-23/ARC-5 beacon
band set, and AN/ARN-6 ADF set...in 1972 at NAS Corpus Christi.

I'd love to see a photo or other documentation for any USN aircraft (that
had never been a USAF aircraft) that showed the AN/ARC-3.
The Saufley Field recordings indicate almost anything except an AN/ARC-3.

Mike / KK5F

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