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

[Michael A. Bittner]

Yes, the letter channel designations rather than numbers havs been bothering me.  Also, I don't remember the large cup-shaped buttons, but rather smaller straight red buttons that projected out of holes in the face of the control box with white numbers on their flat or slightly rounded tops.  They were spaced so that they were reasonably easy to operate with gloved hands.

Not that this is any help, but our primary training SNJs, that were equipped with HF and LF ARC-5s (no VHF), had a sandbag strapped in the baggage compartment behind the rear cockpit for weight and balance purposes.  Part of our pre-flight procedure was to check that it was strapped down securely.
However, the VHF equipped SNJs had no sandbag, but some large piece of avionic equipment permanently mounted on the floor of the baggage compartment.  That may have been the VHF transceiver.

Don't get me started on aviator humor over the radio.  Son, check your manfold pressure.  Gee sir, I can only get 36 inches!  And on and on it goes.

Mike, W6MAB

I 
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Mike Morrow 
  To: arc5 at mailman.qth.net 
  Sent: Sunday, March 31, 2013 11:01 AM
  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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