[ARC5] Just Wodering!

[Mike Everette]

The earliest stamped release dates I have seen on ARC-5 transmitters are 1-43.  The release date is in yellow paint on the outside rear of the chassis.
You're quite correct that the ARC-5 was not used in 30s aircraft.  Neither was the ATA/ARA, as they were first deployed in 1940-41.
Most likely the earlier USN a/c used various iterations of the GF/RU series.  Larger planes such as patrol bombers would have carried higher-power equipment, the GO transmitter being an example.  Multiplace single- engine types like dive (scout) bombers and torpedo bombers carried medium-power transmitters including the GP series.  The RU receiver (TRF type, 195-13575 kc using plug-in coil sets) was usually paired with not only the low power GF transmitter aboard small a/c including fighters, but also the GO/GP series.
The GF/RU flew throughout the war.  Earlier types of aircraft which remained in production for the majority of the war years, notably the Grumman F4F Wildcat fighter, continued to be so equipped through most of the production run; the General Motors-built versions of the F4F, designated FM-1 and FM-2, may have received more advanced radio gear like the ATA/ARA or even the ARC-5.
In fact, I ran across an old issue of CQ Magazine from December 1948 just recently which contained an ad from Esse Radio Company, a surplus dealer, advertising complete GF/RU sets with all mounts and accessories.  The equipment was installed on a rack, ready to go into an aircraft on the production line.  This setup resembles something I've seen in an interior-rear-fuselage photo of what I think was an F4F.
73
Mike
WA4DLF

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