[ARC5] ARC5 Digest, Vol 154, Issue 29

[Michael Bittner]

I remember sitting off the end of the runway at Saufley Field in a T-28B waiting for clearance to take off on an IFR cross country.  The NAS Jacksonville tower, 677 miles east,  was  heard on the ARC-27 at the exact same volume as the Saufley tower, only a few hundred yards away!  Classic example of tropospheric ducting at UHF.   Yes, the T-34Bs there had the ARC Type 12 VOR receiver with coffee grinder tuning control.  If cranked all the way down as far as it would go below 108 MHz, you could faintly hear a Pensacola FM music station!  As an instructor, I often did this when constant monitoring of the Saufley tower on the ARC type 12 VHF receiver got boring.  I don't known why the VOR receiver could nicely demodulate FM, but it did.
Mike, W6MAB   
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Tom 
  To: arc5 at mailman.qth.net 
  Sent: Monday, November 28, 2016 3:47 PM
  Subject: Re: [ARC5] ARC5 Digest, Vol 154, Issue 29


  Back in 1966, the T-34Bs at VT-1 Saufley Field (Pensacola) had some sort of an A.R.C-12 type VHF set.  May have had a Nav set (VOR?) too, but I was pretty busy learning to fly and radios took a "back seat"! Only a few channels, as I recall.  We called ground control for a radio check and taxi instructions. I don't remember calling tower, but just monitored, taxied out, did a runup, and waited our turn for takeoff.  I guess if they needed to cancel T/O clearance we got a radio call or had the RDO shoot a flare at us! There must have been a couple of channels for the outlying fields and a general area frequency to listen for "recalls" (i.e., nasty wx moving in).

  The T-28B/Cs at VT-2/VT-3 (Whiting Field) had the ARC-27 UHF and no VHF. Also either the ARN-6 "Bird Dog" or an ARN-12 TACAN, but not both. Both had an ARN-14 VOR.  I think the Charlies (they had a tail hook) at VT-5 Saufley Field all had the TACAN, so we could find "Mother" for our Carrier Quals.

  Funny story about the S-2s (STOOFs!) at Corpus Christi. We had to get an HF radio check with the squadron duty office before taxiing. Sitting on the ramp (not "tarmac" please) looking at the duty shack, we could usually get a radio check with that old ARC-2.  Once up and away a few miles from the field, you could call your brains out and get no reply!  I don't suspect there was much "tweaking" on those radios!


  A long time ago, so kind of fuzzy on the details!

  Fun times!

  Tom/W4OKW USN Ret



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