[ARC5] Yes; I can say...

Tue Jun 13 10:24:04 EDT 2017

As they say hindsight is 20-20. I don't like to judge the actions of the past without knowing the context at the time.

I see this another way. That hardware was obsolete surplus and would have been scrapped without someone buying it and marketing it to the Ham Radio operator. Part of that marketing was converting it for civilian ham use. I don't agree with all of the conversions but I cannot condemn them or call it a "crime" since it did help save the surplus form the scrap heap.

My first surplus set was a Wireless 19 set given to me by my uncle in a trade. He bought it
from a department store after the war. 

Another uncle, who taught electronics during the war, gave me this sage advice. While the equipment may not be suitable for ham use, the equipment was a good source of cheap quality parts so use them in your own designs. He know I was interested in electronics and said whatever I do try to learn from the project.

I wished I had discussed the war years in detail with my father and uncles but you did not bring it up at the time.

Mike N2MS 

> On June 13, 2017 at 9:35 AM George Babits <gbabits at custertel.net> wrote:
> 
> 
> There is no "crime" in doing whatever you want to whatever you owned 70 
> years ago.  And, as far as I know, it would not be a "crime" to pull the 
> elephant trunk off a BC-312 or put an S-Meter onto a BC-348 that you owned 
> today.    It may not be as "acceptable" as it was back then, but it is far 
> from a criminal act.
> 
> 73,
> George
> W7HDL
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "David Stinson" <arc5 at ix.netcom.com>
> To: <arc5 at mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: Monday, June 12, 2017 9:36 PM
> Subject: [ARC5] Yes; I can say...
> 
> 
> >> Where is the crime here?
> >
> > The "crime" was that, due to lack understanding
> > or even the desire to understand the design and
> > proper operation of these radios, 90%+ of these
> > "improvements" were never completed and if they
> > were, the sets operated poorly and were discarded
> > at the first chance to get a "commercial" rig.  That
> > "handbook" modification of so-called "ARC-5"
> > transmitters was an awful mod- a kludge and was responsible for the 
> > destruciton thousands of them, including by *me* when I was young.  If 
> > that "modification" was so good, why were QSOs with them so rare?
> > Oh, there were the CE rigs.  I'll give you that
> > one exception.  But the stand-alone transmitters?
> >
> > I've been a ham for 45 years.  I think I can count
> > the number of  stand-alone "ARC-5" transmitters
> > I've QSOed on the fingers of one hand.  Commercial rigs of that era can 
> > still be heard
> > and worked by the dozens today.  If the common
> > ham-mods that were done to thousands
> > of the transmitters were so "good" and
> > "got people on the air cheap,"  where are they?
> > They ain't here, because they never were here.
> > It's a myth.  They were abused, then junked.
> >
> > Show me the thousands of QSL cards from the 1950s and 1960s that say 
> > "ARC-5" transmitter.
> > Oh, you can find a few scattered here and there,
> > but given the thousands of the rigs chain-sawed
> > into "ham transmitters," half your QSLs from 1963 should say "ARC-5." 
> > Well, they don't.
> > They don't because the rigs were abused, operated without understanding 
> > and thus
> > performed poorly and were discarded at the first opportunity.  That 
> > yellow-bound blasphamy
> > "CQ Command Sets" is single-handedly responsible for the destruction of 
> > countless AN/ARC-5 transmitters when it published
> > a 274N diagram and claimed it applied to
> > all the transmitters- one sin among many
> > in that cursed tome.
> >
> > There's plenty of "crime" here.  Most sets
> > were hammered, drilled and sawn, then thrown on the junk-heap when they 
> > didn't immediately act like a Globe Scout or DX-40.
> > I was guilty, too.  I was young.  But I was also mis-lead.
> >
> > If a technical journal of any profession
> > publish as much destructive "Whooo-Weeee"
> > about any subject as was printed in CQ,
> > 73 and QST about the Command Sets,
> > they'd be tarred and feathered and rightly so.
> > Gordon White was about the only rational
> > voice at the time and he was "crying in the wilderness."
> > So yeah... when I see something butchered and junked like the poor zombie 
> > on Ebay,
> > I'm gonna wrinkle my nose.
> >
> > OK... Rant off.  IMHO, YMMV of course.
> >
> > 73 Dave AB5S
> >
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