[ARC5] [Milsurplus] Interesting ARC-3

[Jim Haynes]

On Sun, 26 Nov 2017, Ed# via ARC5 wrote:

> Oddly enough  we had  ARC-3 units as  backup   VHF tower com. and

When I was at Edwards AFB 1960-1963 we had a number of ARC-3 sets with
contractor-made AC power supplies as our main VHF capability.  It was
my understanding that at the time the military was prohibited from buying
any new VHF equipment as a way to force the transition from VHF to UHF
for military users.

We needed a lot of VHF because we had a lot of civilian contractors
operating out of the base and they had to use VHF for their airplanes.

There was also a mission of some nature that required flying around Europe
from time to time.  I was in the frequency manager's office.  We had a
suitcase full of ARC-3 crystals that we would issue to the airplane that
was going to fly that mission; and it was equipped with ARC-3s for that
reason.  I assume some poor radio operator had to sit there and swap
crystals in-flight to effect frequency changes required by the European
air traffic control system.