[ARC5] [Milsurplus] Interesting ARC-3

[Mike Morrow]

> 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.

That didn't turn out.  The AN/ARC-3/36/49 sets were followed by the Collins AN/ARC-73() for long service in Air Force and Army aircraft, followed by the Wilcox AN/ARC-134 and the Magnavox AN/ARC-115(), both available and widely-used by 1970.

The USN seemed to make the quickest break from VHF.  In the late 1940s the RT-58/ARC-12 10-channel crystal-controlled UHF command set could be installed in the rack in place of a VHF RT-18/ARC-1 to convert from VHF to UHF command set.  There was usually no side-by-side UHF and VHF capability as there was in many Air Force and Army aircraft.

Mike / KK5F