[ARC5] Type 185 Radio Receiver?

[Tim]

OK,,  I guessed from the description that it was a nav receiver of some
sort - and further (wrongly) guessed it might be used with a loop.  I'd
never seen one, but being battery powered that would be a stretch...
Thanks for the clarification, I'll pass it on.

Tim
N6CC

On Sun, Jan 7, 2018 at 7:24 PM, Mike Morrow <kk5f at earthlink.net> wrote:

> Tim wrote:
>
> > I'm guessing a portable NDB Nav receiver...
>
> It certainly was NOT a Non-Directional Beacon (NDB) receiver.  For
> navigation, a non-directional beacon requires a directional receiver on the
> aircraft, and a non-directional receiver on the aircraft requires a
> directional beacon on the ground.
>
> NDBs have no value to navigation unless the aircraft has some sort of
> radio direction finder on board.  An RDF or ADF set would be very unlikely
> on any aircraft using one of these simple battery-powered beacon
> receivers.  Those were designed to work with LF/MF Four-Course A-N Adcock
> Directional Beacons, nicely described here:
>
>  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Low-frequency_radio_range
>
> These range beacons established the airways in use nationwide.  A pilot
> could tell if he were flying on one of the four beams to the beacon by
> flying a course that created a continuous 1020 Hz tone in his earphone.  If
> he was off the beam either A or N would be heard.  These beacons
> established the directional information on four beams separated by
> approximately 90 degrees that were transmitted from the beacon site.  The
> simple non-directional aircraft receiver conveyed this directional
> information using ONLY audible A-N-Continuous tone signals.  Most US Adcock
> DBs were converted to NDBs by the early 1960s as VOR navigation became
> universal.
>
> In its prime, the simple beacon band receiver was the most useful radio
> set on any aircraft that carried radio.  The pilot could fly directional
> ranges, listen for airport tower information on frequencies like 278 kHz,
> and get weather and other information broadcast on these LF/MF
> frequencies.  That's why there were so many such non-directional receivers
> made from the early 1930s through the late 1950s.
>
> So, the Type 185 was designed to provide the pilot with audible navigation
> information from Directional Beacons, not NDBs.
>
> Mike / KK5F
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