[ARC5] Silver dial? X-15 Beacon Band Reception

[Mike Morrow]

Dave wrote:

> “Speculating:” by the time of the X-15, much lighter Beacon Band
> alternatives to the BC-453 with dynamtor were available at that time.

Maybe it was mounted with the X-15 pilot's 23-channel CB radio, Fuzzbuster radar detector, and eight-track audio tape player.  :-)

IMO, the suggestion that there would be a BC-453-B on an X-15 is specious and a supreme absurdity.  Or for that matter, ANY beacon-band receiver.

The image of an X-15 pilot hand-cranking a BC-453 dial and navigating his X-15 back home (not likely on a published range) using aural Adcock A-N directional beacons is bizarrely surreal.  And it's very unlikely the pilot would need such a thing for airport weather and terminal information.

I don't buy it for a nonosecond.  I doubt there was any radio set outside a UHF-AM receiver-transmitter and perhaps some telemetry sets. *

Mike / KK5F

* Except, of course, in the BX-15 intercontinental bomber or PX-15 maritime patrol versions of the X-15. :-)