[ARC5] [Milsurplus] B-26 Radio Op Position

Sat Mar 16 10:20:24 EDT 2019

On 3/16/2019 8:35 AM, Christopher Bowne wrote:
> There used to be a great picture on the Air & Space Museum web Site of 
> the Flak Bait radio op position.  Mike, how is the Flak Bait 
> restoration going down there? Last time I was down there a couple of 
> years ago things were just getting started.

It's going slowly, but carefully, Chris.  After the war it was flown in 
Europe for a time before being transferred to the NASM rolls, 
dismantled, and shipped back to the Silver Hill facilty.  The exhibit in 
the downtown museum was extracted from that, and was on the second floor 
for a number of years before being sent to Udvar-Hazy for preservation 
and reassembly.  There are the usual mysteries caused by disparities 
between the Erection & Maintenance manual configuration and current 
condition.

Here is a photo of the radio rack area back in September of last year.  
Note the AN/ARN-7 mount under the location of the command receivers, and 
the AN/ARN-7 BK-22 relay panel "rats nest" behind where the BC-348 
goes.  The M-299 microphone adapter for the SCR-522 is at the very 
bottom, to the left of the PE-86 dynamotor used for the BC-347 
interphone amplifier, which is suspended just above the M-299.  The 
location of the RC-43 Marker Beacon receiver, which the "standard 
installation" shows being installed where the M-299 is now located, is 
still TBD.

>  Was not aware that Breck was involved with putting the FB display 
> together.

I didn't mean to imply that.  His web page is about his _own_ version of 
the Flak Bait radio operators position, with continuous additions and 
redesigns to fit the location in his basement.  He has numerous views of 
the NASM exhibit that he took to make sure his was as close as possible, 
given certain constraints.  Like all of us, things like this seem to 
grow of their own life after a while. Breck, please note the location of 
the AN/ARN-7 above, right behind that mysterious zinc chromate painted 
cross bracket, which may have been installed because the weight of 
equipment seems getting a bit high for those four tall spindly rack 
legs....

> On my QRZ page is a picture of my command set 2 transmitter and BC-348 
> system that I built installed in a plywood case with upper shelf 
> section for the modulator transmitters and antenna relay.  There is a 
> transmitter control box inside the lower case to the left of the 348, 
> and also a command set receiver control box and cabling to use 2 
> command receivers in there instead of the 348.  All the interconnected 
> cabling is there so the whole shebang can be transported for demos and 
> field day type setups, just supply 24V DC power antenna mic key and 
> headsets or speakers.  I tried to emulate the B-26 layout with the 
> modulator and transmitters directly above the 348.

Nice job!  Looks ideal to schlep these heavy radios around for display.  
I was surprised when K4CHE told me that he had run across several other 
/Flak Bait/ emulations in his research, and had photos of some 
interesting variations that other folks had made.

- Mike  KC4TOS

> On Mar 16, 2019, at 08:04, Mark K3MSB <mark.k3msb at gmail.com 
> <mailto:mark.k3msb at gmail.com>> wrote:
>
>> Thanks Mike!    That's the site I remember!
>>
>> On Sat, Mar 16, 2019 at 7:44 AM Michael Hanz 
>> <aaf-radio-1 at aafradio.org <mailto:aaf-radio-1 at aafradio.org>> wrote:
>>
>>     The world's most renown expert on the B-26 radio position is our own
>>     Breck Smith.  Go here to see the details:
>>     http://k4che.com/Flak%20Bait/FlakIndex/Flakbaitindex.htm
>>
>>     -Mike  KC4TOS
>>
>>     On 3/16/2019 7:35 AM, Mark K3MSB wrote:
>>     > Gents
>>     >
>>     > It looks like I'll be doing another display for Ham Radio in
>>     May,  and
>>     > of course the topic will be Mil Radios.
>>     >
>>     > I think space requirements will be limited and I was thinking of
>>     > bringing the ARC-5 radios and BC-348 used in a B-26 installation.
>>     > I'm not sure yet, as I'm awaiting info on space and tables etc.
>>     >
>>     > I once saw a nice photo of the radio op position in a B-26 but
>>     I can
>>     > no longer find it on-line;  there's a grainy copy on Pinterest,
>>     but
>>     > the one I saw was a nicer photo.
>>     >
>>     > Any help?
>>     >
>>     > 73 Mark K3MSB
>>
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-- 
Michael Hanz - KC4TOS

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