[ARC5] ARC5 Digest, Vol 195, Issue 67

[Jim Haynes]

On Mon, 27 Apr 2020, D C _Mac_ Macdonald wrote:

> I don't know what bombers they might have been.  All our B-52s had "modern"
> UHF radios.  I was EWO on F models in 1965.
> 
I was at Edwards AFB 1960-63.  I was told at the time that there was a 
regulation or law or something that prohibited the military from buying 
any new VHF equipment, as a way to force the transition to the military 
UHF band.  We had a lot of need for VHF communication, which was met by 
using a bunch of ARC-3 sets as ground stations, running from AC power 
supplies made by a contractor.

There also was some mission run from time to time that required one of
our aircraft to fly around Europe.  I assume they used ARC-3 equipment
in that plane.  What I know is that we had a big suitcase full of crystals
in the frequency manager's office, to be checked out by the flying crew
when they had to run that mission.  The crystals were the kind used in
the ARC-3.

I might as well go ahead and retell my favorite old war story.  There was
some mission that required an aircraft to communicate on HF with a mobile
unit on the ground.  The mobile unit was equipped with an old TCS set.
As often as not communication would fail and parts of the mission had to
be repeated at great expense.

About this time Collins brought out the KWM-2 in a suitcase set.  My boss
saw the ads for that and figured it would be just what was needed to 
replace the aged TCS.  But selling that to the colonels upstairs was
another matter.  They sneered at the proposal to use _amateur_ equipment
for a serious military activity.

One morning I went over to the BX for a hair cut.  On the way back I 
picked up the latest issue of CQ magazine from the magazine stand and 
brought it back to my desk.  On the front cover was a picture of Gen. 
Curtis LeMay, in full uniform, and some kid, and some kind of radio.  My 
boss saw that and asked to borrow the magazine.  He took it upstairs and 
showed it to the colonels and said, "This is the radio I propose we get to 
replace the old one that is giving so much trouble."  (The fact that the 
radio in the picture was not a KWM-2 was lost on the colonels.)  He came 
back in 15 minutes with his proposal approved, and we ordered the radio. 
So far as I know its performance was entirely satisfactory.