[ARC5] Anyone collected sets or information on 1950s, 1960s avionics?

[Scott Johnson]

I find it amazing that they could do what they did in 1964. I guess that’s about the time Sylvania was doing a lot of silicon RF development.  That’s the year I was born!  I grew up playing with tubes!

I had a great 24 year career at Motorola, in both the Government Electronics Group, and the Corporate labs, but 

I always had a weakness for Aviation and avionics, which is probably why I had a repair station that  barely kept itself afloat 10 years working on obsolescent avionics.

 

Scott V. Johnson W7SVJ

5111 E. Sharon Dr.

Scottsdale, AZ 85254-3636

H (602) 953-5779

C (480) 550-2358

 <mailto:scottjohnson1 at cox.net> scottjohnson1 at cox.net

 <mailto:scott.johnson at ieee.org> scott.johnson at ieee.org

 

From: Bob Groh <bob.groh at gmail.com> 
Sent: Saturday, September 12, 2020 7:44 PM
To: Scott Johnson <scottjohnson1 at cox.net>
Cc: ARC-5 Maillist <arc5 at mailman.qth.net>
Subject: Re: [ARC5] Anyone collected sets or information on 1950s, 1960s avionics?

 

Scott, definitely not the ARC-44 et al but certainly the ARC-145 et al. I was working at Sylvania Electronics Systems in Willamsville, NY (just outside of Buffalo, NY) from 1964 (first job after graduating from Syracuse University with my BSEE) to 1967 (when I was laid off in the 3rd wave of massive layoff's at the company) and stumbled across the ARC-114 family which was being developed in one of the upstairs labs.  And I am pretty certain that (at least in Sylvania) the program was called LOHAP.  I was not working on it (I was doing microwave satellite work at the time) but I was always curious and would wander around at lunch time asking questions and looking at stuff and I saw this incredibly small (at the time) UHF synthesizer (about the size of a cigarette package) - that was a 'WOW' for me and I got a chance to see some of what they were working on.  Very neat stuff.  

 

Anyways as I mentioned I just decided to see what others in the forum could throw my way.  Guess I am still a curious guy.

 

Bob Groh, WA2CKY

 

On Sat, Sep 12, 2020 at 11:37 AM Scott Johnson <scottjohnson1 at cox.net <mailto:scottjohnson1 at cox.net> > wrote:

It also occurred to me you may have been talking about the earlier ARC-44 FM, ARC-45 UHF and associated interphone.

 

Scott V. Johnson W7SVJ

5111 E. Sharon Dr.

Scottsdale, AZ 85254-3636

H (602) 953-5779

C (480) 550-2358

 <mailto:scottjohnson1 at cox.net> scottjohnson1 at cox.net

 <mailto:scott.johnson at ieee.org> scott.johnson at ieee.org

 

From: arc5-bounces at mailman.qth.net <mailto:arc5-bounces at mailman.qth.net>  <arc5-bounces at mailman.qth.net <mailto:arc5-bounces at mailman.qth.net> > On Behalf Of Scott Johnson
Sent: Saturday, September 12, 2020 9:32 AM
To: 'Bob Groh' <bob.groh at gmail.com <mailto:bob.groh at gmail.com> >; arc5 at mailman.qth.net <mailto:arc5 at mailman.qth.net> 
Subject: Re: [ARC5] Anyone collected sets or information on 1950s, 1960s avionics?

 

LHA? (Light Helicopter Avionics?  ARC-114 VHF-FM, ARC-115 VHF-AM, ARC-116 UHF-AM and (I think) APX-68 IFF.

 

I think it was designed in part at Ft. Monmouth in the late sixties, and deployed on many platforms.

 

It seems to have perhaps pushed the technology envelope a bit too hard.

 

The ARC-114 and 115 seem to be rather robust , but the 115 was unreliable, and late in life was fitted with a revised PA module.

 

The ARC-164, ARC-186, and APX-100 obsoleted it in the late seventies/ early eighties.

 

That exhaust my data banks

 

I have repaired the equipment in the past, when I owned an FAA Avionics repair station.  Customers were principally government contractors flying ex-government aircraft.

 

Scott V. Johnson W7SVJ

5111 E. Sharon Dr.

Scottsdale, AZ 85254-3636

H (602) 953-5779

C (480) 550-2358

scottjohnson1 at cox.net <mailto:scottjohnson1 at cox.net> 

scott.johnson at ieee.org <mailto:scott.johnson at ieee.org> 

 

From: arc5-bounces at mailman.qth.net <mailto:arc5-bounces at mailman.qth.net>  <arc5-bounces at mailman.qth.net <mailto:arc5-bounces at mailman.qth.net> > On Behalf Of Bob Groh
Sent: Saturday, September 12, 2020 8:14 AM
To: ARC-5 Maillist <arc5 at mailman.qth.net <mailto:arc5 at mailman.qth.net> >
Subject: [ARC5] Anyone collected sets or information on 1950s, 1960s avionics?

 

I was having one of those random thought threads the other night - thinking about my engineering design work during the 1960s working on radios that were part of the LOHAP avionics (LOHAP was short hand for (I think) 'Light Observation Helicopter Avionics Program'). The radios (sorry, but I don't remember any of the radios nomenclature) were all solid state, mostly analog being somewhat prior to widespread digital circuitry and quite small for the era - I sort of remember one of the radios being a UHF AM radio, frequency synthesized, etc. Neat stuff.

 

Anyways I just wondered if anyone is collecting gear like this or has looked at the systems, etc.

 

Bob Groh, WA2CKY

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