[ARC5] ATD Transmitter Longwave Tuning Unit Repair

[Hubert Miller]

Hard if not impossible to quantify this, but in almost every story I read of a plane trying to contact a 
ship, blinker light was used. Or even a note dropped on deck ! You could say the MW Command Set
transmitters were intended to obviate this problem, but I sort of doubt that still. Also I have not seen
any evidence that smaller country airfields were using antiquated equipment. The locals might have
been riding around on burros, but the airfields had to have a certain level of technology. Ships, 
freighters, which were privately owned by companies sometimes apparently just squeaking by, did 
have a lot of what you'd call obsolescent equipment. I recall reading about the sinking of a Brit
collier ( coal hauler  ) in the No. Pacific, 1947, in fact it disappeared, and in the inquiry court that
convened, it was detailed that the communications consisted of a spark transmitter and a Marconi
730 regen receiver, 4 valve. I do not buy it that Costa Rica airfields in 1943 were still using 1929 
standard equipment. Amelia Earhart flew most of the way around the world in 1937 and one flight
before that, landing on all kinds of small airfields, and no communications as far as I have read,
failed because her plane lacked MW transmit. I mean for normal airfield comms. Her final crash
was, in fact, due to a lack of MW transmit and failure of the plans, such as they were, to use 7500
kHz for DF. 
The B-29 docs nail it, end of story. But I think I would add, also "Try MW if HF is out", for use in 
the way northern latitudes.
-Hue Miller