I posted here last week that I planned to take the last
of my "Command Set" collection to the MAARC meet in Annapolis,
seeking to get the items I wrote about in CQ Magazine,
1964-1975, into good hands while I could. Well, there was
quite a reaction and as a result I have already sold it all,
so anyone planning to go to Annapolis for that reason, well it
has all already been sold, including the originals of a number
of manuals.
As many of you know, I gave a large and certainly
representative collection of Command Set equipment to the
Smithsonian's National Air & Space Museum in 1987, some
of which has probably gone into restored aircraft such as the
Enola Gay. Other items now at NASM include the "Type K"
prototype, etc, so the Command sets are being preserved.
I also gave NASM a portion of the papers of the
Aircraft Radio Corp then. I retained others in the hope of
writing a book on the subject, but was unable to find a
suitable publisher. NASM has expressed interest in the
remaining A.R.C. papers, which include information on the very
early radio industry that grew up in the Boonton, New Jersey
area to make use of an early plastic, "Bakelite." Industries
in Boonton, near where I lived as a child, were probably an
outgrowth of Alexander Hamilton's "Society for Useful
Industries," established at the falls of the Passaic River in
Paterson, N.J.
I am retaining photocopies of many "Command Set"
manuals, including SCR-183, RAT, RAV, SCR-274-N, AN/ARC-5,
Type 15, etc.
I wrote a magazine piece for a flying publication back
in 1984 covering the whole Command Set story . I may be able
to scan it so as to make it available digitally, but anyone
interested in a hard copy of that can send a self addressed
business-size stamped envelope to Gordon Eliot White, PO Box
129, Hardyville, VA 23070.
I am pretty healthy for 89 + years, but wanted to get
these things into good hands while I was able.
- Gordon Eliot White