[Boatanchors] ARC-4

[eldim at att.net]

Hello Ian, and Fellow BA'ers,
I remember our airborne counterpart was the autotuned UHF AM ARC-3 Transceiver.  I worked on this unit which  was located in a rear air conditioned cabinet  of the AN/GPQ-T1A ECM Van,  along with the UHF AN/ARC-27  and the HF Collins 18S-4 Transceivers.  The T1A was a manned ECM van that we had in SAC RBS for training the SAC Bomber ECM crews.  I made my first 2 Meter contact using the ground counterpart combination BC-640 Transmitter and the BC-639A Receiver.  Those were the good ole days. 
73,
Glen Galati, KA7BOJ
eldim at att.net

-------------- Original message from "Ian" <ianwebb5 at comcast.net>: -------------- 


> All the discussion of surplus VHF gear got me thinking about the ARC-4 that 
> I converted and used on 2 meter AM in the mid 1950s. It sure was 
> insensitive without a preamp I built for it but I made a lot of 100 mile + 
> contacts with it along the California coastal area north of Los Angeles. 
> (Thank goodness for the duct over mostly ocean of 150 - 200 miles between 
> Santa Barbara and San Diego and once in a while into Mexico!) 
> 
> It had an 832 in the final. I remember I had to make the receiver tunable 
> and it actually seemed "stable" but remember those were the days of wide 
> bandwidth and little 2 meter activity and "the standard" for the run of the 
> mill amateur was the Gonset Communicator. 
> 
> Did anybody else have experiences with this? I see some mentions of it 
> doing a Google search and it looks as though perhaps one has appeared on 
> "that place" for auction in the past. 
> 
> Are there any of them still around. It would be fun to see one again if 
> they ever appear for sale at a reasonable price. (I think I pad $15 for it 
> when I bought it unconverted.) In retrospect I guess I shouldn't have 
> thrown it out when I moved on to a real 2 meter transceiver several years 
> after. I remember that I had the power supply I built for it for quite a 
> few years until I had to clean house to get space and foolishly tossed that 
> also. 
> 
> Ian, K6SDE 
> 
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