[Milsurplus] T-179 / ART-26

[William Donzelli]

> Old guy says there was a conversion* article on it somewhere in the 50s.  
> Ham TV.
> 
> So guess it's ~300mc 200W TV tx to replace 1st prod'n AXT-7... the thing
> with the 8025s.
> 
> Perhaps it's the UHF tv rosetta stone??

This is the transmitter for the "Cadillac" system - a (very) late World 
War 2 contraption that extended the radar capabilities of the Navy. The 
idea was that a carrier would send up a few TBMs crammed with  
AN/APS-20s (BIG set for the time), and these aircraft would spread out to 
get maximum radar coverage. The "Cadillac" system was the way the radar 
video from these TBMs was relayed back to CIC on the aircraft carrier. 

I still don't have all the details - it was pretty Confidential at the 
time and little information survives. The mate to the AN/ART-26 is the 
AN/ARR-27. The ship end, at least in the early versions, were the YQ 
beacon and PO receiver (yes, I final figured out what those odd dipoles 
are for, a few weeks back).

The old timer that thought of the conversion article probably was looking 
at the AN/APT-5. I think the AN/ART-26 (maybe the -28, probably a later 
model) was made from modified AN/APT-5s.

William Donzelli
aw288@osfn.org