[Milsurplus] USN: ARB receiver used with GP-7 transmitter?

[Mike Hanz]

Jack Antonio wrote:

>I have a photocopy of a Navy document, which states that
>it is taken from a "Bureau of Aeronautics list as published in 1942."
>The back page has a handwritten notation that it is an
>"Appendix from "Aircraft Radio"
>Naval Air (something I can't make out) Mare Island
>(something else I cant read).
>  
>

That's probably a copy of a copy of an excerpt I distributed about ten 
years ago.  It hails from a training manual entitled "Aircraft Radio", 
produced by the Naval Air Technical Training Center, Ward Island, Corpus 
Christi, though its origins are far earlier.  One of its predecessors on 
the shelves here was written by the Naval Research Lab ca. 1935, but 
doesn't contain the listing Jack refers to (nor does the ARTU successor 
that predated the 1942 version by about a year or two).  In the 
frontispiece of the one that /does/ have the listing, there is a note 
that "The original was compiled in December 1942 while the writer was 
Chief Instructor at A.R.T.U, Fleet Air Wings, Atlantic Fleet."  That may 
be where the 1942 reference came from, though a careful reader will note 
that the list of aircraft, with a few exceptions, is not entirely state 
of the art for December 1942.  I suspect that they took an older list, 
stuck in a few of the later aircraft that they had the specs for 
(including a couple that had only been "type issued" by early 1943), and 
called it good enuff for the moment.  It seems to have only the initial 
equipment compliment, not subsequent changes as the years rolled by.  It 
is only a "snapshot in time", and any attempt to characterize it as THE 
definitive list is a fool's errand IMO.

I've scanned the five pages in question and posted it on my website in a 
.gif format - http://members.cox.net/aafradio/ - it's listed at the 
bottom of the home page under "Revision History".  Other comments below:

73,
Mike

>The ARB is paired with the ATB only for the F6F and F7F, everywhere
>else shows it paired with an ATD. No mention of the ATC.
>  
>

The training manual itself came from the estate of  Stu Meyer here in 
Vienna Virginia, who evidently wrote the chapter on the ATC.  That makes 
the omission of the ATC from the list somewhat curious, though it was 
usually a vastly preferred substitute for the ATD after deliveries began 
to the Fleet.  Might have been a simple matter of 1943 Political 
Correctness, though.

The "official" introduction of the ARB and ATB was in the 1 Oct 1942 
issue of the BUSHIPS "Radio and Sound Bulletin".  It says it was 
intended as "replacements for the GF/RU equipment and RU receiver.  The 
equipment is used in both aircraft and in tanks."  In contrast, the ATC 
[also apparently known as the ANB-T-3...sounds sort of like an earphone 
to me... :-) ]  wasn't reviewed until the 1 April 1943 issue, though the 
contract date was 1940.  The article makes no comparison with its chief 
rival, the ATD (curses)...just the facts, Ma'am...but does state that it 
is "intended for use in larger planes such as scout, observation, and 
patrol planes."