[Milsurplus] Re: Beginning of use of UHF aero radios

[Bruce Stewart]

I had no idea that the GRC-27 units were used that long ago.  I have a 
complete system that was Collins built that was obtained in about 1990 
unused never fielded.  I thought they were 60's vintage technology. Learn 
something new every day.
Thx
Bruce


----- Original Message ----- 
From: <jhhaynes at earthlink.net>
To: <milsurplus at mailman.qth.net>
Sent: Saturday, December 18, 2004 7:05 PM
Subject: [Milsurplus] Re: Beginning of use of UHF aero radios


> I don't have a specific date to give you, but when I was in high school
> in the early 1950s the FAA flight service station got equipped with
> military GRC-27 equipment so they could talk to military aircraft.
> Then later in the 50s I was in college and had a roommate who had
> worked on ARC-27 sets when he was in the AF previously.  In that same
> time frame the ROTC detachment at the university had an L-17 aircraft
> (Ryan Navion) and it was equipped with A.R.C. type 12 VHF equipment.
>
> In the early 1960s I was in the AF at Edwards AFB.  We had a requirement
> to work civilian VHF frequencies because of the many contractor-owned
> aircraft using the base.  At that time there was an ironclad rule that
> the AF could not procure any new VHF equipment.  This was to force the
> transition to UHF and phaseout of any remaining VHF.  As a result we had
> a lot of ARC-3 sets with commercially made AC power supplies being used
> as ground stations for VHF; and there may have been a BC-640 transmitter
> still in use.  Also some unit on the base had an occasional mission that
> required them to fly around Europe.  We kept a large suitcase of ARC-3
> crystals in the frequency manager's office and would check it out to them
> when they needed it.  Which meant that some poor guy had to fly along
> with them to swap crystals and retune the radios as they moved around.
> (I don't know if this had to be done in flight.)
>
> I was glad to see in the late 1990s that the AF has equipment that is
> VHF and UHF capable.
>
> -- 
>
> jhhaynes at earthlink dot net
>
>
> ______________________________________________________________
> Milsurplus mailing list
> Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/milsurplus
> Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
> Post: mailto:Milsurplus at mailman.qth.net
>