[Milsurplus] What did they talk to ??

[Mike Morrow]

>In the mid 50s the USAF was still using the ARC-5
>R-28 Rx and T-23 Tx VHF units.

I wonder why?  

That would mean that the USAAF/USAF went to the trouble of acquiring and backfitting the USN's AN/ARC-5 transmitter and receiver racks, modulators, control boxes, cable headers, jack boxes, etc. which (except for the receiver rack) would have been completely incompatible with the equivalent SCR-274-N components that they would have been swimming in.

It would have made much more sense to use the SCR-522, or the AN/ARC-3, or one of the small number of SCR-274-N BC-942 and -950 VHF receiver and transmitters.  I've no doubt that it occasionally happened, possibly in former USN-operated aircraft later operated by the USAF, but otherwise...???

In a slightly different area, I cringe when I hear it routinely said that the USAAF/USAF used "ARC-5 command sets."  That must have been so rare as to have been negligible.  The USAAF's SCR-274-N is a markedly different set of radios compared to the Navy's AN/ARC-5. 

Mike / KK5F