[Milsurplus] 24 Volt BC-312's & KC-97L

[Ray Fantini]

As far as I know, with talking to the people at the Museum they tell me
this is how they received it from the National Guard unit that was
flying it. The ship is a odd mix of technology with some vintage
electronics on board like the BC-312, and what's stranger is the APX-6
transponder that's above it, and newer systems like two new encoding
altimeters and a modern altitude encoding transponder. I thought it was
strange to see a receiver I always thought was a ground radio in a
airplane, but their it is. permanently installed with wiring harness.
Their is no HF command transmitter installed, and no ARC-5 type junk,
only other comm systems are the two sets of UHF and VHF radios. The
navigators station has a loran receiver and lots of strange optical
stuff, sextant, drift sites and the like, do not recall if their was a
ADF system or not. They only have a external view of the ship on their
web site:
http://www.amcmuseum.org/Collections/Aircraft/KC97Stratofreighter.htm
and I copied this text about it from that page:
This Stratofreighter was assigned to the Strategic Air Command in 1955
at Westover AFB, Mass. In 1965 it was converted to KC-97L status by the
addition of two jet engines and transferred to the Tennessee Air
National Guard.  

Received into collection in October 1999. 
 
Perhaps in the conversion to a "L" in 65 is when they removed the HF
transmitter, installed the new transponder and altimeters, although do
not know if they were using altitude encoding altimeter in 65, also all
the VHF and UHF communications appear to be from the mid sixties.
Brings up the question I brought up before, is this ship only relevant
if it is returned to the state that it was when delivered from the
factory, or as it was finally retired from active service?
Ray Fantini KA3EKH



>>> <W7QHO at aol.com> 5/15/2005 2:30:04 PM >>>

In a message dated 5/15/05 10:44:07 AM, rafantini at salisbury.edu
writes:


> The museum at Dover air force base has one of the receivers installed
in
> a KC-97, only time I have seen one in a aircraft and not a BC-348.
> 

Ray,

Do you suppose that's authentic or, possibly, a misguided exhibit
assembly 
effort?   BC-312 in a KC-97 seems an unlikely combination.

Dennis D. W7QHO
Glendale, CA