[Milsurplus] More questions on AN/XXX.. more

[Mike Morrow]

John wrote:

>In the AN/XXX nomenclature, there are prenumbers for the individual components:
>
>AT-1/APN-2
...
>T-20/ARC-5
>
>The meanings of these examples are pretty obvious, but does anyone have a
>complete list?

The document that Ed Greeley cited (http://ed-thelen.org/MIL-STD-196E.pdf) has a five page table of these "unit indicators" starting on page 20.

>ALSO, does anyone know if the same designations were used under both the SCR and
>AN/ systems? I'm inclined to think so, but would like confirmation. (i.e. did a
>battery stay a BA-, a dyno DY-, ...)

I think there is little or no commonality.  For example,
 
                                                  SCR-274  vs.  AN/ARC-5
Mounting racks and plates             FT-xxx-A      MT-xx/ARC-5 or ARR-2
Local receiver control                   FT-260-A       C-24/ARC-5
Receiver remote control adapter   FT-230-A       MX-21/ARC-5
Receiver remote tuning shaft        MC-215-A      A.R.C. 6151
Right angle coupling                     MC-211-A      MX-22/ARR-2
Receiver control box freq. dia       MC-212-A      ID-25/ARC-5
Receiver Dynamotor                    DM-32-A        DY-2A/ARR-2
Receiver control box                    BC-450-A      C-38/ARC-5
Antenna Relay                             BC-442-A      RE-2/ARC-5
Receiver                                     BC-453-B      R-23/ARC-5
Transmitter                                 BC-457-A      T-20/ARC-5
Modulator                                   BC-456-A       MD-7/ARC-5

etc. etc. etc.

Notice the SCR system component ID letters are rather multi-purpose, compared to the JAN system.

The equivalent in the old USN system identified the component function by the first two letters of the five-character designator (Cxx-aaxyz).  A few of the more common:

10 - Racks, mounts, fittings
20, 21 - Power supply
23 - Control box
43 - Receiver-Transmitter
46 - Receiver
52 - Transmitter
60 - Metering
66 - Antenna
and many others.

Thus, the USN ARA receiver for .19 to .55 mc was CBY-46129.  The similar (but not identical) receiver in the earlier RAV system was the CBY-46102.  Oddly, the identical 1.5 to 3.0 mc receivers of the RAV and the ARA systems both, I believe, bore the same designation of CBY-46104.

Mike / KK5F