Fw: Re: [Milsurplus] Comparison of Navy vs Army Air Corps equipment

[windy10605 at juno.com]

There you go for the receiver.....add a Q-multiplier and get all kinds of
selectivity. You can probably add a small (and cheap) digital readout
externally for the frequency too. You are right, that metal disk dial is
difficult to read in --any-- light. Seems like the prices have flipped
now because today TCS units are a --lot-- less expensive than BC-348s and
MD-7s and good ARC-5 Txs. I think it pays to relook at the overall
situation every now and then if you want a neat WWII station.     

I'd still like to see all the specs side by side.

73 Kees K5BCQ


--------- Forwarded message ----------
From: "Hue Miller" <kargo_cult at msn.com>
To: <Milsurplus at mailman.qth.net>
Date: Sun, 2 Jul 2006 18:20:28 -0700
Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] Comparison of Navy vs Army Air Corps equipment
Message-ID: <BAY106-DAV109DF4C43E48C57F970821E4700 at phx.gbl>
References: <44A7F320.14393.E6B1BF3 at localhost>

I have always felt the TCS  receiver  was the weak spot of a T/R set
which otherwise

would have been extremely attractive to post-war hams. The transmitter,
on the other

hand, is a jem, and with little work and a PS, you had a poor-man's
Ranger.  The 

receiver weak point is the bandspread, and for me, the lack of any dial
escutcheon,

or lighting. There's only a  metal disk, unlighted, behind a cutout in
the front panel,

pretty basic. Of course, as with all other mil tactical sets, the use was
pre-determined

channelized, not intended for weekend use looking for novice signals in a
crowded band.

I have thought that if one was gung-ho on the dial, one could fabricate a
new  tuning 

disk from clear plastic, number it, and have a pilot lamp mounted behind
it. But unless

you limit the tunng range, the bandspread is still terrible. The
selectivity certainly is not

inferior to any of the 3-6 or 6-9 Command Set receivers. Consider that
the 3-6 Command

set, the IF is somewhere like 1/2 of the lowest working  frequency, while
the TCS is 

around 455 kHz. When i used a TCS receiver on the bands, i coupled a
Heathkit Q-mult

into it, and that worked just fine. Oh- also re the selectivity - there
were some TCS 

receivers, not many i think, that were intended for land vehilcle use and
were therefore

built for wider selectivity.  The RBD receiver has approximately similar
physical

architecture and roughly equivalent usage and with a much nicer dial
assembly

but still you're stuck with the 1.5-3, 3-6, 6-12 tuning, plus  the IF i
think is 915 kHz.

I think the reasons you didn't see that many TCS setups in hamshacks
compared to

Command Sets, was for one thing, as another person posted, there weren't
that many 

built, also that the Navy hung onto some as long as possible  (last new
ones i saw

given to MARS members was Dec. 1976, when HF AM was no longer permitted
for

marine use - otherwise the Navy would still have some in stock, i'm sure.
)  Also the

prices pretty much held up - maybe there were still some commercial or
military users

overseas who still bought them - compared to real bargain prices on the
Command Sets.

-Hue Miller
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