[Milsurplus] Re: GP-x Transmitter, RAX Rcvr? + TU Wanted

[jcoward5452 at aol.com]

Everyone and everything was considered to be expendable;long life and 
good health were not issues in WWII unless you were injured.Ergo nomics 
did not begin to play a part in our lives untill car-pool tunnel 
sin-drone on and on became an issue with the wimps.
  If ever there was an ergo set it has to be the BC-348-* and that was 
probably more accident then you might believe.
 Jay
  Well, rudder pedals and stick arrangement may actually have been 
designed for ease of use,but to sit on a lumpy parachute all day? and 
how easy was it to use the relief tube?

-----Original Message-----
From: wdonzelli at gmail.com
To: kongomt at gmail.com
Cc: milsurplus at mailman.qth.net
Sent: Sun, 5 Nov 2006 6:11 PM
Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] Re: GP-x Transmitter, RAX Rcvr? + TU Wanted

> As a rule, the pilots had a minimum of fiddling to do with the 
control 
> boxes in flight. All the needful things were done on the ground 
> (including tuning the receivers, setting the mode and all that other 
> cool stuff) so all he had to do was turn the radios on and select 
> which ones he wanted. Oh, and adjust the volume to something comfy. 
 
And you just pinpointed the two big control box sins... 
 
On the transmitter control box, the transmitter selection switch is 
too small for anyone with big fingers, or wearing flight gloves. The 
thing is even too small for regular people as well, really. In 
addition to being hard to turn, it does not make it obvious which 
transmitter is selected with a quick glance. 
 
On the receiver control box, the volume knob is too close to the 
cranks. In certain positions, if you are not careful, you will bump 
the crank on either side. Even with the cranks sticking up or down, so 
the knob and crank tip are furthest apart, it is still a bit of a 
tight squeeze. 
 
We all know that the pilots and radiomen were not really supposed to 
fiddle with the radios in flight. But we also know that it did happen, 
officially or not. If the guys were not to have the ability to retune 
either the transmitter or the receiver - they should have stuck with 
the black box approach of the SCR-240. To retune, they needed the 
special tools assigned to the ground crews. With the ARA receiver box, 
if the ground crews were the only ones that should be tuning the 
things, ARC could have ditched the expensive crank knob in place of a 
normal knob, making the box cheaper and more ergonomic. Additionally, 
those little switches at the top for receiver selection are even 
smaller and worse to use than that on the transmitter. 
 
The thing that is amazing is that some really minor and inexpensive 
engineering changes could have solved these problems. 
 
Also, remember that the ground crews were important as well. Lousy 
ergonomics effects them, and their performance, as well. 
 
-- 
Will 
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